WEC Spa: #8 Toyota crew holds off sister car in close 1-2 finish
Toyota secured a one-two finish in the second round of the World Endurance Championship at Spa, with its #8 crew winning by less than two seconds from the sister #7 car
The #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID of Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi led for much of the six-hour event, but two full course yellows played into the hands of the sister #8 car as Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi claimed a second-straight win.
The first FCY was called when the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche stopped on the start/finish straight just after half-distance, which prompted the #7 Toyota to pit in anticipation of a caution period.
But the second-placed #8 car stayed out an extra lap and, as the FCY only took effect just before Davidson pitted, a deficit of 25 seconds became an advantage of 15s when Nakajima rejoined.
Conway was later rapidly closing on Nakajima when a Francois Perrodo crash in the #28 TDS Racing LMP2 entry at Stavelot at the start of the fifth hour brought out the FCY again.
The #7 car had just pitted at this time, effectively giving the #8 crew a free stop and a lead of more than 40 seconds, but this was steadily whittled away in the final part of the race.
Kobayashi had brought the gap to Buemi in the lead Toyota down to just two seconds at the start of the final lap, but was baulked by traffic as he tried to close down the Swiss driver and subsequently missed out on victory by 1.992s.
Porsche took third and fourth with its pair of low-downforce configuration 919 Hybrids, with the #2 car of Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard claiming the final podium position despite suffering an early puncture and needing a late change of front bodywork.
Hartley had passed Conway for second place in the penultimate hour, but lost the place after a clash with the #36 Signatech Alpine at the Bus Stop chicane left a hole in the front-left corner of the car.
The polesitting #1 car of Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Nick Tandy ended up a distant fourth while Toyota's third entry, the low-downforce #9 car shared by Stephane Sarrazin, Nicolas Lapierre and WEC debutant Yuji Kunimoto, was a lapped fifth, some 11 laps clear of the privateer ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 car.
G-DRIVE CONVERTS POLE TO LMP2 WIN
The #26 G-Drive trio of Alex Lynn, Pierre Thiriet and Roman Rusinov followed up their LMP2 pole position with a first win of the season.
The contest for class honours had developed into a two-horse race between the TDS-run G-Drive ORECA and the #31 Rebellion car of Bruno Senna, Julien Canal and Nicolas Prost.
But Rebellion's hopes were later dashed when they lost a minute repairing a loose telemetry sensor with a little over an hour to go, relegating the #31 car to third.
Senna was however able to pass the #38 JOTA Sport-run DC Racing ORECA of Silverstone winners Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent to take back second in the final half-hour.
FERRARI STRIKES BACK IN GTE
Ferrari dominated the GTE Pro ranks with its pair of AF Corse-run 488 GTEs, which were locked in a fierce scrap for the win virtually throughout the entire race.
Both the #51 and #71 cars swapped positions on numerous occasions as they fought over the class lead - with Sam Bird even forcing Alessandro Pier Guidi off track at Rivage at one stage.
But the #71 car pulled away in the final hour, Bird and Davide Rigon beating James Calado and Pier Guidi by a lap at the finish, with the #66 Ford GT of Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson completing the class podium.
In GTE Am, the #98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana cruised to a dominant victory, beating the #77 Proton Porsche by over 30 seconds.
RACE RESULT
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | S.Buemi, A.Davidson, K.Nakajima | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 173 | 6h00m11.490s |
2 | LMP1 | M.Conway, K.Kobayashi | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 173 | 1.992s |
3 | LMP1 | T.Bernhard, E.Bamber, B.Hartley | Porsche LMP Team | Porsche | 173 | 35.283s |
4 | LMP1 | N.Jani, A.Lotterer, N.Tandy | Porsche LMP Team | Porsche | 173 | 1m25.438s |
5 | LMP1 | S.Sarrazin, Y.Kunimoto, N.Lapierre | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 171 | 2 Laps |
6 | LMP1 | O.Webb, D.Kraihamer, J.Rossiter | ByKOLLES Racing Team | ENSO CLM/NISMO | 161 | 12 Laps |
7 | LMP2 | R.Rusinov, P.Thiriet, A.Lynn | G-Drive Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 160 | 13 Laps |
8 | LMP2 | J.Canal, N.Prost, B.Senna | Vaillante Rebellion | ORECA/Gibson | 160 | 13 Laps |
9 | LMP2 | H-Pin Tung, O.Jarvis, T.Laurent | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 160 | 13 Laps |
10 | LMP2 | M.Beche, D.H.Hansson, N.Piquet Jr. | Vaillante Rebellion | ORECA/Gibson | 159 | 14 Laps |
11 | LMP2 | R.Dumas, G.Menezes, M.Rao | Signatech Alpine Matmut | Alpine/Gibson | 159 | 14 Laps |
12 | LMP2 | P.Ragues, A.Negrao, N.Panciatici | Signatech Alpine Matmut | Alpine/Gibson | 158 | 15 Laps |
13 | LMP2 | T.Graves, J.Hirschi, J-E.Vergne | CEFC Manor TRS Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 158 | 15 Laps |
14 | LMP2 | R.Gonzalez, S.Trummer, V.Petrov | CEFC Manor TRS Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 158 | 15 Laps |
15 | LMP2 | F.Perrodo, B.Hanley, E.Collard | TDS Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 158 | 15 Laps |
16 | LMP2 | D.Cheng, A.Brundle, T.Gommendy | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 156 | 17 Laps |
17 | GTE Pro | D.Rigon, S.Bird | AF Corse | Ferrari | 151 | 22 Laps |
18 | GTE Pro | J.Calado, A.P.Guidi | AF Corse | Ferrari | 150 | 23 Laps |
19 | GTE Pro | S.Mucke, O.Pla, B.Johnson | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 150 | 23 Laps |
20 | GTE Pro | A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell, P.Derani | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 150 | 23 Laps |
21 | GTE Pro | R.Lietz, F.Makowiecki | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 149 | 24 Laps |
22 | GTE Pro | M.Christensen, K.Estre | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 149 | 24 Laps |
23 | GTE Pro | D.Turner, J.Adam, D.Serra | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 148 | 25 Laps |
24 | GTE Pro | N.Thiim, M.Sorensen, R.Stanaway | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 148 | 25 Laps |
25 | GTE Am | P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 146 | 27 Laps |
26 | GTE Am | C.Ried, M.Cairoli, M.Dienst | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche | 146 | 27 Laps |
27 | GTE Am | Mok W.S., K.Sawa, M.Griffin | Clearwater Racing | Ferrari | 145 | 28 Laps |
28 | GTE Am | T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, M.Molina | Spirit of Race | Ferrari | 144 | 29 Laps |
- | LMP2 | N.Moore, P.Hanson, K.Chandhok | Tockwith Motorsports | Ligier/Gibson | 151 | Retirement |
- | GTE Am | M.Wainwright, B.Barker, N.Foster | Gulf Racing | Porsche | 76 | Retirement |
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