WEC: Toyota Hypercar laps field to win at Portimao

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar that started from pole, has won the 6 Hours of Portimao World Endurance Championship race.

Brendon Hartley brought the winning car he shared with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa across the finish line 1 lap ahead of the #50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen.

The Ferrari beat the #6 Porsche 963 of Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor by 1m04s.

Ferrari was in contention for the opening hours and able to put pressure on the winning car, spending almost five hours on the lead lap.

“I felt for car 7 they kept us honest, they overtook us at the start before their issue,” Hartley admitted after the race. “I’m still convinced the others are coming and will get their ducks in a row for Le Mans.”

Completing the podium was the #6 Porsche Penske 963, on what was an extremely memorable weekend for the young LMDh program. After the IMSA arm of the team claimed the 963 its first win globally on Saturday in the IMSA Long Beach sprint race, a first WEC podium today will add to the team’s confidence going forward.

At Porsche, both its cars suffered power steering issues in the race. The #6’s was reported as persistent but not catastrophic, while the #5 had to spend time in the garage for repairs due to an electronics-focused issue for Michael Christensen late in the race. It came home last of the classified Hypercar runners.

The #2 Cadillac with Alex Lynn at the wheel came home in 4th while the #94 Peugeot rounded out the top-5.

United Autosports finished 1-2 in LMP2, the #23 of Oliver Jarvis, Giedo van der Garde and Josh Pierson beating the #22 of Phil Hanson, Frederick Lubin and Ben Hanley.

The #33 Corvette with Nicky Catsburg at the wheel held off Alessio Rovera’s #83 Ferrari 488 to win the LM GTE Am category. The battle between the two drivers went to the final lap, with Catsburg finishing 0.307 seconds ahead in the car he shares with Ben Keating and Nico Varrone.

Completing the podium was the #85 Iron Dames Porsche, which was in the mix throughout and came home just 25 seconds off the lead.

Just as in the season-opening victory in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring, Corvette Racing made zero mistakes on the track or in the pitlane. The team’s pitwork, especially, was a key difference in the result as it offset a pace difference due to 30 extra kilograms of success ballast due to the Sebring victory and championship lead.

That was never more clear than on the race’s final pit stop with 50 minutes remaining. Catsburg came in with the Ferrari hot on his heels but left with a nearly 10-second advantage after a fast tire change by the Corvette Racing crew and a quick out-lap by Catsburg. As evidenced by the winning margin, every second counted.

Catsburg got in the car for the final two stints with a little less than two hours to go, and a ferocious fight developed with Rovera and his rapid Ferrari. The two cars were separated by less than a second before the race’s lone safety-car period bunched up the field. Both the Corvette and Ferrari stopped one lap after the race resumed with Catsburg greatly benefitting from the aforementioned strong Corvette pit stop.

He made the most of it, holding off the Ferrari multiple times inside the final five laps for the victory.

Race Results