After a sensational race to catch up, Porsche works driver Laurens Vanthoor finished seventh at Spa-Francorchamps together with his KCMG team-mates Dennis Olsen and Nick Tandy.

The Porsche customer team KCMG finished this year's 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in seventh place. Together with the Briton Nick Tandy and the Norwegian Dennis Olsen, works driver Laurens Vanthoor from Belgium had caused a stir with an exciting catch-up race: After a problem in qualifying, the trio had to pick up the Belgian endurance classic from 65th and last starting position. Around seven o'clock on Sunday morning, the three were even able to take the lead after just over 14 hours of racing with the approximately 368 kW (500 hp) 911 GT3 R. Ten hours later at the finish, Vanthoor, Tandy and Olsen were 1:13.409 minutes behind the victorious Mercedes-AMG of Akkodis ASP.

As the second-best Porsche, the 911 GT3 R of EMA Motorsport crossed the finish line in 22nd place. The factory drivers Matt Campbell from Australia, Mathieu Jaminet from France and Felipe Nasr from Brazil were initially thrown back by a puncture after a good six hours of racing. Around two o'clock in the morning, they were able to benefit from a yellow phase thanks to a flawless ride and return to the leading group. However, their hopes for a top position ended when they were hit by an opponent after three quarters of the race distance. Due to the necessary repair stop, they lost six laps to the leaders.

25th place went to dinamic Motorsport's #56 nine-man team, shared by Italian Giorgio Roda, Mauro Calamia from Switzerland, Norwegian Marius Nakken and Mikkel Pedersen from Denmark. Dominik Fischli (Switzerland), Patrik Matthiesen (Denmark) and the two Germans Joel Sturm and Vincent Andronaco drove the number 22 Porsche of Allied Racing to 29th place. Together with Christophe Hamon from France and the two Thais Piti Bhirombhakdi and Tanart Sathienthirakul, the New Zealander Earl Bamber finished the race in 30th place. This result is also accompanied by third place in the Pro-Am classification. In this class, professional drivers share the wheel with gentlemen's drivers. Bamber had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 and 2017 at the wheel of the 919 Hybrid as a Porsche works driver.

Comments after the race:
Sebastian Golz (Project Manager Porsche 911 GT3 R): "We came to Spa with great expectations and entered the race with a large fleet of vehicles. With numerous cars in many classes, we fought for top positions as well as for overall victory. In the end, however, we fell short of our goal. Now we are looking ahead. As part of this great event, we presented our new product for customer racing: the 911 GT3 R generation 992. Next year we will be attacking with this GT3 race car. We want to bring the trophy that we already won here in 2019 and 2020 back to Weissach."

Nick Tandy (Porsche 911 GT3 R #47): "Being disappointed with a top-10 result only shows the ambitions of this team. It's a bittersweet result: With our last starting position, yesterday started very badly for us. This morning, again, everything looked very good. Ultimately, however, our car lacked performance when the external temperatures rose. We can be proud of how we acted throughout the weekend: the Porsche 911 GT3 R worked without any problems, the team worked perfectly during the pit stops. We drivers also gave our all without making any major mistakes. All in all, I am therefore very satisfied with our performance."

Mathieu Jaminet (Porsche 911 GT3 R #74): "The race was disappointing for us. We started the weekend with high expectations, but things just didn't go our way. We had problems with the car set-up and didn't find the right balance the whole time. That's why we couldn't keep up with the pace of the other Porsches. But we fought our way through and gave everything we had. When we moved into the top 5 a good six hours before the end of the race, it surprised us a bit – at that point it still looked like a good result. Unfortunately, a competitor slowed down before the last chicane and hit our car. As a result of the repair, six laps were lost. With that, our race was practically over."

Result:
1. Marciello/Juncadella/Gounon (CH/E/F), Mercedes-AMG GT3 #88, 536 laps
2. Götz/Schothorst/Stolz (D/NL/D), Mercedes-AMG GT3 #2, 536 laps
3. Rigon/Serra/Fuoco (I/BR/I), Ferrari 488 GT3 #71, 536 laps
7. Tandy/Vanthoor/Olsen (UK/B/N), Porsche 911 GT3 R #47, 536 laps
22. Campbell/Jaminet/Nasr (AUS/F/BR), Porsche 911 GT3 R #74, 529 laps
25th Roda/Calamia/Nakken/Pedersen (I/CH/N/DK), Porsche 911 GT3 R #56, 527 laps
29th Fischli/Sturm/Matthiesen/Andronaco (CH/D/DK/D), Porsche 911 GT3 R #22, 526 laps
30th Bhirombhakdi/Hamon/Sathienthirakul/Bamber (T/F/T/NZ), Porsche 911 GT3 R #39, 526 laps