Debut WIN in the Ardennes!

Round 2 of the FIA WEC once again saw the Ardennes Roller-coaster welcome the field of Hypercars and LMGT3. Changeable weather was looming all over the Weekend and the Free Practice Sessions delivered some indications who might have a got package for the upcoming 6 Hours of Racing.

Before Qualifying Alpine, Cadillac and Ferrari seemed to have a quick car in the Hypercar field and Lexus figured out their car pretty good in LMGT3. Speaking of which, the Lexus RC F LMGT3 #78 (Van Rompuy/David/Masson) took Pole after Tom Van Rumpoy placed the #78 well in contention for Hyperpole and Hadrien David then went on to clinch Pole by nearly 0,2 seconds over the #27 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 EVO (James/Robichon/Drudi). Third went to the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3 EVO (Powell/Tuck/Priaulx).

While Alpine topped the first Qualifying Session, the Hyperpole Session saw a surprising Debut Polesitter. The #94 Peugeot 9X8 EVO (Duval/Jakobsen/Pourchair) driven by Malthe Jakobsen took Pole with the tiny margin of only 0,043 seconds over the #12 Cadillac V-Series.R (Stevens/Nato/Deletraz) in second and by 0,078 seconds over the #35 Alpine A424 (Felix Da Costa/Milesi/Habsburg) in third. The overall Top 10 Hypercars were only separated by just over 0,6 seconds with 6 Manufactures featured in the Hyperpole Session. This close top 10 would shape the 6 Hour Race ahead immensely.

As the Green Flag send the cars on their journey Will Stevens waisted no time in the #12 Cadillac V-Series.R and slipstreamed past the #94 Peugeot 9X8 EVO on the Kemmel Straight and secured the lead. The first Hour of the Race wfor the Hypercars was determined by figuring out who runs which strategy and who has a good car on the longrun. Hypercar saw two big movers, one up one down. Kevin Magnussen started the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 (Magnussen/Marciello/Vanthoor) in tenth and moved up to sixth by Les Combes in the first lap while the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie LMH lost five spots dropping to twelfth. LMGT3 saw a big mover up front, the #77 Ford Mustang driven by Eric Powell climbed from third to first in less than 10 minutes.

The joy then was quickly interrupted by the first yellow flag of the Race. After starting to build a slight gap to Van Rompuy in second Eric Powell dropped the left rear wheel into the gravel at Stavelot entry and therefore spun into the gravel on the exit. Stuck in the gravel the recovery brought out an early Safety Car and cost the #77 roughly two laps and the chance to compete for victory.

Especially notable in the first hour: Aston Martin for the first time had a car underneath the drivers that could challenge for Top 5 honours and Genesis could follow the field very well in only their second ever race! Towards the end of the first hour the strategies started to split in the Hypercar field. Some cars opted for an earlier stop, right before the first wave of LMGT3 traffic. The first passing of the traffic got delayed due to the early Safety Car.

The early stoppers #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 (Frijns/Rast/S. Van der Linde) and #8 Toyota GR010 (Hartley/Hirakawa/Buemi) then lead the field after all cars stopped once. With the Race settling into a very nice rhythm, it was time for the next stops and also time for the Bronze Drivers to hand over their car to the more professional Drivers. In the lead of LMGT3 then was the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 EVO (Heriau/Mann/Rovera) followed by the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3 EVO (Gattuso/Levorato/Sargeant) and the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3.

As Qualifying teased, the similarity in Pace in the Hypercar class was visible throughout the Race. The cars on the “alternate Strategy” then got a lucky Full Course Yellow call late in the third our for debries on track. The BMW M Hybrid V8 cars notably were able to save energy the best and had one car on both strategies. Their Race was defined by saving energy on track and try and get clean air with a light car. For the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 this Full Course Yellow could not have had a better timing. After their stop was done they lead the field by 25 seconds over the #8 Toyota and in third the best of the “regular Strategy” cars the #35 Alpine A424 with a whopping further 20 seconds. The #38 Cadilllac V-Series.R (Bamber/Bourdais/Aitken) as well as the #19 Genesis GMR-001 Hypercar (Jaminet/Chatin/Juncadella) were both ill fated and lost valuable laps through the middle part of the Race.

The winner of the 6 Hours of Imola struggled with pace in Spa. Both Toyota cars were not able to really fight at the fast Ardennes Track. They could drive with the cars at the front but it was always more in a defensive manner than the mindset to try and set an attack. Close to the conclusion of the fourth hour the #38 Cadillac V-Series.R then came to a hold right at pit entry. After restarting the car they were able to limp back to the pits and try to analyse the problem. Only minutes later though the Race would see another defining moment. The #94 Peugeot that showed good potential and pace through the Race would see it’s Race end in Les Combes. The #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes AMG LMGT3 (Zelger/Cressoni/Hodenius) spun after going wide at the entry to Les Combes when another Hypercar tried to move through on the inside. Jakobsen in the Peugeot arrived only seconds later and could not avoid the spinning Mercedes as his view was blocked by another LMGT3 in front of him managing to just barely escape the spinning Mercedes.

The clean up took quite a while and as the Race got back underway about 1:42H was still left on the clock. Frijns in the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 timed the restart to perfection catching the lapped Genesis between him and the #8 Toyota off guard. By Les Combes Frijns was 2,5 seconds clear of the field. In LMGT3 it was still the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 EVO in the lead. Behind the #10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO (Au/Fleming/Kirchofer) secured second place after a great drive and great overtakes by Thomas Fleming. Would they be able to get redemption for their heartbreaking engine loss at Imola? Third was still occupied by the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3. Close to the start of the last hour all classes and drivers showed wonderful racecraft and awesome battles throughout the field, shaping up for a grand finish!

Again both BMW’s could carry more energy into the last hour than most of the field. This time matched by the #50 Ferrari 499P (Molina/Nielsen/Fuoco). But as well as the penultimate hour the last hour would start with a Safety Car as well. The #51 Ferrari 499P (Pier Guidi/Giovinazzi/Calado) got hit hard in La Source by the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO (Leung/Gelael/Farfus) which missed the braking point by miles. Subsequently all cars stopped resetting the whole field for a 35 minute sprint to the flag.

Due to the better energy management BMW now held a 1-2 with the #20 leading the #15. Another great restart by Frijns meant that BMW would keep these positions. Up the Kemmel Straight the #009 Aston Martin (Riberas/Sorensen) then got squeezed at high speed by the #35 Alpine and spun over the grass into a high speed off. Luckily the hit in the barrier was not too hard and Alex Riberas was ok. The great Race the Duo had done was over without a Result though.

The next (and last) restart sparked some controversies as Frijns (as he did all the other times) shot the gun very early to send the field into the restart. The #15 was still following and seemingly “missed” Frijns taking that early start again. After an investigation by the Stewards the call stood as “No further Action” and the places had to be fought out on track. This restart the #35 Alpine again was the focus of the attention. A wild ride up Eau Rouge ended up in a high speed spin with a minor barrier touch. No Safety Car but a good finish gone for the French team.

Frijns in the #20 extended his lead up to five seconds over the sister #15 with Magnussen at the wheel. He however had his hands full to defend from Fuoco and Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota GR010 (Kobayashi/Conway/De Vries) and the second Aston Martin Valkyrie #007 (Gamble/Tincknell). With two laps to go Gamble in the #007 made a move and got by Kobayashi on the Kemmel Straight. Meanwhile, Fuoco tried everything to get by Magnussen on the last lap. Fuoco closed right up in the second sector but was too close too soon and could not take the overshoot onto the run up to the Bus Stop chicane and had to settle for third.

In LMGT3 the final order was decided by a penalty that would mean that the leader on track would finish off the podium in fourth because of an unsafe Release on the last pitstop. That meant, the winner was not the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 EVO (Heriau/Mann/Rovera) rather than the #10 Garage 59 McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO (Au/Fleming/Kirchofer) which completes the redemption for their bad luck in Imola. Second went to the #27 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3 EVO (James/Robichon/Drudi) and the #92 The Bend Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 (Shahin/Pera/Lietz) claimed third after an impressive comeback drive coming from twelfth position on the grid.

Hypercar saw the BMW M Hybrid finally taking it’s debut victory in FIA WEC racing and Team WRT winning on home soild with a perfect 1-2 finish! Deserved winners with great strategy were the #20 (Frijns/Rast/S. Van der Linde) car followed by the sister #15 (Magnussen/Marciello/Vanthoor) car which showed great energy management to climb up positions with fast laps on low fuel. Third went to the #50 Ferrari 499P (Molina/Nielsen/Fuoco).

If the Race in Spa was anything we can expect from Le Mans in June, we will be treated with a Race decided by pure pace and strategic decisions that define what endurance racing is all about!