Conway Leads Topsy-Turvy Opening Hour at Spa

Mike Conway led the first hour at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps after an intriguing start that saw the Hypercar field take divergent tire strategies in damp conditions.

Conway in the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid held a 12.7-second lead over Laurens Vanthoor’s No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 in the battle between cars that started on slicks.

A drizzly morning in the Ardennes caused Hypercar teams to take different approaches to the beginning of the race.

With no intermediate option available, teams needed to decide whether they would start on Michelin’s slicks or treaded wets.

Several opted for the former including the two pole-sitting Toyotas, both factory Porsches and the No. 3 Cadillac V-Series.R from Chip Ganassi Racing.

That initially looked to be the wrong call as the wet-shod Ferrari 499Ps of Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicklas Nielsen powered past Conway out of La Source on lap one.

Conway lost further positions to Cadillac driver Earl Bamber and Antonio Felix da Costa in the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche, but the momentum quickly swung back in favor of slicks.

An early safety car period for Iron Lynx GTE-Am driver Claudio Schiavoni spinning into the Les Combes gravel kept the Hypercar contingent close together, before Conway and Vanthoor started to claw back the lost ground.

Just before the half-hour mark, Conway split the Toyotas and seized the lead from Giovinazzi in the twisty middle sector. The change was immediately followed by Nielsen, Bamber, da Costa and both Peugeot 9X8s pitting to switch onto wets.

This created two distinct groups in Hypercar, with Conway at the head of the seven-car main group and Menezes in the No. 94 Peugeot leading the six-car chasing pack.

The Ferraris lost significant ground following their tire switches and dropped to the foot of the top category.

With one hour completed, Conway led from Vanthoor with Renger van der Zande in third behind the wheel of the No. 3 Cadillac.

Sebastien Buemi was fourth in the No. 8 Toyota which started from 36th after a crash meant that it didn’t set a time during qualifying. Buemi battled past the non-hybrid LMH cars from Vanwall and Glickenhaus before taking Christensen on the Kemmel Straight.

In LMP2, Tom Blomqvist settled into an early lead for United Autosports, with 20 seconds in hand to Prema driver Doriane Pin who was coming under pressure from Team WRT’s Sean Gelael.

D’station Racing Aston Martin driver Tomonubu Fujii claimed the GTE-Am lead with an overtake on Corvette Racing’s Ben Keating into Les Combes after 24 minutes.

Fujii went kept control until the end of the stint, with Sarah Bovy moving the Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 into second and Michael Dinan running third for ORT by TF.

Multiple cars spun on the formation laps in the challenging conditions, including the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca and the GTE-Am Porsches from Dempsey-Proton Racing and Iron Lynx.