Toyota Gazoo Racing scored their third consecutive win in as many races in the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, and clinched their second one-two.
Meanwhile in the LMGTE Am category, 19-year-old Lilou Wadoux has become the first woman to score a class win in the World Endurance Championship.Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez, and team principal Kamui Kobayashi drove a flawless race in the number seven Toyota GR010 Hybrid. The track was wet in the opening and Conway started the race from pole position on slick tyres. He struggled in the opening laps and lost several positions to drivers on wet weather rubber, but once the track dried out and he was able to put heat into his tyres, he retook the lead and drove away from the rest of the field.
From there, it was as simple as Conway passing the baton to Lopez, who then passed the baton over to Kobayashi, who brought the car home after six hours and 148 laps of racing. It’s their second win of the season and a much-needed recovery from a difficult Six Hours of Portimao, where the car suffered a drivetrain problem.
From 36th place on the 37-car grid (following the withdrawal of the number 56 Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR), the sister Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa, and Brendon Hartley finished in second place, to maintain their joint lead in the World Endurance Hypercar Drivers’ Championship.
Toyota’s closest brush with catastrophe was a close call in the final hour at the top of Raidillon, where Hartley rejoined after a pit stop on cold tyres just as Kobayashi was approaching. Kobayashi drove around Hartley in the run-off to avoid a collision. The number seven Toyota was given a five-second time penalty after the race for the out-of-bounds overtake, but that did not affect the final result.
Ferrari-AF Corse took the final podium position on the last lap as James Calado overtook Frederic Makowiecki’s Penske Porsche with a significant pace advantage. Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and Antonio Giovinazzi in the number 51 Ferrari led the race early on when Giovinazzi took the start on wet tyres.
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Giovinazzi’s advantage on wet rubber only lasted until the first Safety Car intervention, when Claudio Schiavoni in the number 60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR spun off into the gravel less than ten minutes into the race. On the ensuing restart he was quickly passed and dropped down the order. Making matters worse, the Ferrari 499Ps had a nightmarish time trying to get heat into their fresh sets of slick tyres and at one point they dropped off the lead lap.
The number five Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 dropped to fourth in the end. Dane Cameron, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki almost had their second podium in a row but it was not to be, as Makowiecki’s pace dropped off late in his final stint and left him vulnerable to Calado passing him into Les Combes. It was still the highest-finishing LMDh (Le Mans Daytona Hybrid) on the day, ahead of the number two Cadillac Racing V-Series.R in fifth.
Renger van der Zande’s shocking crash aboard the number three Cadillac brought out the Safety Car in the second hour of the race. The Dutch driver walked away after his yellow and grey Cadillac bottomed out at Eau Rouge, lost steering, and broadsided the tyre barriers.
The number six Penske Porsche dropped out of the race with a mechanical problem. Laurens Vanthoor came to a stop at the frontstretch while running inside the overall top three.
On the other hand, Team Jota brought the first privateer-entered Porsche 963 home in sixth place overall – a great result for the number 38 crew of Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye.
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The number 93 Peugeot 9X8 Hybrid was seventh in the Hypercar class but 13th overall, behind the top six in LMP2 – its sister car finished 17th overall. Glickenhaus Racing won the battle of the Hypercar privateers by default after Jacques Villeneuve’s collision with the number 54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 of Francesco Castellacci knocked the Vanwall Vandervell 680 out of the race.
A milestone winner was crowned in the LMGTE Am category when Alessio Rovera brought the number 83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE to the chequered flag and secured the class victory – as Wadoux became the first woman in the young history of the WEC to achieve a class win. Wadoux, Rovera, and Luis Perez Companc drove a near flawless race in their own right and Wadoux had the honour of driving her car to the lead in the middle stages of the race.
Second place in GTE Am wasn’t settled until the final corners, but in the end the number 33 Corvette Racing C8.R was able to hold on over the number 25 ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage. Corvette held on to a substantial lead in the GTE Am Drivers’ and Teams’ Championships.
Likewise there was good action in LMP2. The number 41 Team WRT Oreca 07 of Rui Andrade, Louis Deletraz, and Robert Kubica picked up the win after a fine battle with United Autosports’ Josh Pierson, Tom Blomqvist, and Oliver Jarvis late in the race.
A last-hour charge from Albert Costa gave Inter Europol Competition – the only LMP2 team without ties to a current or pending Hypercar programme – the final LMP2 podium position. Prema’s number 63 car driven by Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat and Doriane Pin dropped out of the lead battle after a three-minute penalty stop for violating Safety Car procedures.
The next round for the World Endurance Championship is the race 100 years in the making: The centeniary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, on 11-12 June.
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WEC Six Hours of Spa results
Pos | No. | Class | Team | Car | Drivers | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Toyota | Toyota GR010 Hybrid | Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez | – |
2 | 8 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Toyota | Toyota GR010 Hybrid | Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa | 16.637 |
3 | 51 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi | 57.802 |
4 | 5 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Porsche Penske | Porsche 963 | Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki | 2.825 |
5 | 2 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Cadillac | Cadillac V-Series.R | Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook | 1 lap |
6 | 38 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Jota | Porsche 963 | Antonio Felix da Costa/Will Stevens/Yifei Ye | 1:04.549 |
7 | 41 | LMP2 | Team WRT | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Rui Andrade/Robert Kubica/Louis Deletraz | 1 lap |
8 | 23 | LMP2 | United Autosports | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Joshua Pierson/Tom Blomqvist/Oliver Jarvis | 6.042 |
9 | 34 | LMP2 | Inter Europol | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Jakub Smiechowski/Fabio Scherer/Albert Costa | 9.415 |
10 | 9 | LMP2 | Prema | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Filip Ugran/Bent Viscaal/Andrea Caldarelli | 7.649 |
11 | 22 | LMP2 | United Autosports | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Frederick Lubin/Philip Hanson/Filipe Albuquerque | 4.21 |
12 | 31 | LMP2 | Team WRT | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Sean Gelael/Ferdinand Habsburg/Robin Frijns | 0.67 |
13 | 93 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Peugeot | Peugeot 9X8 | Paul di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Eric Vergne | 5.251 |
14 | 708 | Hypercar | Glickenhaus | Glickenhaus 007 | Romain Dumas/Oliveir Pla/Franck Mailleux | 2.904 |
15 | 36 | LMP2 | Alpine | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Matthieu Vaxiviere/Julien Canal/Charles Milesi | 26.006 |
16 | 35 | LMP2 | Alpine | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Andre Negrão/Memo Rojas/Oliver Caldwell | 17.199 |
17 | 94 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Peugeot | Peugeot 9X8 | Loic Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Mueller | 9.884 |
18 | 28 | LMP2 | Jota | Oreca 07 – Gibson | David Heinemeier Hansson/Pietro Fittipaldi/Oliver Rasmussen | 1 lap |
19 | 63 | LMP2 | Prema | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Doriane Pin/Mirko Bortolotti/Daniil Kvyat | 1 lap |
20 | 83 | LMGTE Am | AF Corse | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | Luis Perez Companc/Lilou Wadoux/Alessio Rovera | 4 laps |
21 | 33 | LMGTE Am | Corvette | Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | Ben Keating/Nicolas Varrone/Nicky Catsburg | 18.653 |
22 | 25 | LMGTE Am | ORT by TF | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Ahmad Al Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood | 0.249 |
23 | 88 | LMGTE Am | Proton Competition | Porsche 911 RSR 19 | Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Harry Tincknell | 1 lap |
24 | 85 | LMGTE Am | Iron Dames | Porsche 911 RSR 19 | Sarah Bovy/Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey | 10.469 |
25 | 21 | LMGTE Am | AF Corse | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | Stefano Costantini/Simon Mann/Ulysse de Pauw | 2.977 |
26 | 98 | LMGTE Am | Northwest AMR | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas | 25.178 |
27 | 57 | LMGTE Am | Kessel | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | Takeshi Kimura/Scott Huffaker/Daniel Serra | 52.841 |
28 | 777 | LMGTE Am | D’Station | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Satoshi Hoshino/Casper Stevenson/Tomonobu Fujii | 1 lap |
29 | 77 | LMGTE Am | Dempsey-Proton | Porsche 911 RSR 19 | Christian Ried/Mikkel Pedersen/Julien Andlauer | 11 |
30 | 60 | LMGTE Am | Iron Lynx | Porsche 911 RSR 19 | Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Alessio Picariello | 1 lap |
31 | 86 | LMGTE Am | GR | Porsche 911 RSR 19 | Michael Wainwright/Riccardo Pera/Benjamin Barker | 1 lap |
32 | 54 | LMGTE Am | AF Corse | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon | 57 laps |
33 | 50 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen | 2 laps |
34 | 4 | Hypercar | Floyd Vanwall | Vanwall Vandervell 680 | Tom Dillmann/Esteban Guerrieri/Jacques Villeneuve | 25 laps |
35 | 6 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Porsche Penske | Porsche 963 | Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor | 26 laps |
36 | 3 | Hypercar (Hybrid) | Cadillac | Cadillac V-Series.R | Sebastien Bourdais/Renger van der Zande/Jack Aitken | 13 laps |
37 | 10 | LMP2 | Vector Sport | Oreca 07 – Gibson | Ryan Cullen/Matthias Kaiser/Gabriel Aubry | 25 laps |
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World Endurance Championship
- Largest top class field for 12 years promises close fight for centenary Le Mans
- Villeneuve quits WEC in reaction to Vanwall dropping him from Le Mans squad
- Villeneuve’s Le Mans return with Vanwall is off
- WEC allows one-off return for tyre warmers at Le Mans 24 Hours after crashes
- Track limits penalty for Giovinazzi puts Kobayashi’s Toyota on pole at Spa
MichaelN
29th April 2023, 16:20
Not sure why that D’Station #777 blatantly pushing the Iron Dames off track all the way down the straight going into Eau Rouge wasn’t even investigated. That’s not racing, and is not allowed – at least in theory – in any FIA series.
Unfortunately the race is being made hard to watch because of all the FCYs. Very disappointed that the FIA/ACO isn’t doing anything with its far superior slow zone technology used to great effect at Le Mans. This constant bunching up of the field is ruining the strategic element of an endurance race, not to mention the spectators of proper racing at all the parts of the track where a yellow flag is not necessary.
Brian
30th April 2023, 1:23
“Not sure why that D’Station #777 blatantly pushing the Iron Dames off track all the way down the straight going into Eau Rouge wasn’t even investigated.”
But it was? They were given a 30 second stop-go.