One Toyota takes the WEC win in Portugal, as the second Toyota entry suffers mechanical issues.
- With the win the No. 8 Toyota takes over the point standings.
- United Autosports takes 1-2 in the LMP2 class.
- The No. 33 Corvette goes back-to-back taking the win in the GTE Am class for the second consecutive race.
Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa celebrated a decisive victory in the 6 Hours of Portimão in Portugal Sunday and vaulted to the top of the 2023 WEC Hypercar points standings.
The podium saw three different manufacturers (Toyota, Ferrari and Porsche) on the podium for the first time this season.
Buemi, who started the race from pole in the No.8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar dropped to third at the start but soon fought back and soon challenged teammate Mike Conway in the No.7 Toyota.
When Conway was forced to pit after a torque sensor alert forced an unscheduled pit-stop for a driveshaft and corner assembly change, the No. 8 took the point and first Ryo Hirakawa and then Hartley cruised to victory.
WEC 6 Hours of Portimao Results (PDF)
WEC
“I am really happy, “Hartley said. “It has been an awesome weekend right from the start of practice. It was a great race, and everything went perfectly; no mistakes by the drivers or on pit stops, we had the right strategy and the car was faultless. It was nice to drive from start to finish so a massive thanks to the team. I feel proud of their great work over the first two races. We have maximized our performance using all the experience we gained over the years because the competition is getting strong. I feel for car #7. They were pushing us hard and I am sure it would have been another close finish between us as it usually is.”
The No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen secured Ferrari AF Corse’s best ever WEC result in its second appearance.
“We are delighted,” Nielsen said. “We secured a very positive result here at Portimão, taking another step forward from the first race at Sebring. We were also lucky during the race when one of the two Toyotas had a problem and, at that point, did our best and consolidated second position. Now the goal is to continue on this path at the 6 Hours of Spa, a race that will be both beautiful and complicated.”
The No. 6 Porsche 963 of Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor took third and the first WEC podium for the Porsche Penske Motorsport team.
The No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen secured Ferrari AF Corse’s best ever WEC result in its second appearance.
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The result came despite a late fuel stop for Lotterer, who was able to re-join just ahead of Alex Lynn in the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar.
Lynn came home in fourth position sharing the car with Richard Westbrook and Earl Bamber in the manufacturer’s first appearance on European soil.
The No. 51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi had looked to be in position to fight for the podium but a brake problem and a switch off of its hybrid system saw them fall back to sixth position at the checkered flag.
Those dramas allowed a fifth-place finish for the No. 94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 Hypercar of Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes and Nico Mueller.
The sister No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 finished seventh after starting from the pit lane due to a pre-race change in its steering mechanism.
The Glickenhaus 007 of Romain Dumas, Ryan Briscoe and Olivier Pla took eighth, while the delayed No.7 Toyota of Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose-Maria Lopez placed ninth.
The Floyd Vanwall Hypercar retired after Jacques Villeneuve spun into the Turn 10 barriers after a suspected brake failure. This triggered the race’s only safety car period.
The No. 5 Porsche Penske 963 was classified in 10th place overall in Hypercar after power steering issues saw the car sent to the team garage for the final hour.
In LMP2 United Autosports took a much needed 1-2 victory to banish the memory of a difficult Sebring for the No.23 Oreca-Gibson. Oliver Jarvis, Giedo van der Garde and Josh Pierson win headed the No.22 car of Phil Hanson, Frederick Lubin and Ben Hanley to take the win by just 0.684 of a second.
The No.41 Team WRT car of Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz rounded out the podium in third after racing punctuated the last hour after the Villeneuve triggered safety car. Prema’s No.63 crew of Mirko Bortolotti , Doriane Pin and Daniil Kvyat, finished fourth after leading in the final hours before the final round of pit-stops.
Ex F1 driver Kvyat, who was passed by Deletraz to lose out on the final podium position, was involved in some frenetic and exciting racing throughout the final two hours. Hertz Team Jota completed the top five with the No. 48 car as David Beckmann and Yifei Ye raced with local hero Antonio Felix da Costa. He took part in his last LMP2 race before switching to a Hypercar Porsche 963 at Spa later this month.
In LMP2 United Autosports took a much needed 1-2 victory.
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In GTE Am, back-to-back race wins for the No. 33 Corvette Racing entry driven by Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone and Nicky Catsburg has seen the trio extend its lead at the top of the LMGTE Am points. The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari crew put in a valiant effort to try and snatch the win as Alessio Rovera chased Catsburg in the final lap in a grandstand finish which saw the top two cars separated by just 0.260 of a second.
“It takes two drivers in order to do that (on the finishing battle),” Catsburg said. “Hats off to Alessio for being a clean racer. He was way faster than we were today and had a big pace advantage. It’s one thing to get close in order to close the gap, but it’s another thing to pass someone. I noticed he got a little bit of understeer when he got close to me, so luckily we managed to keep him behind. Some of the traffic made it extra-interesting, I would say, in the last few laps. But it’s a mega result for us and unexpected.
“I really struggled to match the pace that he was doing but somehow we managed. The team was amazing today. Every pit stop, we gained six or seven seconds. This is an amazing feeling!”
Rovera was joined by Lilou Wadoux and Luis Perez Companc in the Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. The Iron Dames all-female crew of Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey and Sarah Bovy took their first podium of the season in the Porsche 911 RSR – 19 to make it three manufacturers in the top three. The trio of females led for 22 laps in the race in the earlier stages.
It was back-to-back race wins for the No. 33 Corvette Racing.
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Four females on the overall podium in the GTE Am category breaks the record for the highest number of women on a podium of an FIA World Championship. Fourth and fifth in class were the AF Corse Ferrari No. 21 and No. 58 crews with Simon Mann, Ulysee de Pauw and Diego Alessi finishing 10s ahead of the 488 GTE Evo driven by Thomas Flohr, Davide Rigon and Francesco Castellachi.
In the overall FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Teams, Corvette Racing lead the charge with a total of 64 points. Dempsey-Proton Racing are second with 33 points, while the No. 21 and No. 54 AF Corse crews leave Portimao with 28 and 27 points respectively.
The FIA WEC will now have a short turnaround as the teams prepare for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa in two weeks’ time.
Keyword: Toyota Wins WEC in Portimão as Ferrari, Porsche Makes It Three Manufacturers on Hypercar Podium