#7 Toyota wins 6 Hours of Spa after red flag and safety car interruptions

Jose Maria Lopez, Mike Conway, and Kamui Kobayashi have won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, after a rain-affected race saw three red flags, multiple full course course yellows and safety cars.

The race started in the dry but was red flagged for a crash for Miroslav Kinopka in the #44 ARC Bratislava Oreca 07-Gibson. When the race resumed under safety car, with the intention to go green, the leading #8 Toyota failed track-side with electrical issues, requiring the safety car to stay out longer than planned.

While the safety car was out the heavens opened and it poured with rain. As the #31 WRT Oreca 07-Gibson had switched to wets under red flag, it didn’t need to pit again unlike other cars, including the leading LMHs — #7 Toyota, #36 Alpine, and #708 Glickenhaus.

This meant the #31 WRT took the lead with a wet weather masterclass from Robin Frijns when the race went green. The Dutchman pulled a large gap on the #7 Toyota in the theoretically faster class, until another safety killed the gap.

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In the dry, however, the #31 WRT wasn’t on the pace of the LMHs, and indeed the track dried up and Rene Rast slipped to fourth. A consolation prize for the Belgian squad, though, was an overall podium in addition to a class win, after #708 Glickenhaus made a strategy error by switching to slicks too early when they were on for a surefire podium. They eventually finished ninth overall.

Second in LMH and overall was the #36 Alpine, with Mathieu Vaxiviere, Nicolas Lapierre and Andre Negrao each spending time behind the wheel. The French team, though, didn’t quite have the pace to challenge Toyota, after winning the previous time out in Sebring.

With the #31 WRT third overall with Sean Galeal, Rast and Frijns, the #41 RealTeam by WRT Oreca 07-Gibson of Ferd made it a 1-2 for the Belgian team in LMP2, based just a stone’s throw from Spa-Franchorchamps. Ferdinand Habsburg, Norman Nato and Rui Andrade each spent time behind the wheel, with Habsburg crossing the line in second. Third in class was the #38 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson, driven by Will Stevens, Roberto Gonzalez and Antonio Felix da Costa.

In GTE-Pro, #51 Ferrari, driven by James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, was the unlikely winner after the AF Corse-run Ferraris qualified fourth and fifth, last in class. The team benefitted from the red flags and safety cars to take a lap of over a lap, and while later stoppages and safety cars reeled this back in, the #92 Porsche of Michael Christiansen and Kevin Estre was never able to reel the #51 in, although they were less than a second apart when they crossed the line. Third, but only mere tenths of a second behind the Porsche, was the #52 Ferrari of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fucuo.

Finally in GTE-Am, the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche of Harry Tincknell, Sebastian Priaulx and Christian Reid won, after a hard fought battle with Ben Keating, Henrique Chaves and Marco Sorensen in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin, which finished second after starting on pole. Third in class was the #98 Northwest Aston Martin, with Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard and Nicki Thiim behind the wheel.