6 heures de Spa-Francorchamps – Toyota wins by a whisker

The build-up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month continues. The meeting at Spa-Francorchamps was the last opportunity for Toyota and Porsche to compete against each other in real race conditions before the major Le Mans event.

On this occasion, Toyota decided to field its third car in the Le Mans aerodynamic configuration, while the two cars entered for the entire year were equipped with the higher downforce configuration to better meet the demands of the Belgian circuit. The two Porsches, meanwhile, were already fully focused on Le Mans and adopted the lighter package, as they did at Silverstone.

On the occasion of the qualifications, although the Toyota No. 7 was able to set the absolute fastest time, it was indeed the Porsche No. 1 that was in pole position since the average of the best lap of the two drivers is taken into account. This Porsche, driven by the trio Neel Jani, André Lotterer, and Nick Tandy, was thus ahead on the grid of the three Toyotas and the Porsche No. 2.

But the battle was launched right from the passage of the two Greens, as Stéphane Sarrazin initiated hostilities from the first corner, trying to overtake the competition on the inside of the Source corner. However, the Frenchman came in a bit too strong and was forced to use the runoff area, allowing the No. 1 Porsche to hold its position.

However, Mike Conway was determined to leave behind the mishap at Silverstone (where José Maria Lopez had a high-speed off). Thus, he took the lead by the 10th lap while Sébastien Buemi followed his teammate’s example and was able to get the better of the Porsche three laps later.

Nothing seemed able to prevent the No. 7 car from pulling away from the competition, including its teammates. But bad luck struck again as its pit stop was disrupted twice by race neutralizations. While the leading Toyota made its stop at racing speed, its pursuers were able to do so while the maximum speed on track was limited to 80 km/h. In this misadventure, Mike Conway lost nearly a minute overall, allowing the No. 8 car to take the lead.

But the fight did not stop there, and Kamui Kobayashi attacked throughout the last hour of the race to catch up with the leaders. Nevertheless, he had to settle for second place, less than two seconds behind the leader. Sébastien Buemi was the first to acknowledge that he was not the fastest today: “Today, we were not the fastest Toyota. Car No. 7 deserved to win more. They lost so much time during the race neutralizations. Our car wasn’t as fast. So it’s nice to win, even without being the fastest. Maybe it’s a good sign.”

Behind, Porsche experienced various incidents with its car No. 2, starting with a slow puncture. Later, Brendon Hartley made contact with an LMP2, which required a front nose change and caused him to lose additional time. In the end, it managed to secure the third step of the podium, 35 seconds from the lead.

As for the Toyota No. 9, the objective was both to gather data on the aerodynamic package, but more importantly to familiarize Yuji Kunimoto with traffic management, an essential concept in WEC. The young Japanese driver was also making his first race on the Belgian circuit. Absolute performance was therefore not the main focus.

The data will thus be used during the next 30-hour test, which will take place at the Motorland circuit, before the tests leading to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. An event that Toyota will approach at the top of both championships and with the hope of finally breaking the curse that hangs over it.