Robin Frijns, Sheldon van der Linde and Rene Rast have taken BMW’s first overall FIA World Endurance Championship race victory with a win at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, as the sister car came home second to complete a 1-2 for the German manufacturer.
At the flag Frijns, in the #20 BMW, had a x gap to Kevin Magnussen in the #15 car. Third across the line was Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari, just a few tenths off Magnussen.
Loic Duval started the race from pole in the #94 Peugeot, with Will Stevens in the #12 Cadillac second.
The Frenchman in the French car initially retained the lead out of La Source and into Eau Rouge, but Stevens used the slipstream and moved into the lead going into Les Combes.
Stevens maintained that lead but wasn’t able to pull away from Duval, with Ferdinand Habsburg, behind the wheel of the #35 Alpine, third.
Unfortunately for Peugeot their race pace was not as strong as their one lap pace in qualifying the previous day. Habsburg was soon able to take second off Duval, and set about catching Stevens in the lead.
Away from the lead, though, Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota made an early, scheduled, pitstop. This put the Imola race winning car off strategy, which may well come in handy later in the race…
When the leaders stopped using a conventional strategy – pit when you run out fuel – BMW short fueled the #15 car, with Rast at the wheel, to get it out ahead of Hartley, who was due to take the lead. Rast had started 11th, but at the end of the first stop cycle he led, with Hartley second just a few tenths behind and Stevens third and Habsburg fourth.
Rast subsequently began to pull away from Hartley, and by the time he pitted, had a 9 second gap to the Kiwi. Hartley, meanwhile, had a 10 second gap to Stevens, the leader of the cars on a conventional strategy.
These two pitting, Hartley first followed by Rast a lap later, handed the lead back to Stevens.
Much later into the stint and Stevens pitted, handing the car over to teammate Louis Deletraz, with the lead jumping back to the #15 BMW, now with Sheldon van der Linde at the wheel, and the #8 Toyota of Ryo Hirakawa third.
When both pitted on schedule, Deletraz retook the lead with Da Costa behind. However, when they pitted they swapped, giving van der Linde the lead once again in the #15 BMW.
The gap between the leaders was now in the region of 30 seconds, with van der Linde enjoying a similar lead over Hirakawa in the Toyota, who simply couldn’t kep up with the German car.
With half gone in the race, it seemed it was coming down to a battle behind the #35 Alpine and the #15 BMW, as both cars behind each, the #12 Cadillac and the #8 Toyota, had faded. However, a virtual safety car would turn the race on its head.
Going into Les Combes, Matteo Cressoni in the #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes spun while being passed by one of the Toyota Hypercars. Just behind, the pole-sitting car, the #94 Peugeot with Malthe Jakobsen at the wheel, could not avoid the Mercedes, with the two colliding and putting both out of the race.
This put the race under virtual and then full safety car, and in doing so neutralised the Hypercar strategies, putting everyone on the same strategy, as all cars pitted under caution.
At the restart, Frijns in the #15 BMW led from Sebastien Buemi in the #8, with Charles Milesi in the #35 Alpine third and Dries Vanthoor, in the #20 BMW, fourth.
D. Vanthoor almost immediately took third off Milesi at the restart going into La Source, with the Frenchman struggling on old tyres. Later that lap he’d also lose fourth to Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari.
However, all was not well in Buemi’s world. Despite stopping under VSC, he’d need to stop twice before the end of the race in less than 2 hours time, with his rivals only needing to stop once.
It was then, though, that the race took a dramatic turn. Augusto Farfus, in the #32 BMW, clattered into #51 Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi at La Source, badly damaging the Ferrari’s sidepod. The Italian car deposited fluid over the inside of the famous hairpin corner and so another virtual safety car was called while marshals recovered the Ferrari and laid down sand to absorb the fluid.
Most cars pitted under VSC to enable to get them to the end. Buemi, however, stopped twice and put the #8 car well out of contention, although in Toyota’s favour Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 was able to move up to fourth in the shuffle under caution.
Magnussen, too, in the #15 BMW was now second behind teammte Frijns in the #20 BMW. Third was Antonio Fuoco, still in the #50 Ferrari and eager to take Ferrari’s first race win of the year. Fifth was Da Costa in the #35 Alpine, while sixth was Alex Riberas in the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie.
The race restarted and Frijns maintained the lead, but it wasn’t long before the race was back under safety car for an incident on the Kemmel Straight.
Da Costa, attempting to maintain fifth from Riberas who had a straight line speed advantage over the Alpine, squeezed the Aston Martin to drivers right approaching Les Combes. Riberas had no option but to take to the grass, where he lost control and spun across the track, hitting the barrier on drivers left, as well as taking out a polystyrene board.
This robust defensive move from Da Costa led to the Aston Martin needing to pit and another safety car period.
When the race restarted for a final time with 25 minutes left on the clock, Frijns began to pull away from Magnussen. Fuoco was right on the Dane, though, with the #15 BMW driver seemingly struggling for grip with his tyres. Behind Fuoco was Kobayashi, and Tom Gamble, in the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie fifth.
Da Costa, meanwhile, had got a puncture from his contact with Riberas earlier, demoting him out of the 10 and contention.
Try as he might, Fuoco could not find a way past Magnussen. Similarly, Kobayashi could not find a way into third over Fuoco. The fighting enabled Gamble to catch up, ultimately leading to an incredible four-car battle for second with all the pressure on Magnussen.
The Dane managed to maintain second, though, with Fuoco third. Gamble was able to find his way past Kobayashi going up the Kemmel Straight, with the experienced Japanese driver slightly delayed by traffic exiting Raidillon. Gamble needed no invitation and used the power from the Valkyrie’s V12 engine to move past the Toyota and into fourth.
And that was how it finished, with Frijns taking BMW’s first overall WEC win alongside his teammates Rast and S. van der Linde. Second, just under 2 seconds back, was the #15 BMW of Magnussen, D. Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello, while third went to Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen of the #50 Ferrari, just 6 and half tenths adrift of Magnussen.
Gamble was fourth in the #007 Aston Martin, with Kobayashi fifth in the #7 Toyota.
Garage 59 win LMGT3 in only their second race
In LMGT3, Marvin Kirchhofer crossed the line to take Garage 59’s first WEC LMGT3 victory in only their second race, in the #10 McLaren car.
However, he was not the winner on track, as Alessio Rovera in the #21 AF Corse Ferrari crossed the line first but had 5 seconds added to his race time for an unsafe release. This dropped him and his teammates, Simon Mann and Francois Heriau, to fourth.
Second was Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, just over 2 seconds adrift, while third went to Richard Lietz, Yasser Shahin and Riccardo Pera in the #92 Manthey Porsche.
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