It was Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota who led at the conclusion of the first hour of the Total Six Hours of Spa, the opening round of the World Endurance Championship.
The pole-sitting car never looked under threat during the opening stint, lapping consistently in 1:57-1:59 region, opening up a 30 second gap on the Rebellion Racing R-13s behind.
Andre Lotterer and Thomas Laurnet were lapping consistently for Rebellion but were unable to hold the back of the leading Toyota, the #1 finishing the first hour second, with the #3 third.
The big mover in the class was Stéphane Sarrazin in the #17 SMP Racing BR1 Gibson. Staring from the back of the grid due to technical issues in qualifying, the Frenchman battled his way through the field to reach the tail of the LMP field in less than 30 minutes.
He then engaged in a fierce battle with the ByKolles car of Tom Dillman. On the other side of the pitstops, Sarrazin found himself in fourth position.
For Dillman, there was drama in the pitstop. After having his car reported for smoke emanating from the rear during the opening part of the race, a small amount of flame appeared at the pitstop. While dealing with the flame, the team member’s fire extinguisher got wrapped around the rear wing.
While the car did continue, after an hour, it was under investigation for that pitstop.
Meanwhile Vitaly Petrov in the #11 SMP lost time due to an unscheduled pit stop to replace the front right tyre.
Finally, the #7 Toyota which started from the pitlane remained a lap behind their LMP1 competitors but had made their way through the other classes. Mike Conway was behind the wheel and took the fastest lap on lap 7 with a time of 1:57.442.
In LMP2 it was a tough start to the race for the class pole-sitting Signatech Alpine with Nicolas Lappierre behind the wheel. He was forced wide at turn 1, dropping down to second-to-last in class. Adding insult to injury, he was then handed with a drive-through penalty for not observing Race Director’s instructions at Turn 1.
He was still seventh in class and 14th overall at the end of the hour with only the Labre Ligier behind. The Labre car pitted early under the safety car and then had to serve a pit lane drive through for breaking pit lane procedures for the stop.
It was the Racing Team Nederland team that led with Guido van der Garde after performing two daring passes going into Les Combes, the first on Ho-Pin Tung’s #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA, the second on Romain Rusinov’s G-Drive ORECA.
The Dallara driver would hold the lead over Pastor Maldonado in the Dragonspeed 07 Gibson at the conclusion of the hour. Consequently, it meant that Michelin-shod runners sit 1-2 in the class heading into the second hour.
Jackie Chan Racing #38 with Ho-Pin Tung sat in third.
After just over one hour in GTE Pro meanwhile, the #66 Ford GT with Stefan Mucke behind the wheel led the way after inheriting the top spot in the class at La Source on the opening lap. Behind, and second in class, is the #91 Porsche 911 RSR GTE currently being driven by Richard Lietz after Gianmaria Bruni took the start.
Third, making it two Porsches in the top three, is the #92 911 RSR driven at this moment by Michael Christensen after being handed the car from Kevin Estre in the pitstop cycle.
In the hour, the Porsche and Fords were able to pull away from the rest of the pack, all four cars tussling for position throughout.
However, the big talking point came just after the pit cycle at the end of the hour. After the running order was Ford, Porsche, Ford, Porsche before the stops, the Fords emerged 1-2, the #66 in the lead, ahead of the #67.
But Ford’s 1-2 position didn’t last long, as there was a huge accident involving the #67 Ford GT driven at the time by Harry Tincknell. The Britain went straight on at Eau Rouge in a similar fashion to Pietro Fittapaldi yesterday during qualifying. The car’s entire front was taken off in the impact, though thankfully Tincknell was able to climb out of the wreckage under his own power.
“It was a 29 G impact, something went, we’re not sure what. Whether it was the tyre or suspension, the team will have a good look at it. I heard that horrible noise from the front-left when something’s very wrong. I knew it was going to be a very big hit.”
That brought out the second safety car of the race, the first was caused by an incident in GTE Am.
In GTE Am the #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage is currently in the lead with Paul Dalla Lana on board, with second placed Patrick Lindsey in the #56 Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR GTE close behind.
Both of those cars made their way past the pole-sitting #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR GTE halfway through hour 1, the car falling back to sixth in class after the pitstops.
The only penalty in GTE Am was handed down to the #70 MR Racing Ferrari 488 GTE which made contact with the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE on lap one.
The #54 was sent spinning as a result of the contact and into the path of the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR GTE. Michael Wainwright had to take evasive action and ended up in the barrier at Les Combes, the car is back on track, nine laps down, and currently classed as last in class and overall.
