BMW scores breakthrough WEC Hypercar victory at Spa

BMW M Team WRT claimed a stunning 1-2 finish on home soil for the Belgian service provider in today’s FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. It marked the German brand's first-ever overall win in the WEC and its first victory in an ACO rules race since the Le Mans 24 Hours back in 1999.

The team’s No. 20 M Hybrid V8 of Rene Rast, Sheldon van der Linde and Robin Frijns emerged victorious after a strategic masterstroke that paid off beautifully. The strategy desk chose to pit the car early for fuel and take the car off-sequence in the opening hour, giving Rast and later van der Linde clear air to work with for most of the race before Frijns brought it home.

Across the opening hours, this gamble enabled it – and the No. 8 Toyota, which opted for a similar tactic – to claim the top two places for a portion of each pit cycle and gradually pull away from the bunched-up field. The No. 20's lead was then solidified in the second half of the race when a safety car at the end of the fourth hour for an incident at Les Combes led to the entire field pitting and resetting the race for the final 100 or so minutes.

It was a race that came truly alive and morphed into an all-time WEC classic during the final two hours, with three safety cars and multiple significant incidents leading to tense battles up and down the order, culminating in a sprint finish with 25 minutes to go at the final restart.

Behind the No. 20, the sister No. 15 car recovered from being turned around by the No. 51 Ferrari at Les Combes to take a hard-earned second place. Kevin Magnussen headlined the car's run by putting in an extraordinary defensive drive in the closing laps to hold off the No. 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco and bank valuable points for himself, his teammates and the German marque, which now leads the manufacturers’ world championship ahead of Le Mans.

It was a yo-yo afternoon for the No. 50 499P en route to the final podium spot. Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco were fast and did well to salvage a result for the Prancing Horse on a day when the reigning drivers’ champions in the No. 51 suffered a DNF late in the race due to crash damage.

The incident occurred at La Source, when the No. 91 Manthey Porsche punted the No. 34 WRT BMW M4 hard into the side of the 499P, inflicting heavy, terminal damage to the right side of the car, bringing out the safety car period that set up the sprint to the flag in the final hour.

Off the podium, the No. 007 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie took fourth, with a late pass from Tom Gamble on Kamui Kobayashi in the No. 7 Toyota TR010, which was classified fifth as the best Toyota. After sitting second for a good chunk of the race, the Imola-winning No. 8 crew finished 10th. They were unlucky with the timing of a pit stop just before one of the late safety cars, which dropped them down the order.

Also outside the top five, Cadillac endured a difficult day. The No. 12 led chunks of the race after Will Stevens took the lead on the opening lap off Loic Duval on the run down the Kemmel Straight, but later lost out to a pit stop time penalty for gaining an advantage off-track, then later after the second safety car with two hours to go when Norman Nato was left struggling on a set of soft Michelins in a train of drivers on mediums. It finished ninth behind the No. 17 Genesis GMR-001, which scored the Korean brand its first points in only its second start, following another highly encouraging outing in which both cars finished and only one hit (electrical) trouble.

The sister car, meanwhile, retired after 85 laps when Sebastien Bourdais stopped at the pit entry with a reported “strange sound” coming from the gearbox. It was a tough day for the car, which suffered a brake issue earlier in the race after contact at Les Fagnes with the No. 92 Porsche that saw Earl Bamber take a trip through the gravel and tap the outside wall, puncturing his left-rear tire in the process.

The two French brands, Peugeot and Alpine, had disappointing outings too. The pole-sitting No. 94 9X8 lost the lead on lap 1, but remained in contention for silverware before Malthe Jakobsen was left with nowhere to go on his outlap when the No. 79 Mercedes-AMG of Matteo Cressoni lost control in front of him at Les Combes. The Dane, who stormed a pole on Friday, piled into the side of the AMG, doing terminal damage to the front of the car. The No. 93 made the finish, but nursed steering issues for much of the race and crossed the line seventh just over a second behind the No. 83 Ferrari.

Neither Alpine scored points, with the No. 35, driven by Antonio Felix da Costa at the end, notably coming inches from total disaster when the Portuguese lost control of the car on cold tires at Raidillon. The twitch sent him veering off track and into the guardrail, but he narrowly avoided being collected by the No. 007 Aston Martin and nursed the car back to the pits.

A come-from-behind gem for the Garge 59 McLaren in LMGT3. Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI

There was also a surprise result in LMGT3, as Garage 59 put its crushing disappointment at Imola behind it by storming to victory from 15th on the grid with its No. 10 McLaren GT3 Evo of Antares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhöfer.

Following another monster stint from Fleming, Kirchhöfer finished second on the road behind Vista AF Corse’s Alessio Rovera, but was promoted to first after the No. 21 Ferrari team was handed a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release into the path of the McLaren during the final stops.

The Ferrari factory driver was unable to pull away from the McLaren ace during the run to the flag, so the No. 21 Ferrari fell to fourth in a tight LMGT3 pack. Second, therefore, went to the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 Evo, with the No. 92 Porsche recovering from its early incident to complete the podium and assume the championship lead.

Both Ford Mustang LMGT3 Evos enjoyed spells out front, with Eric Powell notably leading early on aboard the No. 77 Proton Competition entry after making a spectacular overtake around the outside of polesitter Tom van Rompuy into Eau Rouge. Minutes later, however, the American went off at Stavelot, beaching himself in the gravel and bringing out the first safety car of the day. Lexus also left disappointed when its pole-sitting No. 78 RC F LMGT3 retired late in the race with a mechanical issue.

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