As expected, the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was fantastic! Plenty of surprises, penalties, contact - all the exciting ingredients in an endurance race.

LM P 1, Audi victory

In the end, Audi won with the No. 8 Audi R18 driven by Oliver Jarvis, Loïc Duval and Lucas Di Grassi. Even though the drivers complained several times about how the car was behaving, the trio managed to win.

The No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb finished second, but for this car as well the race was not an easy one, slowed early on by hybrid system problems. Meanwhile, the driver line-up holds on to the lead in the championship after their win in the U.K. The podium was rounded out by the No. 13 R-One AER of Rebellion Racing with Mathéo Tuscher, Dominik Kraihamer and Alexandre Imperatori at the wheel.

The other LM P1 Hybrids

They too had problems! In the lead for half the race, the No. 5 Toyota TS 050 Hybrid was stopped by engine trouble and did one final lap before ending up 26th. It was followed by the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by the world champions who had quite a few problems, including two flat tyres and a gearbox change !

The second Audi, the No. 7 driven by Marcel Fässler, Benoît Tréluyer and André Lotterer, finished fifth. The three-time winners at the 24 Hours of Le Mans had their fair share of concerns with vibration problems, a portion of the front changed then temperature trouble and also contact with the No. 43 Ligier JS P2! The No. 6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid incurred a drive-through for contact with the No. 37 BR 01 LM P2 and was forced to retire following an oil leak and electronic troubles.

LM P2, Alpine back to business 

A stunning victory for the No. 36 Alpine A460 Nissan of Signatech Alpine driven by Stéphane Richelmi, Gustavo Menezes and Nicolas Lapierre including a beautiful overtaking in the last 15 minutes by the former Toyota LM P1 driver! The French car, weak at Silverstone, won ahead of ESM's No. 31 Ligier JS P2 Nissan and Manor's No. 45 Oreca 05 Nissan. The British team was in the forefront with its two cars (No. 44 and No. 45) throughout the race. As for RGR Sport by Morand's No. 43 Ligier JS P2, the winner three weeks ago, it finished fourth.

LM GTE Pro, the one-two evades Ferrari 

The class was the exclusive domain of the two Ferrari 488 Italias which dominated all their adversaries. The No. 51 should have won given to what extent the Italian car excelled, but a mechanical problem ended the hopes of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado, the latter so disappointed he held his helmet in his both hand when the car stopped at its pit.

The No. 71 driven by Sam Bird and Davide Rigon won again after Silverstone. Second place was snatched by the No. 67 Ford GT driven by Marino Franchitti, Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell though it made contact with the No. 83 Ferrari early in the race. It was the first podium finish for the Ford GT in the World Endurance Championship (WEC). After the win for the same car at Laguna Seca in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship last weekend, all eyes will be on the American car at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage rounded out the podium.

There were two accidents in this class: one for the No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage driven by Nicki Thiim, persecuted by the No. 38 Gibson 015 S (which actually incurred a penalty for it). A Full Race Yellow even happened! Then the No. 66 Ford GT rammed its tyres at the Raidillon. With debris everywhere on the track, the Race Direction sent out the safety car. Stefan Mücke, sent to the Medical Centre, emerged with no more than some contusions!

LM GTE Am, Aston Martin takes back the reins

The No. 98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage driven by Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda won in its class. The three drivers finished ahead of the winners at Silverstone, Emmanuel Collard, Rui Aguas and François Perrodo, in AF Corse's No. 83 Ferrari 458 even after being penalized twice with drive-throughs for failure to respect the track limits. Penalized as well with a drive-through, Larbre Compétition's No. 50 Corvette C7.R claimed its second podium finish of the year.

This second race delivered quite a bit of information. The drivers made plenty of contact, racked up mistakes and were penalized many times by the Race Direction. Also, the LM P1s seem less reliable (for now). On to the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 18th and 19th...on everyone's minds as it counts for double points and will be thrilling as always!

David Bristol / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

PHOTO: STAVELOT (LIEGE PROVINCE, BELGIUM), SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS CIRCUIT, FIA WEC, WEC 6 HOURS OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, SATURDAY MAY 7 2016, RACE. The first win of the year for Audi, promising before the 24 Hours of Le Mans.