Spa WEC: #7 Toyota victorious in dramatic mixed weather race

The 2022 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps may not have been an instant classic, but it certainly was a typical Spa sportscar race. At 1pm local time the race started in dry conditions, but soon enough the capricious Ardennes weather began to play a starring role.

In the #8 Toyota Sebastien Buemi led the early running after both Toyotas passed the polesitting #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH of Olivier Pla.

But after the first of three red flags for the crash of Miroslav Konopka in the #44 ARC Bratislava LMP2 car, Buemi was forced to park his car after the restart with what the team described as hybrid issues.

A power cycle proving futile, Buemi retired the #8 car on the spot, handing over the lead to the #7 sister car. It was the second retirement in as many races for the Japanese giant, although its misfortune has been evenly spread across both entries so far.

Konopka's off - just as it had started drizzling over one part of the Ardennes circuit but stayed bone dry on the other, a classic Spa-ism - was the first of many. During the first red flag teams were forced to gamble on whether the rain would persist, but soon enough the floodgates duly opened.

The refurbished and repaved circuit proved even more slippery than usual, and when cars started aquaplaning the race was red flagged a second time before the two-hour mark.

During the second red flag period Robin Frijns had cycled into the lead in the #31 WRT Oreca 07 LMP2, and as racing continued the Dutchman continued to impress with his wet weather prowess as he distanced Conway in the #7 Toyota.

The race's third stoppage occurred after three hours and 20 minutes following a crash for Alex Brundle in the #34 Inter Europol Oreca LMP2 machine. Brundle slapped the Turn 9 barriers hard, which prompted repairs to the armco.

Other offs in that period included a scary moment for Antonio Felix da Costa in the #38 JOTA car, who barely managed to keep the LMP2 frontrunner out of the wall, as well as excursions for Prema's Louis Deletraz and Vector Sport's Sebastien Bourdais. Though in fairness to them it would be easier to list the cars that didn't spin or go off track at any point.

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With little over two hours to go, racing resumed once again on a circuit that slowly but surely started drying.

On intermediates Toyota's Lopez tried to build a gap on Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Alpine, while half a lap behind them WRT's Rene Rast continued to circulate at a similar pace to the Hypercar class runners.

Lopez made his final pitstop for slicks with 30 minutes to go, safe in the knowledge that Vaxiviere also would have to pit. The Argentine brought the #7 to the chequered flag with a 27s lead, finding redemption after he crashed the car out of March's Sebring 1000 Miles.

Vaxiviere and Alpine teammates Negrao and Nicolas Lapierre settled for second, reinforcing their lead in the championship after winning Florida's season opener.

Polesitting Glickenhaus took a hit when a miscommunication between the team and Pipo Derani caused the Brazilian to make an extra pitstop for grooved tyres. That dropped the boutique manufacturer to ninth behind the LMP2 frontrunners but still third in Hypercar.

1-2 for WRT in LMP2

#31 Wrt Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 : Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns, René Rast

Photo by: Eric Le Galliot

Jousting for the overall lead at one stage, WRT proved the class of the LMP2 field. On home soil the Vincent Vosse-led outfit bagged an overall podium in third with Frijns, Rast and Sean Gelael.

Behind Rast, the #41 sister car of Ferdinand Habsburg fought out a prolonged battle with Phil Hanson in the #22 United Autosports Oreca. 

Hanson overtook Habsburg twice but spun off at the Bus Stop chicane to allow Habsburg and teammates Norman Nato and Rui Andrade to finish second, while Will Stevens brought home the #38 JOTA machine he shares with Roberto Gonzalez and da Costa.

American powerhouse Penske also passed the United car for fourth when Hanson made an additional late pitstop under yellow, despite the young Briton's best efforts to re-pass Felipe Nasr late on.

GTE Pro: Ferrari defeats Porsche in titanic battle

#51 AF CORSE Ferrari 488 GTE EVO: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado

Photo by: Paul Foster

In GTE Pro, honours went to the #51 AF Corse Ferrari crew of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Porsche endured a rough start despite occupying the front row. Kevin Estre outbraked himself in the #92 911 RSR-19 as he tried to pass polesitting teammate Gianmaria Bruni at La Source. While Estre passed Bruni, the pair made contact on exit, which led to a puncture for the Italian.

That forced the #92 to fight the two Ferraris and the Corvette on its own, and through the first stoppage the #52 Ferrari gained a one-lap lead by staying out. That huge gap was cancelled out after the third red flag, allowing the GTE Pro class to resume a straight fight to the finish.

As the track dried up, the #52 Ferrari dropped down the order behind the #51 and the #92 Porsche, setting up a door-to-door duel between Antonio Fuoco and Michael Christensen in the final hour. Christensen found a way past the Italian and then hunted down leader Calado, but their battle was halted by a late full-course yellow.

During a rare 10-minute green flag spell to the flag Christensen immediately tried to pounce but Calado resisted valiantly. Grappling with both slower and faster traffic on the final few laps, Calado continued to soak up the Dane's pressure and beat the Porsche by a few car lengths.

Fuoco closely followed in third in the #52 car he shared with Davide Rigon, with Corvette Racing's sole entry a distant fourth ahead of the #91 Porsche.

In GTE Am, Harry Tincknell, Sebastian Priaulx and Christian Ried took the win in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche after a late yellow set up a shootout for victory between Tincknell and the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Marco Sorensen. Nicki Thiim took third in the #98 Northwest AMR Aston.

Spa WEC - Race results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	103
2	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	103	27.473
3	31	Sean Gelael Robin Frijns René Rast	Oreca 07	LMP2	103	1'06.185
4	41	Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	103	1'40.676
5	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	103	1'48.571
6	5	Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr	Oreca 07	LMP2	103	1'57.610
7	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen	Oreca 07	LMP2	103	1'57.901
8	23	Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	102	1 Lap
9	708	Olivier Pla Romain Dumas Pipo Derani	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	102	1 Lap
10	9	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo	Oreca 07	LMP2	102	1 Lap
11	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	102	1 Lap
12	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	102	1 Lap
13	52	Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	102	1 Lap
14	1	Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	101	2 Laps
15	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Oreca 07	LMP2	101	2 Laps
16	10	Nico Müller Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais	Oreca 07	LMP2	101	2 Laps
17	45	Steven Thomas James Allen Rene Binder	Oreca 07	LMP2	101	2 Laps
18	64	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	101	2 Laps
19	35	Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau	Oreca 07	LMP2	100	3 Laps
20	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	100	3 Laps
21	77	Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	99	4 Laps
22	33	Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	99	4 Laps
23	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	99	4 Laps
24	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	99	4 Laps
25	46	Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	99	4 Laps
26	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	98	5 Laps
27	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	97	6 Laps
28	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	97	6 Laps
29	88	Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	96	7 Laps
30	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	96	7 Laps
31	21	Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	94	9 Laps
32	71	Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	91	12 Laps
	56	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	93	10 Laps
	28	Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Jonathan Aberdein	Oreca 07	LMP2	82	21 Laps
	34	Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez	Oreca 07	LMP2	52	51 Laps
	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	29	74 Laps
	44	Miro Konopka Tijmen van der Helm Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07	LMP2	25	78 Laps
View full results