6H Spa: Buemi wins and still has to wait 🎥
TOYOTA WORLD CHAMPION IN SNOWFALL Sun, rain, snow - April weather marred the 6 Hours of Spa. Toyota is the manufacturers' world champion after another victory, Sébastien Buemi still has to wait for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. On Saturday morning, the circuit in the Ardennes was still under a blanket of snow, but it disappeared for the start of the Spa 6 Hours. [...]
On Saturday morning, the circuit in the Ardennes was still covered in a blanket of snow, but this disappeared for the start of the Spa 6 Hours. The alternation of sunshine, rain, hail and heavy snow repeatedly posed challenges for the teams during the race and ultimately led to an early end 15 minutes before the end of the time.
Up to the halfway point, the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids were unchallenged at the front before the leading car of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López had to pit for a total of 57 laps due to a sensor problem. This resulted in a loss of around eleven minutes, which pushed the trio back to sixth position.
The highlights of the seventh of eight rounds of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) are shown in the following summary:
https://www.facebook.com/fiawec/videos/591372908042336
Seven points still missing for world championship title
Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso thus celebrated their fourth victory in the year-long super season, which began on May 5, 2018 with the first of the two 6-hour races at Spa. It will end on June 15/16 with the second 24-hour race at Le Mans.
While Toyota has been crowned world champion for the second time since 2014, the Swiss, the Spaniard and the Japanese cannot yet be sure. 38 points are awarded to the overall winners of the classic, plus one point for pole position. However, with a 31-point lead over their teammates, the world championship leaders can take a relaxed approach to Le Mans.
Alonso says adios
For Buemi, it would also be the second world championship title after 2014, for Alonso the third involving Formula 1. He has already announced his departure from the WEC. Alonso will be replaced in 2019/20 by New Zealander Brendon Hartley, who drove for Porsche in LMP1 until 2017 and for Toro Rosso in Formula 1 in 2018.
Rebellion remains the best LMP1 private team
The fastest private team in Belgium was not Rebellion but SMP. However, thanks to consistency, a slightly better strategy and more luck during the yellow phases, second place with a lead of only 6.5 seconds did not go to the Russians Aleshin, Petrov and ex-GP driver Vandoorne from Belgium but to the Swiss-flagged team with Thomas Laurent (F), Gustavo Menezes (USA) and Nathanaël Berthon (F).
Neel Jani, André Lotterer and Bruno Senna, on the other hand, experienced a race to forget after initially being in third place behind the two Toyota cars. Team mistakes and bad luck with the safety car led to a time loss of two laps to their teammates, resulting in only fifth place. The third WRC place is now as good as gone, the other three rebels will get it.
Neel Jani: "I haven't experienced such a bad season since 2010. I hope we'll at least have the necessary luck at Le Mans that we've been lacking so far."
Porsche is GT world champion
The one-make world championship for GT teams has also been decided. Porsche secured the title in the GT-LME category even before Le Mans thanks to third and eighth place for the two 911 RSR. Victory went to one of the two new Aston Martion Vantage cars with Alex Lynn (GB) and local hero Maxime Martin (B).
