Nicklas Nielsen maintained the lead of the 2026 CrowdStrike 24H of Spa after an incident-filled opening hour at Spa-Francorchamps. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari driver held an advantage of just over two seconds over Tom Fleming’s Gold Cup-leading #58 Garage 59 McLaren. Frederik Schandorff completed the top three in the #71 Selected Car Racing Ferrari.
Meanwhile, a major first-lap collision at Pouhon eliminated three cars and forced race control to neutralise much of the opening half-hour.
Nielsen controls the start from pole
Nielsen led the 69-car field away from pole and retained first place through La Source and Eau Rouge.
Fleming remained close in second after starting alongside the Ferrari on the front row. Behind them, Schandorff made one of the strongest starts and moved the #71 Ferrari ahead of Dani Juncadella’s #3 Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing entry.
Maro Engel also gained ground in the #48 Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER car. Although Engel ran beyond the edge of the circuit on the approach to Eau Rouge, he climbed from sixth to fifth and almost challenged Juncadella for fourth.
Pouhon collision triggers first-lap chaos
The race changed dramatically when Ariel Levi ran wide in the #66 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi at Pouhon. Levi lost control and moved into the path of Jamie Day’s #34 Natural Elements by Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin. The contact then triggered a larger collision among the closely packed cars behind.
Christian Hahn’s #992 Paradine Competition BMW and Maxime Robin’s #35 Walkenhorst Motorsport Aston Martin became involved in the accident. The crash immediately ended the races of Levi, Hahn and Robin, while Day returned to the pits with damage. Several other cars also required repairs following the incident.
Race control neutralised the race while officials cleared the damaged cars and debris from the circuit.
Debris causes further neutralisations
The race resumed briefly, but debris from the damaged #42 Oman Racing by Century Motorsport BMW prompted another full-course yellow. The field did not complete a fully green lap until lap nine. However, race control called another short neutralisation on the following tour to remove more debris.
As a result, the drivers completed little uninterrupted racing during the opening 30 minutes. Once the field returned to full speed, Nielsen immediately rebuilt his advantage at the front.
Schandorff pressures Fleming for second
The second half of the hour produced far calmer running. Nielsen controlled the lead, while Fleming kept the #58 McLaren in second and continued to head the Gold Cup. Schandorff remained close behind and challenged Fleming on several occasions, although he could not complete a move.
Juncadella retained fourth in the #3 Mercedes-AMG, with Engel following in fifth. The two Mercedes-AMG entries remained within sight of the leading trio but could not launch a serious attack during the limited green-flag running.
Tuck takes Bronze lead into the overall top six
Ben Tuck produced an impressive opening stint aboard the #74 Kessel Racing Ferrari. The Briton led the Bronze Cup and ran sixth overall after passing Alex Aka’s #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi at the Bus Stop chicane.
However, the two cars made contact during the move. Aka later suffered a puncture, adding another setback to Tresor Attempto Racing’s difficult opening hour after the sister #66 Audi retired in the Pouhon collision.
Marvin Kirchhöfer benefited from Aka’s problem and moved the #59 Garage 59 McLaren into seventh. Alessio Picariello followed in eighth aboard the #2 Boutsen VDS Porsche.
Gazeau and Christodoulou lead Silver and Pro-Am
César Gazeau retained the Silver Cup lead in the #6 GetSpeed Team Bartone Bros Mercedes-AMG. The Frenchman completed the first hour in ninth overall, while Arjun Maini rounded out the top 10 in the #64 HRT Ford Racing Mustang.
Further down the order, Adam Christodoulou led Pro-Am aboard the #177 Grupo Prom Racing Team Mercedes-AMG. The official race updates placed the car 33rd overall near the end of the opening hour.
Penalised entries begin their recoveries
Maxime Martin made significant progress in the #17 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry. The car had originally topped Combined Qualifying before the stewards deleted its Q3 times for unpermitted work. Martin started 52nd but climbed to 29th during the opening hour.
Sean Gelael also moved forward in the #50 AF Corse Ferrari. The car had provisionally placed third in Superpole before losing all of its times because its disconnected pressure sensors failed to record the required data.
Gelael advanced from 28th to 23rd during the first hour.
Nielsen leads the field into Hour 2
AF Corse completed the first hour at the front, although Fleming and Schandorff remained close enough to apply pressure once the race settled into a longer period of green-flag running.
The early collisions had already removed three cars and damaged several others. However, Nielsen’s controlled start kept the pole-winning #51 Ferrari at the head of the race as the teams approached the first major pit-stop sequence.
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