Toyota Secures 1-2 in Incident-Filled 6H Spa

Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez led a Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, despite a five-second penalty for Kobayashi overtaking teammate Brendon Hartley off track.

The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid finished 16.6 seconds ahead of the No. 8 sister car, which came up through the field from last place to finish second in the hands of Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi.

Kobayashi made the race-winning overtake in the final hour of the contest, after Hartley made his final stop.

The New Zealender emerged on track on track just ahead of Kobayashi as the pair headed down to Eau Rouge.

Kobayashi rapidly closed the gap and passed Hartley through Raidillon, but fully left the circuit on corner exit and did not give back the position.

He was given a five-second penalty for the offense, which allowed the No.7 crew to keep the race victory.

The No. 51 Ferrari 499P, driven by Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi completed the podium thanks to a late pass from Calado on Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Frederic Makowiecki.

Calado overtook Makowiecki at Les Combes in the closing moments of the six-hour contest and finished just under three seconds clear of the Frenchman.

Makowiecki, Dane Cameron and Michael Christensen ended up fourth in the No. 5 Porsche 963, with the top five rounded out by the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R. of Richard Westbrook, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber.

The race at Spa was marked by difficult conditions and several notable incidents for Hypercar runners throughout.

It began with an additional formation lap behind the safety car due to wet conditions, after which varying tire strategies meant a lot of changes in the running order.

The race lost one of its podium contenders in Hypercar early on when Renger van der Zande crashed hard at Eau Rouge aboard the No. 3 Cadillac, eliminating it from the race.

Later, Antonio Fuoco crashed the No. 50 Ferrari after emerging from the pits on cold tires, while Jacques Villeneuve clashed with AF Corse’s Francesco Castellacci out of Stavelot to end Floyd Vanwall Racing Team’s day.

Meanwhile, the No. 6 Porsche retired after it stopped on track with Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel in the third hour.

Porsche still saw two of its LMDh cars finish, however, as customer squad Hertz Team JOTA claimed sixth on its Hypercar debut with a car that it only received last week.

The best of the Peugeot 9X8s finished 13th overall, one position ahead of the Glickenhaus 007 Pipo.

WRT, AF Corse Take Class Honors

Team WRT won the LMP2 class by beating United Autosports off the pit lane during late simultaneous fuel stops.

Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz, driving the No. 41 Oreca 07 Gibson took victory by 6.042 seconds over the No. 23 Oreca of Josh Pierson, Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis.

Deletraz and Blomqvist were engaged in a battle late in the race that went onto pit road, with both cars stopping for fuel with just under fifteen minutes remaining.

WRT beat its main rival off pit lane with a stop that was a handful of seconds quicker, after which Deletraz maintained the gap back to the Anglo-American squad to win.

Inter Europol Competition completed the podium thanks to a charging late drive from Albert Costa aboard the No. 43 Oreca, who passed Robin Frijns, Filipe Albuquerque and Andrea Caldarelli in the final hour en route to third place.

Costa shared the No. 34 car with Fabio Scherer and Jakub Smiechowski.

Caldarelli, Filip Ugran and Bent Viscaal finished fourth, with the second United Oreca of Filipe Albuquerque, Frederick Lubin and Phil Hanson completing the top five.

Alessio Rovera, Lilou Wadoux and Luis Perez Companc won GTE-Am in the No. 83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

The trio finished 18.6 seconds ahead of the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of championship leaders Nico Varrone, Nicky Catsburg and Ben Keating.

Catsburg fought an intense battle for the second spot on the podium in the final minutes with the No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Charlie Eastwood.

Eastwood steadily chipped away at the Dutchman’s lead in the closing stages and repeatedly attempted to pass the Corvette, but failed to do so.

Eastwood, sharing the car with Ahmad Al Harthy and Michael Dinan, completed the podium in class.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps