WEC – The No. 8 Toyota signs another success at Spa

Toyota displays iron health at the start of the season which can worry about adversity before the 24 Hours of Le Mans. After its double at Silverstone, the Japanese manufacturer scores another success at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with Davidson's No. 040 TS8.Buemi-Stone who took the advantage over the Porsche n°14 by Lieb-Jani-Dumas, notably saving time during stops. Pascal Vasselon's team even came close to achieving another double, but the Audi n°1 of Duval-Kristensen-Di Grassi retained the lead in front of the n°7 of Sarrazin-Wurz-Nakajima.

The 919 Hybrid which started from pole ultimately finished just off the podium following an electrical problem which caused it to lose a lap. Webber-Hartley-Bernhard's No. 20 sister car quickly fell down the standings for the same reliability concerns. The top five is thus completed by the No. 18 R2s from Fässler-Lotterer-Tréluyer and the No. 3 “Le Mans” version from Bonanomi-Albuquerque who put up a good battle for fifth place. The Rebellion R-One n°12 by Cheers-Heidfeld-Beche follows the LMP1-H in seventh position but the #13 of Kraihamer-Leimer-Belicchi definitely returned to the pits after encountering numerous teething problems during the weekend. Note that this is the only abandonment of the event which was particularly smooth with unusually good weather in the Belgian Ardennes.

G-Drive Racing also scored a new success after Silverstone with the Morgan-Nissan of Pla-Rusinov-Canal which quickly took control of the category following a penalty inflicted on the No. 03 Oreca 27 of SMP Racing driven by Minassian-Zlobin-Mediani. The Jota Sport Zytek of Gené-Tincknell-Dolan and the Oreca 03 KCMG of Howson-Bradley-Imperatori completed the podium without being able to worry the No. 26.

AF Corse also had a superb weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. There Ferrari #51 of Bruni-Vilander dominated the entire weekend and unsurprisingly won in GTE Pro ahead of the #91 Porsche of Pilet-Bergmeister and the second F458 from the Italian team led by Rigon-Calado. The Amato Ferrari structure also wins in GTE Am with the No. 61 of Cioci-Perez Companc-Venturi which is ahead of both Aston Martin with the #95 Vantage of Pousen-Stanaway-Heinemeier Hansson in second place ahead of the #98 of Lamy-Dalla Lana-Nygaard.

Discover the analysis of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps carried out by our special correspondents in issue 1959 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.