Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco leads with an hour to go at Spa, but there is a fierce battle between the two Italian cars, the #15 BMW, and the #36 Alpine for the win.
Jean-Eric Vergne lead the race on race restart with two and a half hours to go. The #93 Peugeot driver had not pitted under the preceding safety car, and would soon pit from the lead, dropping down the bunched up field to 15th.
Behind him the #36 Alpine of Jules Gounon was fighting with the #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi and the #51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi. However, Kobayashi and Pier Guidi got involved in their own battle, making contact at the bus stop chicane with Kobayashi losing time by going straight on at the final corner.
With Vergne pitting the #93 Peugeot, Gounon inherited the lead. However, he didn’t read under green flag for long. The #10 LMGT3-entered Spirit of Léman Aston Martin, of Eduardo Barrichello, squeezed the #59 United Autosports McLaren onto the grass just before the Bruxelles corner.
This sent Baud straight into the barriers, and although the Frenchman was able to reverse out, he lost a good few laps trundling around with damage to the front end of the car.
This put the race back undser virtual safety car, which then morphed into a safety car.
At the restart, Pier Guidi led from Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari. The #36 Alpine, now with Mick Schumacher at the wheel, third. Frijns and Jakobsen were fourth and fifth
At the safety car restart, which restarted with just under two hours to go, Pier Guidi retained the lead, although he soon lost it to Fuoco at Les Combes.
Also at Les Combes, Frijns and Jakobsen collided, which damaged the Peugeot’s left rear suspension irrepairably and meant they had to retire.
Back in the lead, Mick Schumacher was fighting with Pier Guidi for second. The German took the position at Les Combes, but Pier Guidi was able to get it back. This battling, though, invited Frijns into the mix, making it a three car battle.
With Schumacher now finally getting past Pier Guidi, Frijns also got past in a daring move after Stabelot corner, demoting him to fourth. However, next lap, Pier Guidi was able to get both positions back and retain second.
Frijns wasn’t having that, though, and went side by side down to Eau Rouge to take the position back. Pier Guidi had to take to the run off to retain the position, and he was later told to give it back.
This meant Fuoco had pulled away to the tune of 7 seconds. Frijns was second, Pier Guidi third, hand Schumacher fourth. However, the German then pitted to ‘take the splash first’ -— a strategy decision — dropping him down to almost-last.
As everyone else stopped this promoted Schumacher back through the field, and he now runs second behind Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota, who is on a similar strategy.
Julien Andlauer is third in the #5 Porsche, while Pier Guidi is fourth. Frijns is fifth in the #15 BMW. Meanwhile, the former leading Ferrari, #50 now with Nicklas Nielsen at the wheel, is ninth.
Over in LMGT3, Alessio Rovera leads in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. Second is Mattia Drudi in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, while third is the sister #54 AF Corse Ferrari.
