Race report
WEC Spa-Francorchamps (2019)
Spa WEC: Alonso, Buemi, Nakajima win snow-hit race
Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima took a significant step towards FIA World Endurance Championship title glory by taking victory in a snow-hit race at Spa.
Jamie Klein
Edited: May 5, 2019, 6:38 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The drivers of the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid took a one-lap victory in a race disrupted by four safety car periods and two full-course yellows - and which was finally red-flagged with 11 minutes to run - helped by the sister #7 entry losing a healthy lead with a technical gremlin.
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez were over 50 seconds in the clear when they were hit by a failed brake sensor just short of half-distance, necessitating a trip to the garage that lasted 11 minutes and cost them four laps.
They eventually trailed home sixth, meaning Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima take a 31-point lead to the Le Mans 24 Hours next month with only 39 points left to play for.
The #8 Toyota lost ground after the first of multiple snow showers hit Spa, as Buemi was forced into an extra stop early in the second hour because he was not given slick tyres.
That left Buemi trailing by 56 seconds, although Alonso was able to reduce that to 45s during his first stint, despite a spin at Pouhon that co-incided with the start of a VSC.
Kobayashi had edged the gap back up when the problem hit that effectively decided the race, and potentially the destiny of the championship battle.
The LMP1 privateers were afforded a rare chance to fight for two spots on the podium as a result of the #7 car's problems, and it was the #3 Rebellion R-13 shared by Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Nathanael Berthon that took second place.
SMP Racing had looked to have taken the upper hand with its #11 BR Engineering BR1 of WEC debutant Stoffel Vandoorne, Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov when the Russian squad reacted quicker to changing conditions during a shower in hour four.
However, the penultimate safety car period eradicated the gap between the two cars and Laurent was able to pass Petrov for second.
The #17 SMP car of Sergey Sirotkin, Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev dropped a lap to its sister car after shedding its front-right wheel early in hour three.
They managed to recover to fourth place, helped by a spin for Bruno Senna that dropped the #1 Rebellion the Brazilian shares with Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani to fifth.
The ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 finished the best part of 40 laps down after a clash with the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing LMP2 of Jordan King at La Source left the car with significant front-end damage that warranted a long trip to the garage.
LMP2: Maldonado delivers DragonSpeed victory
DragonSpeed secured its first WEC win in LMP2 courtesy of a storming late stint from Formula 1 race winner Pastor Maldonado.
The penultimate safety car period brought the #31 Oreca Maldonado shares with Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez to within spitting distance of the class lead, and Maldonado then picked off Gabriel Aubry in the #38 DC Racing car as well as Nicolas Lapierre's #36 Signatech Alpine entry.
Maldonado established a 10-second buffer out front, which was wiped out by the final safety car period, but the Venezuelan was able to keep his opponents at bay after the final restart before the red flags were shown.
G-Drive Racing's Aurus-badged Oreca shared by Jean-Eric Vergne, Roman Rusinov and Job van Uitert held on for second place ahead of the #36 car of Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet.
The #38 car of Aubry, Ho-Pin Tung and Stephane Richelmi was fourth in class, losing ground in the class championship fight to the #36 crew.
GTE: Aston Martin beats Ferrari
Aston Martin scored a second victory of the season with its new Vantage GTE, as Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn took honours in the #97 car.
Martin was able to pull a gap in the wet conditions towards the end of a class battle that ebbed and flowed for its entire distance as different manufacturers gambled on various tyre strategies.
Martin passed Davide Rigon's Ferrari after the penultimate restart and built a lead of 10 seconds over the BMW of Antonio Felix da Costa after Rigon pitted.
But BMW cost itself a likely podium by pitting both its cars in the closing stages, allowing the #51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado to take second.
Third on the road was the #91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, but they were due to serve a drive-through penalty after a clash with the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari when the race was halted early, and the resulting time penalty dropped the pair to eighth.
It meant the points-leading #92 Porsche of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen was promoted to the final spot on the podium, putting the pair within touching distance of the drivers' title.
That result was good enough to secure the GTE manufacturers' prize with a race to spare.
GTE Am honours went to the #77 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Ried, Matt Campbell and Riccardo Pera, some five seconds ahead of the pole-winning #90 TF Sport Aston Martin.
Championship leaders Egidio Perfetti, Patrick Lindsey and Jorg Bergmeister finished fifth in the #56 Project 1 Porsche after a late off at Fagnes.
Race results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Laps Gap 1 8 Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Fernando Alonso
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 133 2 3 Nathanael Berthon
Thomas Laurent
Gustavo Menezes
Rebellion R13 LMP1 132 1 Lap 3 11 Mikhail Aleshin
Vitaly Petrov
Stoffel Vandoorne
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 132 1 Lap 4 17 Stéphane Sarrazin
Egor Orudzhev
Sergey Sirotkin
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 131 2 Laps 5 1 Neel Jani
Andre Lotterer
Bruno Senna
Rebellion R13 LMP1 130 3 Laps 6 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 129 4 Laps 7 31 Roberto Gonzalez
Pastor Maldonado
Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 129 4 Laps 8 26 Roman Rusinov
Job Van Uitert
Jean-Eric Vergne
Aurus 01 LMP2 129 4 Laps 9 36 Nicolas Lapierre
Andre Negrao
Pierre Thiriet
Alpine A470 LMP2 129 4 Laps 10 38 Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry
Stéphane Richelmi
Oreca 07 LMP2 129 4 Laps 11 28 François Perrodo
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 128 5 Laps 12 29 Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Nyck de Vries
Dallara P217 LMP2 127 6 Laps 13 37 David Heinemeier Hansson
Jordan King
Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 127 6 Laps 14 50 Erwin Creed
Romano Ricci
Nicholas Boulle
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 126 7 Laps 15 97 Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 16 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 17 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 18 82 Augusto Farfus
Antonio Felix da Costa
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 19 67 Andy Priaulx
Harry Tincknell
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 20 71 Davide Rigon
Sam Bird
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 21 95 Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 22 91 Richard Lietz
Gianmaria Bruni
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 23 81 Martin Tomczyk
Nick Catsburg
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 124 9 Laps 24 66 Stefan Mücke
Olivier Pla
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 123 10 Laps 25 77 Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera
Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 122 11 Laps 26 90 Salih Yoluc
Euan Hankey
Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 122 11 Laps 27 61 Luis Perez Companc
Matteo Cressoni
Matthew Griffin
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 122 11 Laps 28 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 122 11 Laps 29 56 Jörg Bergmeister
Patrick Lindsey
Egidio Perfetti
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 122 11 Laps 30 98 Paul Dalla Lana
Pedro Lamy
Mathias Lauda
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 121 12 Laps 31 86 Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker
Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 121 12 Laps 32 70 Motoaki Ishikawa
Olivier Beretta
Eddie Cheever III
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 120 13 Laps 33 88 Gianluca Roda
Giorgio Roda
Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 115 18 Laps 34 4 Tom Dillmann
Oliver Webb
Paolo Ruberti
ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 95 38 Laps View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Toyota: Delay in 2020/21 rules confirmation “ridiculous”
Next article Alonso "extremely happy" with Spa WEC points swing
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jamie Klein
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
Super Formula
Super Formula
Fuji II
Super Formula Fuji: Ayumu Iwasa wins as Kakunoshin Ohta misses chance to seal title
Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title
Super Formula
Super Formula
Fuji II
Super Formula Fuji: Igor Fraga wins while Kakunoshin Ohta closes on title
Latest news
"Exhausted" George Russell set for Brazilian F1 grid penalty
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
40 min
"Exhausted" George Russell set for Brazilian F1 grid penalty
F1 Brazilian GP: Max Verstappen fastest so far in red flag-delayed FP1
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
45 min
F1 Brazilian GP: Max Verstappen fastest so far in red flag-delayed FP1
Ferrari says abolishing BoP should be “final goal” of 2030 WEC Hypercar regulations
WEC
WEC WEC
Bahrain
1 h
Ferrari says abolishing BoP should be “final goal” of 2030 WEC Hypercar regulations
"FIA Rating pushes drivers like me into retirement" - Sebastien Bourdais
WEC
WEC WEC
Bahrain
2 h
"FIA Rating pushes drivers like me into retirement" - Sebastien Bourdais
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe