Opinion: WEC Deserves Credit for Putting Fans First at Spa

Jamie Klein on the unprecedented decision to extend/resume last weekend's 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps FIA World Endurance Championship race...

Last weekend’s third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa will go down in history for the unprecedented decision to reset the clock after the red flag caused by the huge crash involving Earl Bamber and Sean Gelael in the penultimate hour.

As repairs to the damaged guardrails and debris fencing dragged on, and the initial six-hour time limit continued to tick down, journalists and PR representatives in the media center agreed on one thing - that once the clock hit zero, that was it. There would be no more racing.

At least, that was until with around 11 minutes left, when race control informed the watching world that there would, in fact, be another 1 hour and 44 minutes of action to come.

During the red flag period, once it became clear there would be no quick fix to the damage to the barriers along the Kemmel Straight, it seemed certain the day would belong to Ferrari.

That was because the two factory 499Ps occupied first and second, having shown blinding speed from 10th and 19th places on the grid up to that point. But the resumption led to Ferrari losing what had looked to be a nailed-on victory for the second race in a row.