Ferrari Sees Off Alpine Threat at Spa To Score Hat-Trick

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Ferrari scored a one-two finish in an eventful 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, coming out on top of a tense battle with Alpine to earn its third consecutive FIA World Endurance Championship victory with the No. 51 car.

Alessandro Pier Guidi brought home the No. 51 Ferrari 499P he shared with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi 4.229 seconds ahead of the sister No. 50 AF Corse-run factory car of Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina.

Completing the podium was the No. 36 Alpine A424 of Mick Schumacher, Frederic Makowiecki and Jules Gounon, just under a second behind the second-placed Ferrari.

A safety car period that ended with a little under two hours to go, caused by a crash for the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren, turned the closing stages of the race into a fuel mileage competition, with the two Ferraris gaining the upper hand over the No. 36 Alpine that had led at halfway at this juncture.

Fuoco then passed Pier Guidi to take the lead at Les Combes on the restart, with the latter driver becoming embroiled in an intense battle with the Alpine of Mick Schumacher and the BMW of Robin Frijns, culminating in Frijns pulling off an unbelievable pass at Blanchimont for third.

However, a slow puncture forced Schumacher into the pits for his final full-service pit stop earlier than planned, on lap 111 of an eventual 150, with Frijns going to lap 118, Pier Guidi to lap 122 and Fuoco one lap further, handing back to Nielsen.

Schumacher cycled back into the lead once that round of stops concluded before pitting for the No. 36 Alpine’s final splash on lap 135, with Frijns’ BMW having already been removed from contention by what proved to be terminal brake issues.

Pier Guidi retook the lead, but needed to pit with 12 minutes to go for a final splash, his and Nielsen’s fuel-saving efforts aided by two brief full-course yellows for debris.

Emerging with a 14-second lead, Pier Guidi managed his advantage to the end to seal a second win in three races for the No. 51 crew, while Nielsen was able to make it to the finish without stopping, barely keeping second from Schumacher.

Toyota salvaged fourth place with the No. 8 GR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, which had started down in 15th, with Buemi making up places late on by making an early penultimate stop and avoiding a late splash.

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA blocked out fifth and sixth places, with the No. 12 car of Alex Lynn, Norman Nato and Will Stevens leading the American marque’s charge, Lynn having run second until pitting for his splash with 12 minutes to go.

Nyck de Vries brought home the No. 7 Toyota he shares with Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway seventh, followed by the No. 35 Alpine of Paul-Loup Chatin, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg that was another to splash late.

Porsche’s top finisher was the No. 6 factory Penske 963 of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and WEC debutant Pascal Wehrlein in ninth, with the surviving No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello claiming the final point in 10th.

Peugeot ended up empty-handed in a race in which the 9X8 looked like it had potential to score big points.

The No. 93 car ended up just outside of the points in 11th, having led in the fourth hour in the hands of Jean-Eric Vergne before a curiously-timed pit stop, not long before the final safety car period, dropped it down the order.

Contact between Malthe Jakobsen in the No. 94 Peugeot and the No. 20 BMW meant the former joined the list of retirements with what appeared to be suspension damage.

Ferrari Sweeps Board as AF Corse Wins in LMGT3

Victory in LMGT3 went to the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann and Francois Heriau by a dominant 40-second margin.

With the safety car periods helping cancel out losses from earlier penalties, including a drive-through for a pit stop infringement for the No. 21 car, Ferrari took control in the penultimate hour as both 296 GT3s rose up the order.

Davide Rigon grabbed the lead in the No. 54 car as he passed Dennis Olsen’s Proton Competition Ford Mustang at Turn 9, with Rovera soon making it a 1-2 for Ferrari.

Rovera then gained the advantage with a much shorter penultimate pit stop, maintaining the advantage to the flag despite having to make a longer final stop.

The No. 88 car that Olsen shared with Gianmarco Levorato and Stefano Gattuso beat the No. 54 Ferrari of Rigon, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr to the runner-up spot by just 1.8 seconds, giving Ford its first LMGT3 podium in a regular WEC race.

Proton’s second Mustang, the No. 77 car of Ben Barker, Ben Tuck and Bernardo Sousa, came up just one second short of a top-three finish.

The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos of Heart of Racing Team and Racing Spirit of Leman both completed the top six after penalties, the latter for Eduardo Barrichello triggering the contact with Sebastien Baud at Stavelot that put the latter in the barriers.

Akkodis ASP came away with only eighth place for the No. 78 Lexus RC F GT3 that had started the race on pole, behind the No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps