Brendon Hartley and Nick Cassidy had a mixed weekend at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Cassidy finished fourth in the LMGTE Am class while fellow Kiwi Brendon Hartley’s GR010 HYBRID Toyota failed to finish the race.
Hartley shared the #8 car with Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa. The car was in the lead when an issue with the hybrid system forced its retirement early in the race.
The car had made a strong start to the race with Buemi behind the wheel, moving into second on the opening lap after having started from fourth. The team’s other car followed moving into third with Mike Conway driving.
On lap 16 the two GR010 HYBRIDs took first and second on the track shortly before the weather changed with rain falling on the track by the one hour point ion the race, soon after an LMP2 accident brought out a red flag.
The race got back underway after a 25-minute delay but the #8 car came to a stop on the side of the track
“Clearly it’s disappointing not to score points today. It was looking really good. Séb had a great start in the first stint, then we had the issue,” Hartley said.
“That’s racing sometimes. It’s obviously better that it happens here than at Le Mans but it’s a pity and it hurts our championship chances.”
Conditions continued to worsen through the remainder of the race with two more red flags before track conditions began to improve again late in the race.
The next round of the WEC will be the Le Mans 24 Hours on 11-12 June.
