Aston Martin has recorded a glorious overall victory in the Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa – the world’s most prestigious all-GT3 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps, in Belgium, over the 29-30 June weekend.
The win, claimed by Aston Martin partner team Comtoyou Racing and works drivers Mattia Drudi (ITA), Marco Sørensen (DEN) and Nicki Thiim (DEN), was the first for the British ultra-luxury sportscar brand since 1948.
The result also marked the new Aston Martin Vantage GT3’s maiden 24-hour triumph. It was the first time the famous Wings had beaten its primary competition in the Belgian endurance classic since it became a GT event in 2001.
For double FIA GT World Endurance champion Thiim and triple world champion Sørensen, affectionally known within the sport as the ‘Dane Train’, victory represents the first time the duo have won a 24-hour race overall as team-mates in the same car, despite them having three 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins between them.
For Drudi, a Fanatec GT World Europe champion, it was an opportunity to shine on one of endurance racing’s biggest stages, and that he did, putting the #007 car in contention every time he stepped in the cockpit – including during the opening hours of the race, where he’d worked the team into a leading position before the first of multiple Safety Car Periods.
A complicated night of racing, where torrential thunderstorms and multiple incidents neutralised the event for several hours, Comtoyou Racing remained composed. It kept the car in touch with the leading fight, even as pitstops during the Safety Car periods forced 20-car swings in the race positions on occasion.
Each time, the team rebounded and raced back to the front, so that as morning came, the track dried out, and it found itself in a straight fight for victory with a rival Ferrari, two BMWs, and the other Pro class #34 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of partner team Walkenhorst Motorsport, driven by Henrique Chaves (POR), Ross Gunn (GBR), and David Pittard (GBR).
In the final hour of the race, the #7 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin trailed the Ferrari by 10s when its rival pitted and was held up in the pitlane entry by a stranded car. This turn of events prevented Ferrari from racing for the win and denied the fans a grandstand finish as Drudi raced to the flag unopposed.
Gunn brought the #34 Walkenhorst Vantage GT3 home fourth following a solid run for the team that saw it lead on several occasions.
Indeed, Walkenhorst Motorsport, a previous winner of the event, came close to clinching the Silver Cup class victory in the #35 Vantage GT3 driven by 2022 AMR Driver Academy graduate Romain Leroux (FRA) and 2024 candidates Lorcan Hanafin (GBR) and Maxime Robin (FRA). Unfortunately, the car was the innocent victim of an accident following a Safety Car period on Sunday morning while fighting for the class lead.
Of Comtoyou Racing’s four-car entry, which completed a record seven-car assault on the race by Aston Martin, the #007 was often the fastest car in the race, but the team’s #21 Silver Cup car driven by Charles Clark (GBR), Sam Dejonghe (BEL), Matisse Lismont (BEL) and Xavier Maassen finished sixth, having led the class earlier in the race.
The new Vantage GT3, closely derived from the new Vantage road car unveiled earlier this year at Silverstone and built around Aston Martin’s proven bonded aluminium chassis and powered by its fearsome twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine, is in a rich vein of form.
It has clinched victories in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the SUPER GT Series, the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie, and the Road to Le Mans event in June alone. Now Aston Martin can add one of the most famous wins in its racing history to that tally.
Aston Martin’s previous best Spa 24 Hours finish of the GT3 era was in 2021, when Gunn, Sørensen and Thiim secured a competitive third place overall, having been in the lead fight for much of the race. Before that, the best GT finish for an Aston Martin was also third, in 2008, with the Gigawave DBR9 GT1.
Aston Martin last won the event in 1948, when it was run to different regulations. Its 2-litre Sports DB1 was driven by Britons St John Horsfall and Leslie Johnson.
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