Lopez Leads Toyota 1-2 at Halfway as No. 6 Porsche Retires

Jose Maria Lopez held a substantial lead in a one-two for Toyota Gazoo Racing halfway into the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps as the No. 6 Porsche 963 retired from second.

With three hours completed, Lopez had a 53-second cushion over teammate Ryo Hirakawa after taking over the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid from pole-sitter Mike Conway.

The two LMH-spec Toyotas had been split between Porsche Penske Motorsport driver Laurens Vanthoor until the Belgian driver stopped his Porsche LMDh prototype at the exit of the Bus Stop after two and a quarter hours.

Vanthoor told WEC official TV pit lane reporter Louise Beckett that the car experienced a “complete blackout.”

“I tried doing some procedures which we usually try, but it didn’t manage to reactivate anything,” he said.

Shortly after the Porsche drama, Conway and Sebastien Buemi pitted the Toyotas just before a Full Course Yellow period, which was called for a combination of Vanthoor’s stoppage and a spin for Floyd Vanwall Racing Team’s Esteban Guerrieri at Les Combes.

Conway managed a full service, swapping out for Lopez, but Buemi came in after the planned FCY was confirmed which meant that he needed to bring the No. 8 in again to complete its work. That ended up doubling the gap between the Toyotas.

Vanthoor’s retirement promoted the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber into third, but a pit stop for the Chip Ganassi Racing-run LMDh car put Dane Cameron’s No. 5 Penske Porsche ahead at the midway point.

With three hours to go, Cameron sat 50 seconds behind Buemi, with Lynn a further 52 seconds behind the remaining factory Porsche.

Miguel Molina and Alessandro Pier Guidi were fifth and sixth in the AF Corse Ferrari 499Ps, ahead of the best of the Peugeot 9X8s driven by Mikkel Jensen.

Peugeot’s No. 94 car lost three minutes when it encountered a loss of power at the end of the pit lane just after its third stop.

In LMP2, Ferdinand Habsburg battled with Louis Deletraz for the top spot in class at halfway in a tight battle between the Team WRT teammates.

Their nearest opponent was United Autosports driver Josh Pierson, whose co-driver Tom Blomqvist opened up a significant lead in the early stages before a safety car period axed the advantage.

Richard Mille AF Corse driver Lilou Wadoux led Proton Competition’s Zacharie Robichon by six seconds in GTE-Am, with both drivers due to make a pit stop.

Multiple cars remained in the category mix, including the ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage GTE and the Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19.