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One month away from the 24 hours of Le Mans, Toyota offers itself a double at Spa

2020-08-15T18:58:00.249Z


The Japanese brand placed its two cars at the top of the standings after a test marked by an impressive crash of Thomas Laurent's Alpine. 


Already leading the World Endurance Championship (WEC) before the coronavirus pandemic, the Toyota N.7 returned to competition by winning the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday in front of its sister car, the N.8. The Argentinian José Maria Lopez, the Japanese Kamui Kobayashi and the Briton Mike Conway won with 34 sec 170/1000 ahead of their New Zealand team-mates Brendon Hartley, Japanese Kazuki Nakajima and Swiss Sébastien Buemi. In one lap, the Rebellion N.1 of the Brazilian Bruno Senna, the American Gustavo Menezes and the French Norman Nato, started from pole position in front of the Toyota N.8 and N.7, completed the podium of the 6th round of the season 2019-2020.

. @ total # 6hSpa Checked Flag out

@Toyota_Hybrid 1-2. # 7 car driven by @ pechito37 @ Mikeconway26 and @kamui_kobayashi wins the round 6 of Season 8 at @circuitspa

Congratulations to the whole crew! # WEC # WECRacesForYoupic.twitter.com / UZTnI7tzCc

- WEC (@FIAWEC) August 15, 2020

The race was marked by the violent exit of the track of the Alpine A470 n ° 36 in the hands of Thomas Laurent. The Frenchman came out of the crash unscathed as he passed a competitor much slower than him, but about a month before the 24 Hours of Le Mans (September 19-20), the destruction of his car is anything but good news.

Drama, massive crash happened to # 36 @ SignatechAlpine's @ ThomasLaurent85 but fortunately he has walked away from it. He will be taken to the medical center for check. # 6hSpa # WEC # WECRacesForYoupic.twitter.com / lshZkZVwOr

- WEC (@FIAWEC) August 15, 2020

Off track, the event was marked by the positive Covid-19 test of the French pilot Gabriel Aubry. Three members of the Algarve Pro Racing team, with whom Aubry had raced on the same circuit the previous week, also tested positive afterwards. Aubry and all of his close contacts, affected or not by the virus, were placed in quarantine, which led to the withdrawal of the Algarve Pro Racing team.

On the model of what has been done since the resumption of F1 in July, this round of resumption, the first since that run at the end of February on the Circuit of the Americas in Austin (Texas), took place behind closed doors. The participants were subdivided into health bubbles supposed to have a minimum of interaction between them to limit the risk of contagion

The end of the season program, in endurance, remains the 24 Hours of Le Mans, behind closed doors, on September 19 and 20, then the 8 Hours of Bahrain, on November 21, which will replace the 1000 Miles of Sebring who should have had take place in March.

Final classification of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps:
1. José Maria Lopez-Kamui Kobayashi-Mike Conway (ARG-JPN-GBR / Toyota N.7 / LMP1) 143 laps in 6h00: 02.534
2. Brendon Hartley-Kazuki Nakajima-Sébastien Buemi (NZL-JPN-SUI / Toyota N.8 / LMP1) at 34.170 3.Bruno
Senna-Gustavo Menezes-Norman Nato (BRA-USA-FRA / Rebellion N.1 / LMP1) at 1 lap

Read also

  • Endurance: the violent crash of Frenchman Thomas Laurent in Spa

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-08-15

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