Alonso, Toyota dominate 6 Hours of Spa

UPDATE:  The third-place-finishing No. 1 Rebellion Racing R-13 Gibson has been disqualified after failing post-race scrutineering.

Toyota Gazoo Racing took a dominant 1-2 finish in the 2018 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the team’s pair of TS050 HYBRIDs cruising to the finish in formation, both two laps ahead of its privateer competition, despite one of its cars starting the race from the pit lane, and a lap down.

The big headline was Fernando Alonso scoring his first WEC win on his series debut, alongside Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8. As a result, the Spaniard won his first significant race since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, and scored his first win at Spa since his season in Formula 3000 back in 2000.

Buemi, Alonso and Nakajima celebrate at Spa. (Image by LAT)

It was, however, a lights-to-flag win for the No. 8 crew, which barely put a foot wrong for the entire six hours; the only issue came when the race still hung in the balance after Alonso’s first stint in hour three, when Nakajima had to make an unscheduled stop due to an issue with his seatbelt.

• Results

The big disappointment was a lack of real competition from the privateer runners in the LMP1 class, who were unable to go toe-to-toe with the leading Toyota at any point during the race.

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“I think with the result and the whole weekend has been amazing in terms of team performance both during qualifying and the race,” Alonso said after the race.

“There has been a lot of preparation into this project with the testing and the simulator, a lot of people in the factory with these two cars. Then you have to come to the races and deliver the results. I think we executed the race the best way we could.

“I’m extremely happy to win my first endurance race. Seb and Kazuki did an amazing job made my life a little bit easier. Thanks to everyone in the team.”

The best privateer team by far was the Rebellion Racing crew, its pair of R-13 Gibsons running almost faultlessly all race and finishing third and fourth – a remarkable achievement for the long-standing Swiss team considering it’s the newest chassis in the field.

The only niggle was a problem with the data logger for the No. 1 of Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer and Bruno Senna, which looked to have cost it a podium toward the end of the race, though it regained second in the final hour after an enormous shunt at Eau Rouge by the No. 17 SMP Racing BR1 AER of Matevos Issakyan.

Rebellion R-13-Gibson (Image by Ebrey/LAT)

"It was a very tough race. A lot happening. We made the best out of it for sure,” Senna said after the race. “We could have had a straightforward race without some of the technical issues we had.

“But a podium in the first race of the car and when you look at it we have had such little time to test and develop the car.

“There is so much potential in the car so today was a test day. We got a podium out of the test day.

“I think at the end of the season we are up there with the top guys and fighting for the win.”

Issakyan's crash happened as he was was battling for third at the end of the fifth hour, finally conceding the final podium spot to Thomas Laurent after being held up behind a Porsche GTE car going through Eau Rouge. Laurent got past in a three-wide moment on the exit of Raidillon.

Issakyan was then spotted by the TV cameras a handful of minutes later, climbing out of the car, which was on the barriers at the far pit exit, with its front and rear destroyed. There was no footage of the incident, nor was there confirmation on exactly what happened. But the car had damage to its roof though, in addition to the front and rear.

It capped off a tough weekend for the BR1 chassis, after the DragonSpeed team failed to make the start of the race due to the damage sustained in Pietro Fittipaldi’s enormous shunt in qualifying, which was also at Eau Rouge.

The sister No. 11 SMP Racing BR1 AER ­– which Jenson Button will drive for the rest of the season – did make the finish at least, though it crossed the line a lowly sixth overall, after an early puncture and a penalty later in the race.

GTE Pro was won by the No. 66 Ford GT of Olivier Pla, Stefan Mucke and Billy Johnson after a race-long battle with the pair of Porsche GT Team GTEs. Pla made the final pass for the lead side-by-side up Eau Rouge with the No. 91 Porsche of Richard Lietz, who dropped like a stone in the closing laps, and fell to fourth. The win marks the first WEC win for both Johnson and the No. 66 Ford.

The No. 92 Porsche finished second with Michael Christensen getting past Lietz at the Bus Stop, while the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE took an unlikely third place after a thrilling battle with the No. 91 as Davide Rigon, after a titanic scrap, banged doors on the penultimate lap at the Bus Stop to make the final move stick.

Unfortunately, Ford’s sister No. 67 crashed out after dropping down the order from pole and recovering to second in the first hour. It was the only other car in addition to the destroyed SMP BR1 that failed to finish.

Harry Tincknell was behind the wheel, and while running second just after the end of Hour 1, went straight on at Eau Rouge.

“It was a 29-G impact,” Tincknell, who climbed out unscathed, told RACER. “Something went, we’re not sure what. Whether it was the tire or suspension, the team will have a good look at it. I heard that horrible noise from the front-left when something’s very wrong.

“I knew it was going to be a very big hit.”

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It was a very divided GTE Pro race, in which the Ferraris, BMWs and Aston Martins failed to feature; the No. 71’s late charge to third came as a surprise after the Fords and Porsches dominated.

In the end, the No. 82 BMW Team MTEK M8 GTE completed the top five, after a quiet but reliable run. Whether the Balance of Performance was wildly off, or games were being played at Spa, is not yet clear.

Either way, it’s disappointing that Aston Martin and BMW, with their new cars, were never in the fight, all four finishing off the lead lap on their WEC debuts.

GTE Am, like GTE Pro, was dramatic at the end when the field was bunched up. The reigning champions in the No. 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage took the win, and dominated much of the race, but after the safety car for Issakyan’s shunt, Pedro Lamy had Euan Hankey in the TF Sport Aston Martin right behind.

The Aston of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda en route to victory in GTE-Am (Image by LAT)

The pair fought hard in the run to the flag, but Hankey couldn’t get past, and Lamy scored Aston Martin Racing its record 38th GTE win in the WEC and his record 19th Am class win.

Completing the podium was the Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GTE, the Singaporean team having a quiet run to the podium, climbing the standings when the other class runners hit trouble or lost time through costly errors.

It was a disappointing race for the Porsche teams, which showed race-winning levels of pace through practice, and qualifying, before all four in the class had a miserable time in the six hours.

The Dempsey Protons hit trouble at the same time, the No. 77 having mechanical issues while battling for the class lead moments before the sister No. 88 went off at Pouhon.

On its WEC debut, Project 1 Racing looked odds on for a podium before Egidio Perfetti also went into the barriers at Pouhon, before the car later collided with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari in the pits, ending the latter’s chances of a top-five finish in Pro.

Gulf Racing UK also had a tough time. The team started from the back of the grid after its qualifying times were deleted, and had an off in avoidance of the MR Racing Ferrari which was tapped into a spin at Les Combes on the opening lap.

Mike Wainwright went into the tires and brought out the race’s first safety car. The crew finished, but seventh in class.

LMP2, like LMP1 was mostly uneventful, and lacked memorable on-track battles for position in the second half of the race.

G-Drive Racing scored its second Spa win in a row with its ORECA 07 Gibson of Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and Andrea Pizzitola, by 21 seconds over the No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA which muscled past the Signatech Alpine in the final hour to snatch second with Ho Pin Tung starring in the No. 38 at the end.

“I think it was an amazing win,” Vergne said. “Last week I won [in Paris' Formula E round], today I won so it is pretty good I think. A big thanks to my team.

“In my first stint I pushed really hard and extended the gap to one minute, 20-something. Then when I took over the car I kept pushing. We kept extending the lead and then we had the safety car so the lead went down to 12 seconds.

“Then I had to push again and didn’t make any mistakes and crossed the line first.”

Off the podium, the No. 37 All-Malaysian-crewed Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA finished fourth, ahead of the TDS Racing 07 Gibson that completed the top five.

The most frantic action in LMP2 came early in the race, with both the Racing Team Nederland Dallara and DragonSpeed ORECA storming to the front of the field. Geido Van Der Garde in his WEC return handed the Michelin-shod Dallara crew an early lead after two daring moves at Les Combes to take second and the lead. Pastor Maldonado, in his WEC debut, also starred, climbing to second.

But both had their chances end early on; the RTN P217 had alternator trouble, and the ORECA was handed a penalty for speeding in the pits.

The next round of the FIA WEC ‘Super Season’ is the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours on June 16-17.