WEC Portimao: Toyota #8 beats Ferrari to continue winning run

The polesitting crew’s GR010 HYBRID headed the #50 Ferrari 499P of Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco as Porsche became the first LMDh constructor to score a WEC podium with its #6 963 driven by Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer.

Cadillac matched its Sebring 1000 Miles finish of fourth with its Chip Ganassi Racing-run V-Series.R LMDh while Peugeot made it five different manufacturers in as many positions after late brake troubles delayed the second Ferrari.

The eventually victorious Toyota trailed its sister #7 machine for much of the opening hour after Mike Conway passed Buemi around the outside of Turn 2 at the start.

Buemi’s loss of momentum also allowed James Calado to get ahead in the #51 Ferrari, but the Swiss regained second on lap four and set about closing a gap that had stretched to beyond six seconds.

By the end of the hour, Buemi had Conway in his sights and took the lead into Turn 5, Conway putting up little resistance when he was delayed through the previous uphill right-hander.

The Sebring-winning Toyota was running second in hour two when it was shown a black and orange flag to replace a torque sensor, which cost seven laps and left it to finish ninth.

The main beneficiary however was the #50 Ferrari in which Nielsen – who briefly dropped behind Vanthoor at the start – had passed Calado in the first hour.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Molina was never close enough to challenge the #8 Toyota, as Hirakawa continued to stretch its advantage, but the Ferrari enjoyed a trouble-free run to finish one lap in arrears at the finish.

Fuoco had just been lapped by Hartley when a front-right brake fire on Jacques Villeneuve’s Vanwall approaching the uphill Turn 10 caused the 1997 Formula 1 world champion to spin off at the next corner, bringing out the safety car with a little over an hour to go.

The #6 Porsche moved into third following Calado’s hand-over to Antonio Giovinazzi, when the Italian began to struggle with brake problems and dropped back into Estre’s clutches.

Estre took advantage of Giovinazzi’s caution in LMP2 traffic at Turn 13, with the Ferrari pitting just four laps later for its overheating brakes to be addressed.

Running out of sync meant it lost time stuck behind the second Porsche of Fred Makowiecki after Giovinazzi handed over to Alessandro Pier Guidi, but it was running fourth until brake problems caused Pier Guidi to run off the track at Turns 1 and 4 before he backed off the pace.

This allowed Alex Lynn to get ahead in the Cadillac, and gave Lotterer enough of a margin to top up for fuel with less than 10 minutes to go.

The Cadillac was another car to run off-sequence after Richard Westbrook flat-spotted his tyres entering the pits behind Nico Muller’s #94 Peugeot 9X8 LMH.

#2 Cadillac Racing - Cadillac V-Series.R - Hybrid - Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook

Photo by: Paul Foster

Although Westbrook quickly passed the two Ferraris, struggling with tyre warmup, upon exiting the pits he was soon forced to abandon a planned double-stint.

Pier Guidi’s reduced pace late on meant he also lost out to the #94 Peugeot that Muller shared with Gustavo Menezes and Loic Duval, ultimately finishing sixth.

The #93 Peugeot driven by Paul di Resta, Jean-Eric Vergne and Mikkel Jensen had a quiet run to seventh after a necessary steering rack change before the start meant it joined the race a lap down.

It recovered to finish ahead of the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH, which was boosted to eighth by the problems for Toyota and the heavily delayed #5 Porsche that spent time in the garage fixing a power steering problem.

United Autosports claimed a 1-2 finish in the LMP2 class after a tense fight with Prema Racing.

Oliver Jarvis, Josh Pierson and Giedo van der Garde beat the sister ORECA-Gibson 07 of Phil Hanson, Frederick Lubin and Ben Hanley to the flag by 0.684s despite a five-second pit penalty that dropped it behind Prema heading into the final double stint.

Van der Garde, standing in for Tom Blomqvist on IMSA duty at Long Beach, held the lead before handing over to Jarvis for the final time, but the penalty handed down for firing up the engine during refuelling meant the Briton rejoined behind Prema's newly-announced Lamborghini factory driver Daniil Kvyat.

#22 United Autosports Oreca 07 - Gibson: Frederick Lubin, Philip Hanson, Ben Hanley

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Jarvis chased Kvyat - sharing with polewinner Mirko Bortolotti and Doriane Pin - after the safety car and rejoined ahead after coming in one lap later for their final stops.

Kvyat, who had also incurred a five-second penalty earlier on for spinning the #10 Vector Sport ORECA of Ryan Cullen at Turn 5, also rejoined behind a fired-up Hanson and lost third in the closing stages to the #31 WRT ORECA of Robin Frijns when he was baulked at Turn 4.

Hanson, whose car had led the early stages in Hanley’s hands, closed on Jarvis in the final laps but was unable to mount a passing attempt.

Antonio Felix da Costa, Ye Yifei and David Beckmann took fifth in the #48 Jota ORECA ahead of their switch to the Hypercar class with a Porsche 963 at Spa, while the second Prema entry of Bent Viscaal, Juan Manuel Correa and Filip Urgan took sixth.

Corvette Racing made it back-to-back wins in the GTE Am class as Nicky Catsburg held off a determined late assault from Alessio Rovera’s AF Corse Ferrari.

On the first Portimao appearance for the Corvette C8.R, Catsburg secured victory for himself, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone with a stout defence from Rovera on the final lap, the Italian firmly rebuffed in his attempted move around the outside into the Turn 5 hairpin.

Rovera therefore had to be content with second in the #81 488 GTE Evo he shared with Lilou Wadoux and Luis-Perez Companc that had led at points in Wadoux’s hands.

The podium was completed by the Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 shared by Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting which appeared comfortable in the middle phase of the race but lost time to a spin from Frey after the Swiss had been passed in the pits by Varrone.

WEC Portimao 6 Hours Race Results (222 laps)

Cla	#	Drivers		Car	Class	Time
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR
2	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen		Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	1 lap
3	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	1 lap
4	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook		Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	2 laps
5	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller		Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	2 laps
6	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi		Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	3 laps
7	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne		Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	3 laps
8	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla		Glickenhaus 007	HYPERCAR	5 laps
9	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	7 laps
10	23	Josh Pierson Giedo van der Garde Oliver Jarvis		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
11	22	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Ben Hanley		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
12	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
13	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
14	48	David Beckmann Ye Yifei Antonio Felix da Costa		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
15	9	Filip Ugran Juan Manuel Correa Bent Viscaal		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
16	31	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
17	28	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
18	36	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi		Oreca 07	LMP2	7 laps
19	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa		Oreca 07	LMP2	8 laps
20	35	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell		Oreca 07	LMP2	9 laps
21	33	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg		Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	16 laps
22	83	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	16 laps
23	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	16 laps
24	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	16 laps
25	21	Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	16 laps
26	56	Miguel Pedro Guilherme Moura Matteo Cairoli		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	17 laps
27	77	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	17 laps
28	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	17 laps
29	88	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	18 laps
30	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	18 laps
31	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	18 laps
32	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	19 laps
33	98	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	20 laps
34	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry		Oreca 07	LMP2	29 laps
35	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	33 laps
36	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve		Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	48 laps
37	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	180 laps
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