Spa-Francorchamps 6-hour race 2018

The Eau Rouge combination of corners, in which Pietro Fittipaldi had a difficult accident during qualification.

Fernando Alonso immediately won his first race in the endurance world championship.

The seventh 6-hour race of Spa-Francorchamps , also called Total 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps , took place on May 5, 2018 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and was the first race of the FIA World Endurance Championship 2018/19 .

Before the race

With 37 vehicles on the entry list, more vehicles than ever before competed in a race of the World Endurance Championship in Spa-Francorchamps.

The qualification of the GT Endurance vehicles in the LMGTE Pro class was determined by the two works Ford GT . Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell secured the best starting positions for GT cars ahead of their team mates Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla . In the LMGTE-Am class, Christian Ried and Matt Campbell, from Dempsey-Proton Racing, achieved the best starting position ahead of the Aston Martin with Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy .

The qualification of the Le Mans prototypes was interrupted after 4 minutes with a red flag, as the SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1 rolled out on the Kemmel straight. Qualification continued, but a second red flag interrupted qualification again. Pietro Fittipaldi in the BR Engineering BR1 from Dragonspeed had an accident in the Eau Rouge after a failure of the power steering . Fittipaldi was flown by helicopter to the Hospital Center Universitaire De Liège on suspicion of breaking both legs. The Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi , Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso started from pole position , although the trio did not set the best time. The sister car with Mike Conway , Kamui Kobayashi and José María López was subsequently punished by the race stewards because of an incorrect identification number on the fuel flow limiter of the Toyota TS050 Hybrid and had to start out of the pit lane. The best team in the LMP2 class was the Signatech Alpine Matmut Team with Nicolas Lapierre and Pierre Thiriet.

Both LMP1 prototypes from the CEFC TRSM Racing Team did not take part in the qualification. In the free training sessions, the prototypes only drove one installation lap each. The reason was that the main sponsor, the Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy , was suspected of corruption and threatened to be nationalized. The sponsor payments to the running TRSM Racing racing team did not materialize, Ginetta could not pay for the prototypes.

The race

The Dragonspeed Team announced that due to the accident at Fittipaldi the day before, the prototype would not be ready in time for the race. So 34 cars made their way to the start.

After barely 2 minutes of racing, the safety car appeared for the first time, Michael Wainwright had to avoid a Ferrari that was turning in front of him and ended up in a pile of tires. After the restart, the two Ford GTs extended their lead in their class until Tincknell hit a tire wall in the Eau Rouge corner combination, almost at the same point as Fittipaldi. The safety car deployed a second time and the field gathered behind it, the restart only took place after the 90th minute of the race. In the LMP1 class, the two hybrid prototypes from Toyota dominated, after the second safety car phase Kobayashi even managed to retrace the leading Alonso. After almost 3 hours, the Toyota managed to catch up with the two, second and third placed, Rebellion R13s and finally overtake them.

There was a third safety car phase 65 minutes before the end of the race when the SMP Racing BR1, who was fourth at that moment, overturned at the exit of the Eau Rouge with Isaakyan at the wheel. The two Toyota achieved a double victory after 6 hours, in the LMP2 class the Oreca from G-Drive Racing had fought its way to first place in its class. The remaining Ford GT from Mücke, Pla & Johnson won dominantly in the LMGTE Pro class. The last few minutes between the two Aston Martin Vantages of Aston Martin Racing and TF Sport were close, but the former were able to maintain their lead.

During the race, the Larbre Compétition team managed to incur four drive-through penalties; they were 4 laps behind the G-Drive Racing Team in last place in the LMP2 class. After the race, the original third-placed vehicle from Rebellion Racing with Lotterer, Jani & Senna was subsequently disqualified, the reason being that the underbody plate was too thin and therefore irregular. The last podium went to the sister car with Laurent, Menezes & Beche at the wheel.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP1	8th	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	163
2	LMP1	7th	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi José María López	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	163
3	LMP1	3	Rebellion Racing	Thomas Laurent Gustavo Menezes Mathias Beche	Rebellion R13	161
4th	LMP1	4th	ByKolles Racing Team	Oliver Webb Dominik Kraihamer Tom Dillmann	ENSO CLM P1 / 01	158
5	LMP1	11	SMP Racing	Mikhail Aleshin Vitaly Petrov	BR Engineering BR1	158
6th	LMP2	26th	G-Drive Racing	Roman Rusinov Jean-Éric Vergne Andrea Pizzitola	Oreca 07	156
7th	LMP2	38	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Stéphane Richelmi	Oreca 07	156
8th	LMP2	36	Signatech Alpine Matmut	Nicolas Lapierre André Negrão Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	156
9	LMP2	37	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Jazeman Jaafar Weiron Tan Nabil Jeffri	Oreca 07	155
10	LMP2	28	TDS Racing	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxivière Loïc Duval	Oreca 07	155
11	LMP2	31	Dragonspeed	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Nathanaël Berthon	Oreca 07	155
12	LMP2	50	Larbre Compétition	Erwin Creed Fernando Rees Julien Canal	Ligier JS P217	152
13	LMGTE Pro	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson	Ford GT	148
14th	LMGTE Pro	92	Porsche GT Team	Michael Christensen Kévin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	148
15th	LMGTE Pro	71	AF Corse	Davide Rigon Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	147
16	LMGTE Pro	91	Porsche GT Team	Richard Lietz Gianmaria Bruni	Porsche 911 RSR	147
17th	LMGTE Pro	82	BMW Team MTEK	António Félix da Costa Tom Blomqvist	BMW M8 GTE	146
18th	LMGTE Pro	97	Aston Martin Racing	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin Jonny Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	146
19th	LMGTE Pro	95	Aston Martin Racing	Marco Sørensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	146
20th	LMGTE Pro	81	BMW Team MTEK	Martin Tomczyk Nicky Catsburg	BMW M8 GTE	145
21st	LMGTE Am	98	Aston Martin Racing	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	144
22nd	LMGTE Am	90	TF Sport	Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charlie Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	144
23	LMGTE Am	61	Clearwater Racing	Weng Sun Mok Keita Sawa Matt Griffin	Ferrari 488 GTE	143
24	LMGTE Am	77	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Christian Ried Julien Andlauer Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	142
25th	LMGTE Am	70	MR Racing	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	142
26th	LMGTE Am	88	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Khaled Al Qubaisi Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	141
27	LMGTE Pro	51	AF Corse	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	139
28	LMP2	29	Racing Team Nederland	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Jan Lammers	Dallara P217	139
29	LMGTE Am	86	Gulf Racing UK	Mike Wainwright Ben Barker Alex Davison	Porsche 911 RSR	137
30th	LMGTE Am	54	Spirit of Race	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	136
31	LMGTE Am	56	Team Project 1	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	131
Disqualified
32	LMP1	1	Rebellion Racing	André Lotterer Neel Jani Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	161
Failed
33	LMP1	17th	SMP Racing	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Matevos Isaakyan	BR Engineering BR1	132
34	LMGTE Pro	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell Tony Kanaan	Ford GT	26th

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
35	LMP1	5	CEFC TRSM Racing	Charles Robertson Dean Stoneman Léo Roussel	Ginetta G60-LT-P1
36	LMP1	6th	CEFC TRSM Racing	Oliver Rowland Alex Brundle Oliver Turvey	Ginetta G60-LT-P1
37	LMP1	10	Dragonspeed	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Pietro Fittipaldi	BR Engineering BR1

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP1	Sébastien Buemi	Kazuki Nakajima	Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050	Overall victory
LMP2	Roman Rusinov	Jean-Eric Vergne	Andrea Pizzitola	Oreca 07	Rank 6
LMGTE Pro	Stefan Mücke	Olivier Pla	Billy Johnson	Ford GT	Rank 14
LMGTE Am	Paul Dalla Lana	Pedro Lamy	Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	Rank 22

Racing data

• Registered: 37
• Started: 34
• Rated: 32
• Race classes: 4
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: warm and dry
• Route length: 7.004 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 6:00: 50.702 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 163
• Total distance of the winning team: 1,141.652 km
• Winner's average: 214.7 km / h
• Pole position: Kazuki Nakajima & Fernando Alonso - Toyota TS050 Hybrid (# 8) - 1: 54.962
• Fastest race lap: Mike Conway - Toyota TS050 Hybrid (# 7) - 1: 57.442
• Racing series: 1st round of the FIA World Endurance Championship 2018/19

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DragonSpeed: That went wrong with Fittipaldi. motorsport-total.com, accessed on January 23, 2019 (German). 
2. ↑ Broken legs, but: Pietro Fittipaldi out of danger. motorsport-total.com, accessed on May 4, 2018 (German). 
3. ↑ Toyota # 7 disqualified: Alonso inherits pole position! motorsport-total.com, accessed on May 4, 2018 (German). 
4. ↑ 6h Spa: Pole Toyota has to start out of the pit lane. speedweek.com, accessed on May 5, 2018 (German). 
5. ↑ Problems in China: is Manor withdrawing a car? motorsport-total.com, accessed on May 4, 2018 (German). 
6. ↑ Ginetta has had enough: Both Manor cars stop in Spa. motorsport-total.com, accessed on May 4, 2018 (German). 
7. ↑ ^{a b} Lead Rebellion stripped of Spa WEC podium finish. motorsport.com, accessed May 6, 2018 . 
8. ↑ Subfloor too thin: Rebellion # 1 in Spa disqualified! motorsport-total.com, accessed on May 6, 2018 (German). 
9. ↑ ^{a b} Total 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps - Race - Final Classification. fiawec.alkamelsystems.com, accessed May 5, 2018 . 
10. ↑ Entry list for the 6-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps 2018. press.fiawec.com, accessed on May 4, 2018 (English). 

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FIA World Endurance Championship

Succession race 24 hours of Le Mans in 2018