With three consecutive podium finishes Ferrari has increasingly bridge the gap with Toyota. Fifty years after its last Le Mans win, is Ferrari going to win again for the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans?

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing is dominating the World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship by scoring almost all points attributed so far if it was not for the pole (1 point) won by Ferrari at Sebring. After 5 consecutive wins at Le Mans, three victories and two doubles this season, Toyota GR010 are definitively the favourites for the centenary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Let us now review the official test day of the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa PRO-AM class ranking as well as the results by manufacturer not mentioned in previous articles.

#21 Comtoyou Racing Audi and #88 Akkodis ASP team Mercedes did set the fastest laps of both official test days during the Wednesday morning session.

Haase dominated both morning and afternoon sessions with Audi R8 LMS evo II #11 from Comtoyou Racing. Audi and Porsche are trusting the top 8 best laps of the first test day.

Tremendous success for the new Ferrari 296 GT3 with an overall victory by #30 Frikadelli Racing Team at the 51st 24 Hours of Nürburgring, a P1 in SP9 PRO-AM for #20 WTM by Rinaldi Racing (7th overall) and a 100% reliability as sister #19 by racing one ends 15th overall (3rd SP9 PRO-AM).

Two Mercedes-AMG GT3 will start from front row the 51st 24 Hours of Nürburgring today at 4pm. Raffaele Marciello earned pole sitting by setting the fastest lap in the #4 AMG Team Bilstein Mercedes AMG GT3; Maro Engel was second getting his Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed #3 in first row. The two next row see 4 different manufacturers represented.

Qualifying 2 at night saw eight cars being faster than the fifth during afternoon qualifying. Mercedes has three cars in the top 6. BMW and Porsche have each 2 cars within the top 8 with Mercedes-AMG Team Bilstein scoring P1 and P4.

Within the 136 cars that are on the entry list for the may 18th-21st ADAC TotalEnergies 24h Nürburgring, the SP9 class features 33 entries (all potential overall winners) are representing the best GT3 manufacturers: Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche. Many of them will be competing with factory teams or factory-supported entries.

📷 © Courtesy of Cadillac Racing. Cadillac Racing finishes first and third at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Despite qualifying sixth, Bourdais and van der Zande won the 2 hours 40’ race in the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca after taking the lead in lap 71 for the 32 remaining laps.

📷 © Courtesy of Porsche. Matt Campbell dominated the qualifying in Laguna Seca at the wheel of the #7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 followed closely by Mathieu Jaminet with sister #6. Both Porsche 963 will start from first row the 2-hour, 40-minute MOTUL Course de Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Porsche 911 GT3 R also dominated GTD and GTD PRO classes.

Ben Keating reported us: “I am racing in Laguna Seca this weekend. Unexpectedly, I am filling in for Patrick Kelly”

We share Ben Keating’s thoughts about his last year win of the Michelin Endurance Cup, his chances of winning it for a 6th time this year as well as his experience driving the Dpi Cadillac at Daytona.

Acura is looking for a fifth consecutive vistory in a row this weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Last year winners, Albuquerque and Taylor, are currently third in the Drivers Weathertech Sportscar Championship, 20 points behind Tandy and Jaminet (Porsche #6).

After a strong debut at the 24 hours of Daytona where the three Cadillacs ended third, fourth and fifth, Cadillac Racing is leading the IMSA manufacturers’ championship. Alexander Sims and Pipo Derani are second in the drivers’ championship just one point behind the Porsche #6 team. In WEC, the #2 Cadillac is fourth just two points behind Porsche.

Porsche Penske Motorsport is third in both IMSA and WEC manufacturers championships still in contention in IMSA but far behind in points in WEC. After suffering technical issues in Daytona, both Porsche 963 were lacking performance in WEC and suffering technical issues. In IMSA, both cars were in contention for a double at Sebring and Porsche 963 #6 clinched its first victory at Long Beach in IMSA.

Thrilling ending of the LMP2 race when Louis Delétraz in Team WRT #41 second and leading #23 United Autosports of Tom Blomqvist had to stop for a last splash and dash 12 minutes from the finish. Thanks to better fuel management by the drivers, the Team WRT crew was faster in the pits enabling Deletraz, Andrade and Kubica to clinch victory.

Lilou Wadoux marks FIA WEC history by being the first female driver to climb onto the top step of the podium in the FIA WEC. Together with Alessio Rovera and Luis Perez Companc on board of the Richard Mille AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #83, they won the 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps LMGTE class. The LMGTE race saw 6 different leaders with 18 leader changes during the first 96 laps until #83 took the lead almost for the remaining 44 laps.

The first Safety Car was released during the third lap thwarting Ferrari team strategy of mounting rain tires as the track dried out during that SC period. Both Toyota GR010 Hybrid dominated the 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps with #7 winning after leading 89% of the laps covered. Sister #8 moved up from P36 to end second.

The 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps qualifying started wrongly for Toyota Gazoo Racing with Brendon Hartley crashing his #8 GR010 Hybrid in the Raidillon straight out of the pits on cold tires. The session was animated by Giovinazzi with Ferrari #51 who qualified first at the end of the session until his fastest lap was canceled for track-limits violation. Kamui Kobayashi will start from pole tomorrow at 12:45.

The verdict is in for the 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps LMGTE qualifying session: Ahmad Al Harthy leads his opponents by more than 2 seconds in the #25 Aston Martin Vantage ORT by TF. Sarah Bovy is second. Ben Keating fourth.