Bamber was pressuring Neel Jani’s Proton Porsche 963 LMDh for third place with a little under two hours remaining in the race when the pair came upon the battle for fourth in the LMGT3 class on the run to Les Combes.
With Jani delayed slightly behind Gelael’s WRT-run BMW M4 GT3 and the D’Station Aston Martin Vantage of Erwan Bastard, Bamber had a run on the Swiss rounding the Kemmel Straight’s right-hand kink.
But as he moved to the right in a bid to draw alongside Jani, he clipped the front of Gelael’s car and speared his own Chip Ganassi Racing V-Series.R LMDh hard into the barriers on the right-hand side of the road.
Bamber’s car became airborne before landing on its wheels, while Gelael made heavy contact with the barriers on the left-hand side.
Both drivers are understood to be okay.
Ferrari was leading the race at the time of the stoppage with its pair of factory-run 499P Le Mans Hypercars.
Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 entry was leading Antonio Fuoco in the #50 car that was disqualified from qualifying for running underweight and had been demoted to the back of the grid.
Both had overtaken the privateer Proton Porsche that had led in Jani’s hands at half-distance, despite a bizarre problem with his door-hatch.
Shortly after taking over the lead from Julien Andlauer under a virtual safety car, the Swiss spent several slow laps trying to close his reluctant door and was shown a black and orange flag before managing to pull it shut.
The clock continues to tick down as barriers are repaired on the Kemmel Straight.
#38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Jenson Button, Philip Hanson, Oliver Rasmussen, crash
Photo by: Paul Foster
The Bamber-Gelael crash was the second major incident of the race, with the VSC triggered by BMW driver Rene Rast tagging the back of Phil Hanson’s Jota Porsche on the run to Bruxelles and spinning it into the path of Ahmad Al Harthy in the other WRT BMW GT3.
Both Hanson and Al Harthy retired, while Rast’s car was ordered to serve a drive-through penalty.
Repairs to the armco barriers meant the race remained under caution for almost an hour before resuming.
The LMGT3 class is currently led by the Manthey EMA Porsche of Morris Schuring, who was shortly due to hand over to Richard Lietz.