Fernando Alonso was able to hold off Mike Conway to take his first World Endurance Championship victory for Toyota in the 6 Hours of Spa.
The #7 Toyota team of Alonso, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi were elevated to pole position after the #8 team were excluded from qualifying due to an administrative fault.
After starting the race one-lap down from the pitlane due to a first-lap safety, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez made their way through the pack and had moved up to second place halfway into the race.
Only 1.444 seconds separated the two Toyota cars at the end of the six-hour race, with the gaps on track eradicated after the safety car was deployed at the five-hour mark. Alonso and Conway were behind the wheel of their respective Toyota for the final stint.
Although he was told to short shift by his engineer because of rising gearbox temperatures, Alonso was able to keep a gap between him and Conway until the chequered flag.
The victory for Alonso is his first since the Formula 1 2013 Spanish Grand Prix with Ferrari.
The two Rebellion Racing entries finished two laps down in third and fourth, with the #1 team of Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Bruno Senna ending the race ahead of the #3 squad.
Two high-speed crashes occurred at Eau Rouge during the race after Pietro Fittipaldi suffered leg fractures in a major crash during qualifying for Dragonspeed. Just over one hour into the race Harry Tincknell in Ford Chip Ganassi’s #67 car crashed through no fault of his own, which brought out the safety car for 30 minutes due to the tyre barrier needing to be fixed.
The safety car that was deployed with an hour to go was for the #17 SMP Racing entry with Matevos Isaakyan behind the wheel in a similar incident. Both drivers were able to walk away from their accidents.
The LMP2 class was won convincingly by the #6 G-Drive Racing team with Jean-Eric Vergne behind the wheel, with second and third in the class being taken up by Jackie Chan DC Racing’s #38 entry and the #36 Signature Alpine Matmut team.
Oliver Pla in Chip Ganassi’s #66 Ford took victory in the LMGTE Pro class after passing the #91 Porsche at Eau Rouge.
The #91 team with Richard Lietz behind the wheel fell out of the podium places into fourth by the end of the race, after the #71 AF Corse Ferrari – driven by Davide Rigon – made a move at the final chicane during the final few laps of the race.
Second place in the class was taken by the #92 Porsche with Michael Christensen taking the chequered flag.
LMGTE Am went down to the final lap, with the #98 Aston Martin Racing team finishing in first ahead of the #90 TF Sport squad by just 0.221s.
The class podium was rounded off by Matt Griffin in the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari.
