WEC Portimao: Toyota beats Ferrari to continue winning run
Toyota continued its unbeaten start to the 2023 World Endurance Championship with a comfortable Portimao 6 Hours victory for its #8 crew of Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley.
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 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 right-front 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.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
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 meant he also lost out to the #94 Peugeot 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 wins LMP2 battle
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 Filipe Albuquerque 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 newly-announced Lamborghini factory driver Daniil Kvyat.
#21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO: Diego Alessi, Simon Mann, Ulysse de Pauw
Photo by: Paul Foster
Jarvis chased Kvyat 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 wins again in GTE
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 - Race results:
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