Michele Beretta achieved a prestigious podium in the hundredth edition of the 24 Hours of Spa, third place in the Gold Cup category and seventeenth overall. A very important result obtained in one of the most challenging and competitive races in the global GT scene.
The 24 Hours of Spa confirmed itself as a very tough race, on a track, that of Spa-Francorchamps, which tests cars and drivers, among the best and most prepared in the world in the GT category. In this context, Mike and his teammates, Jusuf Owega and Arjun Maini, immediately showed that they were extremely competitive right from qualifying, bringing the Mercedes AMG GT3 #77 of the Haupt Racing Team into the group of crews that competed for the Superpole, achieving the 17th time overall and the third in the Gold Cup.
In the Superpole, reserved for the best twenty crews, the #77 placed in 11th place, on the sixth row, third in the category.
The black Mercedes started positively with a pace that took it into the top ten. Unfortunately, a contact that sent it into the gravel caused Mike’s car to slip beyond twentieth position.
The #77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 was promptly put back into the fray, thanks to the excellent work done by the Team Haupt Racing staff and, despite the lost ground (1 lap late), the race resumed with great energy .
Despite the very variable weather conditions and the long Safety Car phases, Michele’s car moved up in the general classification, managing to get back into the top 20 cars in the morning hours. As the track dried in the morning hours, the Mercedes-AMG GT3 continued to catch up on its rivals, returning to fight for the prize of honor with the Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO II driven by Evrard, De Wilde, Pla and Magnus. Unfortunately, some of the damage reported during the night stages of the race prevented the Beretta crew from taking second place.
Michele summarizes the progress of the race as follows: “The race proved to be difficult and demanding to read tactically, due to all the neutralisations. The night was extremely difficult with the bad weather, but we overcame everything with great determination. The toughness of this race is also demonstrated by the number of retirements, 27, out of 66 starters. We made up a lot of ground, but we suffered further damage during the second part of the race, which prevented us from achieving a better result. The team definitely deserved it.”
The Spa event was valid as the second round of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance and by virtue of the result obtained, it relaunched the ambitions of Mike and his teammates with a view to the championship.
