How Alpine's stunted Portimao charge helped Toyota to keep clear

The Toyota Le Mans Hypercars battled right to the end of the Portimao 8 Hours last Sunday in what on pace was actually a three-way battle. Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley led home a 1-2 for the Japanese manufacturer on a day that Alpine was a match for anyone on speed but not on fuel mileage.

Toyota had a faultless race at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve and therefore ended up making it two wins from two starts with the GR010 HYBRID at the start of the new era of the World Endurance Championship. Alpine had no issues either with its Gibson-engined A480 grandfathered LMP1, save for the one with which it started the race. There has been — and will be — no resolution to its inability to go the same distance between fuel stops as its LMH rivals. And for that reason, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao were effectively racing with one hand tied behind their backs.

The shame was that the Alpine wasn't part of what was a thrilling, if choreographed battle for the victory in the dying minutes of only the second ever world championship endurance fixture in Portugal. The irony was that Toyota's fears, however remote, that the ORECA design that formerly raced as the Rebellion R-13 might be able to win played a role in determining which of the GR010s emerged victorious.

Jose Maria Lopez led before and after the final round of pitstops propers for the Toyotas either side of the seven-hour mark, but victory for the #7 car he shared with Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway looked unlikely at this juncture. Toyota Gazoo Racing had split its strategies after the only full safety car of the race early in hour five wiped out a deficit for the A480 that already stood at over a minute thanks to its need to stop seven or eight laps earlier than the GR010s.

Start of the race, #36 Alpine Elf Matmut Alpine 480 Gibson: Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere leads

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The winning Toyota had pitted one lap later than the sister car from the beginning — the team always tries to separate the pitstops of its cars — and had also gone one lap longer on its fuel allocation on a single occasion earlier in the race. A two-lap differential between the pitstops meant it was a no-brainer to set the drivers of #8 into fuel save mode over the remainder of the race.

“The safety car was terrible for us because it reset the race and left us with no advantage," explained Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director Pascal Vasselon in reference to the scant couple of seconds that separated the GR010s and the Alpine when the race went green. “Car #8 had already done a bit more fuel saving before the safety car and was already stopping two laps later.

“It was the correct window to try to save the splash. We told the drivers of #8 to go for further on fuel saving and for #7 we just told them to push.”

"We are constantly discussing and refining the rules with the drivers, and they all preferred the end of the race to be the end of the race. When we were freezing the race at the last pitstops there were times when it was a bit difficult when the cars weren't in the same situation" Pascal Vasselon

Lopez was seven seconds in the lead after the final proper stops, a margin over Buemi that he managed to eke out to just over nine. But that wasn't going to be enough for the reigning world champions to win in Portugal. They got lucky when a full course yellow virtual safety car was called with around half hour of the race remaining.

That meant Lopez could take the splash of fuel he needed to get to the end while the field was trundling around at 80km/h (50mph). The Argentinian was less than three seconds behind when the race went green with a tad over 25 minutes left on the clock.

He quickly closed down the gap and with 17 minutes left was suddenly ahead. It wouldn't be quite right to say he overtook Buemi, because that's not the way Toyota allows its drivers go about their racing at close-quarters. But once the #7 car was into the lead, it wasn't any faster than the chasing Toyota. It was decreed on the pitwall that it was in fact slower. So, after just three laps, the call came for Lopez to cede the lead back to his team-mate.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

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It was a dramatic, though slightly confused end to the race, given that Toyota's traditional policy has been to freeze the positions between its two cars at the final round of pitstops. It turned out that there has been a change in the rules of engagement for the 2021 season.

“We are constantly discussing and refining the rules with the drivers, and they all preferred the end of the race to be the end of the race,” explained Vasselon. “When we were freezing the race at the last pitstops there were times when it was a bit difficult when the cars weren't in the same situation. In the end it doesn't change much.”

When two Toyotas come into close proximity on the track, it assesses which is the faster and ensures that it is allowed through. “We just look at traffic-free sectors,” said Vasselon. “In the first part of the stint [after the FCY] Jose Maria was faster, so he passed, but when he was in front he was not faster, so we swapped back. This is the rule we have to make sure the drivers accept the swap.”

Buemi admitted that he was thrilled with his victory after the conclusion of the race. He was at least partially correct when he said, "we were on a different strategy to #7 and that made the difference".

Without the final yellow, Buemi would have been home and dry. But on the other hand, the safety car had wiped out an advantage of approximately 17s for #7 three hours before. It's difficult to argue that one of the Toyotas deserved to win this eight-hour race more than the other. There was absolutely nothing between the cars on the averages whatever sample size you chose, though in terms of laps led #7 had it over #8 141 to 61.

The same goes for the Signatech-run Alpine, which had claimed pole position in Vaxiviere's hands by just less than a tenth from Hartley. It was on an absolute par with the Toyotas around the 2.89-mile Algarve circuit near Portimao, and led more laps (98) than the winning Toyota. The problem was the fuel tank in a car that was hurriedly conceived at the back end of 2017 around the tub of the ORECA 07 LMP2 design - and it can't accept the full energy allocation allowed to it under the Balance of Performance for the Hypercar class. The fuel tank simply isn't big enough, and nor is there space to incorporate a larger one.

#36 Alpine Elf Matmut Alpine 480 Gibson: Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere

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That explains the Alpine's inability to go the 37 or 38 laps between stops of the Toyotas. It could only do 30 or 31. Toyota might have been fearful that Alpine had a chance of pulling a rabbit out the hat after the hour-five safety car got the A480 back on terms, but there wasn't much confidence of that in the French camp.

“If you are doing eight laps less, you've got absolutely no chance,” said Lapierre. “It's sad because on this track we were so good, much better than at Spa [for the series opener in May]. Even after the safety car we knew we weren't going to win.”

“We are blocked because they are not going to change the Balance of Performance [to equate the stint length]. We know we have to live with this issue. All we can try to do is manage the situation as best we can" Philippe Sinault

“Disappointing and frustrating” was how Lapierre described Alpine's Portimao 8 Hours. Those are emotions he and the team are going to have to get used to. They have been told that there is no fix for their problem, which is in part an accident of history and part the result of rapid conception of ORECA's P1 design.

“We are blocked because they are not going to change the Balance of Performance [to equate the stint length],” said Signatech boss Philippe Sinault. “We know we have to live with this issue. All we can try to do is manage the situation as best we can.”

The Alpine was over a minute back on the second-place Toyota after taking two extra full loads of fuel than its rivals over the duration. The best of the LMP2s was four laps down, compared with the single lap over the six hours at Spa. That was despite changes to the BoP for the GR010 and the Alpine to peg them back on the arrival of the Glickenhaus LMH in the championship. The suspicion that having to run in low-downforce Le Mans configuration would hurt the P2s less at Spa than other circuits was borne out last weekend, even if one of the secondary prototypes did top each of the trio of free practice sessions.

The Glickenhaus-Pipo 007LMH had what can probably be best described as a mixed debut with its solo entry in Portugal for Romain Dumas, Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook.

#709 Glickenhaus Racing Glickenhaus 007 LMH: Ryan Briscoe, Romain Dumas, Richard Westbrook

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The Italian-built machine looked solid in opening practice when it ended up only a second off the pace in Westbrook's hands and better still in FP3 when he ended up fourth quickest, less than three tenths behind the Alpine and ahead of both Toyotas. Perhaps most significantly, the Glickenhaus was still running at the end of the eight hours.

The lows were a gearbox problem in FP2 that resulted in the clutch being replaced and a disappointing qualifying performance. Westbrook struggled to get heat into the 007's tyres and ended up slower than in FP3 despite a lower fuel load, fresher tyres and cooler temperatures. He ended up only 11th, though a better time to the tune of four tenths lost to a track limits violation would have put the car a place higher.

The Glickenhaus only ran for seven or so hours in the race: it needed another new clutch after the one it started the race was damaged after Briscoe tagged the TF Sport-run D'Station Aston Martin as he braked for the downhill hairpin behind the pits late in the second hour.

Seeing the chequered flag was definitely an important milestone for the team, reckoned two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Dumas.

“Doing eight hours on this track isn't easy,” said the Frenchman. “It was important to finish, and by getting back out there we learnt a lot. We've got to learn how to extract everything for that car. That's our job between now and Le Mans in August.”

Dumas explained that he was encouraged with the pace of the car: “There were times when I was about 1.3s off the pace, which sounds like a lot, but it's a good starting point. We know we have a lot of work to do before Monza [the next round of the WEC in mid-July], but we collected a lot of data.”

PLUS: Toyota hits the ton — charting 100 world championship sportscar starts

Glickenhaus was the newbie at the Algarve circuit last weekend. Toyota, by contrast, was celebrating its 100th world championship prototype start in Portugal, and did so with more than a hint of style with the latest in a line of machines stretching back to its earliest days in Group C in the early 1980s working with the Japanese TOM's and Dome organisations. It let its cars race and for longer than in previous years. The pity was that there wasn't a French car adding spice to the battle.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Jota wins despite several spins

Antonio Felix da Costa claimed a race victory in a third discipline of the season at the Algarve circuit on Sunday. The Portuguese added a World Endurance Championship LMP2 victory to his successes in Formula E and the Brazilian Stock Car Championship in 2021. But perhaps the more unlikely statistic is that his triumph aboard the #38 ORECA-Gibson 07 with Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez was that it was his first win on home soil since his karting days.

The British Jota team notched up a class 1-2 in qualifying and repeated the trick in the race, though it wasn't plain sailing. Both cars spun over the course of the eight hours: pole winner Tom Blomqvist was turned around by da Costa on the opening lap and then the winning car was nudged into a spin by DragonSpeed driver Ben Hanley later in the race when Gonzalez was at the wheel.

"They were quicker than us today, but right at the end I had the edge, but not by enough to get by unless something happened" Antonio Felix da Costa

Despite the spins, there was almost an inevitability to Jota's first and second positions at the end of the Portimao 8 Hours. Its ORECAs could go a lap longer than their rivals on fuel; sometimes two. If they could save a pitstop, which always looked likely, they were always going to be in the pound seats as the chequered flag approached.

That da Costa and his team-mates came out ahead of Blomqvist, Stoffel Vandoorne and Sean Gelael owed something to good fortune. Da Costa undoubtedly gained time on Blomqvist during the late FCY and was right with the sister car for the final laps.

“They were quicker than us today, but right at the end I had the edge, but not by enough to get by unless something happened,” explained da Costa. “He got the Ferrari [the GTE Am winning Cetilar Racing entry] in a really bad place. He had to lift and I was flat.”

#38 JOTA Oreca 07 - Gibson: Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix Da Costa, Anthony Davidson

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Jota boss Sam Hignett revealed that his drivers have been told to save fuel from the beginning. “That was key,” he said, “but I also think we had the quickest cars today.”

United Autosports ended up third, a lap in arrears with Paul di Resta, Phil Hanson and Wayne Boyd. Team boss Richard Dean reckoned it was a good result despite all the team's successes in P2 over the past 18 months or so given the circumstances.

Boyd, a newcomer to P2 this year with the team in the European Le Mans Series, had to be flown out at the last moment when Fabio Scherer failed his COVID test. Di Resta, meanwhile, was driving a racing car for the first time since last November's WEC round.

WRT took fourth with its ORECA driven by Robin Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi. Two mid-race drivethrough penalties blunted their challenge, though the time loss was largely negated by the safety car.

#51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado

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Ferrari tops GTE at last as Porsche hits tyre trouble

Ferrari notched up a first GTE Pro victory in the World Endurance Championship since the Shanghai round of the 2019-20 series more than 18 months ago. Not much money would have been bet on the AF Corse team achieving that after it was once again outpaced by Porsche in qualifying, but a near-perfect race for James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi and a nightmare day for Porsche turned the tables.

Pole winner Kevin Estre edged away from the pack at the start, though the second of the Manthey-run Porsche 911 RSRs with Gianmaria Bruni at the wheel was in tyre troubles early doors. It was a portent of what was to come for the car Estre shared with Neel Jani and Michael Christensen.

Jani quickly dropped off the pace and out of the lead, and the #92 wouldn't get back on the pace until the closing stages of the double stint from Christensen, who took over from Jani. The winning Ferrari 488 GTE Evo took the lead an hour and 20 minutes into the race with Calado at the wheel and barely looked truly threatened thereafter.

"It was super-weird out there today. The tyres just died on me in the middle of my stint. We struggled for three or four hours and then towards the end of the race the car came alive again" Neel Jani

The simple fact was that the winning Ferrari, as distinct from the sister car shared by Daniel Serra and Miguel Molina, was able to look after its Michelin tyres better on the high-energy Algarve circuit than the rest of the slender Pro field.

“The management of the tyres was our main target today,” said AF team boss Amato Ferrari. “Honestly, we didn't feel we were competitive after qualifying, but our strategy was crucial.”

Estre looked as though he would salvage second position for Porsche at the end. The car was back up to speed after a swap of tyre compound for his final double stint, but his bid for the runner-up spot was undone by the late FCY. The second Ferrari was able to make its final stop under yellows and took the position by 20s from the chasing Porsche.

“It was super-weird out there today,” said Jani. “The tyres just died on me in the middle of my stint. We struggled for three or four hours and then towards the end of the race the car came alive again. It was one of toughest races I've ever done in terms of tyre management.”

Watch all World Endurance Championship races live on our OTT platform Motorsport.tv. The next race is scheduled at Monza on 18 July.

#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Kevin Estre, Neel Jani, Michael Christensen

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