WEC Spa results: Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima one step closer to title

Fernando Alonso and teammates Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima moved to within striking distance of the 2018/19 World Endurance Championship title with their fourth victory of the season at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium Saturday. The win would have made them a shoo-in for the crown even without the technical problems that prevented their Toyota teammates and only rivals for the title, Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez, from finishing down in sixth position.

The result in the penultimate round of the series means that Alonso and his teammates will go to the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a 31-point advantage. There are just 39 points to play for at the championship finale, meaning that the drivers of the #8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID would need to finish seventh even if their teammates win the race and claim the point for pole position.

Kobayashi, Conway and Lopez were doing everything in their power to keep the title race well and truly open heading into the second edition of Le Mans in the one-off superseason. They were more than 50 seconds up on the sister car when a sensor in the No. 7 Toyota's hybrid needed replacing late in the third hour, resulting in a five-lap stay in its pit garage.  

It would be wrong to say that this left the crew of the No. 8 with an easy run to the flag. There were no fewer than four snow showers on a freezing cold day, the extreme conditions resulting in six safety car periods, including two of the virtual kind.

"It was a pretty hard race to be honest," said Buemi. "With the rain and the snow, it made it pretty tricky." For Alonso it was all about "being on the right tires at the right time".

The un-delayed Toyota gained a full lap over the chasing non-hybrid privateer pack by midway through the fourth hour. That was as far ahead as they got thanks to the stop-start nature of the event, which was brought to a premature end 11 minutes from the scheduled six-hour duration when the snow returned.

Rebellion Racing came out on top in the battle for the best of the rest spot over SMP Racing. The Rebellion-Gibson R-13 driven Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Nathanael Berthon sealed second position in the closing stages from the SMP BR Engineering BR1 driven by Stoffel Vandoorne, Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov.

It had been nip and tuck for much of the way between the two independents, though a lack of fifth and sixth gears on the AER-engined BR1 in the latter stages of the race allowed the Rebellion to sneak home six seconds to the good.

The second SMP entry shared by Sergey Sirotkin, Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev took fourth despite losing a wheel early in the race. Rebellion's second entry driven by Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer and Bruno Senna claimed fifth after a troubled race, though it was still two laps up on the delayed Toyota.

The Franco-American DragonSpeed squad took a maiden LMP2 victory in the WEC. Pastor Maldonado, who shared the team's ORECA-Gibson 07 with Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez, moved to the front in the penultimate hour ahead of the Signatech Alpine that had led much of the race. Signatech's ORECA driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet, ended up third behind the G-Drive trio of Jean-Eric Vergne, Roman Rusinov and Job van Uitert which would have needed a late splash-and-dash fuel stop but for the red flag.

Aston Martin won a thrilling GTE Pro battle, the marque's second victory of the season going to Vantage GTE shared by Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn. The Aston was competitive on both a dry and wet track and ended up prevailing by a scant eight tenths of second from the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE shared by James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Porsche took third position with Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, who edged towards the GTE drivers' crown. The German marque also sealed the manufacturers' title with a race to spare.

Toyota also wrapped up the meaningless LMP1 teams' crown with its Spa results. Alonso and co did more or less the same as far as the drivers' title goes, and their in-house rivals know it.

"It's looking like the championship is gone," said Conway. "The sister car would more or less not have to not finish Le Mans, which is not something we want. But we will fight to the end and we see what Le Mans brings."
 


























ClassNo.DriversCarClassLapsTimeGapInterval
18Sébastien Buemi Toyota TS050 HybridLMP11335:44'41.101  
Kazuki Nakajima 
Fernando Alonso 
23Nathanael Berthon Rebellion R13LMP11325:44'58.7941 Lap1 Lap
Thomas Laurent 
Gustavo Menezes 
311Mikhail Aleshin BR Engineering BR1LMP11325:45'05.3501 Lap6.556
Vitaly Petrov 
Stoffel Vandoorne 
417Stéphane Sarrazin BR Engineering BR1LMP11315:45'01.8952 Laps1 Lap
Egor Orudzhev 
Sergey Sirotkin 
51Neel Jani Rebellion R13LMP11305:44'44.1933 Laps1 Lap
Andre Lotterer 
Bruno Senna 
67Mike Conway Toyota TS050 HybridLMP11295:44'45.6824 Laps1 Lap
Kamui Kobayashi 
Jose Maria Lopez 
731Roberto Gonzalez Oreca 07LMP21295:44'55.9194 Laps10.237
Pastor Maldonado 
Anthony Davidson 
826Roman Rusinov Aurus 01LMP21295:44'59.8744 Laps3.955
Job Van Uitert 
Jean-Eric Vergne 
936Nicolas Lapierre Alpine A470LMP21295:45'00.3514 Laps0.477
Andre Negrao 
Pierre Thiriet 
1038Ho-Pin Tung Oreca 07LMP21295:45'04.5464 Laps4.195
Gabriel Aubry 
Stéphane Richelmi 
1128François Perrodo Oreca 07LMP21285:45'22.4295 Laps1 Lap
Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Norman Nato 
1229Frits van Eerd Dallara P217LMP21275:45'02.6206 Laps1 Lap
Giedo van der Garde 
Nyck de Vries 
1337David Heinemeier Hansson Oreca 07LMP21275:45'24.0166 Laps21.396
Jordan King 
Will Stevens 
1450Erwin Creed Ligier JSP 217LMP21265:45'29.3487 Laps1 Lap
Romano Ricci 
Nicholas Boulle 
1597Alex Lynn Aston Martin Vantage AMRLMGTE PRO1245:44'45.3439 Laps2 Laps
Maxime Martin 
1651Alessandro Pier Guidi Ferrari 488 GTE EVOLMGTE PRO1245:44'46.2319 Laps0.888
James Calado 
1792Michael Christensen Porsche 911 RSRLMGTE PRO1245:44'49.1469 Laps2.915
Kevin Estre 
1882Augusto Farfus BMW M8 GTELMGTE PRO1245:44'53.4599 Laps4.313
Antonio Felix da Costa 
1967Andy Priaulx Ford GTLMGTE PRO1245:44'53.5759 Laps0.116
Harry Tincknell 
2071Davide Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE EVOLMGTE PRO1245:44'53.6229 Laps0.047
Sam Bird 
2195Marco Sorensen Aston Martin Vantage AMRLMGTE PRO1245:44'54.5079 Laps0.885
Nicki Thiim 
2291Richard Lietz Porsche 911 RSRLMGTE PRO1245:45'04.2789 Laps9.771
Gianmaria Bruni 
2381Martin Tomczyk BMW M8 GTELMGTE PRO1245:45'05.8779 Laps1.599
Nick Catsburg 
2466Stefan Mücke Ford GTLMGTE PRO1235:44'53.81210 Laps1 Lap
Olivier Pla 
2577Christian Ried Porsche 911 RSRLMGTE AM1225:44'49.08911 Laps1 Lap
Riccardo Pera 
Matt Campbell 
2690Salih Yoluc Aston Martin VantageLMGTE AM1225:44'54.43311 Laps5.344
Euan Hankey 
Charles Eastwood 
2761Luis Perez Companc Ferrari 488 GTELMGTE AM1225:45'05.23311 Laps10.8
Matteo Cressoni 
Matthew Griffin 
2854Thomas Flohr Ferrari 488 GTELMGTE AM1225:45'21.80611 Laps16.573
Francesco Castellacci 
Giancarlo Fisichella 
2956Jörg Bergmeister Porsche 911 RSRLMGTE AM1225:45'22.29411 Laps0.488
Patrick Lindsey 
Egidio Perfetti 
3098Paul Dalla Lana Aston Martin VantageLMGTE AM1215:44'49.97212 Laps1 Lap
Pedro Lamy 
Mathias Lauda 
3186Michael Wainwright Porsche 911 RSRLMGTE AM1215:45'26.93212 Laps36.96
Benjamin Barker 
Thomas Preining 
3270Motoaki Ishikawa Ferrari 488 GTELMGTE AM1205:45'23.02713 Laps1 Lap
Olivier Beretta 
Eddie Cheever III 
3388Gianluca Roda Porsche 911 RSRLMGTE AM1155:45'02.54918 Laps5 Laps
Giorgio Roda 
Matteo Cairoli 
344Tom Dillmann ENSO CLM P1/01LMP1955:45'25.92038 Laps20 Laps
Oliver Webb 
Paolo Ruberti 

 

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