Misery in Spa for the Code Racing Development Aston Martin in Le Mans Cup
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Having qualified fourth in class in some very wet conditions earlier in the day the #11 car of Philipp Sager and Rory Van der Steur eventually got underway within the two-hour race under much drier circuit conditions although bizarre scenes within the GT3 class lead to the opening laps taking place from behind the Safety Car.
Losing nearly fifteen minutes to that clean up, Sager had already increased his track position to second in class behind the already distant Iron Dames Porsche as the race again went behind the Safety Car after the dramatic expiry of an LMP3 engine up ahead.
That was a lengthier clean-up operation with the grid finally being released with 45 minutes of the race clock having already elapsed. Sager had meanwhile already pitted for the changeover to Van Der Steur as #33 Ferrari pass the American for position along the Kemmell Straight at the hour mark.
What happened later to the crew defined their Spa racing experience from what was a potential podium winning position on track at the time as the #11 car would get pinged for multiple track limit abuses on more than one occasion, too short a mandatory pit stop time requirement and other breaches of other pit stop regulatory requirements which all resulted in a drive through and/or other time penalties for their efforts.
At the end of the second miserable hour of Le Mans Cup racing at Spa, the #11 Code Racing Development crew would eventually finish last in class and one lap off the lead GT3 pace as the series now heads to Silverstone in September.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
