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WEC Spa: Toyota claims 1-2 finish in hectic race

Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi continued Toyota’s unbeaten start to the 2023 World Endurance Championship at Spa, heading a 1-2 for the Japanese marque in difficult conditions.

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

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

JEP / Motorsport Images

The polesitting trio’s #7 GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar beat the sister crew of Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley that had started from the back of the grid after the latter’s qualifying crash by 11.637s.

The #7 car had pulled what appeared to be a decisive advantage with the assistance of two full course yellow interventions during the middle phase of the race, before two safety cars required following accidents for their Hypercar rivals brought the #8 car into play.

Kobayashi pulled a small gap on Hartley at the final restart, after Antonio Fuoco crashed the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH on cold tyres exiting the pits, before making his final stop on lap 126.

Hartley went two laps later before making his own final stop and initially led up the hill to Raidillon, but Kobayashi closed rapidly as the Kiwi gingerly brought his new left-side tyres up to temperature.

Such was Kobayashi’s momentum that he had to jink to the right and passed Hartley with all four wheels off the road to avoid a collision. The pass was investigated by the stewards, who in the dying moments handed Kobayashi a five-second penalty to be served at his next pitstop.

It was not enough to cost him the win, such was the margin that the Japanese had pulled on Hartley in the closing laps.

The podium was completed by the charging #51 Ferrari of James CaladoAntonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, as Calado passed the #5 Porsche 963 LMDh that Fred Makowiecki shared with Michael Christensen and Dane Cameron into Les Combes on the final lap.

The top four were the only Hypercars to finish on the lead lap in a race that was heavily impacted by tyre choice for the start.

Start action

Start action

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Both Toyotas, the two factory Penske-tended Porsches and the #3 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R started on slicks on the greasy surface, which caught out several drivers and prompted an additional safety car lap before the race fully got under way.

Conway was ambushed by Giovinazzi, Nicklas Nielsen’s #50 Ferrari and the #2 Cadillac of Earl Bamber at the start and initially dropped as low as seventh as the drivers who started on wets initially made hay.

But a lap three safety car caused when Claudio Schiavone spun his #60 Iron Lynx GTE Am Porsche neutralised the early advantage gained from running on wets and allowed the slick runners to get their rubber up to temperature without losing time relative to the competition.

By the end of the second racing lap on lap 10, Conway had marched to the lead and was soon followed past Giovinazzi by Laurens Vanthoor’s #6 Porsche and Renger van der Zande in the guesting #3 Cadillac as the wet starters dashed for the pits.

Such was their time loss in bringing the new tyres up to temperature that all were a lap down when van der Zande crashed out of second 40 minutes into the second hour at Eau Rouge to bring out a second safety car. Thankfully, the Dutchman emerged unscathed from the frightening accident.

The #7 Toyota’s advantage was aided in the third hour when a complete loss of electrical power stranded Vanthoor at the Bus Stop, then a spin for Esteban Guerrieri’s Vanwall Vandervell 680 LMH on cold tyres into the Les Combes gravel brought out a full course yellow and meant Buemi had to take emergency service.

The #7 caught a fortunate break again when Lopez pitted just before a FCY for debris at Pouhon, while Hirakawa had to pit the #8 under green, but another safety car brought the second Toyota back into play when the Vanwall now driven by 1997 Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve clashed with Francesco Castelacci’s GTE Am Ferrari approaching Blanchimont.

The safety car also negated the time loss for the #50 Ferrari resulting from a drive-through penalty incurred by Miguel Molina for traversing the white line at pit exit, but shortly after Molina had unlapped himself from Lopez and handed over to Fuoco the car impacted the barriers heavily after braking traction on cold tyres.

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In the #51 Ferrari that had lost time when Pier Guidi had to pit under FCY to replace a damaged wheel rim, Calado passed the sole surviving Cadillac now driven by Richard Westbrook and charged after Makowiecki to secure the final podium place.

Westbrook had to settle for fifth in the car he shared with Bamber and Alex Lynn, while Jota took an encouraging sixth place on its first outing with a customer 963 driven by Antonio Felix da CostaYe Yifei and Will Stevens.

Both Peugeot 9X8 LMHs encountered delays to finish seventh and ninth, with the #93 machine shared by Paul di RestaMikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne leading the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH and the #94 Peugeot of Gustavo MenezesLoic Duval and Nico Muller which spent time stranded on the pitlane.

#41 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz

#41 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

WRT claimed victory in the LMP2 class with its #41 ORECA-Gibson 07 driven by Louis DeletrazRobert Kubica and Rui Andrade.

Deletraz shadowed Tom Blomqvist’s #23 United Autosports ORECA into the pits with 12 minutes to go, where the Belgian crew turned around Deletraz around four seconds faster.

The United crew was left to rue the timing of the race’s second safety car, which came moments after Blomqvist had been lapped by Conway, which cost him a clear 44s lead.

Albert CostaFabio Scherer and Jakub Smiechowski completed the podium for Inter Europol Competition, after the Spaniard forced Andrea Caldarelli’s Prema ORECA into an error at the Bus Stop in the closing laps.

The GTE Am victory was claimed in comfortable fashion by the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo driven by Luis Perez Companc and Lilou Wadoux.

Wadoux stormed into the lead by passing Zacharie Robichon’s Proton Competition Porsche, and Rovera stroked home to win by 18.653s, as Corvette Racing recovered from losing a lap early on to finish second.

Championship leaders Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg just held on to second from the TF Sport Aston Martin driven by Michael Dinan, Ahmad Al-Harthy and Charlie Eastwood, after Catsburg put up a strong defence in the closing laps.

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WEC Spa - Race results

Cla # Drivers Car Class Laps Time
1 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 148  
2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 148 16.637
3 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 148 1'14.439
4 5 United States Dane Cameron
Denmark Michael Christensen
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 148 1'17.264
5 2 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 147 1 lap
6 38 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
China Ye Yifei
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 147 1 lap
7 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Oreca 07 LMP2 146 2 laps
8 23 United States Josh Pierson
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
Oreca 07 LMP2 146 2 laps
9 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Spain Albert Costa
Oreca 07 LMP2 146 2 laps
10 9 Filip Ugran
Netherlands Bent Viscaal
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Oreca 07 LMP2 146 2 laps
11 22 Frederick Lubin
United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Oreca 07 LMP2 146 2 laps
12 31 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Oreca 07 LMP2 146 2 laps
13 93 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 146 2 laps
14 708 France Romain Dumas
France Olivier Pla
France Franck Mailleux
Glickenhaus 007 HYPERCAR 146 2 laps
15 36 France Matthieu Vaxiviere
France Julien Canal
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 146 2 laps
16 35 Brazil Andre Negrao
Mexico Memo Rojas
United Kingdom Olli Caldwell
Oreca 07 LMP2 146 2 laps
17 94 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 146 2 laps
18 28 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
Oreca 07 LMP2 145 3 laps
19 63 France Doriane Pin
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
Oreca 07 LMP2 144 4 laps
20 83 Argentina Luis Perez Companc
France Lilou Wadoux
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 140 8 laps
21 33 United States Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE AM 140 8 laps
22 25 United Kingdom Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Ireland Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 140 8 laps
23 88 United States Ryan Hardwick
Canada Zacharie Robichon
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 139 9 laps
24 85 Belgium Sarah Bovy
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Switzerland Rahel Frey
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 139 9 laps
25 21 Diego Alessi
France Simon Mann
Ulysse De
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 139 9 laps
26 98 United Kingdom Ian James
Italy Daniel Mancinelli
Spain Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 139 9 laps
27 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
United States Scott Huffaker
Brazil Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 139 9 laps
28 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 138 10 laps
29 77 Germany Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 138 10 laps
30 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Belgium Alessio Picariello
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 137 11 laps
31 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 136 12 laps
32 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 79 69 laps
33 50 Italy Antonio Fuoco
Spain Miguel Molina
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 106 42 laps
34 4 France Tom Dillmann
Argentina Esteban Guerrieri
Canada Jacques Villeneuve
Vanwall Vandervell 680 HYPERCAR 80 68 laps
35 6 France Kevin Estre
Germany Andre Lotterer
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 53 95 laps
36 3 France Sébastien Bourdais
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
United Kingdom Jack Aitken
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 40 108 laps
37 10 Ireland Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
France Gabriel Aubry
Oreca 07 LMP2 14 134 laps

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