New Toyota wins on WEC debut
Meanwhile at Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday, a new era for the World Endurance Championship kicked off as Toyota gave its new GR010 Hybrid Hypercar a debut victory. But it was far from plain sailing for the dominant force in sports car racing.
There’s much to be excited about when it comes to this new age of the Hypercar class (known as LMH) – but not just yet. The two Toyotas were the only LMH cars on the entry for the Spa 6 Hours as they faced a lone ‘grandfathered’ LMP1 entry from Alpine. Peugeot will join them, but not until next year, then Audi, Porsche and Ferrari are due in 2023. For now, the fresh chapter begins in modest fashion.
A Toyota win was predictable with such a thin field, but the Cologne-based team made heavy weather of the race. The #7 car driven by reigning world champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez was delayed when the Japanese driver went off because of a brake problem with two hours to run. A drive-through penalty for contact with a GT contender further hampered the crew.
That left Sebastian Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley to win in the #8 GR010, despite a 30-second penalty for a pitstop violation. That at least allowed the Alpine A480 driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere to remain in contention and split the Toyotas at the flag.
On this showing, it’s probably best for Toyota that the Le Mans 24 Hours has been delayed until August because of the pandemic. The WEC heads to Portimao next, for an eight-hour race on 13th June.
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.