Earl Bamber has crashed the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R heavily on the Kemmel Straight, causing a red flag with 1 hour 45 minutes remaining, although the race clock is still counting toward ahead of a finish at 7pm local time.
Bamber was chasing Proton Competition’s Neel Jani for third, having caught the #99 Porsche 963. They were nose to tail entering the Kemmel Straight, with Jani having passed Sean Galael in the #31 BMW WRT M4 GT3. Bamber attempted to pass the Indonesian too — but clipped the BMW, sending both spearing off into the barriers at high speed, with the Cadillac somersaulting before hitting the ground, completely wrecked. The BMW didn’t fare much better, coming to rest against the barriers on drivers’ left.
With debris from both cars strewn across the track, a red flag has come out so marshals and safety crew can get drivers out of the cars, remove the cars from the track, and get rid of debris.
With the cars stopped for now, Ferrari’s Alessandro Pier Guidi lead after taking the lead from Jani earlier on.
At the restart of the race after an hour under virtual and full safety cars, Jani lead from Pier Guidi’s teammate James Calado, in the #51 Ferrari 499P. Jani fended off Calado, extending a small gap to the British driver.
However, Calado got a good run out of Eau Rouge and Raidillon after traffic for Jani, and powered past the Swiss on the run down the Kemmel Straight into Les Combes.
Since then, Calado and Pier Guidi, when he replaced Calado in the car, have extended the gap out to over 23 seconds, initially to Jani and now to second placed car, the sister #50 Ferrari.
Jani is now third because the sister Ferrari, driven by Antonio Fuoco, took third off Jani in a similar fashion to the way teammate Calado did earlier.
Fourth is Yifei Ye in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, while fifth is Nyck de Vries, onboard the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
The sister #5 Porsche, which started on pole in the hands of Fred Makowiecki, is out of the race after the Frenchman’s teammate Michael Christensen made contact with the barrier at Blanchimont, hitting the barrier on drivers’ left and causing irreparable damage, as well as a full course yellow.
The #63 Lamborghini SC63 is also out after WEC debutante Andrea Caldarelli sustained right rear suspension damage.
In LMGT3, Morris Schuring leads the race in the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R. Rahal Frey, in the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 is second, roughly 8 seconds off Schuring. Joel Sturm, onboard the #92 Mathey Purerxcing Porsche, is third, anothjer 12 or so seconds off Frey.
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