The number 93 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR of Michael fassbender and Richard Lietz just miss out on there first victory of the 2020 European Le Mans Series in Belgium.

The race started in glorious sunshine, but the fickle Ardennes weather threatened to play its part, with the forecast predicting rain towards the end of the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

Michael Fassbender took up his place at the head of the strong LMGTE field in the number 93 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR after teammate Richard Lietz claimed pole position in qualifying.The Irish-German Hollywood star made a good start but was overtaken by the number 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Paul Dalla Lana, the number 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari of Michael Broniszewski and his Proton Competition teammate Christian Ried in the number 77 Porsche.

Behind the leaders the number 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Duncan Cameron had to pit after suffering some bodywork damage on the opening lap. A quick repair and the car was back in the fight.

On Lap 3, Ried passed Broniszewski and closed the gap to the leading Aston Martin as François Perodo moved up to third in the number 88 AF Corse Ferrari ahead of Broniszewski.The GTE battle raged for several laps, with the top four cars split by less than two seconds. The race was neutralised for 20 minutes by the first of two Safety Cars. It was deployed when Martin Hippe in the number 13 Inter Europol Competition Ligier went into the tyre wall on the exit of Bruxelles trying to avoid the spinning number 10 Nielsen Racing Duqueine of Rob Hodes.

The race resumed for 15 minutes before a second Safety Car was deployed to recover the number 60 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Claudio Schiavoni, the Italian colliding with Will Owen’s number 32 Oreca as the American overtook him. Owen was penalised later in the race for causing the accident that forced the Ferrari into retirement.

After the next round of pitstops the number 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Matthias Lauda dropped back as the number 77 Proton Competition Porsche of Alessio Picariello went into the lead.The Belgian was seven seconds ahead of the number 74 Ferrari, now in the hands of Marcos Gomes, with the recovering number 55 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Aaron Scott in third.

The race settled down with the number 77 Porsche holding a comfortable lead of the number 74 Ferrari as the battles in LMP3 raged around them.

As the final hour of the race approached, Michele Beretta was at the wheel of the number 77 Porsche and David Perel was the driver of the number 74 Ferrari, with Beretta holding a 23 second lead. However, that was all about to change when the Porsche spun off in a cloud of smoke at the top of Raidillon, with the car suffering a rear left puncture and had to limp back to the pitlane for repairs.

The race then went under a Full Course Yellow when the overall leader Mikkel Jensen went off into the tyre wall in the number 26 G-Drive Racing Aurus just as the rain began to fall on parts of the circuit.

Once the race went green again, Perel was holding a 20 second lead over Matt Griffin in the number 55 Ferrari, with the number 88 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard bearing down on the Irish driver.Collard passed Griffin at Les Combes with less than 30 minutes of the race remaining.Griffin lost the final podium spot to the charging Augusto Farfus in the number 98 Aston Martin Vantage.

At the chequered flag David Perel crossed the line in the number 74 Kessel Racing Ferrari 13.6 seconds ahead of Emmanuel Collard in the number 88 488, with the number 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage a lap behind the first two cars in third.