24h Le Mans
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing's #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid has secured the top step on the podium at the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, third round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Toyota has secured its 42nd win in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and second consecutive of the season, thanks to Kamui Kobayashi/Mike Conway/José María López in the #7. The trio finished ahead of the #8 sister car of Brendon Hartley/Sébastien Buemi/Ryo Hirakawa. As a result of the one-two, the Japanese marque leads the Hypercar Manufacturers classification with a 33-point advantage on Ferrari after three rounds.
The top 3 was rounded out by Ferrari AF Corse's #51 499P shared by James Calado/Alessandro Pier Guidi/Antonio Giovinazzi. Calado clinched third place in the final lap by overtaking Porsche Penske Motorsport's #5 Porsche 963.
Cadillac Racing's #2 Cadillac V-Series.R finished in fifth place. The team's #3 sister car participating in this year's TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary violently left the track in the Raidillon.
Hertz Team Jota delivered an impressive showing, claiming the sixth spot with the Porsche 963 Hypercar entrusted to António Félix da Costa/Will Stevens/Yifei Ye. Glickenhaus Racing's Glickenhaus 007 finished seventh thanks to Romain Dumas/Olivier Pla/Franck Mailleux and Peugeot TotalEnergies' Peugeot 9X8s reached the chequered flag in eighth and ninth places.
In LMP2, the battle raged throughout the race for the class win, with Team WRT prevailing in the end. The #41 ORECA 07-Gibson driven by Rui Andrade/Louis Delétraz/Robert Kubica triumphed with six seconds to spare on United Autosports' #23 ORECA. Inter Europol Competition rounded out the podium after Albert Costa managed to overtake Prema Racing's #9 ORECA in the last laps. The Spanish driver shared the #34 ORECA with Jakub Śmiechowski and Fabio Scherer.
Richard Mille AF Corse's #23 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo reached the top step in LMGTE Am, with Lilou Wadoux becoming the first female driver ever to earn a class win in the FIA WEC. She shared the car with Alessio Rovera and Luis Pérez Companc. The latter crossed the finish line with an 18.6-second lead on Corvette Racing's #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.
The next round of the 2023 FIA WEC season is the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary on 10-11 June. In the meantime, check out these photo highlights of the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
