BMW Team WRT Takes 1-2 in Dramatic Spa Contest

BMW scored a first FIA World Endurance Championship victory in the Hypercar era in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps after opting for an alternate fuel strategy and then surviving two safety car periods in the final hour to take a 1-2 triumph.

The No. 20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns opted to make a shorter first pit stop that put it on a vastly different strategy to the majority of the field and this was the key to it vaulting up the order to take the German marque’s first overall win in an ACO-organized series since its victory in the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours.

Once the No. 20 BMW had climbed into contention, it continued to pull clear from the rest and the only other car that opted for a similar strategy, the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid, was unable to keep up.

A safety car at the start of the fifth hour after the pole-sitting No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Malthe Jakobsen struck the spinning No. 79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Matteo Cressoni at Les Combe, meant virtually the entire field pitted and put many of the cars onto a similar strategy.

Two further caution periods inside the final hour, the first after the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi was struck at La Source by an out of control Augusto Farfus in the No. 32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO and the second after Alex Riberas took to the grass on the Kemmel Straight at the wheel of the No. 009 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie when trying to pass the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Antonio Felix da Costa and struck the barriers, consolidated the lead BMW’s advantage.

The sister No. 15 BMW vaulted up the order by pitting just as the virtual safety car was called for Jakobsen’s crash and Kevin Magnussen was therefore able to act as a rear gunner to leader Frijns in the final hour.

Magnussen did not change tires during its final stop and this meant he was under intense pressure from Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 Ferrari, which had four new tires.

Their squabbling meant Frijns was able to scamper clear with an eventual winning margin of 1.969 seconds.

Magnussen was able to hold on in the No. 15 BMW he shared with Dries Vanthoor and Raffaele Marciello to make it a memorable day for BMW on WRT’s home soil to take an unlikely result after qualifying only tenth and 11th.

Fuoco had to settle for third, in the car he shared with Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina, the crew overcoming losing 20 seconds in its second pitstop with a left-front wheel nut that refused to budge.

Fuoco had the No. 7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi right on his tail in the final 25 minutes but the Japanese driver was unable to make a move in the closing laps.

Instead, the No. 007 crew salvaged some cheer for Aston after Riberas’ late exit as Tom Gamble passed Kobayashi on the Kemmel Straight to finish fourth in the car he shared with Harry Tincknell to take the Valkyrie’s best result in WEC competition.

Kobayashi had to settle for fifth in the No. 7 Toyota alongside Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries that had started down in 12th.

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari ended up completing the top-six amid the flurry of late problems for the other Hypercar contenders, which included da Costa spinning on cold tires at Raidillon and narrowly avoiding Gamble.

Peugeot had to make do with seventh place, while there was a remarkable result for Genesis Magma Racing as it scored points with eighth place in just the second race for the GMR-001.

The No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R had led in the early stages after Will Stevens passed the pole-sitting Peugeot on the Kemmel Straight on the first lap.

The Cadillac continued to lead whenever the No. 20 BMW pitted in the first half of the six hours before its race began to unravel with a five-second penalty for Louis Deletraz passing back markers off the track at Raidillon.

Then a later decision to use the soft tires backfired and the Cadillac began to plummet down the order and finished an eventual ninth, while the No. 8 Toyota rounded out the top ten.

Garage 59 Makes Up for Imola Misery With LMGT3 win

The No. 10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo took victory in the LMGT3 class with Antares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhoefer making up for the disappointment of missing out on the win in the final half hour at Imola.

Key to their class win was a flying middle portion of the race from Fleming as he stormed up the order, while a host of rivals suffered penalties.

The No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Francois Heriau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera finished first on the road, but was given a five-second post-race penalty for a pit infringement at its final stop.

The late safety-car periods meant Rovera was unable to negate that penalty and the McLaren crew therefore triumphed by 2.148 seconds from the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi.

The No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Yasser Shahin, Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz was promoted to the podium, while the No. 21 Ferrari was classified fourth.

Proton Competition’s pair of Ford Mustang GT3 EVOs were the stars of the early portion of the race with Eric Powell guiding the No. 77 machine into the lead by bravely passing the polesitting No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Tom Van Rompuy at Eau Rouge.

But Powell then threw that lead away by spinning off at Stavelot inside the first half hour to bring out an early safety car.

The No. 88 Mustang then climbed into the lead at the first round of stops before it picked up a drive-through penalty for track-limits penalties that had seemingly opened the door for a Ferrari triumph.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps