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Ferrari bracing for ‘race of survival’ after tough Fuji qualifying

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Antonio Giovinazzi believes Ferrari can best hope to “survive” in Sunday’s World Endurance Championship race at Fuji after a tough qualifying for the two factory crews.

Giovinazzi struggled to 12th in the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar in the opening segment of qualifying on Saturday, lapping almost seven tenths off the pace set by Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R.

The sister #50 Ferrari driven by Antonio Fuoco did progress to Hyperpole, but the 28-year-old never featured in the battle for pole position either, ending up a distant seventh on the grid.

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Ferrari had a difficult outing at Fuji Speedway in its debut season last year with both its cars finishing a lap down on the winning Toyota, and Giovinazzi fears that the Italian marque is set for another frustrating result on its return to the 4.5km circuit.

Asked to explain Ferrari’s poor showing in qualifying, Giovinazzi told Motorsport.com: “Just no pace. I did the maximum I could do but the car was difficult to drive today in quali. We don’t start from a [good] grid position but it’s a long race so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.

“It was not the pace which we had in Austin and which was better. For some reason last year, we struggled here and same this year. So it’s not our track.”

He added: “We have many cars that are better than us – BMW, Alpine, of course Toyota and Porsche – so it will be a difficult race tomorrow. Let’s survive and see where we will finish.”

The #50 Ferrari shared by Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen is contending for the championship, with the trio trailing the #6 Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer by 12 points with two races to run.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Estre qualified the #6 Porsche in fifth place, while the #7 Toyota crew that is level on points with the #50 Ferrari ended up fourth in the hands of Kamui Kobayashi.

Fuoco said that Ferrari’s goal should be to take the battle to its closest title rivals to put itself in the best position for the Bahrain season finale in November.

“As always we are here to try to do the maximum, and tomorrow we try to fight,” he said. “Luckily the competitors which will fight for the championship are just in front of us and we [will] try to fight with them if we have the chance.”

Asked what would be a good result for Ferrari on Sunday, Fuoco said: “Surviving. Try to finish in the top five.”

Pressed further on whether that was realistic, he added: “Not really but always we try to make it work.”

Additional reporting by Gary Watkins



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Lynn was “desperate” to give Cadillac first WEC pole after near-misses

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Fuji pole winner Alex Lynn has revealed that he was “desperate” to give Cadillac its first top spot in World Endurance Championship qualifying after a string of near-misses.

Lynn stated that he “really, really wanted the pole” after qualifying in the top four in the WEC’s Hypercar class every time out since the Spa round in May.

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“So many times we’ve missed out by a tenth or this or that; [there are] such fine margins,” said the Briton, who shares the solo Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R with Earl Bamber.

“I feel personally that I have pushed the team really hard to look into the details and to find those micro-seconds. That is how you improve — marginal gains.”

Lynn, who sealed Caddy’s first WEC pole after finding nine tenths on his second push lap to get down to a 1m29.901s, revealed the two qualifying sessions on Saturday had been on “the knife-edge”.

He explained how he had been forced to make a tweak to the rear anti-roll bar after leaving the pits in the opening qualifying period, which he also topped, and then made a wrong call to abort his first flier in Hyperpole.

“We made some changes from Free Practice 3 to give me more front end [bite], but it was a bit more than I anticipated,” said Lynn. “I had to soften the rear rollbar to compensate and luckily it was enough.”

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Lynn backed off on his first push lap after encountering Dries Vanthoor in the #15 BMW and admitted that “in hindsight I wish I hadn’t”.

Asked if he was still confident that he could take the pole, Lynn said: “As long as no one improved. The engineer said [the time needed for pole] was a 28.9 and I thought, yep, I’ve got that in me.”

The Englishman described pole position ahead of Toyota on its home track as a “small victory that feels bigger than it is”. He added that it was good “to enjoy the small wins against opposition as strong as this” in Hypercar.

“Not a lot” was Lynn’s reply when asked what it would take to convert the pole into race victory in Sunday’s Fuji 6 Hours.

Cadillac was beaten to fourth place last time out in the WEC at Austin earlier this month by two Ferraris and a Toyota, but Lynn is confident that the V-Series.R will be a contender for victory in Japan.

“I think we are a bit faster than them on long-run pace, so hopefully depending on what they turn up with tomorrow we can be in the mix,” he explained.

The six-hour race at Fuji, the penultimate round of this year’s WEC, begins at 11:00 local time on Sunday.



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Toyota grabs top spot in truncated final practice

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO



Toyota edged out Cadillac and Ferrari to top a shortened final practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.

The hour-long session was cut short with 19 minutes left on the clock due to possible damage to kerbs located at the exit of Turn 1.

TV images showed officials arriving at the corner to inspect the kerbs after the session was initially red flagged with 23 minutes remaining. A decision was soon taken to not resume the session, likely to help the marshals repair the barriers in time for the remainder of the day’s schedule.

The fastest time of FP3 was set by Ryo Hirakawa, the Japanese driver getting down to 1m29.621s in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID just six minutes in to beat the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn by just 0.086s.

The Japanese driver’s best effort was about half a tenth slower than the time Dries Vanthoor managed in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 in FP2, but fractionally quicker than the chart-setting lap from the corresponding session in 2023, which was impacted by overnight rain.

Third place went to Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari 499P, a further 0.020s down on Lynn, while Alpine was the only other team to break the 90s barrier as Charles Milesi set a best time of 1m29.760s in the #35 A424.

Kamui Kobayashi was fifth in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid after lapping the circuit in 1m30.055s, just finishing ahead of the factory #51 Ferrari driven by Antonio Giovinazzi and customer #83 AF Corse entry of Robert Kubica.

The best-placed Porsche was the customer #38 Jota 963 of Oliver Rasmussen in eighth, ahead of another privateer entry — the #99 Proton Porsche whose best lap was set by Julien Andlauer.

The top 10 was completed by the #63 Lamborghini SC63 of Daniil Kvyat, who set a best time of 1m30.550s.

The best Peugeot was classified 11th, four spots ahead of the leading BMW driven by Rene Rast.

Ferrari 1-2 in LMGT3

In the LMGT3 class, Francois Heirau set a series of quick times to lead a 1-2 for AF Corse Ferrari.

Bronze-rated Heirau initially laid a benchmark of 1m41.479s before improving to 1m41.206s in the #55 Ferrari 296 GT3 to end up a tenth clear of the sister car of Davide Rigon.

Ferrari’s closest challenger was the #78 ASP Lexus RCF GT3, courtesy of a 1m41.422s effort from Arnold Robin.

United Autosports finished fourth thanks to Joshua Caygill’s time of 1m41.532s in the #95 McLaren 720S GT3, ahead of the points-leading Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3R of Aliaksandr Malykhin.



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BMW leads Porsche and Cadillac in tight FP2

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


BMW, Porsche and Cadillac ended up within two hundredths of each other at the top of the times in second free practice for Sunday’s World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.

Dries Vanthoor led the way for the WRT BMW team from Porsche driver Matt Campbell and Cadillac’s Alex Lynn in the 90-minute FP2 session on Friday afternoon.

Vanthoor posted a 1m29.577s during the opening minutes of the session in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh before Campbell got down to a 1m29.586s in the #5 Penske-run factory Porsche 963 LMDh to end up just nine thousandths in arrears.

Lynn then lapped the 2.84-mile Fuji Speedway in 1m29.592s aboard the solo Ganassi Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh to end up 0.15s off the pace.

The leading contenders in FP2 all set their times at the beginning of the session when they were on fresh tyres, Vanthoor’s session best representing an improvement of almost exactly a second over the time set by his brother Laurens for Porsche that took top spot in FP1.

Ferrari ended up fourth with the #83 AF Corse-run customer entry, Robert Kubica getting down to a 1m29.904s in the 499P Le Mans Hypercar that won last time out in the WEC at Austin earlier this month.

Ryo Hirakawa claimed fifth on home ground for Toyota with a 1m29.923s aboard the #8 GR010 HYBRID LMH.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries

Photo by: Andreas Beil

BMW had two cars in the top six, Robin Frijns ending up on a 1m29.956s in the second of the M Hybrids.

Antonio Giovinazzi took seventh spot for the factory Ferrari squad as the last driver to break 1m30s with a 1m29.975s.

Oliver Rasmussen in the #38 Porsche run by the privateer Jota team claimed eighth ahead of the second Toyota in which Kamui Kobayashi set the time.

The top 10 was rounded out by the second of the Penske Porsches in which Kevin Estre was still three tenths up on team-mate Vanthoor’s morning best.

Alpine took 11th and 13th positions with its pair of Signatech A424 LMDhs, Charles Milesi ending up little more than a tenth ahead of Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Best of the Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs was the #93 car in which Mikkel Jensen took 14th spot as the last driver within a second of the pace.

The solo Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 LMDh was down 17th in Daniil Kvyat’s hands.

#55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3: Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera

#55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3: Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Alessio Rovera jumped to the top of the charts in LMGT3 in the fastest of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 296 GT3s, the factory driver’s 1m40.682s a couple of tenths faster than bronze-rated Hiroshi Koizumi in the #82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The local driver’s 1m40.851s set at the start of the session still stood as second best despite some late improvements.

Franck Perera got down to a 1m40.860s in the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to take third.

Track action at Fuji resumes on Saturday with a final, hour-long session of free practice beginning at 10:20 local time before qualifying kicks off at 14:20.

WEC Fuji — FP2 results



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Peugeot evaluating further hypercar upgrades for 2025 WEC season

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Peugeot is evaluating the introduction of further upgrades to its Le Mans Hypercar in 2025 in order to close the gap to the front in the World Endurance Championship.

The French manufacturer wants to get a full understanding of the potential of the updated 9X8 2024 by the end of the current season in order to determine whether it needs to use more evo jokers for next season.

Asked what Peugeot has to do to improve its fortunes in the Hypercar class, the marque’s technical director Olivier Jansonnie said: “We are looking at the performance of the car right now, obviously until you find something [major] it’s always difficult to know what it was [that needed improving].

“We are looking at various things: we have evaluated and started to pinpoint so many things on the car that need improvement — especially the last two races were quite relevant for that.

“Part of that is for sure set-up, which we can cure, and once we have a clear picture of what we cannot cure with set-up, we will have to look at evos and jokers eventually.”

He added: “Only once you start getting to the point you can see what you are missing and when it’s to evolve in terms of technical package, jokers and homologation.”

Peugeot invoked the first of the five evo joker performance upgrades allowed to it under the initial five-year lifecycle of the 9X8 LMH ahead of its first full season in the WEC in 2023. 

#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, Jean-Eric Vergne

#93 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, Jean-Eric Vergne

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

How much of its allocation it has used has not been disclosed and the use of evo jokers is not in the public domain nor shared by the series rule-makers with the manufacturers. 

It is unclear whether its shift from equal size wheels and tyres all round to the narrower fronts and wider rears that was at the centre of the 2024 makeover counted as one. 

Toyota made the same switch from 31cm tyres to 29 and 34cm with its GR010 HYBRID LMH between the 2021 and ’22 seasons. 

It successfully argued that it needed to make the switch as a result of the reduction of minimum weight in LMH that followed the convergence process to allow LMDh machinery into the WEC.

Evo jokers have to be applied for to the rule-makers, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and the FIA, and are allowed at their discretion. 

While the upgrade for 2024 represented a major change in concept, the new 9X8 has not finished higher than eighth in the five races it has contested so far. The previous version of the car logged a podium finish at Monza in 2023.

Jansonnie said it remains to be decided at what point Peugeot could use evo jokers to introduce new parts on the car if it decides to go down that route, but did not rule out the prospect of starting the 2025 season in late February with the new version.

“It’s open again,” he said. “We are looking hard into what could bring us performance. So depending upon the findings we do between now and the end of the year, we will decide what we do.”

Jansonnie wouldn’t be drawn about the scope of the changes when asked if Peugeot would make small tweaks to the car or bring more substantial upgrades.

“It’s impossible to tell until we have the full picture,” he said. “It has to be some balance between how long we can wait before doing something and how much you can gain from doing something quickly. It depends on what we find on track next month [in testing].”

Jansonnie added that “the target is to have a clear picture by the end of November” while the “type” of update will also help in determining the full timeline of the upgraded car.

“You have some quick and easy things that you can design in a couple of weeks, produce the parts in three to four weeks and test them, if you are 100 per cent sure what you are doing,” he said.

“That’s a two, three-month turnaround. There are other options that could be much longer. It’s impossible to answer.”



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Porsche pips Toyota in red-flagged opening practice

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO



Porsche led home favourite Toyota in a red-flagged opening practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.

Laurens Vanthoor set a best time of 1m30.581s in the #6 Porsche 963 LMDh at the very beginning of the 90-minute session to head the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Ryo Hirakawa by just 0.010s.

Third place went to Antonio Fuoco in the Le Mans 24 Hours-winning #50 Ferrari 499P, but the Italian trailed the leading two cars by almost half a second with a time of 1m31.104s.

Frederic Makowiecki claimed fourth in in the #5 Porsche, the French driver making a relatively late improvement to demote the #7 Toyota of Nyck de Vries to fifth place.

The #83 customer AF Corse Ferrari took sixth in the hands of Yifei Ye, while Stoffel Vandoorne guided the #94 Peugeot 9X8 to a strong seventh place ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg in the best of the Alpines, the #35 A424.

The top 10 was completed by the #12 Jota Porsche of Will Stevens and the #51 Ferrari driven by James Calado.

Cadillac finished a distant 12th with Earl Bamber ending up almost a second off the best time set by Vanthoor. The American marque separated the two BMW entries, the #15 car finishing ahead in 11th place.

The #63 Lamborghini shared by Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara was classified 17th, only ahead of the #38 Jota Porsche in the Hypercar class.

McLaren quickest in LMGT3

In the LMGT3 class, Marino Sato ended up fastest in the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 with a best lap of 1m40.528s.

However, the sister #59 McLaren driven by Gregoire Saucy caused the only major interruption of the session when he stopped at the Dunlop chicane with 21 minutes left on the clock.

The car could be recovered quickly, with green flag being waved with 14 minutes remaining.

Alessio Rovera set an identical time to Sato in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 to finish second, with Davide Rigon finishing another two tenths behind in the sister Ferrari to claim third.

The best of the rest was Franck Perera in the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with a best effort of 1m40.849s.



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Austin clash with Estre «looked worse than it was»

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Toyota driver Sebastien Buemi believes his late-race clash with Kevin Estre’s Porsche at the Austin World Endurance Championship round «looked worse than it was».

Buemi insisted that the camera angles of the incident on the Circuit of The America’s back straight when he moved over on the Frenchman to defend his position «made it look very different to how it felt in the car», while admitting that he was at fault.

«When I started to move to the inside he was already too far alongside and a bit in my blind spot — I made my move too late,» Buemi told Motorsport.com of an incident that resulted in him receiving a 30s stop-go penalty and two points on his licence.

The #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar made contact with the factory Penske-run Porsche 963 LMDh at that point, but Buemi continued to move to his left.

That resulted in a second contact when Estre was almost completely off the track on the apron alongside the retaining wall.

«It looks very bad on my part, like I am aiming to have a crash, like I want to crash with him,» said Buemi.

«In the car it didn’t feel like that — I don’t want to crash with someone on purpose.»

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor, #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor, #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 — Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Buemi also suggested that there may have been mitigating circumstances for the second contact, because the Toyota sustained a left-rear puncture at some point over the course of the incident.

«I don’t know when the puncture happened, but basically I was trying to keep it on the road,» he said.

«I don’t know how much that affected what happened.»

Buemi admitted that his robust defence of sixth position in the penultimate hour of the Lone Star Le Mans event race was influenced by the difficulties the Toyota drivers faced trying to overtake at Austin.

The Toyota was short-fuelled early in the penultimate hour to leapfrog it ahead of the Porsche, which had already stopped and therefore was on tyres that were already up to temperature.

«I wasn’t looking forward to being overtaken on the outlap because I didn’t want to spend 32 laps stuck behind him when I was pretty confident we were faster,» explained Buemi.

«The fact that you know that it is nearly impossible to pass pushes you sometimes to make sure you don’t lose a position.»

Buemi accepted blame for the incident and the penalties that followed, which combined with the time lost to the puncture dropped the car he shares with Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa to a non-scoring 15th place.

«I made a mistake, and when you make a mistake you have accept that you may get a penalty,» he said.

But he suggested that there needs to be consistency in the policing of driving standards in the WEC.

He pointed to the incident in which he was hit from behind at the first corner at Fuji last year by Ferrari driver Miguel Molina.

«I was checking the start last year and it wasn’t even investigated,» he said. «I would like a review of the consistency of the penalties in the WEC.»

Buemi said that he had already cleared the air with Estre after the race.

They communicated by text after the race and then met up by chance in a cafe the morning after the race.

«I accept that the first part was a misjudgement, but the bit that wasn’t good was the second move,» said Estre.

«I don’t think what he did was right, but at least he says the same thing.»

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Hyundai announces factory LMDh programme under Genesis brand

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Hyundai is developing an LMDh prototype for an entry into endurance racing arena under its premium Genesis brand. 

The move predicted by Motorsport.com in July was finally confirmed in a short statement on social media on Thursday that gave no further details or a timeline for its first entry into top-line sportscar racing. 

It was not revealed whether the the sportscar programme masterminded from the Hyundai Motorsport facility in Germany responsible for the South Korean manufacturer’s World Rally Championship campaigns since 2012 will encompass both the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. 

No date was mentioned at a time when Hyundai is refusing to commit to its future in the WRC beyond next season, a year before the current rule cycle ends in 2026.

The statement, headlined “Genesis to enter endurance racing’ on social media, read: “The LMDh programme will add a new pillar to Hyundai Motorsport’s portfolio.

“Since its establishment in 2012, Hyundai Motorsport has been competing in WRC and TCR with Hyundai. 

“Genesis, the premium brand of the Hyundai Motor Group, will add endurance racing to the disciplines of its motorsport activities.”

 

Hyundai appears to be gearing up for an entry with its new LMDh hybrid in the WEC as early as 2026. 

It is expected that it will race on both the world and North American stages, but it is unclear whether Hyundai will enter both championships concurrently.

Hyundai is known to have agreed a partnership with French constructor ORECA for the design and build of its LMDh hybrid. 

ORECA is one of four organisations licensed to develop an LMDh with a manufacturer and will supply the spine of the chassis for the Hyundai in the same way it has for the Acura ARX-06 and the Alpine A424. 

The internal combustion element of the hybrid powertrain will be developed in-house by Hyundai Motorsport, which was responsible for the engines that have powered its line of WRC and TCR contenders. 

Hyundai is expected to partner with an existing race team for its race programme or programmes and is known to have spoken to multiple candidates. 

Those are believed to include the Cool Racing, IDEC Sport and TDS Racing, which all race in LMP2 in the European Le Mans Series and at Le Mans. 

Another contender is single-seater team DAMS, which ran factory-supported programmes for Panoz and Cadillac at the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s. 

Chip Ganassi Racing, which will end its involvement with Cadillac at the conclusion of this year’s WEC and IMSA campaigns, is also known to have been in contact with Hyundai. 

It appears to be one of the leading candidates to run the IMSA arm of the Genesis LMDh programme. 

Dani Sordo, Candido Carrera, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Dani Sordo, Candido Carrera, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

The likelihood is that Hyundai Motorsport will have an involvement in a 2025 ELMS programme with the team it choses as a partner for WEC as the organisation gears up for the arrival.

Touring car legend and ex-Formula 1 driver Gabriele Tarquini is set for a senior management role in the LMDh programme at Hyundai, the manufacturer for which he won the 2018 WTCR title the Italian BRC team. 

Talk of “another pillar” in Hyundai’s short statement could hint at a continuation in the WRC. 

Hyundai Motorsport team principal Cyril Abiteboul insisted last week that the one-year contract extension announced for Thierry Neuville does not necessarily signal an exit from the WRC. 

Abiteboul has made it clear that his organisation has the capacity to undertake two major programmes at once. 

He has called for rules stability in the WRC and stated that it the goal of Hyundai to be involved at the pinnacle of rallying for many years to come.

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Ferrari appeal against Spa WEC result thrown out by court

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The results of the Spa 6 Hours World Endurance Championship round in May stand after Ferrari’s appeal of its failed protest was rejected by the FIA International Court of Appeal.

The decision of the court, announced on Tuesday after a hearing in Geneva last week, means that the #12 Jota Porsche 963 LMDh shared by Will Stevens and Callum Ilott has been confirmed as the winner of round three of the 2024 WEC at the Belgian venue.

The court upheld the decision of the stewards of the meeting to throw out the protest of the factory Ferrari AF Corse team against the decision to restart the race beyond the original scheduled finish time of the event and therefore the provisional classification.

The relevant decision, #71, was protested by Ferrari outside of the one-hour time limit laid down in the FIA International Sporting Code and therefore was “final and binding”.

The court additionally stated that Ferrari’s submissions “must be rejected as they are exclusively based on the argument that decision #71 breached the regulations and that ‘consequently’ the provisional classification, respectively the final classification, has to be amended”.

It stated that because Ferrari did not raise any further argument against the provisional classification “the appeal must be rejected on this point as well”.

It pointed out that the protest procedure is to allow one competitor to challenge another for an alleged breach of regulations.

Race winner #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Will Stevens, Callum Ilott

Race winner #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Will Stevens, Callum Ilott

Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo

But the court said that the stewards were “wrong to simply reject” the protest because their decisions cannot be challenged, stating that a challenge to the provisional results is expressly mentioned in the sporting code.

The ruling from the court ordered “the competent sporting authority [meaning the FIA] to draw, as appropriate, the consequences of this ruling”.

That is a reference to a clause in the WEC sporting code regarded as ambiguous by many, which states that the stewards can «stop and/or modify the race time set”.

“This may not exceed the time of the competition,» it continues.

The stewards interpreted that as the duration of race rather than the timeframe in which it is scheduled to take place.

Ferrari has claimed that its protest was at least partially motivated to achieve a clarification of rules that resulted in an unprecedented extension of the timeframe of the race at Spa.

The need for extensive barrier repairs prevented the race being resumed after a red-flag stoppage within the original six-hour duration, but the stewards decided to restart the event beyond the scheduled 19:00 finish.

A further one hour and 44 minutes of racing — the remaining time on the clock at the stoppage minus the time it took for the cars to line up on the start-finish straight — began at 19:10.

The two factory Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars had been running 1-2 when the race was red-flagged after four hours and 13 minutes.

Ferrari ended up finishing third and fourth with its #50 and #51 cars after the winning #12 Jota Porsche and the second-placed #6 factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entry leapfrogged the Italian cars because the time they lost pitting just before the red flags was reduced when the field was closed up behind the safety car at the restart.



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