Toyota was put as a
favorite at the start of the FIA World Endurance Championship,
but neither the Japanese manufacturer nor the fans would expect the
late challenge that Porsche put to the overall victory,
although the No. 8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and
Kazuki Nakajima still prevailed in a rather eventful race for most
classes.
The start had no incidents
and not a single risky move outside both Porsches rubbing side
panels. Both Toyotas built a slight gap but once the Porsche settled
their positions the difference stagnated. In the all-ORECA LMP2
class the No. 36 Signatech Alpine car had a clean run in the lead
while the No. 31 Rebellion and the No. 26 G-Drive had their fight for
second.
Once they got into
traffic, both the No. 7 & 8 Toyota started trading overtakes but
never messing it up and keeping the gap short. Behind them the
LMGTE-Pro class was dominated by the Fords, while hell
broke loose for fifth place in class with the No. 92 Porsche putting
the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari and the No. 97 Aston Martin
in the pocket while the No. 91 Porsche broke the Ford 1-2 and
jumped to second in class. The No. 67 Ford had quite a frightening
moment with 20 minutes of racing as the right side door opened out of
nowhere, and with lost time to shut the door and get to grips with
the race the No. 67 lost other two positions, falling down to fifth.
Rain was expected at some
point of the race but it started to came early with 45 minutes of
racing and both Toyotas pitted in this exact moment, with no sign of
a wet track they kept their slick tires, which the same choice for
both LMP1 Porsches. On the GTE-Pro side, the No. 91 Porsche stalled
after its pit-stop, ruining all the progress done to the moment.
When the Toyotas
deliberately switched positions the No. 8 lost contact, so that extra
pace wouldn't come, which opened thr door for reaction from the No.
Porsche, although soon the previous short gap was reestablished and
the distance to the Porsche got bigger again. Unlike the first round
of pit-stops, positions got really messed up in LMP1 as the No. 7
Toyota lost time and went down to fourth, behond both Porsches and
the leading Toyota, and the on-track advantage to Porsche soon wasn't
there anymore, losing a lap in the process but recovering it in the
third hour.
While traffic hasn't been
exactly a problem for all classes, there were some rare moments like
No. 98 Aston Martin having a contact with one of the Jackie Chan DC
Racing cars and then spinning while in the LMGTE-Am class
lead, and thanks to a huge gap this lead wasn't affected. The GT side
had another big moment later on, when the No. 92 Porsche suffered
problems, stopped on track and caught fire in the back area. Kevin
Estré left the car unscathed and when the rescue team arrived the
fire was quickly extinguished, but obviously this situation brought a
yellow flag, turning into green again in a few minutes. Back to the
No. 98 Aston Martin, Paul Dalla Lana had a spin again, although this
time it was on his own trying to maintain the inside line at Club
corner.
With two hours and a half
to go we had the biggest off in the race, as José Maria Lopez lost
control of the No. 7 Toyota, went straight to gravel and crashed nose
first into the barriers, destroying the front of the TS050 prototype.
Lopez still managed to bring the damaged TS050 to the Toyota garage
where the team started repairs, and after 20 minutes of yellow flag
the race was back to normal. Lopez was sent to hospital as he was
reported with a back injury, and after 30 minutes in garage the No. 7
Toyota was back to racing looking like a new car.
The yellow flag helped to
bunch up everybody, which brought the spice to some battles, like
when second placed James Calado in his No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari
crossed the 4 hour mark with Frédéric Makowiecki in the No. 91
Porsche and Harry Tincknell in the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi behind
him. Calado was soon able to breathe while Tincknell took a while to
pass Makowiecki for third in GTE-Pro. To prove that Ford's pace was
good, Tincknell quickly got closer to Calado and then overtook him
round the outside, reestablishing the initial Ford 1-2 of the class.
In the LMP2 class, after
near four hours leading the No. 36 Signatech Alpine car lost the lead
to the No. 28 from TDS Racing, then turning into no one's land as the
No. 31 Vaillante Rebellion and the No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing also
had their shots at the lead.
Aston Martin summed to
their share of on-track problems a contact between the No. 97 car and
the No. 4 ByKolles ENSO CLM LMP1, sending both cars to pits
immediately and ruining both runs, bringing another yellow flag with
50 minutes to go and many class battles to be resolved.
The mistakes of the No. 98
Aston Martin would pay its toll in GTE-Am, as Pedro Lamy had Matt
Griffin in the No. 61 Clearwater Ferrari right behind him and ready
for an all-out attack. After a long time without proper space to
overtake, Griffin finally took the class lead with a bold move as
they gone side by side.
The last pit stop was like
a trump card for the No. 2 Porsche, and so they did by going only for
fuel and go back to track in the lead with 30 minutes to go. In the
end the No. 8 Toyota was still ruling in terms of pace with Sébastien
Buemi, reducing the gap by reasonable amounts and going for the
attack into Brendon Hartley, and once they got rid of traffic with 14
minutes to go, Buemi made it easy through the inside and retook the
overall lead to not let it go anymore until the checkered flag.
The GTE-Am still had drama
reserved to the end, as the No. 61 Clearwater Ferrari went for a
splash and gp with 5 minutes to go, relinquishing the class lead to
the No. 98 Aston Martin and also the second place to the No. 54
Spirit of Race Ferrari, being 7 seconds behind the new leaders. The
98 and the 54 then engaged into battle in the last lap, only to take
each other out at the exit of the Hangar straight, leaving the GTE-Am
win again in the hands of Clearwater Racing, with Griffin having only
to cruise until the finish line.
The LMP2 class was
eventually dominated by the No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca,
having no opponents during almost the whole final hour. In the
GTE-Pro class Ford won it with the No. 67 car as Harry Tincknell had
to deal again with the loose door problem, although it wasn't enough
to take his pace out.
Now teams and drivers pack
things up to go Spa-Francorchamps, where the next FIA WEC race will
be held on May 6th, being a known test lab for the 24
Hours of Le Mans after that.
PHOTOS: Toyota Motorsport, Ford Performance, Dunlop Motorsport, FIA WEC
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