#8 Toyota Wins 6H Portimao, Five Factories In The Top Five

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #8 GR010 HYBRID scored its first win of the season in dominant fashion, after its closest rival in the race – the team’s Sebring-winning #7 crew – lost seven laps due to a drive shaft change being required on the car early in the race.

Sebastien Buemi, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley finished a lap ahead of the field, in a race that was more intriguing than the Sebring 1000 Miles, but ultimately saw the Japanese team, with its untroubled winning car, capable of keeping Ferrari and the other teams in the chasing pack at arm’s length.

Second in the race was the #50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen, which emerged as best of the rest on this occasion, scoring the team its best result to date, improving on the third-place finish in Round 1.

“Second place represents an excellent performance and a further step forward over the third step of the podium on the debut,” head of Attivita Sportive GT Antonello Colleta said after the race. “We know there’s still a long way to go, and our opponents are very strong. We go away happy but aware that we must continue to work, especially on reliability.”

It wasn’t in any way a perfect race for AF Corse, but there were so many encouraging signs. The team’s race pace, and performance in the garage and on the pit wall were much improved in this encounter. As a result, Ferrari was in contention for the opening hours and able to put pressure on the winning car, spending almost five hours on the lead lap.

“I felt for car 7 they kept us honest, they overtook us at the start before their issue,” Hartley admitted after scoring his 20th WEC victory. “I’m still convinced the others are coming and will get their ducks in a row for Le Mans.

“It was a great race for us though. Today it was perfect, there were no mistakes from the drivers, pit stops, or on strategy. To take the championship lead is nice. We are still making steps. I am proud that the guys have put our experience to good use and optimised the package we have.”

Completing the podium was the #6 Porsche Penske 963, bookending a memorable weekend for the young LMDh programme. After the IMSA arm of the team claimed the 963 its first win globally on Saturday in the IMSA Long Beach sprint race, a first WEC podium today will add to the team’s confidence going forward.

With the third place finish the #6 of Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre became the first LMDh car to finish on the podium in WEC history. It wasn’t a comfortable end to the race though, as the team under-fuelled the car at its last scheduled stop, forcing Lotterer in with 10 minutes to go, almost costing the team third.

“It was a really good weekend for us, we are making steps. But we are not where we want to be,” Estre told DSC after the race. “We don’t want to be fighting for third place.”

Just off the podium, finishing a handful of seconds behind the Porsche, was the car from the only major factory team in Hypercar that didn’t suffer a mechanical drama or significant on-track incident: Cadillac Racing. Over one lap the V-Series.R couldn’t match the frontrunners, but the car is significantly kinder to its tyres than most of the other cars in the class, gradually bringing the team into play as the race wore on.

Richard Westbrook, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber, who were out of sync for most of this one due to an additional tyre change mid-way through a stint early in the race, will be thrilled with a second fourth-place finish, which was claimed when the #51 AF Corse Ferrari suffered a front-right brake disc failure in the final 30 minutes.

“We got unlucky with the safety car that took a podium away from us, but the car was really quick and we’re just learning more and more,” Lynn explained after the race. ”

The issue for Alessandro Pier Guidi occurred at Turn 1 after a late race restart for an incident involving the Vanwall, which also suffered a brake failure, that sent Jacques Villeneuve spinning into the barriers at Turn 11 and into retirement at the end of the fifth hour.

Pier Guidi went straight on at Turn 1, and then went straight on at the hairpin later in the lap. He finished but had to limp home at a reduced pace with the front-left brake disc doing the heavy lifting.

This came after Antonio Giovanazzi suffered a glitch issue with the car’s brake-by-wire system early in the race while running in the top three. The Italian was forced to complete an iron man stint, lifting and coasting to control the brake temperature while the team worked to solve the issue. It was a stint which he described as the hardest of his career.

The #51 wasn’t the only Hypercar to hit significant trouble in the race. The #7 Toyota had to come in for a rear corner change, to replace a drive shaft and the sensor which failed. By regulation the sensor needs to work, so Toyota was forced to bring the car in despite the fact that the issue didn’t affect its performance. It proved a major setback for Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, who held the championship lead going into the race and left Portugal with a ninth-place finish.

At Porsche, both its cars suffered power steering issues in the race. The #6’s was reported as persistent but not catastrophic, while the #5 had to spend time in the garage for repairs due to an electronics-focused issue for Michael Christensen late in the race. It came home last of the classified Hypercar runners.

Peugeot #93 9X8 also had steering issues, the team was forced to replace the steering rack in the build-up to the race. The car started from pit lane and a lap down, forcing its drivers into a recovery drive for the duration, eventually finishing a respectable seventh, behind the #94.

The #94 had a far more encouraging race though, in the mix with the Cadillac and Porsches for a top-five finish throughout. This performance was by no means a complete turnaround for the Peugeot programme, but it has clearly taken steps in the right direction since its woeful outing at Sebring.

There were no issues with the hybrid system or the new hydraulic gearbox. The team will therefore have more confidence that it can take further strides at Spa next time out. With a surprise fifth-place finish due to the limping Ferrari falling back, the #94 also made it five manufacturers in the top five.

United puts Sebring result behind it with 1-2 finish

In LMP2, it was a thriller that went down to the wire, again. Winning the race after late drama was the #23 United Autosports ORECA of Oliver Jarvis, Giedo Van Der Garde and Josh Pierson, it was a welcome change in fortune after the team’s rotten luck in the season opener, when an issue with the in-car camera hit the kill switch on the car and they retired from the lead.

The car controlled most of the race, before a fumbled penultimate pit stop as a result of a radio failure dropped Oliver Jarvis to second behind the #63 Prema ORECA of Danill Kvyat.

“I had no radio for the whole stint. The battery died and I was on my own,” ‘super sub’ Van Der Garde, who filled IMSA full season driver Tom Blomqvist’s seat this weekend, told DSC. “Then suddenly they decided to put Olly in the car as they thought it was an issue with my helmet. We were only supposed to swap the left side tyres at that stop, before I took the car to the end. But then suddenly Olly was in the car and I had to unbuckle and sort the drinks system. It was a strange situation, but we did a good job.”

But the final round of stops after the restart wasn’t kind to Prema, as the car dropped to third behind the two United ORECAs, the #23 reclaiming the lead, with the #22 of Phil Hanson at the end of the race close behind, following Jarvis home.

To add insult to injury for Prema, Kvyat lost third in the closing laps to a hard-charging Louis Deletraz in the #41 WRT ORECA and came home fourth, the former F1 driver struggling for grip.

The #48 HERTZ Team JOTA ORECA, in its final outing before the team begins campaigning a Porsche 963 in Hypercar, ended up completing the top five after struggling to feature in the race for the win, and getting involved in multiple lengthy tussles with the cars around it.

It was a tough day for Vector Sport meanwhile. After the high of missing out on pole by the smallest margin in WEC history yesterday, today the team suffered a fly-by-wire throttle issue that forced the team in for a lengthy stint in the garage for repairs.

Catsburg holds off Rovera to score two wins in two for Corvette

GTE Am came down to a duel in the final hour. Corvette Racing’s pole-sitting #33 C8.R and the #83 Richard Mille Racing Ferrari ended up in a battle for the lead in the final minutes, with Nicky Catsburg putting on a defensive masterclass to keep Alessio Rovera at bay.

“It takes two drivers to put on a show like that,” Catsburg said after the race, “but I have to say hats off to Alessio for driving fair. He was so much faster at the end, but catching is one thing, passing is another.”

Catsburg’s teammate Nico Varrone described the atmosphere in the Corvette garage during the final hour was ‘stressful’ in conversation with DSC after the race. “We are so lucky that our team helped us at every stop. We were gaining six or seven seconds each time, they kept us in it. Those guys hit the gym multiple times a week and practice every day, hard work pays off.”

In the end Rovera was unable to make the move and Corvette won the race, taking a commanding championship lead in the process. After piling the pressure on, Rovera finished up second, behind the Vette which took its second win in as many races this season. It was neverthless a great bounceback result for the team, after crashing out of the race in Sebring.

Completing the podium was the #85 Iron Dames Porsche, which was in the mix throughout and came home just 25 seconds off the lead.

Just off the podium was a pair of AF Corse Ferraris that finished fourth and fifth, the #54 leading the #21. The #21 crew of Diego Alessi, Simon Mann and Ulysse De Pauw will leave Portugal scratching their heads and wanting more. The car led much of the early portion of the race, Diego Alessi proving to be the class of the field in the opening stints up against the other Bronze drivers.

Next on the schedule for the teams is the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps on April 29th.

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Images courtesy of Jakob Ebrey Photography