24h Spa 2021

A late rain shower caused a dramatic final phase at the Spa 24 Hours. The number 32 Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport Team WRT was the first car from the leading group to switch to rain tyres while in second place and, thanks to this move, took the lead around 40 minutes before the end of the race. Final driver Dries Vanthoor defended first position until shortly before the finish and ended up second overall with a gap of less than four seconds. The Belgian and his team-mates Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts had started the race from grid position 54 and showed a sensational recovery. Fourth place in the sister car with starting number 37 saw Nico Müller take the chequered flag. Sixth place went to the number 25 from Audi Sport Team Saintéloc, with number 66 Audi R8 LMS from Audi Sport Team Attempto taking ninth.

Audi Sport customer racing provided pure emotion at the world’s biggest GT3 race: Four unusual design race cars to mark the 100th race birthday at Spa, a concentrated chase and the battle for victory of the number 32 car, which seemed almost impossible before the race started, attracted a lot of attention and sympathy for the brand. Audi Sport Team WRT had been deprived of all chances with this race car through no fault of its own due to red flags in qualifying. The race of van der Linde/Vanthoor/Weerts initially appeared hopeless. But in the end they missed victory by only 3.9 seconds.