6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: LMP2 race

WECLMP

May 2

Thrilling 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps LMP2 race with 28 leader changes. Eight different teams lead during at least two laps.

At the end, it was not one of the three teams leading the most laps (#23 United Autosports 50 laps, #31 Team WRT 40 laps and #63 Prema Racing 20 laps) who won.

Rui Andrade, Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica in Team WRT #41 after leading 17 laps during the whole race.

Several safety cars during the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps completely changed the shape of the race with a thrilling ending when Louis Delétraz in Team WRT #41 second and leading #23 United Autosports of Tom Blomqvist had to stop for a last splash and dash 12 minutes from the finish. Thanks to better fuel management by the drivers, the Team WRT crew was faster in the pits and clinched victory. The podium

The Podium

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. Rui Andrade, Louis Delétraz and Robert Kubica in Team WRT #41 won the LMP2 class of the **6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps**.

Louis Delétraz, #41: “The win is just fantastic. Two hours from the end, when we were second from the bottom, it was hard to believe that we could win. The team did a great strategic job and we got a little bit of luck. We climbed back and Robert gave me the car in fourth or fifth at the end and the car had a very strong pace. Honestly, I’m very happy and very proud of everybody, and it’s a very good thing ahead of Le Mans.”

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. Josh Pierson, Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis ended second of LMP2 race with United Autosports #23.

The #23 United Autosports team did lead the race during 50 laps and were leading before a last splash and dash during which the team was slower than the #41 WRT Team putting Josh Pierson, Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis second 6.042 sec. behind the winning #41.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. Kuba Śmiechowski, Fabio Scherer and Albert Costa with the #34 Inter Europol Competition ended third of LMP2 class.

The Inter Europol Competition team opted to run a shorter second stint for Śmiechowski, going out of sequence with the remainder of the LMP2 field. Therefore, the #34 car would either be towards the front, or at the back, depending on the timing of the last stop. By lap 32, the pattern was becoming apparent with Scherer vaulting up to third position as others stopped and then ten laps later the position was tenth.

Costa ran fifth with 30 minutes to go with the leading two cars being out of reach due to a slow puncture to the right rear whilst behind the Safety Car. Costa made perfectly executed passes on the #22 United Autosport during lap 135 and the #9 Prema during lap 143 out of 146 ending third 9.415 sec. behind the #23 United Autosports.

The next 3 are within 30” from the winners.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. Filip Ugran, Andrea Caldarelli and Bent Viscaal with #9 Prema racing gained ground from P6 in qualifying to be into full contention for a podium finish but had to settle for P4.

Bent Viscaal: "I'm quite happy with how it went. We got the safety cars at the right moment. Apart from that, I think the team did a really good job in all the calls that we made. I'm very happy about my own performance, I did the best I could to triple stint the tyres. At the end, it was challenging but I think we made the best out of it. I'm really happy with the performance although in the last five minutes it's always a shame that you lose a podium position. I really want to thank the team, now on to Le Mans!" Source: Prema Racing

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Spa-Francorchamps. Albuquerque, Hanson and Lubin in the United Autosports #22 end fifth being the only ones among the top 6 who never lead the LMP2 class.

Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns and Ferdinand Habsburg in Team WRT #31, crossed the finish line as sixth, only 27 seconds behind the winning sister car despite leading the race at several moments fo a total of 40 laps.

6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: LMP2 race

The Podium

The next 3 are within 30” from the winners.

Porsche 963 in IMSA and WEC

6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps: LMGTE race