When you thought you’ve seen everything in racing, we see the nature pulling a prank in those participating of the 6 Hours of Spa, penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The usual would be sun and rain, and this appeared there, but sleet, hail and even snow were in the way of the No. 8 Toyota of Fernando Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi, along with the competition.
The weather was a challenge just some hours before the race with snow falling in the region, which turned into hail during the start of the race, and with the sky not collaborating with the competitors, rain tires were a must, though there were those brave ones who made their stay on track longer.
The weather needed only 30 minutes of racing to turn from hail to proper snow, and although Eduardo Freitas mentioned he wouldn’t send the Safety Car only for rain, if it’s snowing is another case, which is why we had the first intervention of the race, at least until the weather settled down.
The race was resumed near the end of the first hour and Toyota was quick to dominate it with their two TS050s, with the action staying in LMGTE-Pro as Aston Martin, AF Corse and BMW MTEK were trading paint for positions.
During the second hour most of the battles on track remained clean and fair, though what brought problems were the interactions between cars from different classes, with the No. 4 ByKolles CLM and the No. 95 Aston Martin being the biggest losers, by coincidence after collisions with LMP2 cars.
The way to the halfway mark presented different scenarios compared to the start of the race. The No. 29 Nederland Dallara was commanding the LMP2 class but the change to the gentleman driver Fritz van Eerd and a contact penalty sent the car to the class bottom, and the Porsche pair, so dominant in LMGTE-Pro, was also going down, with the No. 91 being third and the No. 92 in fifth. Another huge setback near the halfway was the leading No. 7 Toyota going to the garage for checks and repairs, which opened the door for the No. 8 Toyota to take it.
What came after that was a series of changes between wet and dry weather, with more sleet coming with an hour and a half to go and the Safety Car having to get back on track due to the treacherous conditions.
There was less rain at the circuit but the condition was far from dry, so mastering it was key to get a class lead, like Pastor Maldonado did in the No. 31 DragonSpeed Oreca in LMP2, and how Maxime Martin was holding P1 in LMGTE-Pro for the No. 97 Aston Martin. A long Safety Car period was needed again due to sleet, leaving only 15 minutes of green flag, though Eduardo Freitas had other plans for it with the persistent bad weather, so the decision was to Red Flag the race and end it with 11 minutes to go, giving the win to the No. 8 Toyota.
The No. 31 DragonSpeed Oreca won the LMP2 class from a dominating stint in the final quarter, the No. 97 Aston Martin survived the pressure of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari to win in LMGTE-Pro, and the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche controlled the LMGTE-Am class.
Toyota left Spa-Francorchamps with the World Endurance Championship for Teams title and has Alonso, Buemi and Nakajima in a favorable position to win the title. The No. 36 Signatech Alpine trio leads the LMP2 standings with 143 points against 139 from the No. 38 DC Racing Oreca and 138 from the No. 37 DC Racing Oreca.
Porsche has the LMGTE Manufacturers title in its hands while their four drivers are in a leading position to win the other trophy, and the No. 56 Project 1 Porsche leads with 113 points in the LMGTE-Am standings while the No. 54 Spirit of Race Ferrari is in second with 90 points and the No. 90 TF Sport Aston Martin has 87.
All the attentions now are headed to France, with the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans being the next event, and it will be the first time that the FIA WEC will see the race at La Sarthe being a season finale, which heavily boosts the importance of the race on June 15th and 16th.
PHOTO: FIA World Endurance Championship/AdrenalMedia, Toyota Motorsport
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