Fernando Alonso celebrated a winning start to his FIA World Endurance Championship career as he and teammates Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima took a conclusive victory in today’s eventful TOTAL 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. 63,000 fans enjoyed superb weather, fun and entertainment on and off track over the three days that the WEC was in Belgium.
In the first race of the 2018-19 WEC Super Season the No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing car led the vast majority of the race to head home the sister Toyota TS050 HYBRID of Mike Conway, José María López and Kamui Kobayashi.
Alonso crossed the finish line 1.444s ahead of Mike Conway in a formation finish which was made all the more remarkable by the No.7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID starting from the pit lane, a lap behind the entire field, after a post-qualifying technical infringement.
For Alonso it was his first victory at Spa for almost 18 years and he became the first Spaniard to win a WEC race since Marc Gené triumphed for Audi, also at Spa, in 2012.
Rounding out the podium was the No.1 Rebellion Racing crew of André Lotterer, Neel Jani and Bruno Senna in their first race with the new non-hybrid Rebellion R13-Gibson.
The sister Rebellion Racing entry of Thomas Laurent, Gustavo Menezes and Mathias Beche took fourth, while the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01-Nismo took a best ever fifth position.
The next round of the WEC Super Season will be the 24 Hours of Le Mans on 16/17th June.
Race facts can be found HERE
All results can be found HERE
No.66 Ford GT takes first victory
Ford celebrated the first LMGTE Pro win of the WEC Super Season at the TOTAL 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps today.
Olivier Pla, Stefan Mücke and Billy Johnson claimed their first WEC victory after a race-long battle with the No.91 Porsche 911 RSR of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz.
The race was effectively won with just 45-minutes to go when Pla was able to execute an audacious overtake on Richard Lietz exiting Raidillon. The No.91 Porsche fell back in the closing stages to fourth place as first the sister No.92 Porsche claimed second and then Davide Rigon swept through to take the final podium position in the No.71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
The No.67 Ford driven by Harry Tincknell crashed spectacularly in the second hour causing the second of three Safety Car periods. The British driver thankfully emerged from the Ford GT uninjured.
BMW made a promising debut at Spa as Antonio Felix da Costa and Tom Blomqvist finished in fifth position to claim useful championship points with the new BMW Team MTEK M8 GTE.
