WEC: Toyota takes 1-2 as Wadoux becomes first female LMGTE Am winner

Toyota Gazoo Racing has taken its second 1-2 of the FIA World Endurance Championship season as Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and José María López secured their second consecutive TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Frachcorchamps victory

An eventful final hour saw Kobayashi overtaking Hartley off-track. The Japanese racer was given a penalty of 5 seconds added to his next pitstop which was later converted to a time penalty of the same length.

The final podium positions saw a close battle between #5 Porsche Penske 963, #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P and #5 Cadillac Racing entries. 

Frédéric Makowiecki in the Porsche did not manage to open enough of a gap to hold off James Calado to the chequered flag and the Ferrari surged through on the ultimate lap to take the final podium position.

Taking fifth place and making it four different manufacturers in the top five was the #5 Cadillac Racing Hypercar of Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook.

Hertz Team Jota took an impressive P6 on its Hypercar class debut with Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye.

The #41 WRT Oreca-Gibson of Louis Deletraz, Rui Andrade and Robert Kubica claimed its first race win of the season on what is Team WRT’s home track. The outfit retained Spa crown after winning with No.31 car in 2022. 

The #23 United Autosports was set to take its second consecutive victory as Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson led large chunks of the race until the last pit stop. Deletraz leapfrogged Blomqvist at a splash and dash final stop with 25 minutes remaining to take the victory.

Inter Europol Competition rounded out the podium as Albert Costa overtook Andrea Caldarelli in final laps to ensure he and teammates Fabio Scherer and Jakub Smiechowski claimed their first podium of 2023.

Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo took its victory of the season with a Luis Perez Companc, Alessio Rovera and Lilou Wadoux triumph, and with the latter of the trio becoming the first-ever woman to win a WEC class.

Second place and extended points lead went to the #33 Corvette Racing entry of Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nicolas Varrone. 

ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin of Ahmad Al Harthy, Charlie Eastwood and Michael Dinan completed the podium to seal the best result of the season. 

Eastwood pressured Catsburg in the final laps, but as at Portimao, Catsburg held on to the position after a remarkable defensive drive to seal second in LMGTE Am by just 0.249s!