Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima edged out Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mates Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi in a thrilling finish to the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) race at Spa-Francorchamps.
In the final WEC race before the Le Mans 24 Hours, the two TS050 Hybrids were the class of the field at the Belgian track. The Conway/Kobayashi car was the faster machine, but two full-course yellow flag periods helped its sister car take the lead due to pit strategy.
Kobayashi closed in dramatically on Buemi near the end, with the final gap just 1.992sec after six hours of racing. “We certainly had some luck, because those two full-course yellows gave us around a minute in total,” said Briton Davidson. “Mike and Kamui were blindingly quick and we didn’t have an answer, so they deserved the win.”
The two Porsche 919 Hybrids, running in a low-downforce configuration in preparation for Le Mans, finished third and fourth.
Ferrari dominated in the GTE Pro class, with the 488 GTE of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon leading the sister AF Corse car of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi.
The next round is the Le Mans 24 Hours on 17/18 June.
British Touring Car Championship: Thruxton
Honda’s Matt Neal scored his 60th British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) race win in the opening race of the day at Thruxton, before Rob Collard and Colin Turkington claimed BMW’s 99th and 100th victories in the other two races.
Click here to read our full report from the Hampshire circuit.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters: Hockenheim
Jamie Green took honours in Sunday’s DTM race at Hockenheim, leading home fellow Briton Gary Paffett despite a 5sec penalty.
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