Toyota Leads First Hour, Nightmare Start for Genesis

The No. 8 Toyota of championship leader Sebastien Buemi led the Barcelona FIA World Endurance Championship round after the first hour but faced a penalty for a start procedure infringement.

It was a strong first hour in the Barcelona rain for the Japanese manufacturer as Nyck de Vries in the No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid progressed from ninth to demote the No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Miguel Molina for second just before the clock hit 60 minutes.

However, it was a disappointing first lap for Genesis Magma Racing after the WEC newcomer had secured first and third on the grid.

Andre Lotterer in the pole-sitting No. 17 GMR-001 was slightly slow at the start and the sister No. 19 machine of Dani Juncadella dived ahead of both Lotterer and Buemi into Turn 1.

But the Spaniard’s lead at his home track proved very brief as he skated off at Turn 5 further around the lap and fell to the bottom of the Hypercar pack.

Further back, Will Stevens in the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R spun the No. 35 Signatech Alpine A424 of Ferdinand Habsburg at the first corner, for which Stevens earned a ten-second penalty.

Behind, a chain reaction among the LMGT3 field left Hadrien David’s Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 stranded in the gravel and the Virtual Safety Car was called.

It was 20 minutes into the race before the green-flag racing resumed with Buemi continuing to lead from the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of Phil Hanson — who narrowly avoided getting tagged in the Stevens/Habsburg incident — and Lotterer.

But it was only four laps before another caution when Harry Tincknell in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie was the latest to go off at Turn 5 and nudged into the barriers.

The entire Hypercar field elected to pit during this VSC with the exception of the WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Rene Rast, who rose from the fringes of the top-ten to second.

But this offset strategy was undermined when the BMW had to pit after being shown a black-and-orange flag for a tire pressure that was too low and Rast had to pit immediately after the safety car concluded, falling to the very rear of the field.

This had put Molina up to second prior to de Vries’ move, while the No. 83 Ferrari was running fourth at the end of the first hour.

Stevens was fifth in the Cadillac, while the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 of Paul di Resta enjoyed a flying start to rise up to sixth.

The No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Yasser Shahin led the LMGT3 contenders at the end of the first hour, with the pair of TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs running second and third.

LMGT3 polesitter Antares Au’s Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo was another to struggle in the wet conditions as he plummeted down the order in the opening stint, losing out to both the No. 92 Porsche and the No. 33 Corvette of Ben Keating shortly after the VSC.

Keating did momentarily fall back to fourth with a wide moment at Turn 5 but soon recovered past Au, albeit having dropped behind the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Eric Powell.

All of the field then pitted during the second VSC with Shahin continuing to lead from Keating and the sister No. 34 Corvette of Peter Dempsey, who had both jumped Powell in the stops.

Martin Berry was up to fifth in the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo but was another with a penalty hanging over him after being deemed the cause of the first-corner LMGT3 shenanigans.