Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and James Calado have won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the third round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, after a fierce race-long battle with the #36 Alpine, which finished third.
This is the #51 Ferrari’s second win in a row, after winning at Imola last time out. Second was the other Ferrari, the #50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina, with a fantastic fuel save strategy at the end of the race enough to take second and a 1-2 for Ferrari.
It is also the #36 Alpine’s second podium in a row, after Mick Schumacher, Jules Gounon and Fred Makowiecki finished third there.
Calado started the #51 in third, with his Ferrari teammates Nicklas Nielsen, in the #50, and #83 Ferrari’s Phil Hanson on pole and in second respectively.
Calado took second off Hanson at Les Combes on the first lap, giving Ferrari a factory 1-2 early in the race.
However, Fred Makowiecki in the #36 Alpine was on a charge. He started sixth and was up to fourth in short order, and soon took third off Hanson, and it was later revealed was struggling with power issues.
Makowiecki, now running third, set about catching Calado. However, while the Frenchman got behind the Briton in the scarlet Ferrari, initially he couldn’t find a way through.
But the Alpine driver was able to get a good drive out of La Source and got alongside the Ferrari down to Eau Rouge. He was on the outside, but no matter — the Frenchman swept around the Ferrari to take second.
He set about catching Nielsen in the lead, around four seconds up the road. However, while he was able to close the gap a little, by a second or so, he wasn’t able to really close in.
However, a faster pitstop for the Alpine meant they exited the pits in the same order, but now with less than a second separating them.
A virtual safety car, which became a full safety car as per the rules, meant the Hypercars pitted again to save time. Giovinazzi took over the #51, while Miguel Molina got behind the wheel of the #50.
At the restart, Molina retained the lead from Makowiecki, still in the #36 Alpine, and Giovinazzi.
The gap didn’t extend though, with Makowiecki managing to keep in touch with Molina. Approaching another round of pitstops and he still wasn’t able to take the lead. But Molina pitted later and Jules Gounon, having only just climbed into the #36 Alpine, took his chance, passing Molina just after the pit exit as the Ferrari had cold tyres.
Another safety car for a GT3 crash meant most cars pitted, with the exception of Jean-Eric Vergne in the #93 Peugeot. This meant Vergne led at the restart from Gounon, #7 Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi, and Giovinazzi, with Fuoco sixth behind the #20 BMW of Rene Rast.
Vergne soon pitted under green flash conditions, dropping him to the back of the field and re-promoting Gounon to the lead.
At the next round of pitstops, also under virtual safety car for another LMGT3 class crash, Alpine chose to change left-hand side tyres and driver, whereas Ferrari did not. This meant Pier Guidi led at the restart, from Fuoco and Mick Schumacher, now in the #36 Alpine.
A magnificent battle for second then took place, between Robin Frijns, who’d replaced Rast in the #20 BMW for the final hour and a half, Pier Guidi, and Schumacher.
They battled for position over multiple laps, the order changing constantly, until Pier Guidi had to take avoiding action at Eau Rouge, going on the run off. This meant he was ordered by race control to give Frijns the position, which was the way it stayed until both pitted.
Schumacher, though, took the alternative strategy and pitted early, to avoid taking a splash at the end.
Unfortunately, this strategy did not work out, as it dropped the German right behind Nyck de Vries in the #7 Toyota. The Dutchman wanted to fight for position, delaying Schumacher in the final hour as he attempted to make up enough time to catch the Ferraris.
It wasn’t to be, though. While Pier Guidi had to pit the #51 for a short splash, taking just under a third of a tank of virtual energy, the #50 of Nielsen had saved enough to make it to the end without stopping. Admittedly he was helped by two full course yellows.
So, Pier Guidi took the flag in the #51 Ferrari, 4.2 seconds ahead of Fuoco. Nielsen, in the #50 Ferrari for the finish, was second, with essentially no energy left, 0.919 ahead of Schumacher in third.
Fourth was Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota, with fifth and sixth going to the two Cadillacs, Alex Lynn in the #12 ahead of Sebastien Bourdais in the #38.
