MLMC at Spa-Francorchamps – Facts and Figures

Spa-Francorchamps has hosted the Belgian round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup since the first season in 2016, when the series was for GT3 cars only.

Apart from the 2020 season, when the calendar had to be changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the race in Spa-Francorchamps has traditionally been held in September but this year it moves to August for only the second time.

Here are some facts and figures from the eight previous races held at Spa-Francorchamps.

1. The first race winners in the Michelin Le Mans Cup were Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaitar in the no72 SMP Racing Ferrari 488. They finished just 0.722 seconds ahead of the no88 Mentos Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Egidio Perfetti and Klaus Bachler in one of the closest ever finishes in the MLMC.
2. The first LMP3 MLMC race winners were Alex Toril and Jean Glorieux in the no3 DKR Engineering Norma M30-Nissan.The victory secured the 2017 LMP3 titles for the drivers and the team.
3. Giacomo Piccini has won the most races at Spa, winning in 2018 and 2019 with Sergio Pianezzola in the no8 Kessel Racing Ferrari and in 2020 with Rino Mastronardi in the no8 Iron Lynx Ferrari.
4. Kessel Racing took a 1-2-3 finish in GT3 in 2018, with GMB Motorsport also taking all three GT3 podium places in 2022.
5. 2021 MLMC LMP3 Champions Colin Noble and Tony Wells have both been on the podium three times. Noble and Wells finished 2^nd in 2017 and 3^rd in 2020, while Noble won in 2018 alongside Alasdair McCaig in the no79 Ecurie Ecosse / Nielsen Ligier. Tony Wells finished second alongside James Littlejohn in the same race giving the British team a 1-2.
6. In 2023 Stellar Motorsport took their debut MLMC GT3 win in Belgium with Mark Cole and Sennan Fielding, which was also the first time an Audi R8 has won a MLMC race.
7. Ferrari has won five of the eight GT3 encounters at Spa-Francorchamps, with Mercedes winning in 2017, Honda in 2022 and Audi in 2023.
8. In 2023 the GT3 class saw six different manufacturers finish in the top six places – Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Honda, Aston Martin and Ferrari.
9. Belgian teams and drivers have visited the podium at Spa three times since 2016 with Jean Glorieux taking victory in 2017 and finishing second in 2020. Eric De Doncker finished third in 2017 for Belgian team Motorsport98.
10. LMP3 official lap record (Race) - Wayne BOYD - 2m13.407 - 189.0kph - 23 September 2023
11. GT3 official lap record (Race) - Patrick KUJALA - 2m18.242 - 182.4kph - 23 September 2023
12. The fastest outright lap recorded in LMP3 in the MLMC was set by Laurents Hörr in the no3 DKR Engineering Duqueine with a 2m12.766 lap (189.9 kph) set during FP1 on the 23 September 2022.
13. The fastest outright lap recorded in GT3 in the MLMC was by Fabien Lavergne in the no71 Luzich Racing Ferrari with a 2m17.902 lap (182.8 kph) set during qualifying on 21 September 2019.
14. The longest race distance was 51 laps (357.2km) in 2017 (Jean Glorieux/ Alex Toril) and in 2020 (Nicolas Maulini / Edouard Cauhaupe). In 2022 the race time was shortened by 10 minutes, from 120-minutes to 110-minutes as per the 2022 MLMC Regulations for all races, with the winners completing 36 laps.
15. In the seven LMP3 races held since 2017, COOL Racing are the only team to take two wins (2020 and 2021). The other winning teams are United Autosports (2023), Graff (2022), Lanan Racing (2019), Ecurie Ecosse / Nielsen (2018) and DKR Engineering (2017).
16. In the eight GT3 races Iron Lynx and Kessel Racing have scored two wins each - 2021, 2020 for Iron Lynx and 2019 and 2018 for Kessel Racing. The other GT3 race winners are Stellar Motorsport (2023), GMB Motorsport (2022), Lee Mowle (2017) and SMP Racing (2016).

The 110-minute race at Spa-Francorchamps is Round 4, and the fifth race, of the 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup and it will be held on Saturday 24 August.