Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa finished sixth overall in a red-flag interrupted 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps over the weekend.
A lengthy 1h 44-minute delay came in the fifth hour when Earl Bamber, driving Cadillac Racing’s V-Series.R tried to go around the #99 Proton Competition Porsche for third overall.
In doing so, the rear of the Hypercar made contact with Sean Gelael’s LMGT3 BMW, sending both spinning fast and hard into the barriers, with the rear of the Cadillac getting airborne.
Both drivers were OK from the incident, with the delay required to repair armco barriers and catch fencing on the Kemmel Straight.
The race resumed at 7.10 pm local time, 10 minutes after the scheduled finish time.
Callum Ilott and Will Stevens won the overall event for Hertz Team JOTA, becoming the first duo to win a top-class WEC event since 2014.
A well-time pit stop before the red flag worked in their favour, and they ran out of sync with the other contenders for the JOTA’s first-ever outright victory.
The championship-leading Porsche Penske trio of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor were second, 12.36 seconds behind the winners.
Ferrari’s #50 499P Hypercar of Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen completed the podium, recovering from a grid penalty that put them at the back of the 19-strong Hypercar field at the start.
Their sister car, the #51 that won the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans, was fourth in the hands of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Gudi, and Antonio Giovanazzi were fourth, ahead of the Proton Competition Porsche 963 that narrowly escaped the earlier incident.
Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck De Vries finished sixth but were relegated post-race with a 5-second penalty for earlier contact with an LMGT3 car.
The penalty dropped them behind their #8 sister car of Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa.
Buemi had earlier fallen to ninth after taking Lap 1 contact and then received a 5-second stop-go penalty for exceeding the permitted energy usage on the formation lap.
Hirakawa took control of the #8 in 11th and climbed deep into the top 10 before handing over to Hartley. He brought the car home two seconds behind his teammates but gained the place after the chequered flag once their penalty was applied.
Porsche Penske’s Lotterer, Estre, and Vanthoor now hold a 22-point advantage over Ilott and Stevens in the Championship heading into next month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Defending Champions Hartley, Hirakawa, and Buemi are eighth after three of eight rounds, 50 points off the leaders.
Bamber and teammate Alex Lynn are 17th, having only finished one race following their Spa crash and Qatar 1812km disqualification.
The World Endurance Championship returns with the 24 Hours of Le Mans over June 12-16.
Header Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing
