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| The winning Toyota at Raidillon during the race. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria López took a good win. |
On Friday and Satuday 28th & 29th April 2023, I attended my second WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. I was attracted back by the new Hypercars and apparently so were many others. This blogpost tells my story of attending the race and highlights some of my favourite photos I took over the two days and from various viewpoints around the circuit.
The modifications made to Spa last year have certainly improved the spectacle for the spectators and the WEC is in a very healthy state at present.
Other future posts will include all of the runners and the Porsche Carrera Cup races.
Thanks to Gareth and Jaap who attended the meeting with me and made it vastly more entertaining than trudging around taking photos on my own.
Friday Free Practice 3
This my chance to see some of the new Hypercars for the first time. I was in the new stand on the outside of the exit of La Source.
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| The Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963. |
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| The Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R. |
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| The Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963. |
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| The Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P. |
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| The Floyd Vanwall Racing Team Vanwall Vandervell 680. |
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| Early in the session it was still a little damp. Here is the Peugeot 9X8. |
Pit Walk
Although rather crowed, even on Friday, it did give us the opportunity to see the drivers and cars close-up.
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| Saturday's Pit Walk seen from the grandstand. |
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| Albert Costa and the Inter Europol LMP2 Oreca. |
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| The winning LMGTE AM car and team. In the middle French driver Lilou Wadoux, who became at Spa the first woman to win her class in WEC racing since it started in 2012. |
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| Mikkel Pedersen and the Dempsey-Proton Porsche. He had claimed at GT podium at Sebring. |
Qualifying
We were in the new stand above Raidillon for the Friday qualifying.
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| The Ort by TF Aston Martin Vantage AMR dominated the LM GTE AM qualifying. |
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| Both of the Alpine Elf Team Oreca 07 Gibsons finished at the tail end of LMP2 Qualifying. |
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| This Cadillac was fifth in qualifying but the Ferrari behind was second with a time very close to the Toyota. |
The 6 Hours of Spa Race
We spent the first hour or so of the race in the Raidillon grandstand.
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| Just after the delayed start, two Ferraris lead a Cadillac and a Toyota at Eau Rouge. |
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| The Glickenhaus uses the kerbs at Raidillon. |
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| Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche exit Raidillon. |
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| Penske Porsche follows Glickenhaus through Eau Rouge. |
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Second placed Penske Porsche at Raidillon.
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| The Peugeot is a very different looking car. |
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| The third placed Cadillac leads the other Peugeot. |
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| Meanwhile a big battle was going on in the GT class with the Iron Dames Porsche leading an Aston Martin. |
We then moved on and started to walk up the Kemmel straight, but first looking back at Raidillon. We then continued right around the circuit.
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| The Iron Lynx Porsche exiting the Raidillon complex. |
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| The Cadillac not using so much kerb on the exit. |
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| Three abreast on the Kemmel straight! Ferrari, Vanwall and Corvette. |
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| Cadillac overtakes GT Ferrari on the Kemmel straight. |
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| Hypercar train through Les Combes - Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota. |
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| The second placed Porsche follows the lead GT car into Les Combes. |
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| Despite starting from the back of the grid, the No.8 Toyota is already up to second place as it passes the Caravan site after Les Combes/Malmedy. |
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| The Ferrari No.50 in the Bruxelles Corner. |
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| The Team WRT Oreca-Gibson 07 which included Robert Kubica in its driver line up is second in class at this point of the race as it exits Bruxelles. It eventually won its LMP2 class. |
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| The second place Toyota seen through the trees as it takes Turn 9. |
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| The third placed No.51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi / James Calado / Alexandro Giovinavazzi was to keep this position until the end. Here at turn No.9. |
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| The GT cars heading down into Pouhon. |
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| The lead Toyota leads a group out of the second part of Pouhon. |
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| LMP2 cars in the final chicane before the start finish straight. |
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| LMP2 Alpine leads the Iron Dames Porsche onto the start finish straight. |
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| Porsche follows Peugeot into La Source. |
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| Looking down at La Source as the Iron Lynx Porsche negotiates this tight first turn. |
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| A classic view of La Source. |
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.
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| A spectator's view from the grandstand above Raidillon during an early safety car period. |
