WEC 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps 2023 - LMP2

Two of the LMP2 cars are about to fall into the clutches of a Toyota Hypercar.

There were eleven Oreca 07 cars entered by various teams in the 2023 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.   Eight of these finished on the same lap.   The United Autosports car No.23 had taken pole in qualifying but in the race the No.41 WRT car took the honours after a faster last pit stop.  The racing was also close for third place but the Prema car made an error and thus Albert Costa and the Inter Europol team took the final podium spot.  The Alpine ELF cars were slowest in qualifying but the No.36 car took fastest lap in the race.

All eleven LMP2 cars are featured in this blogpost.  Photos are from the Friday practice and qualifying and Saturday's race.

The LMP2 Class winning Team WRT Oreca 07 driven by Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz.

The winning WRT LMP2 car.

2nd in LMP2 was this United Autosports Oreca 07 driven by Josh Pierson, Olivier Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist.

The United Autosports car leading the Iron Dames.

The United Autosport drivers.

3rd in the LMP2 class was this Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 driven by Jakub Smiechowski, Fabic Scherer and Albert Costa.

The third placed Inter Europol Competition car.

Albert Costa.

4th place in LMP2 went to the Prema Racing Oreca 07 driven by Felip Ugran, Bent Viscaal and Andrea Caldarelli.

The Prema Racing No.9.

5th place in LMP2 went to the United Autosports Oreca 07 driven by Frederick Lubin, Philip Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque.

United Autosports No.22.

The No.22 drivers.

6th place in LMP2 went to the Team WRT Oreca 07 driven by Sean Gelael, Ferdinand Habsburg and Robin Frijns.

The WRT No.31 car.

7th place in LMP2 went to the Alpine ELF Team Oreca 07 driven by Matthieu Vaxiviere, Julien Canal and Charles Milesi.

The Alpine ELF Team No.36 car.

8th place in LMP2 went the Alpine Elf Team Oreca 07 driven by Andre Negrao, Memo Rojas and Ollie Caldwell.

Both Alpines were the slowest cars in qualifying.

9th place in LMP2 went to the JOTA Oreca 07 driven by David Heinemeier Hansson, Pietro Fittipaldi and Olivier Rasmussen.

The No.28 JOTA car.

Pietro Fittipaldi.

10th place in LMP2 went to the Prema racing Oreca 07 driven by Doriane Pin, Mirko Bortolotti and Danil Kvyat.

Prema Racing No.63.

The Vector Sport Oreca 07 driven by Ryan Cullen, Matthias Kaiser and Gabriel Aubry only lasted 14 laps.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page.

LMP2 cars come of to the Kemmel straight accompanied by some LMGTE AM cars.

Two LMP2 cars exit La Source.

The Alpine enters the start finish straight followed by the Iron Dames.

Porsche Carrera Cup, Benelux and Deutschland, Spa Francorchamps, April 2023

Close action in Friday afternoon's Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland race. Lucas Ertl and Sebastien Freymuth take Radillion side by side.

There were a couple of excellent races for each of the two Porsche Carrera Cup championships, both Benelux and Deutschland, acting as support events for the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps at the end of April 2023.    I don't normally appreciate one make series but at Spa these races proved the exception.

Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland

This was the first round of the 2023 championship.

The first lap of Friday's race and Harry King has the lead that he would keep to take victory.  He has moved up to the German series this year after winning the Benelux series in 2022.  At only 22 years old he should be one to watch in the future.

 

Dutch driver Larry ten Voorde who has twice won the German championship (2020 and 2021).  Very much a favourite for title victory again this year.  However, at Spa he didn't take a win but as usual was close to the front in both races.

Georgi Donchev won the ProAm category in both races at Spa.

Battle for the lead between Harry King and Larry ten Voorde,

Australian driver Harri Jones was the best of the rookies in Friday's race.

The leaders early in Saturday's race.   Loek Hartog leads and he went on to take victory.

Loek Hartog (left) shows how happy he is on the victory podium whilst Larry ten Voorde gets soaked with Cjampagne.

The ProAm podium for Saturday's race with Georgi Donchev the winning driver.

Serious young rookies on Saturday's podium as the national anthem plays.  Theo Overhaus won this category on Saturday.  Harri Jones is to his left.

Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux

This was the first two round of the 2023 season for this series based in Belgium and the Netherlands which runs Porsche 911 GT3 Cup 992 cars.

First Lap into La Source on Saturday for the one of the biggest fields seen in this series.

As they finish the first lap, the leaders get through the last corner OK but the fifth placed guy gets it all wrong.

Two cars in the mess at the last corner.

Close racing at the front as they exit Blanchimont.  Friday's winner, Belgian Glenn Van Parijs starts to move up the field.

Still close as they comer up to the chicane.

The winner of Saturday's race, young Dutchman Robert de Haan. 

A few pictures from Friday.

Cars exiting La Source.

British ProAm driver Aaron Mason.  He was the leading ProAm driver in Saturday's race.

Luo Vanderfeesten

No.36 Ralph Poppelaars was the leading Am driver at Spa.

John Etherton asserts his copyright to all of the photos on this blogpost.  However, you may post the photos elsewhere on the web as long as you credit the photographer, John Etherton, and this blog post, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com and provide a link to this page.

John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web à condition de créditer le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com, et de fournir un lien vers cette page.

Typical Spa weather.