6 hours of Spa, Race: First BMW victory with a one-two. Ferrari #50 on the podium

First BMW triumph in the WEC which becomes leader in the manufacturers’ world championship

The BMW M Hybrid V8 triumphs at the 6 Hours of Spa. The Bavarian cars achieved in one go their first victory and first one-two finish in the WEC category, with the #20 winning ahead of its twin #15. BMW’s victory came clearly and deservedly. The team managed to best interpret the refueling strategies in a very complex race that around the middle saw the Hypercar pack effectively split into two different refueling strategies, with the BMWs among those who tried to shuffle the cards by guessing the best strategy. Contributing to their success was also their remarkable top speed that made them untouchable on the straight. With this one-two finish, BMW rises to the top of the manufacturers’ standings and positions itself as one of the possible candidates for victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in just over a month.

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The Ferrari race

Third was the Ferrari #50 which balanced out a difficult day for the Prancing Horse that saw the retirement of the #51 due to an innocent collision at the Source by a BMW GT. Points were also scored by the Ferrari #83 finishing sixth. From a race pace perspective, the 499P came through in the distance. Although the Federation no longer discloses BoP values, seeing the qualifying difficulties and compared to last year’s triumph on the same track, it is reasonable to think that the 499P were particularly slowed down by the BoP assigned to them on this track. In any case, the crew of the #50, consistently the best Ferrari this weekend, put in a great race securing a podium that seemed out of reach after an unlucky pit stop that set them back by 20 seconds. The many Safety Cars that followed helped the recovery for Fuoco, Molina, and Nielsen, but credit must be given to them for staging an excellent comeback and a flawless race on track.
The Ferrari #51 had also made a good recovery. Slipping to the back of the group after some off-track moments in the fight to climb positions, Pier Guidi at the wheel in the last stint was staging one of his usual heart-stopping recoveries. Unfortunately, the Italian was innocently hit at the Source by Farfus’s BMW GT which devastated the side and forced retirement. The #83 had a dignified race finishing sixth overall. Ferrari’s Sunday was made even more difficult by the 5-second penalty for unsafe release assigned to the 296 GT3 #21 which crossed the finish line first with Alessio Rovera but then obviously lost the victory to the McLaren #10.

Disappointment for Toyota and Cadillac. Happiness for Genesis

Among the disappointed at the 6 Hours of Spa, we must necessarily start with Toyota, which had triumphed at the 6 Hours of Imola a few weeks ago. For the Japanese cars, there is also suspicion of a not particularly favorable BoP, considering the low straight-line speed that did not allow them to defend themselves much, not even from the valid Aston Martins that flew on this track. A fifth and a tenth place in the end is all that the TR010s manage, which from a certain point of view were also unlucky not to guess the right refueling strategy in a race affected by many safety cars. In any case, the Japanese will have to hope for a significant change to try to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the real goal of the season, especially for them.

Cadillac disappeared in the distance. The #38 suffered several mechanical problems and incidents and was forced to retire. The #12, instead, in the first half of the race was fighting for the final victory but progressively lost pace, also opting for soft tires, the only one in the leading group, a choice that did not pay off. The Cadillac #12 thus lost position after position, finishing with a gloomy ninth place.

Underwhelming results also for the French Alpine and Peugeot. The 9×8 of the Lion brand started from its first historic pole with the #94 but did not appear particularly fast as typically happens. Even more bitter was the end of its race against the Mercedes GT of the Iron Lynx team which blocked its way due to a spin at Malmedy. The accident and retirement were inevitable.

Credit to Genesis which in its second ever race in the category achieved a nice eighth place allowing the Korean manufacturer to score its first WEC world championship points.

Chronicle of the first two hours of the race

The race starts under a clear sky with air temperature 24°C and 34°C on the asphalt. It is Loic Duval who takes off from pole on the Peugeot 9×8, the first for the Lion brand in the WEC. Below the starting grid with drivers on board for the first driving stint.

The cars do two warm-up laps and then, as per procedure, start with a rolling start towards the elbow corner of the Source. No contacts or particular incidents are recorded, but on the Kemmel straight, Stevenson immediately takes his Cadillac to the lead exploiting the slipstream of the Peugeot #94, while behind them the Alpines cover each other maintaining comfortably third and fourth positions. At Ferrari, all drivers immediately gain positions: Molina rises to P7 with the #50, Hanson P10 with the #83, and Giovinazzi climbs to P14 with the #51.

At 5h 45min from the end, the first SC immediately comes out for the Ford Mustang GT #77 of Powell going off into the gravel due to a driver error. Once the Mustang is removed, the race restarts with a new rolling start at 5h 33min from the end. Stevens keeps his Cadillac #12 in the lead and all positions behind him remain unchanged. Giovinazzi climbs to P13 overtaking the Toyota #7 of Conway by force at Malmedy. Surprisingly, at 5h 22min from the end, the Toyota #8 stops to refuel very early, evidently trying to get out of traffic and shuffle strategies. The Alpine #35 rises to second position while in the back there is a spectacular wheel-to-wheel at Eau Rouge between the Ferraris #51 and #83 with Giovinazzi taking P11. A contact between the Cadillac #38 of Bamber and the Porsche 911 #92 of Shain causes a left rear puncture for the #38 and its slow return to the pits to replace the tires.

The day does not seem to promise anything good for the Toyotas which occupy the last positions along with the debutant Genesis. Habsburg on the Alpine #35 approaches threateningly less than a second from leader Stevens, while Hanson seems in difficulty with the yellow Ferrari #83 and is overtaken by the Aston Martin #007 which snatches P11 from him. Towards the end of the first hour, the Caddy #38 returns to the pits with evident race pace problems so much so that the car is taken to the garage. The same fate for the Genesis #19 which returns to its box to be inspected by the mechanics.
At the stroke of the first hour, the Hypercars start to return for refueling.
The Cadillac #12 virtually maintains first position ahead of the Alpine #35 but in first and second positions are respectively the BMW #20 and the Toyota #8 which have about 50% residual energy, having switched to an early pit stop strategy.

At 4h 35min from the end, a very delayed Cadillac #38 returns to the race, leaving its garage after dozens of minutes of repairs, and after 5 minutes returns to the pits to refuel. The Toyota #8 is on which Hirakawa gets in, followed by the BMW #20 which changes driver in favor of Van der Linde. The Cadillac #12 thus returns to the lead ahead of the Alpine #35 and the Ferrari #50 which climbs back to the podium. The Spaniard of Ferrari has a formidable pace and also overtakes Habsburg putting himself in pursuit of leader Stevens. Giovinazzi tries to force an overtake on the BMW but in the end fails and ends up in the Malmedy escape road, accompanied however by Magnussen off track, losing several positions.

At 4h 10min from the end Molina on Ferrari #50 starts the second refueling round handing over the wheel to Nielsen. The pit stop, however, is disastrous due to the left front wheel struggling to come off because of a stuck nut. The #50 manages to return to the track but after losing many precious seconds in the pit lane. The #51 also returns with Calado getting in.

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This is the classification after a third of the race, remembering that the #20 and #8 are on a different strategy compared to the others with 50% less energy.

Chronicle of the third and fourth hour of the race

The Ferrari #50 is virtually out of the podium fight considering that in its unlucky pit stop it lost about twenty seconds more than necessary. Defending Maranello’s colors is the yellow Ferrari #83 which is the best placed in the standings but actually has less fuel than the Cadillac #12 and is on the same strategy as the BMW #20. At 3h 34min from the end, the Toyota #8 stops to refuel continuing on its staggered pit stop strategy hoping for a safety car that favors them. Also on the Ferrari #50, an alternative strategy is sought and the car returns to refuel, imitated by the BMW #20 leading the race. At the head returns the Cadillac #12 of Deletraz. The Ferrari #83 of Ye also refuels and on returning sinks to 15th position, behind the Ferrari #50. In this phase, the best placed Ferrari is the #51 of Calado who chases the Alpine #36 overtaking it and climbing to fourth place. But it is a flash in the pan because the need to refuel for #50 #51 and #31 brings the Ferraris back to the rear.
At 3h 15min from the end, race control neutralizes the race for a few minutes with a Full Course Yellow period to collect some debris from the track, with all cars proceeding at 80 km/h. The restart sees the Cadillac leader immediately engaged in an off-track overtake at Radillon to get rid of two GTs ahead, immediately returning to the pits to refuel on the next lap, leaving provisional leadership to the Alpine #35 of Da Costa who returns to the pits the next lap followed by the Peugeot #94. After this pit stop round, the surprise is called Alpine, which with the #35 has virtually jumped to the head of the race, third ahead of the Cadillac #12. The leading duo remains BMW #20 and Toyota #8 who continue to make mistakes on the differentiated strategy. The Cadillac #12, however, must have a problem because it has to yield fourth position also to the Aston Martin #009, entering the sights of the Ferrari #50 of Nielsen, who however has less fuel on board than the American car. Nielsen overtakes the Cadillac exploiting a Corvette GT that unintentionally acts as a block to Deletraz, rising to fifth place.
The cars running on staggered strategy stop again, so Toyota #8, BMW #20 (which has a not very fast pit stop) and Ferrari #50 on which Fuoco gets in. At the head returns the Alpine #35.
At 2h 18min from the end, the Ferrari #51 stops for a pit stop with Pier Guidi getting in to try the usual generous heart-stopping stint. The Alpine #35 also returns, which is protagonist of a somewhat slow pit stop, and shortly after its antagonist in this race, the Cadillac #12.

At 2h 11min from the end, the Peugeot #94 ends its race in a collision with the Mercedes GT of Cressoni which blocks its way at Malmedy. The Peugeot regains the track to return to the pits extremely damaged but the track is full of stones and debris in the accident area. This forces race control to a Virtual Safety Car which could have a certain influence two hours from the end in a race where the fight is on the edge of consumption on very different strategies. The first to return to the pits to take advantage of the pit lane open under VSC is the Toyota #8, followed by Alpine #35 and Ferrari #50, BMW #20, Ferrari #83 on which Kubica gets in. After four hours of racing, the Safety Car comes out on track.

Chronicle of the fifth and sixth hour of the race

At 1h 42min from the end, the Safety Car returns and the compact pack of Hypercars immediately enters the fight. At this point, all cars have an energy level around 90% while the Toyota #8 is at 74%. The Ferrari #50 of Fuoco is very aggressive and exploits a mistake by Milesi who almost rear-ends Buemi at the Source and climbs to fourth position, sticking to the BMW #15. At the head, Frijns seems to manage to pull away a bit from Buemi’s Toyota who in turn is chased by Vanthoor’s BMW which flashes its lights behind him because it is pressured by Fuoco.
Noteworthy in this phase is the excellent sixth place of the Aston Martin #009 which is only two seconds from the Alpine #35. At 1h 20min from the end, Pier Guidi overtakes the Cadillac #12 on the Kemmel straight even putting two wheels on the grass, climbing to seventh position.
Positions at the head remain unchanged; #20 #8 #15 #50 #35 #009 #51. The Toyota #8, however, cannot try to save fuel and is destined to lose positions at the next refueling.
At one hour from the end, a BMW one-two finish is therefore expected with the Ferrari #50 fighting for the podium. The Cadillac #12, the only one left on track after the retirement of the #38, loses position after position exiting the points zone.

Plot twist at 1h 2min from the end. The Ferrari #51 of Pier Guidi retires with the right side completely smashed by the BMW GT #32 of Farfus which hits him full on at the Source.
Virtual safety car that shuffles strategies and the Toyota #8 takes advantage to refuel, as do Alpine #36 and BMW #15 and Toyota #7. The Toyota #8 returns again under VSC after a few laps to change tires. The BMW #20 leader of the race and the Ferraris #50 and #83 also return. At this point, the Safety Car inevitably arrives to bunch up the group for a last very tight final stretch of the race. These are the standings behind the SC waiting for the restart:

The Safety Car returns to the pits 34 minutes from the end of the race and it is immediately heart-stopping with the Aston Martin #009 trying to overtake the Alpine #35 at Kemmel taking its slipstream but in the maneuver the Alpine defends and Ribeira to avoid it puts four wheels on the grass and ends up against the opposite guardrail forced to retire but with much less damage than could have been.

The Safety Car returns to allow the cleaning of the track full of debris on the Kemmel straight. The restart takes place 24 minutes from the end of the race and the Alpine #35 is still protagonist with a terrifying spin at the top of Eau Rouge from which it suffers severe damage putting the car out of the race.

At the head is the BMW duo #20 and #15 and behind them the Ferrari #50 of Fuoco, in turn threatened by the Toyota #7 of Kobayashi. #15 #50 and #7 are practically glued with Fuoco having to think about defending from Kobayashi. Behind the Japanese, the Valkyrie #007 of Gamble approaches which is very fast at Spa. The trio becomes a quartet fighting tooth and nail during an endless sequence of GT lapping. Gamble manages to overtake Kobayashi thanks to his remarkable speed at the end of the Kemmel straight and sets off in pursuit of Fuoco but there are just over 3 minutes to go.
Fuoco does not have enough to overtake Magnussen on the straight. The 499P gets very close to the BMW M in the curves but it is not enough. In the end, it is the first historic BMW victory and one-two finish.

In LMGT3 Rovera is penalized 5 seconds for unsafe release so despite finishing first, the Ferrari #21 is demoted and the victory goes to the McLaren #10

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