Toyota in Halfway Lead at Portimao; Porsche Takes Third

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Ryo Hirakawa held a commanding lead of almost 50 seconds at the halfway point of the 6 Hours of Portimao, while Porsche moved up to third place.

Hirakawa made the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid’s third pit stop of the FIA World Endurance Championship round just before the three-hour mark and remained at the wheel.

The Japanese driver had a large cushion over the rest of the Hypercar class after Toyota drew away from Ferrari AF Corse’s opening-hour challenge and the No. 7 Toyota lost significant ground due to a torque sensor issue.

Miguel Molina ran second in the No. 50 Ferrari 499P, however AF Corse’s hopes of getting two cars on the podium were dented in the third hour when Antonio Giovanizzi’s pace dropped due to problems with the No. 51 machine’s brake-by-wire system.

The Italian driver lost third to Kevin Estre, who planted his No. 6 Porsche 963 down the inside at the fast Turn 12 left-hander, before coming into the pits.

Giovanizzi didn’t lose any time during his service and emerged ahead of the fifth-placed Peugeot 9X8 of Gustavo Menezes, who had a 15-second deficit to the No. 51 Ferrari.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R ran sixth, ahead of the No. 5 Porsche and the No. 93 Peugeot which started from the pit lane due to power steering gremlins.

In LMP2, United Autosports driver Oliver Jarvis held a four-second halfway lead over Prema driver Mirko Bortolotti.

The No. 63 Prema Oreca 07 Gibson is still in the hunt for victory after Daniil Kvyat was handed a five-second penalty for turning the Vector Sport Oreca around at Turn 5.

United Autosports’ Phil Hanson and Team WRT’s Robin Frijns were battling for fourth, meanwhile.

With three hours to go, Porsche squad Iron Dames and Corvette Racing were eight seconds apart at the head of the GTE-Am field, shortly before the front-runners made a round of stops.

Davide Rigon overtook Simon Mann to put AF Corse’s No. 54 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo ahead of the Italian outfit’s No. 21 machine and had got close to Corvette’s Nico Varrone before the conclusion of the stint.