Conway Leads Opening Hour at Spa

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Mike Conway leads the WEC Six Hours of Spa after one hour, in a race that has gone the way of Toyota in the early stages.

The pair of season-long Toyota TS050 Hybrids run 1-2, with Conway holding a 10-second advantage over the No. 8 entry of Sebastien Buemi, with the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley third.

Pole-sitter Andre Lotterer had a difficult start, losing the lead to Conway at the 20-minute mark and fading to fourth at the end of his stint, where he handed over to Nick Tandy in an unscheduled driver change at the first stop.

“The tire drop came and I struggled a lot,” Lotterer said. “We decided to come in a little earlier and change the strategy a bit.”

The No. 1 Porsche now runs fifth, behind Nico Lapierre’s No. 9 Toyota, which overshot Turn 1 at the start but has showed improved form.

Bruno Senna leads LMP2 in the No. 31 Vaillante Rebellion Oreca 07 Gibson, following a pass on the pole-sitting No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca of Roman Rusinov at the 58-minute mark.

Rusinov impressively led the majority of the opening hour, fending off a charge from Romain Dumas, which has since dropped down the running order with an issue.

The GTE-Pro battle has seen a Ferrari vs. Ford dogfight, with the No. 66 Ford GT of Olivier Pla now out front, following the first round of pit stops, thanks to a fuel-only stop.

Class pole-sitter Davide Rigon led early and now runs third, with the Silverstone class-winning
No. 67 Ford of Harry Tincknell briefly stopping on track with a technical issue after his stop.

The No. 77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR of Christian Ried leads GTE-Am, although has yet to make a pit stop.

Pedro Lamy dominated the opening stages of the race in the class in the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE but has been given a ten-second penalty for a grid infringement.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John