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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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