WEC | Spa, 2nd Hour: Porsche-Proton in the lead, Ferrari climbs to 2nd

A warm sun is illuminating Spa-Francorchamps, where the first 120′ of this 6h valid as the third round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship have been archived.

Porsche and Ferrari are currently competing for the top positions, after a start that saw the 963 command the scene. At the start it was the #5 of Frédéric Makowiecki who held the record ahead of the Cadillac of Alex Lynn, who then slowed down to preserve the tires by slipping back and leaving the virtual podium to the German LMDh of Julien Andlauer (#99) and Laurens Vanthoor (#6), with the Ferraris making their way through the group, recovering some positions.

Toyota was instead forced to serve a 5″ Stop&Go for too much energy used with the ERS on the #8, dropping to 16th place, while a couple of Full Course Yellows to collect debris slowed down the group, so much so that the The first round of stops began at the end of the first hour for the Hypercars, preceded by a few laps by the LMGT3.

Meanwhile Andlauer had taken the lead with a huge overtaking move against Makowiecki on lap 15, taking advantage of the slowdown of the Frenchman representing Team Penske when he got behind a Lexus at ‘Blanchimont’.

In this way the transalpine of the Proton Competition became the absolute leader, as well as of the Hypercar private team class, taking a small margin over Giovinazzi’s 499P #51, which took advantage of the new tires on the left after the pit stop and overtook the Porsche of Makowiecki, who has the #83 Ferrari of Robert Kubica behind him, and his teammate Laurens Vanthoor, struggling with changing the steering wheel at the stop for his #5.

Halfway through the second hour the first twist: in lapping traffic, contact near the ‘Brussels’ hairpin between René Rast’s BMW #20 and Phil Hanson’s Porsche #38; the latter lost control, spinning and directly hitting the BMW #46 of the innocent Ahmad Al Harthy, with Jota’s M4 and 963 demolished by hitting the barriers.

Virtual Safety Car to recover the cars and Valentino Rossi to sacrament, rightly, in the pits understanding that retirement was inevitable. In this way everyone took the opportunity to make the second stop while the Safety Car entered the track.

And here is another incredible twist because at the pit stop Andlauer left room for Neel Jani, who however took off again without being able to close the door and began to slam it violently, until finally the hooks did their job and the Swiss breathed a sigh of relief.

With the barriers to repair, they are currently all lined up and Jani has James Calado behind him, who got into the Ferrari #51 in place of Giovinazzi, followed by the Porsches #5 and #6 of Michael Christensen and André Lotterer, with the Ferrari #83 of AF Racing which is now led by Yifei Ye.

After a start trying not to overdo it to preserve the tyres, Nicklas Nielsen managed to climb back to sixth place with the #50 Ferrari, now in the hands of Miguel Molina, who had been relegated to last due to the penalty in qualifying.

The Alpine #35 is instead seventh, with Jota’s Porsche #12 passing ahead of the Toyota #7 and the Peugeot #93, which complete the Top10.

After the penalty, the Toyota #8 is 11th, having overtaken the Alpine #36 and the Cadillac, with BMW #20 and #15 following, keeping behind the Lamborghini, Isotta Fraschini and the Peugeot #94, which after 15′ had to return to the box to solve a little problem by losing ground.

In the LMGT3 Class the spectacular Sarah Bovy had taken off with the Lamborghini #85 of the Iron Dames, but has now lost all the margin and finds herself being chased by the McLaren #59 of United Autosports and the Porsche #91 of Manthey EMA.

Also in the Top5 are the Lexus #78 of Akkodis-ASP and the Ferrari #54 of AF Corse, while the 296 #55 dropped to 12th due to a Drive Through due to Track-Limits not being respected.

FIA WEC – 6h of Spa: LIVE ranking