Morning Times | Afternoon Times
Christopher Haase led the opening day of this year's CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa Prologue. The German driver set a 2m16.535s aboard the #84 Eastalent Racing Audi to secure top spot by just two hundredths of a second. The opening day saw cars on-track for a total of eight hours, running between 09:00 and 12:00 and again from 13:00 to 18:00.
Haase, who claimed victory at Spa in 2017, finished well clear of the competition, with second-placed Lorens Lecertua more than seven tenths adrift in his CSA Racing McLaren. Thomas Drouet (HRT Ford), Dorian Boccolacci (Boutsen VDS Porsche) and Mathieu Jaminet (Herberth Porsche) completed the pre-lunch top five.
Haase's time was not beaten during the afternoon, though a number of cars got considerably closer to his benchmark. The best of them was Alessio Picariello in the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche, whose time of 2m16.557s was just 0.022s adrift of top spot. The Belgian ace led a Porsche one-two-three in the session, with Thomas Preining (#80 Lionspeed GP) and Laurin Heinrich (#22 Schumacher CLRT) finishing behind the leading 911.
The fastest cars across the four other classes were the #10 Boutsen VDS Porsche in the Gold Cup; the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi in the Silver Cup; the #89 Lionspeed GP Porsche in the Bronze Cup; and the #28 Haas RT Audi in Pro-Am. The latter was an excpetion in that its time was set in the morning, with the rest posting their best times in the afternoon.
During the lunch break, a press conference was held to launch this year’s entry list. The long list of guests who spoke included several drivers, such as Maxime Martin, Maro Engel, Jules Gounon, Sarah Bovy and Mirko Bortolotti. It was confirmed that a field of 70 GT3 cars will tackle the 78th edition, which will include a new format for Qualifying and Superpole among other innovations. Click here to read more.
Cars will be back on track tomorrow (Wednesday 20 May) for a further eight hours of running. The schedule is a repeat of Tuesday, with running from 09:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 through to the final chequered flag at 18:00. The 2026 CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa will take place between 24 and 28 June.