Defending race winner Vanthoor was sharing the #47 KCMG Porsche 911 GT3 R with Nick Tandy and Maxime Martin.
Nonetheless, simply past the 16-hour mark, Porsche introduced that Vanthoor had been pressured to withdraw from the rest of the race, leaving team-mates Tandy and Martin to finish the race as a duo.
Vanthoor subsequently tweeted that he had been knocked over by a quad bike within the paddock whereas using his scooter.
The Belgian racer added: “I landed closely on my head and have a number of wounds in my face. I’m doing high quality however at present on the hospital for additional checks and stitches.”
Vanthoor’s withdrawal comes as one other blow to Porsche’s hopes of successful the Spa 24 Hours for a 3rd 12 months in a row, with Tandy and Martin at present circulating a lap down in fifth place.
The #51 Iron Lynx Ferrari 488 GT3 of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Come Ledogar and Nicklas Nielsen proceed to cleared the path with somewhat over eight hours of the race left to run.
Each the #51 crew and their nearest pursuer, the #32 Staff WRT Audi R8 LMS GT3, had been in a position to serve their necessary four-minute ‘technical pitstop’ throughout a full-course yellow interval within the 16th hour triggered by an off for the #16 Grasser Lamborghini Huracan GT3.
KCMG Porsche will run to the tip with Martin and Tandy alternating
Picture by: GTWCE
A subsequent security automobile interval nonetheless has closed the hole between the 2 main vehicles, with Nielsen circulating round six seconds away from the WRT Audi of Kelvin van der Linde.
The Storage 59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3, which served its technical pitstop beneath inexperienced flag circumstances simply after the midway mark, is the one different automobile on the lead lap in third place with Ross Gunn on the wheel.
One of many contenders for victory, the pole-sitting #88 ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3, dropped out of the race across the 16-hour mark attributable to a damaged left-rear damper.
Jules Gounon had been lapping inside a few seconds of the tempo regardless of the difficulty earlier than it grew to become too extreme to proceed.
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