•    Optimum’s Salman Owega, Freddie Tomlinson, Hary George in box seat in Belgium
•    Team’s McLaren 720S GT3 EVO leads by minute and a half at end of Part One
•    No.2 HAAS RT Audi heads GT3-AM in P2 overall, Proton Porsche leads GT3 PRO-AM
•    QMMF by HRT has slim lead in 992, No.701 Vortex heading GTX, Ligier tops TCE-TCX
•    Part Two begins at 10.30 local on Sunday, LIVE at Creventic Motorsports TV

Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (18 April 2026):
McLaren 720S GT3 EVO trio Salman Owega, Freddie Tomlinson and Harry George hold an overnight lead of more than a minute and a half after part one of the Michelin 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, following an impressive day’s work in the Ardennes from Optimum Motorsport.

Owega led away from pole at the beginning of the race at 11.30 local time, and while there were some question marks over a decision to pit during the, ultimately very brief, first Code 60 cautionary period – a mere 10 minutes into the encounter – the squad’s bid for victory is very much on course. 

The No.2 HAAS RT Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II of Pierre and Mathieu Castelein, Steven Palette and Simon Balcaen holds second overall after the first five and a half hours of racing, as well as leading the GT3-AM class. Comtoyou Racing’s No.41 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 EVO is third overnight, the car piloted by Xavier Knauf, Gregory Servais and Nicolas Baert.

Sitting a lofty fifth is the 992 and 992-AM leading Porsche 911 GT3 Cup (992 I) of QMMF by HRT Performance trio Ahmed Al-Emadi, Faesal Al Yafei and Abdulla Ali Al Khelaifi, a lap ahead of rivals Muhlner Motorsport with Julian Hanses, Martin Rump, Conrad Tox Leveau and Tim Scheerbarth.  

Proton Competition is the highest placed of the GT3 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) EVO entries in seventh, the PRO-AM lead, with Robert de Haan, Constantin Dressler, Manuel Lauck and Jorg Dreisow. GTX is led by the No.701 Vortex of Phillipe Bonnel, Julien Boillot and Alexandre De Bernardinis, while TCE-TCX is headed by Not Only Motorsport’s Ligier JS2 R with Gino Rocchio and Filippo Tornaghi.

In a first hour of racing which also featured three brief Code 60 periods, the action at the front was breathtaking. Owega held the lead from pole in the Optimum McLaren, with Steve Jans just behind in the GetSpeed Team JR286 Mercedes-AMG GT3 EVO. 

De Haan in the Proton Competition Porsche applied heavy pressure in third, as Owega initially opened a small advantage, and the lead pair then took the chance to pit at the first Code 60 just minutes into the race. The re-start, though, came very quickly and Servais in the No.41 Comtoyou Aston Martin grabbed the lead from de Haan.

For the rest of the first hour the battling was superb, Servais soaking up pressure from de Haan before succumbing to the Porsche at Les Combes on lap 10. After a second Code 60, third placed Tom Coronel – in the sister Comtoyou Aston – read the re-start perfectly and sliced past both to grab the lead, with Kobe de Breucker fourth in the Ajith RedAnt Racing Mercedes-AMG.

De Haan re-took the lead of the race on lap 19 along Kemmel Straight, as they diced among traffic, and Coronel hit the front again before the expected pit-stops around the one hour mark. Half an hour later, there was a worrying high-speed excursion at Blanchimont for Dwight Merriman in the Era Motorsport Ferrari 296 GT3. He was thankfully uninjured, but the car wasn’t so lucky. 

Max Moritz led at the resumption in the Herberth Porsche, a minute clear of Tomlinson in the McLaren, and they remained at the head of the field past two hours. De Haan, driving a brilliant stint since the beginning, retook the lead in the Proton Porsche and finally handed the car over to Jorg Dreisow with three hours to go – just before the Herberth car stopped on track with no power.

With two hours to run, Servais led for Comtoyou from the GetSpeed Team JR286 car as the twin HAAS RT Audi R8s came more and more into contention. Further Code 60 periods peppered the latter stages but the McLaren’s plan continued to pay dividends and at the end of five and a half hours of action, the Optimum drivers sit pretty in the race lead. 

Both HAAS RT cars, the No.21 shared by Nicolas and Peter Guelinckx as well as the double-duty Balcaen, ended part one on the lead lap in second and fourth respectively to sandwich the No.41 Aston. Comtoyou’s second car appeared to have a brake issue while Jan Jaap van Roon was at the wheel with just 20 minutes to go, the No.40 Aston slamming into the barriers at Bruxelles.

Hanses, in the pole qualifying Muhlner Motorsport Porsche, led away in 992 at the start with Steven Gambrell in the No.928 HRT Performance car initially getting ahead of the Red Camel-Jordans.nl entry of Rik Breukers – although Breukers swiftly hit-back. The top two then took the chance to pit under the early first Code 60, so Al Khelaifi took the lead for QMMF by HRT.

As the end of the second hour neared, the No.928 car required recovery after stopping on track when Jonathan Kearney was at the wheel – all but wrecking their chances. Towards the halfway point of the race, Fabian Danz had moved into the 992 lead for Red Camel with Rump very close behind and they rose as high as the outright podium as GT3 runners cycled through their stops.

With two and a half hours to run the QMMF Porsche led 992, and 992 AM of course, with Al-Emadi at the wheel and the No.974 car was fourth overall. Leveau and Luc Breukers, meanwhile, were busy making their way back up the order after pit-stops.  

The 992 lead was traded further during the last couple of hours of Saturday’s racing, with some incredibly tight action and overtaking to boot, but the QMMF squad is the one holding sway this evening with a one lap advantage over Muhlner’s entry. Chazel Technologie Course is third in 992 with Jean-Paul Dominici, Jean-Mathieu Leandri and Antoni de Barn. Red Camel slipped to fifth.

After such a sensational showing in GTX qualifying, similar was expected in the race from the NM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT2 and Nil Montserrat dominated the early going to lead by a country mile from the No.701 Vortex 2.0. That advantage wasn’t able to be sustained though with a few issues hampering the squad’s challenge, and so Boillot held the lead some 90 minutes into the race. 

The sister No.702 Vortex had encountered problems from the start, so fell a long way behind, but at the front the No.701 car mounted a good challenge to the Mercedes. As part one developed, so the No.701 Vortex was able to establish a strong lead as the Montserrat, Manuel Lao and Alberto de Martin Mercedes continued to try and fightback. 

Rocchio started the TCE-TCX pole qualifying Ligier JS2 R and while he was able to control things at the front in the class, the J-Mec Engineering BMW M3 (E46) of Kevin Clarke kept the leader honest throughout the opening hour. When the Ligier served its initial stop, the BMW assumed first place but difficulties then hit the J-Mec entry and its challenge faded.

Tornaghi continued to impress in the Ligier at the front, as the No.102 asBest Racing SEAT Leon Cup Racer of Jens Wulf and the team’s No.101 Cupra TCR DSG of Junichi Umemoto gained momentum. So too the CWS Engineering Ginetta G56 which, with Neale Muston at the wheel, climbed as high as second in class. In the final hour, though, the Ginetta lost a tyre to leave a lot of work on Sunday.

Part two of the Michelin 12H SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS will get underway at 10.30 local time tomorrow, Sunday, 19 April, for the concluding six and a half hours of racing. All of the action will be LIVE at Creventic Motorsports TV on YouTube, with links for the live stream and live timing available at www.24hseries.com