The six hours of Spa was an exciting race and one in which Toyota will be proud of their achievement, even if it was at the expense of another cars failure. The race provided plenty of action and certainly didn’t disappoint spectators at the Belgian circuit.
Starting with qualifying for the race, Porsche number 14 ended up on pole position ready for the six hour race the following day. Toyota’s TS040, car number 8 with started in second position followed closely by the Audi R18 e-tron quattro and the other Toyota.
The race went off to a good start and the Porsche 919 Hybrid lead the way for the 1st leg. Following an electrical problem and resulant slow pitt stop, the Porsche gave it’s lead away to the Toyota in second place. The other Porsche, number 20, suffered several set backs which put it completely out of the running and it ended up crossing the finish line in 23rd position. Toyota’s were not without faults of their own though, and car number 7 suffered from severe oversteer at the start of the race. However, Stephane Sarrazin managed to keep the car on track until the first pitt stop where the error was corrected and the car continued without fault thereafter managing an impressive third place.
The three Audi R18’s started the race in 3rd, 6th and 7th making it a difficult proposition for the team to compete for the two lead positions from the off. However, due in part to the erroneous Porsche as mentioned earlier, Audi number 1 came in second place. Interestingly, the 3rd place finishing Toyota was a mere 6 seconds behind them despite the earlier troubles at the start of the race.
The overall results give Toyota an already commanding presence in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship with two consecutive wins, the first at the 6 Hours of Silverstone. Next up is the mother of all endurance races and the one in which Toyota will be wanting to finally end their poor luck of previous years, yet where both Audi will want to retain their title and Porsche will want to add another trophy to their Le Mans cabinet from days past; the last Le Mans Porsche win having been in the 911 GT1 in 1998.
The final results are as follows:
| Pos | N° | Cat | Driver | Car | Laps | Total Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | LMP1 | Anthony DAVIDSON, Nicolas LAPIERRE, Sébastien BUEMI | Toyota TS 040 – Hybrid | 171 | 6:01’31.675 | |
| 2 | 1 | LMP1 | Lucas DI GRASSI, Loïc DUVAL, Tom KRISTENSEN | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | 171 | 6:02’45.601 | 1’13.926 |
| 3 | 7 | LMP1 | Alexander WURZ, Stéphane SARRAZIN, Kazuki NAKAJIMA | Toyota TS 040 – Hybrid | 171 | 6:02’52.536 | 1’20.861 |
| 4 | 14 | LMP1 | Romain DUMAS, Neel JANI, Marc LIEB | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 170 | 6:02’06.145 | 1 Laps |
| 5 | 2 | LMP1 | Marcel FÄSSLER, André LOTTERER, Benoit TRÉLUYER | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | 170 | 6:02’58.145 | 1 Laps |
| 6 | 3 | LMP1 | Filipe ALBUQUERQUE, Marco BONANOMI, | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | 169 | 6:01’41.952 | 2 Laps |
| 7 | 12 | LMP1 | Nicolas PROST, Nick HEIDFELD, Mathias BECHE | Rebellion R-One – Toyota | 161 | 6:03’43.512 | 10 Laps |
For full results, please visit: FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Results
Source; FIA WEC. Photo: © GabiTomescu / AdrenalMedia.com
