WEC Spa: Jota Porsche claims maiden win in crash-delayed thriller

Will Stevens and Callum Ilott secured the first customer car victory of the Hypercar era for Jota in a 1-2 for the Porsche 963 LMDh, finishing 12.363s ahead of the factory #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry shared by Laurens Vanthoor, Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre.

Taking fuel shortly before the 1hr44m red flag, caused when Earl Bamber’s Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh clipped the WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Sean Gelael on the Kemmel Straight to fire both cars hard into the barriers, proved crucial in cycling the Porsches to the head of the pack and denying Ferrari a first victory since Le Mans last year.

Lotterer had been running ahead of Callum Ilott before their stops in fifth and sixth position, the cars emerging in the reverse order.

At that juncture, a 1-2 finish for the factory 499P Le Mans Hypercars had been on the cards with Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 car leading the sister #50 entry of Antonio Fuoco that started from the back of the Hypercar grid after losing all its times from qualifying for running underweight.

But the race was turned on its head by Bamber’s misjudgement as the Kiwi attempted a move for third on Neel Jani’s Proton Competition 963, which triggered a violent accident and a lengthy delay while the barriers were repaired.

Teams were permitted to change tyres on the grid for the safety car restart, but the leading #51 Ferrari was forced to take emergency service before pitting again after the return to green.

With Ilott and Estre only needing one more stop in the remainder of the race, they could control proceedings once it went green but Estre was never in a position to challenge the all-British crew, driving as a duo with Norman Nato on Formula E duty in Berlin.

Estre was forced to pit one lap sooner than Ilott, and a gamble on four tyres at his final stop was not enough to get him back on terms as the Jota car reeled off the laps.

The emergency stop under the safety car at the restart meant the #50 car Fuoco shared with Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina completed the podium, while Pier Guidi fought back past Kamui Kobayashi in the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH to finish fourth.

Kobayashi had emerged from the pits ahead of both Ferraris, but lost out to Fuoco on the approach to Les Combes and was outfoxed by Pier Guidi at the same spot later in the race.

Julien Andlauer completed a storming drive in the Proton Competition 963 that had led at half distance to finish fifth, passing Kobayashi at Eau Rouge in the car he shared with Neel Jani.

Kobayashi also crossed the line sixth, but a five-second time penalty for making contact with the Iron Dames Lamborghini at La Source demoted him behind the #8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa.

Porsche doubles up in LMGT3:

#91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring, Richard Lietz

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

In the LMGT3 class, Manthey Racing delivered a remarkable 1-2 finish after the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan that led onto the final lap had to pit for fuel.

Franck Perera had been set for a fairytale maiden victory after hunting down Gregoire Saucy’s United Autosports McLaren, but didn’t have enough energy to complete the final tour without a splash-and-dash.

This cycled the lead to the PureRxcing Manthey Porsche that had been rebuilt after a heavy qualifying accident for Alexander Malykhin at Raidillon, but his co-driver Klaus Bachler was also struggling for energy.

As a result, he didn’t fight too hard as team-mate Richard Lietz in the Manthey EMA car loomed in his mirrors and the Austrian outbraked his compatriot into Les Combes before stroking home to a 1.298s victory.

Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin had been the leading crew before the red flag, and initially dropped deep into the pack when Schuring pitted at the restart to hand over to Lietz.

But the Porsche remained in the mix and steadily moved forwards as those who had taken fuel before the red flag ran low on energy.

Points leaders Bachler, Malykhin and Joel Sturm completed their improbable recovery to finish second ahead of Perera, Matteo Cressoni and Claudio Schiavone.

The Iron Dames Lamborghini qualified on pole by Sarah Bovy dominated the early phases of the race but had a 40s lead wiped out by a safety car triggered when the second Jota Porsche 963 of Phil Hanson was hit from behind by Rene Rast’s BMW M Hybrid V8 and clattered into Ahmad Al Harthy’s WRT BMW, also causing barrier damage.

The all-female car Bovy shared with Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting still appeared a contender for victory and led following the restart, but a slow right-rear change at what proved to be the penultimate stop dropped Gatting behind Perera, before she too had to make a late splash while pressuring Bachler for second.

The Dames ultimately placed crossed the line fourth, ahead of the McLaren Saucy shared with James Cottingham and Nicolas Costa, but was demoted a place by a post-race five-second penalty for Gatting’s contact with Bachler.