As it happened: 24 Hours of Spa | the world famous endurance race

A sign of things to come... another puncture, this time for the TF Sport Aston Martin this time.

After a fairly calm start to a race not exactly renowned for going off without a hitch, our third and fifth place cars are crawling to the pit-lane with punctures.

Mirko Bortolotti in the Emil Frey Lambo and Christopher Haase in the Tresor Audi are the victims, putting them out of sync with rivals as we begin to think about the first wave of driver changes 

So, VALENTINO ROSSI - as you may have noticed - is in this race.

On two wheels, there isn't much the nine-time GP World Champion hasn't achieved.

On four wheels, however, Rossi is discovering a whole new world of challenges to tackle for the first time with this - his first professional 24-hour race - the most demanding to date.

Not only that, this is Rossi's debut at Spa-Francorchamps too... he is set to get into this race during the second hour

Right now, Nico Muller is in the #46 VR46 Team WRT Audi and has worked his way back to 25th...

This may be a test of endurance but the field is still moving pretty fast... and fastest of all is Klaus Bachler in the:

1 - #54 Dinamic Porsche

2 - #88 AKKODIS ASP AMG-Mercedes

3 - #63 Emil Frey Lamborghini

4 - #2 GetSpeed AMG-Mercedes

5 - #12 Team Tresor Audi

You'd think 66 near-identical spec GT cars starting close to one another on such a limit-pushing circuit would be a recipe for carnage (just ask the F1 Class of 1998...) but no accidents, no clashes, not even a scratch over these initial laps.

* waits for commentators' curse to activate... *

The Dinamic Porsche of Klaus Bachler pounces to lead the field round to the end of the opening lap, followed by the pole sitting AMG-Mercedes, the #63 Emil Frey Lamborghini and the #2 GetSpeed AMG-Mercedes

As for #46... Nico Muller is in the car and has slipped from 25th to 30th

Leading the field away from pole position will be the Akkodis ASP AMG-Mercedes of Raffaele Marciello, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon.

The #88 entry was promoted to the top after the Orange1 KPAX Lamborghini [pictured] failed scrutineering and had its times deleted...

There may be many drivers starting this race, but for many there is only one... Valentino Rossi.

The MotoGP legend continues his new four-wheel odyssey in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe series with this - the only 24-hour race on the schedule - his biggest test yet.

He teams with Frederic Vervisch and Nico Muller in the VR46 WRT Audi LMS evo II and starts 25th on the grid

With at least three or four drivers making up each of the 66 entry line-ups, there are literally hundreds of racers primed to take on one of the world's greatest circuits around the clock.

And they'll be doing it in some of the world's most illustrious sportscars with nine manufacturers represented in this GT3 class event - Audi, Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, Lamborghini, Bentley, McLaren and Aston Martin.