Dailysportscar readers may be familiar with Agatha Christie’s play “And Then There Were None”, but its plot came to mind as events at the 2016 Total 24 hours of Spa unfolded over the weekend. There were times when it was predictable, but it had twists and turns to keep you guessing about the eventual outcome and plenty of drama along the way to entertain everyone, no matter how used they were to SRO’s somewhat complex rule set.

The pre-story for this drama was not guests with guilty secrets meeting on an island off the Devon coast, but instead was that all six of the Mercedes AMG GT3 cars that took part in Friday evening’s SuperPole shoot-out would have to serve a five-minute stop-and-hold penalty during the first half-hour of the race. A sanction of some kind was certainly expected by everyone in the paddock: some were suggesting a last-minute alteration to the Balance or Performance parameters, others that a grid penalty would be applied. Most people that I spoke to, however, were surprised not only by the penalty, but that it was applied for non-sporting behaviour, in effect establishing that ‘sand-bagging’ was a penalisable offence. The ACO should take note.

It is not my role to pass judgement on the severity of the penalty, but I do hope that senior executives of the Stuttgart marque took time off from observing what was going on at Hockenheim to see what their Customer Service people were up to in Belgium. The VW group may have questions to answer in the world of production car manufacture, but the readiness that manufacturers show to flout both the letter and the spirit of the regulations is a concern in what is supposed to be a corner of the sport that encourages the amateur.

It is not my role to pass judgement on the severity of the penalty, but I do hope that senior executives of the Stuttgart marque took time off from observing what was going on at Hockenheim to see what their Customer Service people were up to in Belgium.

In any event, four of the penalised six were in the pit at the end of the first racing lap, but on his first racing lap, Marco Seefried (coincidentally, an HTP Mercedes AMG driver in this year’s Nürburgring 24 hours) spun the Rinaldi Racing Ferrari into the gravel at Fagnes, and the (inevitable) Full Course Yellow was implemented two minutes later. Hence, for around 3½ minutes of the penalty, the field was circulating at just 80km/h, and when the green flag flew, the best of the Mercedes (the 00 car driven by Maro Engel) was 3m 26.2s behind the race leader.

Hardly what was intended by the stewards, I am sure, but evidence, if you should need it, that leopards don’t change their spots.

Still, it would be an uphill struggle for the AMG drivers for the rest of the race, the performance of the GT3 cars so evenly balanced that overcoming any disadvantage was nigh-on impossible in terms of pure pace on the track. The table below, showing the average of the best 20% of green flag laps of the best car from each brand, illustrates this.

Pos. No Car Drivers Average

Lap Time 4th 8 Bentley Continental Soulet/Soucek/Reip 2m 21.3s 1st 99 BMW M6 Sims/Eng/Martin 2m 21.4s 3rd 28 Audi R8 LMS Vanthoor/Rast/Müller 2m 21.5s 16th 50 Ferrari 488 Lathouras/Rugolo/Pier Guidi 2m 21.7s 5th 86 Mercedes AMG Jäger/Paffett/Götz 2m 21.9s 31st 58 McLaren 650S Van Gisbergen/Ledogar/Bell 2m 22.5s 53rd 14 Jaguar G3 Frey/Ortelli/Costa 2m 22.5s 11th 16 Lamborghini Huracan Bortolotti/Bleekemolen/Ineichen 2m 22.6s 44th 23 Nissan GT-R Nismo Ordonez/Buncombe/Takaboshi 2m 22.7s

It is perhaps worth noting at this stage, that at no point did a Mercedes lead the race, although cars from eight other brands did, at one point or another, over the course of the twenty-four hours.

With so little to choose between the potential of the cars, driver performance is also crucially important, perhaps more especially so in the PRO class, where there are few restrictions on individual driving times. The table below shows the best 12 drivers by best lap time.

No Driver Car Best Lap Laps Driven Average

Lap Time 28 Laurens Vanthoor Audi 2m 18.793s 169 2m 21.2s 8 Maxime Soulet Bentley 2m 19.917s 209 2m 20.9s 28 René Rast Audi 2m 20.040s 178 2m 21.5s 99 Alexander Sims BMW 2m 20.054s 192 2m 21.2s 26 Christopher Haase Audi 2m 20.120s 208 2m 21.4s 88 Felix Rosenqvist Mercedes 2m 20.144s 239 2m 21.3s 75 Edoardo Mortara Audi 2m 20.166s 177 2m 21.8s 7 Steven Kane Bentley 2m 20.219s 191 2m 21.3s 86 Maximilian Götz Mercedes 2m 20.244s 218 2m 21.7s 98 Nick Catsburg BMW 2m 20.249s 204 2m 21.2s 98 Dirk Werner BMW 2m 20.254s 199 2m 21.6s 99 Maxime Martin BMW 2m 20.306s 220 2m 21.3s

Inevitably, this table omits some noteworthy performances: particularly Andy Soucek in the Bentley and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the Ferrari, whose average lap times were both 2m 21.1s, quicker than anyone else except Maxime Soulet.

Clemens Schmid (#86 HTP Mercedes) and Mirko Bortolotti (#16 GRT Lamborghini) also deserve a mention, having both spent more than ten hours behind the wheel, Schmid for 224 laps and Bortolotti for 281. Moreover, Schmid’s average lap time, 2m 21.5s shows that he is an emerging talent in GT3. The real ‘iron man’ though, was the late addition to the entry list, Bertrand Baguette, who ended up driving for nearly 13 hours, covering 291 laps in the #4 WRT Audi.

The real ‘iron man’ though, was the late addition to the entry list, Bertrand Baguette, who ended up driving for nearly 13 hours, covering 291 laps in the #4 WRT Audi.

You can find my strategy updates after six and twelve hours of the race elsewhere on the site, (here and here), and it had been my intention to provide further analysis as the second half of the race progressed; however, circumstances overtook me. The first half of the race was, as DSC’s editor remarks (here) a series of sprints between caution periods and pit stops, however, natural attrition had left just five cars on the lead lap at half distance, two Bentleys, two Audis and a single BMW. The best of the Mercedes (Maxi Buhk in the #84 HTP AMG) was 2m 32.7s back from the leader, in 7th place overall, a loss of barely six seconds after 12 hours’ racing.

Just as the first half of the race had seen the demise of the challenge from one of the Rowe BMW’s, both McLarens and all of the WRT Audis off the lead lap and out of the top ten, so the hours after half distance saw one problem after another striking down the GRT Lamborghini (sixth after 12 hours), the ISR Audis (fifth and ninth) and the AF Corse Ferrari (tenth).

And each time one of them fell out of the top ten, its place seemed to be taken by a Mercedes. A brief shower at breakfast time turned out to be of little consequence, but the radar was showing a heavier downpour that was due to arrive before the end of the race. By this time, the Spa Scriptwriter had also done away with one of the Bentleys (the #7 having dropped back after power steering issues) and the Phoenix Audi (the only Audi to have had a clean run to that point), with a dramatic fire following a puncture.

So, with four hours to go, there remained but two from which to pick a winner: the #99 Rowe Racing BMW M6 and the #8 Bentley Continental. As has already been seen, the Bentley was not short on pace, but its troubles with the stewards were many, and a puncture in the final ninety minutes was the final nail in the coffin. When the rain arrived in the final half-hour, the Crewe team’s chances had already been compromised beyond repair. I’ll be telling the story of the Bentley’s race separately, provided the editor lets me!

I’ll be telling the story of the Bentley’s race separately, provided the editor lets me!

One final point, the second-placed AKKA ASP Mercedes of Rosenqvist, Van der Zander and Vautier finished just under two minutes behind the leader, having spent 1m 51s less time in the pit lane than the leader, so in effect had managed to gain no time at all on track.