Two down, one more to go! The third race in June’s trilogy of 24 hour battles commences, and with no less than 76 cars across five classes vying for glory, it’s sure to be an epic. But just who will come out on top in the most prestigious GT race in the world? It’s time to close the 72 Hours of June with a scorcher.

With the race having just three hours left the order was as follows: The alternate strategy #96 was currently leading the Pro class ahead of GRT’s #63 Lamborghini, while Gold Cup was now firmly in the hands of the #58 crew of Garage 59 and Adam Smalley, as Silver Cop was still led by the #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport and Bronze Cup was also experiencing a dominant run from the #74 of Kessel Racing, Dennis Marschall at the wheel. Pro/Am was headed by the AV by Car Collection #29 Porsche of Mathieu Detry.

The #58 meanwhile wouldn’t find itself in the lead for much longer as a differing pit strategy allowed the #33 Verstappen.com Racing Aston Martin back into the lead, but not by much. It was a similar story in the Pro class as after some dogged driving with his #63 GRT Lamborghini Mirko Bortolotti closed back up to the #96 of Sven Muller, the gap now standing at just a second and threatening to close further as they crossed the line with 2 hours and 10 minutes to go. They seemed to be shaping up into the race’s main protagonists in the final couple of hours, with nearly 40 seconds of a lead over Rafaelle Marciello’s #98 ROWE BMW and the rest of the pack, with large gaps separating the top seven.

The next pit cycle gave the Lamborghini a rare comfortable advantage over the #96, which was about 5 seconds back. The difficult race for the #97 Rutronik Racing Bronze Cup entry continued as Morris Schurring picked up a severe puncture as the track temperatures rose to nearly 50 degrees.

Heading into the final hour, then it Mirko Bortolotti was five seconds to the good of the #96, now in the hands of Patric Neiderhauser but the gap was closing. Rafaelle Marciello was third for the #98 ROWE BMW Team, with the two factory Ferraris running fourth and fifth, #51 ahead of #50.

Meanwhile, the heat was causing issues for both the #52 Bronze Cup and the #71 Pro/Am AF Corse Ferraris hitting strife along with punctures, forcing them to pit and lose considerable time trundling round at significantly slower speeds than their rivals. And with all the rubber now littering the track a short full course yellow was called out to deal with the situtation.

Then it was the final pit stops for the race leaders, with Rutronik pitting first with 45 minutes remaining as per their alternate strategy, allowing Bortolotti to extend his lead, but was stuck behind Kelvin Van Der Linde on his outlap. Further back the battle for third was raging also, as Alessandro Pier Guidi pressured Marciello for effective third place halfway through their penultimate stints. Then came the most important stop in the race, as Mirko Bortolotti stayed behind the wheel for one final refuelling and with fresh tyres set about maintaining his advantage over the Rutronik Porsche, but only after a heart in mouth moment as the car stalled on pit exit losing prescious seconds.

With 35 minutes remaining Mirko Bortolotti led the 24 Hours of Spa but only by eight tenths of a second ahead of the Rutronik Porsche in what looked to be a grand stand finish, and as the #98 ROWE BMW received a 30 second stop and go penalty for track limits infringements it allowed Alessandro Pier Guigi a huge advantage in the race for the final podium spot as Mirko Bortolotti slowly opened the gap to Neiderhauser.

With just 10 minutes to go it was over for the #998 ROWE BMW, having pulled into the garage and retired the car. There was much bigger trouble in Gold Cup, as the race leading #58 Garage 59 picked up a puncture with just six minutes remaining, forcing it to pit and hand over the win to Verstappen.com’s #33 entry.

But up front it was to be an historic victory for Lamborghini, their first ever overall win in a 24 Hour race and the first major win for the Huracan GT3 in its final outing at Spa. It’s the #63 crew of Mirko Bortolotti, Jordan Pepper and Luca Engstler win the 2025 24 Hours of Spa after an epic duel with the Rutronik Porsche #96 crew by barely 10 seconds. Gold Cup was indeed taken on debut by Verstappen.com’s #33 of Thierry Vermuelen, Harry King and Chris Lulham, the latter two of whom take a class win on their 24 hours of Spa debut. Silver Cup went to Aston Martin and the #35 Walkenhorst crew of Romain Leroux, Matteo Villagomez and Oliver Sandstrom. Bronze Cup was won by Kessel Racing’s #74 Ferrari of Zacharie Robichon, Dennis Marschall, Conrad Laursen and Dustin Blattner. And finally Pro/Am went the way of Beechdean AMR’s #100 with the victorious drivers being that of Ross Gunn, Valentin Hasse-Clot, Andrew Howard and Anthony McIntosh.

What a race, and what a way to conclude the 72 Hours of June! It’s certainly been a hectic three weeks for sportscar racing, and I’ve certainly put myself through the metaphorical wringer to bring you these live blogs updates. Yet still it’s been fun, it’s been tiring and it’s been the most satisfying end for Lamborghini!

If there’s one thing I know, it’s that I’m going to enjoy having a sleep schedule next weekend.

I’ll see you next week for much easier six hour race at Sao Paulo for the fourth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship

– Thomas.