Jota secured the first ever victory for a privateer hypercar team in the WEC by winning a disrupted Six Hours of Spa.
The number 12 Jota Porsche of Callum Ilott and Will Stevens secured their team’s first overall victory in the hypercar era of WEC.The number six Penske Porsche of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor finished second, 12 seconds behind, with the number 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen in third, just ahead of the number 51 Ferrari.
The race was stopped for two hours following a major accident just after the four hour mark when the number two Cadillac, driven by Earl Bamber, hit a GT3 car and struck the barriers on the Kemmel Straight. The original race time appeared to be set to expire, but just before the scheduled finish time at 7pm, race director Eduardo Freitas announced that the race would be resumed with all of the race time before the red flag added to the clock.
After repairs were complete, the Safety Car led the field around for three laps before the race returned to green flag conditions with just under 90 minutes of race time remaining. Thankfully, there were no more Safety Car or red flag interruptions and the number 12 Jota Porsche emerged victorious to claim the team’s first ever hypercar win.
Behind the podium, the number 51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado finished fourth with the number 99 Proton Porsche of Harry Tincknell, Neel Jani and Julien Andlauer in fifth.
Kamui Kobayashi finished sixth in the number seven Toyota, but a five second penalty for late contact with the Iron Dames GT3 Lamborghini saw his car fall behind the number eight Toyota. The number 83 AF Corse Ferrari finished eighth with the number 35 Alpine and the number 93 Peugeot completing the top ten.
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Race result
Pos | No. | Class | Team | Car | Drivers | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 12 | Hypercar | Team Jota | Porsche 963 | William Stevens/Callum Ilott | 141 |
2 | 6 | Hypercar | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Porsche 963 | Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor | 141 |
3 | 50 | Hypercar | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen | 141 |
4 | 51 | Hypercar | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi | 141 |
5 | 99 | Hypercar | Proton Competition | Porsche 963 | Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani/Julien Andlauer | 141 |
6 | 8 | Hypercar | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota GR010 | Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa | 141 |
7 | 7 | Hypercar | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota GR010 | Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck de Vries | 141 |
8 | 83 | Hypercar | AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Robert Kubica/Robert Shwartzman/Yifei Ye | 140 |
9 | 35 | Hypercar | Alpine Endurance Team | Alpine A424 | Paul-Loup Chatin/Ferdinand Habsburg/Charles Milesi | 141 |
10 | 93 | Hypercar | Peugeot | Peugeot 9X8 | Mikkel Jensen/Nico Mueller/Jean-Eric Vergne | 140 |
11 | 15 | Hypercar | Bmw M Team WRT | BMW M Hybrid V8 | Dries Vanthoor/Raffaele Marciello/Marco Wittmann | 140 |
12 | 36 | Hypercar | Alpine Endurance Team | Alpine A424 | Nicolas Lapierre/Mick Schumacher/Matthieu Vaxiviere | 140 |
13 | 20 | Hypercar | Bmw M Team WRT | BMW M Hybrid V8 | Sheldon Van Der Linde/Robin Frijns/Rene Rast | 140 |
14 | 94 | Hypercar | Peugeot | Peugeot 9X8 | Paul di Resta/Loic Duval/Stoffel Vandoorne | 139 |
15 | 11 | Hypercar | Isotta Fraschini | Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C | Antonio Serravalle/Carl Wattana Bennett/Jean-Karl Vernay | 138 |
16 | 91 | LMGT3 | Manthey Ema | Porsche 911 GT3 R | Yasser Shahin/Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz | 130 |
17 | 92 | LMGT3 | Manthey Purerxcing | Porsche 911 GT3 R | Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler | 130 |
18 | 60 | LMGT3 | Iron Lynx | Lamborghini Huracan Evo2 | Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Franck Perera | 130 |
19 | 85 | LMGT3 | Iron Dames | Lamborghini Huracan Evo2 | Sarah Bovy/Doriane Pin/Michelle Gatting | 130 |
20 | 59 | LMGT3 | United Autosports | McLaren 720S Evo | James Cottingham/Nicolas Costa/Gregoire Saucy | 130 |
21 | 54 | LMGT3 | Vista AF Corse | Ferrari 296 | Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon | 129 |
22 | 777 | LMGT3 | D’Station Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Clement Mateu/Erwan Bastard/Marco Sorensen | 130 |
23 | 88 | LMGT3 | Proton Competition | Ford Mustang | Giorgio Roda/Mikkel Pedersen/Dennis Olsen | 130 |
24 | 77 | LMGT3 | Proton Competition | Ford Mustang | Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Ben Barker | 130 |
25 | 78 | LMGT3 | Akkodis Asp Team | Lexus RC F | Arnold Robin/Timur Boguslavskiy/Kelvin Van Der Linde | 129 |
26 | 27 | LMGT3 | Heart Of Racing Team | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas | 129 |
27 | 82 | LMGT3 | TF Sport | Corvette Z06.R | Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud/Daniel Juncadella | 129 |
28 | 55 | LMGT3 | Vista AF Corse | Ferrari 296 | Francois Heriau/Simon Mann/Alessio Rovera | 129 |
29 | 87 | LMGT3 | Akkodis Asp Team | Lexus RC F | Takeshi Kimura/Esteban Masson/Jose Maria Lopez | 128 |
30 | 2 | Hypercar | Cadillac Racing | Cadillac V-Series.R | Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/ | 95 |
31 | 31 | LMGT3 | Team WRT | BMW M4 | Darren Leung/Sean Gelael/Augusto Farfus | 87 |
32 | 5 | Hypercar | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Porsche 963 | Matt Campbell/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki | 64 |
33 | 95 | LMGT3 | United Autosports | McLaren 720S Evo | Joshua Caygill/Nicolas Pino/Marino Sato | 59 |
34 | 63 | Hypercar | Lamborghini Iron Lynx | Lamborghini SC63 | Mirko Bortolotti/Edoardo Mortara/Daniil Kvyat | 59 |
35 | 81 | LMGT3 | TF Sport | Corvette Z06.R | Tom Van Rompuy/Rui Andrade/Charlie Eastwood | 56 |
36 | 38 | Hypercar | Team Jota | Porsche 963 | Jenson Button/Philip Hanson/Oliver Rasmussen | 37 |
37 | 46 | LMGT3 | Team WRT | BMW M4 | Ahmad Al Harthy/Valentino Rossi/Maxime Martin | 33 |
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World Endurance Championship
- How to watch the IndyCar and WEC season-openers this weekend
- Ford’s return to boost top Le Mans and WEC classes to 10 manufacturers
- Lotterer, Estre and Vanthoor clinch WEC drivers’ title, Toyota win constructors’
- Penske Porsche poised to clinch title after winning incident-packed Fuji Six Hours
- Hyundai to launch hypercar racing programme under Genesis brand
stefano (@alfa145)
12th May 2024, 1:02
anybody who watched the race know what happened to AF Corse Ferrari?
Bob
12th May 2024, 7:11
What do you mean what happened? Nothing really happened to them, they just got unlucky with the red flag which came out during one of the pit phases.
Since the surviving Penske and Jota Porsches pitted just before the red flag they were able to get a huge jump since everyone else had to pit again (can’t refuel during a red flag) after the cars were all closed up again. The Ferrari’s still led the rest of the pack, but the gap to the Porsches (who essentially got a free pit stop) was too big to make up.
MichaelN
12th May 2024, 8:32
As Bob notes, it was just another case of the neutralisation determining the outcome.
With safety cars and full on stoppage being more and more common, something has to be done about the sporting aspect of so this interference.
It’s very unfair and essentially makes watching the full race pointless as everything can be reset or handed to someone at any time.
S
12th May 2024, 9:46
That’s what some people like to think with the benefit of hindsight.
However, the same circumstances are just as likely to breath life into an otherwise foregone conclusion of a complete non-race…
It’s not unfair in that it could happen at any time, with anyone in any position – and it isn’t preplanned in any way to benefit or handicap anyone. It’s quite literally the opposite of unfair, actually.
It’s an uncontrollable variable – and they are one of the most valuable things in modern motorsport, given their rarity.
A smart competitor sees it as an opportunity…
Jonathan Parkin
12th May 2024, 5:47
I’m curious if the race did indeed run for the full six hours. When the red flag came out it seemed to be more than 105 minutes remaining and then when the restart happened we had three laps behind the SC (why did it have to be three exactly!!). When this finished we had 89 or so minutes left.
Are SC laps at Spa in the WEC really five minutes or so
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
12th May 2024, 12:26
I think at the beginning of the 3rd lap Freitas came on the radio and said that the SC will now drive at full speed, which suggest the first two laps were essentially reconnesaince laps after a long stoppage, which isn’t necessarily a bad decision since all cars were standing on the pit straight, no tyre warmers etc.
Bob
12th May 2024, 7:16
I just wanted to say thanks to Will Wood and RaceFans for finally reporting more on the WEC as well now. Daily Sportscar and Sportscar365 are really good, but sportscars seems to be lacking a lot of proper media coverage (especially the WEC which is arguably the 2nd most prestigious series after F1 and in my opinion the most exciting and entertaining) and seeing more people like RaceFans report on it is great, so thank you!
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
12th May 2024, 14:08
Very enjoyable race, and an unexpected resume after a lengthy delay.
Went there, very refreshing to only pay 60€ and have almost a full access everywhere. 100% recommend!