Audi has secured its first victory of the season with an unlikely win at the WEC 6 Hours of Spa, as all of its rivals hit trouble to hand the win to the #8 Audi R18 e-tron driven by Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and Loic Duval.
Both Porsche and Toyota looked set for victory at some stage, but reliability proved to be their downfall, allowing Audi to seize the chance to secure its first win since last year's Spa race following its exclusion from the season-opening Silverstone event.
The start of the race saw the #1 Porsche, driven by Brendon Hartley, open up a healthy lead ahead of the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid before trouble struck Marc Lieb. The German suffered a hybrid failure, causing him to drop off the pace, falling several seconds behind the lead Porsche and out of contention.
Toyota then emerged as Porsche's nearest rival with the #5 TS050 Hybrid taking second from #7 Audi of Benoit Treluyer – who later hit trouble himself when debris caused damage to his floor, resulting in numerous pit stops to try and rescue their car, pace and race.
The #5 Toyota would eventually claim the lead during the first stops with Sebastien Buemi behind the wheel, whilst Timo Bernhard took over from Hartley in the Porsche, with 20 seconds now between first and second.
Two punctures ruined Bernhard's stint before more trouble struck as a gearbox mechanism needed attention, costing Porsche 20 minutes, dropping the #1 to the back of the field.
Toyota therefore looked set for victory as the #5 car lapped the #8 Audi with ease – meanwhile the second Toyota hit trouble, retiring with an electrical problem.
But it wasn't to be as during Kazuki Nakajima's stint, engine failure struck, bringing Toyota's reign to an end and handing the victory to Audi ahead of the second Porsche, two laps down and therefore somewhat unchallenged.
A late Safety Car added to the drama when the #66 Ford GT driven by Stefan Mucke crashed out after a tyre failed through Eau Rouge, sending the car spinning into the barriers at Raidillon at full speed. Mucke escaped unharmed, but debris littered the track.
Rebellion's Alexandre Imperatori, Matheo Tuscher and Dominik Kraihamer completed the podium, four laps down on the leader.
The LMP2 class was won by the #36 Alpine team driven by Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stephane Richelmi, with just six seconds splitting the four teams as the #31 Ligier and the #45 ORECA completed the podium.
Ferrari's Sam Bird and Davide Rigon led the LMGTE Pro field, with Aston Martin's Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda winning the LMGTE Am class.
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