Race report
WEC Algarve
Portimao WEC: #8 car wins after Toyota team orders
Toyota celebrated its 100th world championship endurance race with victory in the FIA WEC 8 Hours of Portimao for the #8 entry of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley.
Filip Cleeren
Edited: Feb 11, 2022, 6:23 PM
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Buemi brought the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to the finish at the Algarve International Circuit narrowly ahead of the #7 of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez after a confusing double team order call, with Buemi briefly being ordered to let Lopez past before being handed the lead once again.
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Alpine's grandfathered LMP1 chassis proved to be a match for the Toyota hypercars after the World Endurance Championship's latest Balance of Performance tweaks ahead of Portugal's second round of the season.
Polesitter Nicolas Lapierre led the early stages of the race in the #38 Alpine A480-Gibson with what appeared to be a slight pace advantage on both Toyotas, but the LMP1 car's pace didn't prove sufficient to offset its shorter stint lengths, the Toyota pair managing to make fewer pitstops.
Toyota and Alpine traded the lead on the rhythm of their pitstop cycles until the race was effectively reset with 2h30m to go due to a safety car, coming out for Miro Konopka's stranded ARC Bratislava LMP2 car.
In the #7 Toyota Kobayashi held the lead at the restart ahead of Nakajima and Lapierre. While Kobayashi stormed off, Nakajima and Lapierre tussled for second, with Lapierre passing the Toyota into Turn 1.
In the final segment of the race Alpine again had to make an extra pitstop for fuel, which dropped it back to third.
Lopez passed Buemi in the seventh hour, but Buemi was told his teammate would need an extra splash of fuel at the end.
Indeed, Lopez brought the #7 in with 1h06m to go, guaranteeing an extra pitstop in the final hour, while Buemi carried on for another nine minutes and managed to make the car's seventh pitstop its last. But with Lopez making his splash under a full-course yellow, he came out right behind Buemi.
Toyota decided to swap positions to let Lopez show if he had pace in hand, but when Buemi managed to keep up the Cologne team reversed its decision and allowed Buemi to retake the lead until the finish.
Meanwhile Andre Negrao, who shared the Alpine with Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere, took third over one minute behind the Toyotas.
The solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH, which made its racing debut in Portimao, managed to see the chequered flag on its debut, albeit 53 laps down on the leaders.
The car fell behind after Ryan Briscoe got caught up in a melee with two GTE Am cars, the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin and #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche, which resulted in a lengthy trip to the garage to repair the damage.
The Glickenhaus had already been off the pace and it went a lap down on its fellow Hypercar runners in the opening hour, with starting driver Richard Westbrook reporting severe tyre wear.
LMP2: JOTA returns from first-lap disaster to win
As is often the case, LMP2 was the class to watch in Portimao with a four-way battle for the win that raged until the end.
The early stages were characterised by a battle between Giedo van der Garde in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07-Gibson and the #31 WRT Oreca of Robin Frijns, with the latter team taking the advantage when gentleman racer Frits van Eerd took over the RTN car.
But a pair of drive-through penalties set back WRT, one for speeding in the pits as Frijns came in to hand over to Habsburg, and another for not respecting blue flags.
That handed the net lead to the #22 United Autosports car, the title-winning entry which also won Spa's opening round.
United's main competition came from the JOTA’s pair of Orecas, despite the polesitting #28 car of Tom Blomqvist being spun around at the start by Antonio Felix da Costa in the #38 sister car.
Konopka's safety car also tightened the LMP2 lead battle between United, WRT and the two JOTA cars.
Soon after the restart Wayne Boyd brought in the #22, releasing JOTA's Stoffel Vandoorne and WRT's Charles Milesi, who had been involved in an exciting duel before the full-course yellow. After the next pitstop sequence Vandoorne retained a healthy buffer on Phil Hanson in the #22 with Milesi further behind.
In the #38 JOTA Anthony Davidson charged to third after a brilliant door to door fight with Milesi. The #38 car also got ahead of the United entry to make it a JOTA one-two.
In sharp contrast to Toyota's controlling measures, both JOTA cars fought for the win until the final minutes, with Da Costa finally getting the best of Blomqvist to take a popular home victory with Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez.
Blomqvist settled for second in the #28 car he shares with Vandoorne and Sean Gelael, with United beating WRT to third.
Racing Team Nederland dropped out of contention after contact with a GT car by Job van Uitert, which helped the #20 High Class Racing Oreca to a comfortable lead in the Pro-Am subclass.
But after stopping on track in the final hour the Danish trio Jan Magnussen, Anders Fjordbach and Dennis Andersen ceded the win to the #70 Realteam Oreca of Esteban Garcia, Norman Nato and Mathias Beche.
GTE: No stopping Ferrari as Porsche toils
Ferrari commanded the GTE Pro class, with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado establishing a dominant lead in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo after polesitter Kevin Estre had led the first hour in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.
Estre's teammate Michael Christensen was then passed by the second #71 Ferrari of Miguel Molina in the fourth hour to make it a one-two for the Prancing Horse.
The #51 Ferrari's lead never seemed in significant danger and it survived the safety car interruption to take a clear win.
The battle for second place did rage on and was settled in the final hour when the #52 Ferrari managed to make its final stop under a full-course yellow, Molina and Daniel Serra securing the position ahead of the #92 Porsche of Estre, Christensen and Neel Jani.
The #91 sister Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni, Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz was fourth and last in class.
In GTE Am the #98 NorthWest Aston Martin initially led the way ahead of the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari and the #54 AF Corse machine.
A second-half off by Paul Dalla Lana dropped the car back, with the Cetilar Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Giorgio Sernagiotto and Robert Lacorte taking the lead.
In the final two hours Sernagiotto was passed for the lead by Ricardo Pera in the #56 Project 1 Porsche, but a time penalty for Pera – for tagging the #70 Realteam LMP2 – handed the class win back to Cetilar.
Pera took second with Matteo Cairoli and Egidio Perfetti, while the #54 AF Corse Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci took third in class.
Watch all World Endurance Championship races live on our OTT platform Motorsport.tv. The next race is scheduled at Monza on July 18.
Cla # Drivers Car Class Laps Gap 1 8 Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 300 2 7
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 300 1.800 3 36
Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre
Matthieu Vaxiviere Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 300 1'08.597 4 38
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Anthony Davidson Oreca 07 LMP2 296 4 Laps 5 28
Sean Gelael
Stoffel Vandoorne
Tom Blomqvist Oreca 07 LMP2 296 4 Laps 6 22
Philip Hanson
Wayne Boyd
Paul di Resta Oreca 07 LMP2 295 5 Laps 7 31
Robin Frijns
Ferdinand Habsburg
Charles Milesi Oreca 07 LMP2 295 5 Laps 8 34
Jakub Smiechowski
Louis Deletraz
Alex Brundle Oreca 07 LMP2 293 7 Laps 9 1
Tatiana Calderon
Sophia Flörsch
Beitske Visser Oreca 07 LMP2 290 10 Laps 10 70
Esteban Garcia
Mathias Beche
Norman Nato Oreca 07 LMP2 290 10 Laps 11 21
Henrik Hedman
Juan Pablo Montoya
Ben Hanley Oreca 07 LMP2 288 12 Laps 12 20
Jan Magnussen
Anders Fjordbach
Dennis Andersen Oreca 07 LMP2 285 15 Laps 13 29
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Job Van Uitert Oreca 07 LMP2 280 20 Laps 14 51
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 279 21 Laps 15 52
Daniel Serra
Miguel Molina Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 279 21 Laps 16 92
Kevin Estre
Neel Jani
Michael Christensen Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 279 21 Laps 17 91
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 278 22 Laps 18 47
Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Antonio Fuoco Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 274 26 Laps 19 56
Egidio Perfetti
Matteo Cairoli
Riccardo Pera Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 274 26 Laps 20 54
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 274 26 Laps 21 98
Paul Dalla Lana
Augusto Farfus
Marcos Gomes Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 274 26 Laps 22 57
Takeshi Kimura
Mikkel Jensen
Scott Andrews Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 274 26 Laps 23 60
Claudio Schiavoni
Andrea Piccini
Matteo Cressoni Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 273 27 Laps 24 85
Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting
Manuela Gostner Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 273 27 Laps 25 33
Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira
Felipe Fraga Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 272 28 Laps 26 86
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker
Tom Gamble Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 271 29 Laps 27 88
Dominique Bastien
Marco Seefried
Julien Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 269 31 Laps 28 83
François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen
Alessio Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 267 33 Laps 29 44
Miro Konopka
Oliver Webb
Tom Jackson Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 261 39 Laps 30 709
Ryan Briscoe
Romain Dumas
Richard Westbrook Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 246 54 Laps 77
Christian Ried
Jaxon Evans
Matt Campbell Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 88 212 Laps 777
Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii
Andrew Watson Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 69 231 Laps View full results
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