Portimao WEC: #8 Toyota takes victory after team orders call

Buemi brought the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid car to the finish at the Algarve International Circuit narrowly ahead of the #7 Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez after a confusing double team order call, with Buemi briefly being ordered to let Lopez past before being handed the lead once again.

Alpine's grandfathered LMP1 chassis proved to be a match for the Toyota Hypercars after the World Endurance Championship's latest Balance of Performance tweaks ahead of Portugal's second round of the season.

Polesitter Nicolas Lapierre led the early stages of the race in the #38 Alpine A480-Gibson with what appeared to be a slight pace advantage on both Toyotas, but the LMP1 car's pace didn't prove sufficient to offset its shorter stint lengths, with the Toyota pair managing to make fewer pitstops.

Toyota and Alpine traded the lead on the rhythm of their pitstop cycles until the race was effectively reset with 2 hours and 30 minutes to go due to a safety car, coming out for Miro Konopka's stranded ARC Bratislava LMP2 car.

In the #7 Toyota Kobayashi held the lead at the restart ahead of Nakajima and Lapierre. While Kobayashi stormed off, Nakajima and Lapierre tussled for second, with Lapierre passing the Toyota into Turn 1.

In the final segment of the race Alpine again had to make an extra pitstop for fuel, which dropped it back to third.

Lopez passed Buemi in the seventh hour, but Buemi was told his team-mate would need an extra splash of fuel at the end.

Indeed, Lopez brought the #7 in with 1h06m minutes to go, guaranteeing an extra pitstop in the final hour, while Buemi carried on for another nine minutes and managed to make the car's seventh pitstop its last.

But with Lopez making his splash under a full-course yellow, he came out right behind Buemi.

Toyota decided to swap positions to let Lopez show if he had pace in hand, but when Buemi managed to keep up with the sister car the Cologne team reversed its decision and allowed Buemi to retake the lead until the finish.

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

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Meanwhile Andre Negrao, who shared the Alpine with Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere, took third over one minute behind the Toyotas.

The solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH, which made its racing debut in Portimao, managed to see the chequered flag on its debut, albeit 54 laps down on the leaders.

The car fell behind after Ryan Briscoe got caught up in a melee with two GTE Am cars, the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin and #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche, which resulted in a lengthy trip to the garage to repair the damage.

The Glickenhaus had already been off the pace and it went a lap down on its fellow Hypercar runners in the opening hour, with starting driver Richard Westbrook reporting severe tyre wear.

As is often the case, LMP2 was the class to watch in Portimao with a four-way battle for the win that raged until the end.

The early stages were characterised by a battle between Giedo van der Garde in the #29 Racing Team Nederland ORECA and the #31 WRT ORECA of Robin Frijns, with the latter team taking the advantage when gentleman racer Frits van Eerd took over the '29 RTN car.

But a pair of drivethrough penalties set back WRT, one for speeding in the pits as Frijns came in to hand over to Habsburg, and another for not respecting blue flags.

That handed the net lead to the #22 United Autosports car, the title-winning entry which also won Spa's opening round.

United's main competition came from the JOTA’s pair of ORECA 07-Gibsons, despite the polesitting #28 car of Tom Blomqvist being spun around at the start by Antonio Felix da Costa in the #38 sister car.

The Konopka-triggered safety car also tightened the LMP2 lead battle between United, WRT and the two JOTAs.

Soon after the restart Wayne Boyd brought in the #22, releasing JOTA's Stoffel Vandoorne and WRT's Charles Milesi, who had been involved in an exciting duel before the full-course yellow.

After the next pitstop sequence Vandoorne retained a healthy buffer on Phil Hanson in the #22, with Milesi in the #31 WRT car further behind.

In the #38 JOTA of Anthony Davidson charged to third after a brilliant door to door fight with the Milesi. The #38 car also got ahead of the United entry to make it a JOTA one-two.

In sharp contrast to Toyota's controlling measures, both JOTA cars fought for the win until the final minutes, with Da Costa finally getting the better of Blomqvist to take a popular home victory with Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez.

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

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Blomqvist settled for second in the #28 car he shares with Vandoorne and Sean Gelael, with United Autosports beating the WRT squad to third.

Racing Team Nederland dropped out of contention after contact with a GT car by Job van Uitert, which helped the #20 High Class Racing ORECA to a comfortable lead in the Por-Am subclass.

But after stopping on the track in the final hour the Danish trio Jan Magnussen, Anders Fjordbach and Dennis Andersen ceded the win to the #70 Realteam ORECA of Esteban Garcia, Norman Nato and Mathias Beche.

Ferrari commanded the GTE Pro class, with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado establishing a dominant lead in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo after polesitter Kevin Estre had led the first hour in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

Estre's team-mate Michael Christensen was then passed by the second #71 Ferrari of Miguel Molina in the fourth hour to make it a one-two for the Prancing Horse.

The #51 Ferrari's lead never seemed in significant danger and it survived the safety car interruption to take a clear win.

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

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The battle for second place did rage on and was settled in the final hour when the #52 Ferrari managed to make its final stop under a full-course yellow, Molina and Daniel Serra securing the position ahead of the #92 Porsche of Estre, Christensen and Neel Jani.

The #91 sister Porsche of Gianmaria Bruno, Fred Makowiecki and Richard Lietz was fourth and last in class.

In GTE Am the #98 NorthWest Aston Martin initially led the way, ahead of the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari and the #54 AF Corse machine, but a second-half of the race off by Paul Dalla Lana dropped the car back, with the Cetilar Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Robert Lacorte taking the lead.

In the final two hours Sernagiotto was passed for the lead by Ricardo Pera in the #56 Project 1 Porsche, but a time penalty for Pera - for tagging the #70 Realteam LMP2 car - handed the class win back to Cetilar.

Pera took second with Matteo Cairoli and Egidio Perfetti, while the #54 Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci took third in class.

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

WEC Portimao 8 Hours results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	300	-
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	300	1.800	1.800
3	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	300	1'08.597	1'08.597
4	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	296	0.007	4 Laps
5	28	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	296	4.689	4 Laps
6	22	Philip Hanson Wayne Boyd Paul di Resta	Oreca 07	LMP2	295	5 laps
7	31	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	295	30.195	5 Laps
8	34	Jakub Smiechowski Louis Deletraz Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	293	7 laps
9	1	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	290	10 laps
10	70	Esteban Garcia Mathias Beche Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	290	38.451	10 Laps
11	21	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	288	12 laps
12	20	Jan Magnussen Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen	Oreca 07	LMP2	285	15 laps
13	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	280	0.676	20 Laps
14	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	279	21 laps
15	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	279	25.066	21 Laps
16	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	279	45.043	21 Laps
17	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	278	22 laps
18	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	274	26 laps
19	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	274	5.830	26 Laps
20	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	274	51.233	26 Laps
21	98	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	274	1'18.720	26 Laps
22	57	Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	274	1'32.830	26 Laps
23	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	273	27 laps
24	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Manuela Gostner	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	273	1'12.854	27 Laps
25	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	272	28 laps
26	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	271	29 laps
27	88	Dominique Bastien Marco Seefried Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	269	31 laps
28	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	267	33 laps
29	44	Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Tom Jackson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	261	39 laps
30	709	Ryan Briscoe Romain Dumas Richard Westbrook	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	246	54 laps
31	77	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	88	211 laps
32	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	69	230 laps
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