Plenty of lead changes in the first two hours of the 24H BARCELONA

On Friday evening, hail and thunderstorms stopped the action in night practice for the 24H BARCELONA, but on Saturday morning, the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya showed itself from its best side again, ready for action in this weekend’s 24-hour race for GTs, touring cars and 24H Specials. At noon, 65 cars started the formation lap and after one lap behind the safety car, the field was released for the race. The first two hours already brought plenty of changes in the overall lead and also the first ‘code 60’ neutralisation.

Starting from pole position, Peter Kox took the lead with the Scuderia Praha Ferrari 458 Italia (#4, Písarík/Jirík/Malucelli/Kox), but on the first racing lap, he was overtaken by his compatriot Christiaan Frankenhout in the Hofor Racing Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 (#1, M. Kroll/Eggimann/Heyer/Frankenhout/C. Kroll). Frankenhout built up a four seconds’ lead and set the fastest lap time of the race so far on lap 3 (1:51.669 minutes), but as the front runners were caught up in traffic, Kox used all his experience to close the gap to Frankenhout and finally get past to claim back the lead on lap 10. Pit stops then caused further position changes out on front towards the end of the first hour. Other cars to take turns in the lead were the Leipert Motorsport Lamborghini (#6, Talbot/Perrin/Barth/Eskelinen) and the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW Z4 (#24, Oeverhaus/Richter/Aust/Posavac).

After one and a half hours, the race had its first ‘code 60’ as the NKPP Racing SEAT Leon Supercopa (#37, Bessem/Hilders/Morien) got stuck on the track and had to be recovered. Just before that, the LD Racing Porsche 996 Cup (#10, Arezina/Burel/Chapon/Fontaine) had crashed heavily into the tyre stacks in turn 1 and retired. Class leaders after the first two hours were the Walkenhorst Motorsport BMW Z4 (#24, Oeverhaus/Richter/Aust/Posavac) overall and A6, the Las Moras Racing Team Renault Mégane Trophy (#14, L. Braams/M. Braams/Huisman/Nooren) in SP2, the Ruffier Racing Porsche (#17, Lafargue/Lafargue/Abergel/Racinet) in 997, the Cor Euser Racing Lotus Evora GT4 (#18, Rice/Prewitt/Lewis/Euser) in SP3, the Intersport Racing BMW M3 CLS (#28, Clarke/Radcliffe/Donaldson/Smith) in A5, the Saxon Motorsport BMW 135 GTR (#61, N. Barrow/T. Barrow/Allpass/Morrow) in A3T, the RKC/TGM Honda Civic Type R (#47, Coomber/T. Gannon/W. Gannon/Clonis/Bentley) in A2, the Nicolas Milan Compétition Peugeot RCZ (#44, Gibaud/Dauger/Maudet/Antunes) in A3 and the KPM Racing Volkswagen Golf (#66, Onslow-Cole/White/Morcillo/Walker) in D1.

Live timing, live streaming, photos and videos can be found at live.24hseries.com. There are also regular updates on Facebook (facebook.com/24HSeries) and Twitter (@24HSeries). The event hashtag is #24HBCN. More information about the 24H BARCELONA and the other rounds of the 24H SERIES powered by Hankook can be found at: www.24hseries.com.