WEC Spa: Toyota claims 1-2 finish in hectic race

The polesitting trio’s #7 GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar beat the sister crew of Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley - that had started from the back of the grid after the latter’s qualifying crash - by 11.637s.

The #7 car had pulled what appeared to be a decisive advantage with the assistance of two full course yellow interventions during the middle phase of the race, before two safety cars required following accidents for their Hypercar rivals brought the #8 car into play.

Kobayashi pulled a small gap on Hartley at the final restart, after Antonio Fuoco crashed the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH on cold tyres exiting the pits, before making his final stop on lap 126.

Hartley went two laps later before making his own final stop and initially led up the hill to Raidillon, but Kobayashi closed rapidly as the Kiwi gingerly brought his new left-side tyres up to temperature.

Such was Kobayashi’s momentum that he had to jink to the right and passed Hartley with all four wheels off the road to avoid a collision. The pass was investigated by the stewards, who in the dying moments handed Kobayashi a five-second penalty to be served at his next pitstop.

It was not enough to cost him the win however, as the Japanese had pulled 16.637s on Hartley in the closing laps.

The podium was completed by the charging #51 Ferrari of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, as Calado passed the #5 Porsche 963 LMDh that Fred Makowiecki shared with Michael Christensen and Dane Cameron into Les Combes on the final lap.

The top four were the only Hypercars to finish on the lead lap in a race that was heavily impacted by tyre choice for the start.

Start action (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Both Toyotas, the two factory Penske-tended Porsches and the #3 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R started on slicks on the greasy surface, which caught out several drivers and prompted an additional safety car lap before the race fully got under way.

Conway was ambushed by Giovinazzi, Nicklas Nielsen’s #50 Ferrari and the #2 Cadillac of Earl Bamber at the start and initially dropped as low as seventh as the drivers who started on wets initially made hay.

But a lap three safety car caused when Claudio Schiavone spun his #60 Iron Lynx GTE Am Porsche neutralised the early advantage gained from running on wets and allowed the slick runners to get their rubber up to temperature without losing time relative to the competition.

By the end of the second racing lap on lap 10, Conway had marched to the lead and was soon followed past Giovinazzi by Laurens Vanthoor’s #6 Porsche and Renger van der Zande in the guesting #3 Cadillac as the wet starters dashed for the pits.

Such was their time loss in bringing the new tyres up to temperature that all were a lap down when van der Zande crashed out of second 40 minutes into the second hour at Eau Rouge to bring out a second safety car. Thankfully, the Dutchman emerged unscathed from the frightening accident.

The #7 Toyota’s advantage was aided in the third hour when a complete loss of electrical power stranded Vanthoor at the Bus Stop, then a spin for Esteban Guerrieri’s Vanwall Vandervell 680 LMH on cold tyres into the Les Combes gravel brought out a full course yellow and meant Buemi had to take emergency service.

The #7 caught a fortunate break again when Lopez pitted just before a FCY for debris at Pouhon, while Hirakawa had to pit the #8 under green, but another safety car brought the second Toyota back into play when the Vanwall now driven by 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve clashed with Francesco Castelacci’s GTE Am Ferrari approaching Blanchimont.

The safety car also negated the time loss for the #50 Ferrari resulting from a drive-through penalty incurred by Miguel Molina for traversing the white line at pit exit, but shortly after Molina had unlapped himself from Lopez and handed over to Fuoco the car impacted the barriers heavily after breaking traction on cold tyres.

In the #51 Ferrari that had lost time when Pier Guidi had to pit under FCY to replace a damaged wheel rim, Calado passed the sole surviving Cadillac now driven by Richard Westbrook and charged after Makowiecki to secure he final podium place.

Westbrook had to settle for fifth in the car he shared with Bamber and Alex Lynn, while Jota took an encouraging sixth place on its first outing with a customer 963 driven by Antonio Felix da Costa, Ye Yifei and Will Stevens.

Both Peugeot 9X8 LMHs encountered delays to finish seventh and ninth, with the #93 machine shared by Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne leading the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH and the #94 Peugeot of Gustavo Menezes, Loic Duval and Nico Muller which spent time stranded on the pitlane.

#41 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

WRT claimed victory in the LMP2 class with its #41 ORECA-Gibson 07 driven by Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade.

Deletraz shadowed Tom Blomqvist’s #23 United Autosports ORECA into the pits with 12 minutes to go, where the Belgian crew turned around Deletraz around four seconds faster.

The United crew was left to rue the timing of the race’s second safety car, which came moments after Blomqvist had been lapped by Conway, which cost him a clear 44s lead.

Albert Costa, Fabio Scherer and Jakub Smiechowski completed the podium for Inter Europol Competition, after the Spaniard forced Andrea Caldarelli’s Prema ORECA into an error at the Bus Stop in the closing laps.

The GTE Am victory was claimed in comfortable fashion by the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo driven by Luis Perez Companc, Lilou Wadoux and Luis Perez-Companc.

Wadoux stormed into the lead by passing Zacharie Robichon’s Proton Competition Porsche, and Rovera stroked home to win by 18.653s, as Corvette Racing recovered from losing a lap early on to finish second.

Championship leaders Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg just held on to second from the TF Sport Aston Martin driven by Michael Dinan, Ahmad Al-Harthy and Charlie Eastwood, after Catsburg put up a strong defence in the closing laps.

WEC Spa - Race results

Cla	#	Drivers		Car	Class	Laps	Time
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	148
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	148	16.637
3	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi		Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	148	1'14.439
4	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	148	1'17.264
5	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook		Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	147	1 lap
6	38	Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens Ye Yifei		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	147	1 lap
7	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz		Oreca 07	LMP2	146	2 laps
8	23	Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis		Oreca 07	LMP2	146	2 laps
9	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa		Oreca 07	LMP2	146	2 laps
10	9	Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli		Oreca 07	LMP2	146	2 laps
11	22	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque		Oreca 07	LMP2	146	2 laps
12	31	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns		Oreca 07	LMP2	146	2 laps
13	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne		Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	146	2 laps
14	708	Romain Dumas Olivier Pla Franck Mailleux		Glickenhaus 007	HYPERCAR	146	2 laps
15	36	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi		Oreca 07	LMP2	146	2 laps
16	35	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell		Oreca 07	LMP2	146	2 laps
17	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller		Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	146	2 laps
18	28	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen		Oreca 07	LMP2	145	3 laps
19	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat		Oreca 07	LMP2	144	4 laps
20	83	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	140	8 laps
21	33	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg		Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	140	8 laps
22	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	140	8 laps
23	88	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	139	9 laps
24	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	139	9 laps
25	21	Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	139	9 laps
26	98	Ian James Daniel Mancinelli Alex Riberas		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	139	9 laps
27	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	139	9 laps
28	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	138	10 laps
29	77	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	138	10 laps
30	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	137	11 laps
31	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	136	12 laps
32	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	79	69 laps
33	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen		Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	106	42 laps
34	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve		Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	80	68 laps
35	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	53	95 laps
36	3	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande Jack Aitken		Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	40	108 laps
37	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry		Oreca 07	LMP2	14	134 laps
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