Pier Guidi went across the exterior of the WRT Audi pushed by Dries Vanthoor in moist circumstances on the quick Blanchimont left-hander to reclaim the lead that the Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo he shared with Nicklas Nielsen and Come Ledogar had held for a lot of the double-points spherical of the GT World Problem Europe.
Pier Guidi had misplaced out with 50 minutes to go when WRT rolled the cube with storm clouds looming and despatched Vanthoor out on wet-weather tyres earlier than it had began to rain.
The downpour arrived on the Belgian driver’s outlap after which Iron Lynx opted not to herald Pier Guidi on the first alternative.
By the point he had accomplished a sluggish lap on a flooded monitor and altered to grooved Pirellis, the Italian had fallen 50s behind the Audi co-driven by Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts.
A full course yellow had already been referred to as at this stage and when the protection automotive bunched the sphere up, Pier Guidi was little greater than three seconds behind when the race went inexperienced for the ultimate 27 minutes.
The Ferrari rapidly closed down the the Audi and was proper with the German automotive inside 5 laps.
He was solely half a second behind beginning the 551st lap after which acquired a greater run out of Stavelot and braved it out across the exterior by Blanchimont on the finish of the lap.
Pier Guidi was in a position to prolong the lead over the remaining laps to 5 seconds, earlier than crossing the road 3.9s forward.
“I have been attempting so many occasions to win this race, I actually needed it, actually, actually,” mentioned Pier Guidi.
“When the rain got here and the whole lot appeared misplaced, I used to be actually disillusioned.
“I pushed like an animal and I did all I may.”
#32 Audi Sport Group WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3: Dries Vanthoor, Kelvin van der Linde, Charles Weerts
Photograph by: SRO
It was a candy victory for Iron Lynx on its debut within the Spa enduro after the Italian staff had misplaced a automotive within the opening hour when Davide Rigon was concerned in a four-car accident at Eau Rouge.
The accident resulted in Rigon and Williams Method 1 reserve driver Jack Aitken, who triggered the incident when he spun his Emil Frey Lamborghini at Eau Rouge, being taken to hospital in close by Liege.
Rigon was launched after present process checks, whereas Aitken was diagnosed with fractures of a vertebra and his collarbone.
Aston Martin claimed third place with the all-factory line-up of Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen and Ross Gunn within the Storage 59 staff’s Professional class entry greater than a minute in arrears of the profitable Ferrari.
They by no means made up the bottom they misplaced in the course of the night time once they made their technical pitstop, a compulsory four-minute keep within the pits to permit for a change of brakes, below inexperienced circumstances in contrast to nearly all of their rivals on the entrance of the sphere.
The second of the manufacturing unit Audis run by WRT pushed by Nico Muller, Robin Frijns and Dennis Lind took fourth place two laps behind, whereas Nick Tandy, Maxime Martin and Laurens Vanthoor, who had to sit out much of the second half of the race after an accident in the paddock, took fifth of their KCMG Porsche 911 GT3-R.
The factory-backed Sainteloc Audi shared by Markus Winkelhock, Christopher Haase and Patric Niederhauser rounded out the highest six.
Silver Cup honours went to the Madpanda Mercedes-AMG GT3 pushed by Ezequiel Perez Companc, Ricardo Sanchez, Patrick Kujala and Rik Breukers.
AF Corse Ferrari drivers Duncan Cameron, Rino Mastronardi, Matt Griffin, Miguel Molina got here out high within the Professional-Am class.