Weekend Recap: Toyota, Porsche Victorious in WEC, IMSA Rounds
Catch up on a busy weekend for sports car racing in Portimao, Long Beach...
No. 8 Toyota Takes Dominant Portimao Victory
Brendon Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa took a dominant victory in the 6 Hours of Portimao, with Ferrari and Porsche completing the podium positions.
The No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid started the race from pole position and briefly dropped to third at the start as Buemi lost ground to teammate Mike Conway and the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of James Calado, but was back in the lead by the end of the opening hour.
As Toyota opened up a gap to the chasing pack, the No. 7 Toyota of Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez fell out of contention when a failure on a mandatory torque sensor forced the team to complete a left-side driveshaft swap.
From there, the No. 8 car cleared off to take its first win of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, finishing a full lap clear of the No. 50 Ferrari driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen.
The No. 6 Porsche 963 of Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor finished third, securing the first WEC podium for Porsche Penske Motorsport on the same weekend it won the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
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Jaminet, Tandy Deliver First Win for Porsche 963 in Long Beach
Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy delivered the first victory for the Porsche 963, having completed the entire race on a single set of Michelin tires in Saturday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The Porsche Penske Motorsport duo came out on top in the 100-minute street fight, which saw a fierce battle for the final podium positions in a comeback drive from the pole-sitting No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-06 of Ricky Taylor that ended up in the barriers with two laps to go.
Taylor’s co-driver Filipe Albuquerque held control in the opening stint until an issue with the driver change that cost the Konica Minolta-sponsored Acura ten seconds in the pit lane and dropped the car to fifth.
A call to double-stint tires on both factory Porsches put Jaminet and the No. 7 entry of Matt Campbell up front, although the Australian came under heavy pressure from a number of cars, including the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 of Connor De Philippi, who dropped to fourth with 23 minutes to go after running into the Turn 1 runoff.
Taylor, whose car along with the two BMWs took four new tires on their stops, made a bold move around Campbell in Turn 8 for second with nine minutes to go after previous contact between the two cars, and hunted down Jaminet for the lead.
WTR Andretti’s hopes of victory, however, was eliminated when Taylor nosed the No. 10 Acura into the Turn 1 barriers after passing Jaminet for the lead with two laps to go.
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Will Martin claimed his first Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America victory for JDX Racing in Race 2 of the weekend on the streets of Long Beach.
The Brit survived heavy pressure from pole-sitter Tom Sargent’s No. 17 McElrea Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car behind, as the two ran nose-to-tail for the final 14 minutes of the 40-minute sprint race.
Martin quickly found his way past championship leader Riley Dickinson to slot into second on the opening lap before the field fell under caution.
The JDX driver then set his sights on Sargent, who he passed into Turn 1 on the first of two restarts.
Dickinson held off late pressure from MDK’s Jimmy Llibre to complete the overall podium. Just behind, JDX’s Alex Sedgwick rounded out the top-five.
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DTM Pre-Season Test Results
Goetz Unlikely to Join Glickenhaus
Lamborghini Signs Kvyat to LMDh Program
Isotta LMH Completes First Laps
Portimao Double Header to Replace Imola ELMS Round