The Porsche N.12 of the private Jota team, driven by Britons Will Stevens and Callum Ilott, won the Six Hours of Spa on Saturday, the eventful third round of the World Automotive Endurance Championship (WEC). The official Porsche Penske N.6 (Kevin Estre/André Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor) took second place, while the official Ferrari N.50 (Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen) finished third after starting last of the Hypercars grid.
The Toyota N.8 of Swiss Sébastien Buemi, New Zealander Brendon Hartley and Japanese Ryo Hirakawa, double reigning world champion, finished only sixth, ahead of the Toyota N.7 (Kamui Kobayashi/Mike Conway/Nyck de Vries ), who had won the previous WEC event, the Six Hours of Imola.
On the French side, the Alpine N.35 (Paul-Loup Chatin/Charles Milesi/Jules Gounon) finished ninth, just ahead of the Peugeot N.93 (Mikkel Jensen/Nico Müller). The Alpine N.36 (Mick Schumacher/Nicolas Lapierre/Matthieu Vaxivière) took 12th place, while the Peugeot N.94 (Loïc Duval/Paul Di Resta) had to settle for 14th place. The race, contested once under the bright sun on the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit, was marked by several collisions and above all a big accident after four hours of racing.
In the fight for third place, the Cadillac Hypercar driven by New Zealander Earl Bamber hit an LMGT3 BMW while trying to overtake the Porsche Proton Hypercar then hit the wall, before taking off. The American car then almost overturned, before finally falling back onto the track and on its wheels but in a pitiful state. This spectacular accident led to a two-hour interruption, to evacuate debris and repair safety barriers, and an extension of the race, which ended at nightfall, at 8:55 p.m., instead of 7:00 p.m.
In LMGT3, Porsche also achieved a double with the success of the Manthey EMA N.91 ahead of the Manthey PureRxcing N.92. The two Lamborghinis took third and fourth place with Iron Lynx N.60, which had to stop for refueling on the last lap, and the 100% female crew of Iron Dames, for a long time leading the race.
