Currently reading: Motorsport weekend wrap: Toyota wins World Endurance race at Spa

Your quick-hit results round-up: FIA WEC, BTCC, DTM and more

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

Audi gree dtm 0

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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The Audi driver took the lead from ex-F1 racer Timo Glock on the restart after an early safety car period, but stewards ruled he jumped the start and handed him a penalty. In mixed conditions, Green was able to build up enough of a lead to negate the penalty, which he served during his compulsory pit stop.

Paffett secured second with a late charge after waiting until rain began to fall before making his stop.

Lucas Auer led home Timo Glock in Saturday’s first race. Green finished 18th after an early clash.

Round-up

  • Mattias Ekström continued his dominated of the FIA World Rallycross Championship with a lights-to-flag victory at Hockenheim.
  • Double F1 champion Fernando Alonso took part in his first IndyCar test ahead of this year’s Indianapolis 500 last week. The Spaniard completed the compulsory rookie orientation programme at the 2.5-mile speedway, running 51 laps. On his fastest lap, he averaged 219.654mph.

James Attwood

James Attwood, digital editor
Title: Acting magazine editor

James is Autocar's acting magazine editor. Having served in that role since June 2023, he is in charge of the day-to-day running of the world's oldest car magazine, and regularly interviews some of the biggest names in the industry to secure news and features, such as his world exclusive look into production of Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets. 

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