You had to wait for it quite a bit, but I finally found the time to upload some of my shots from the 6h of Spa and of course the 24 hours of Le Mans.
Find them here:
You can also find them in the “Photo’s” section above!
I find it pretty hard to find some good wallpapers for my 21:9 screen… So, I decided to share mine with you! Feel free to download!
I’m currently very busy editing the shots from last weekends 24 Heures du Mans. Here’s a small preview already!
Note that this time, unfortunately, everything was shot from public areas!
The inaugural event of the 2018/2019 WEC Superseason in the Belgian Ardennes didn’t go unnoticed on many levels… Huge shunts, huge names and great fights characterized the race, although the fight for the win never really put you on the edge of your seat.
LMP1
The LMP1 category was at least as exciting besides the track than on it. It all started with the first laps of F1 superstar Fernando Alonso in the Toyota LMP1. Next, the first shocker of the weekend was that the CEFC TRSM Ginetta team (the former Manor Racing squad) pulled his two brand new Ginetta G60s from the race after sponsor TRSs funds didn’t arrive on time.
In Friday’s qualifying there was the terrible crash of Pietro Fittipaldi in Raidillon, from which he suffered two broken legs and other injuries. Luckily, specialists expect he will fully recover. The no. 7 Toyota with Mike Conway behind the wheel, took pole before the no. 8 sistercar. However, after the session the no. 7 was penalised due to an incorrect declaration of the fuel flow meter (rumours where that Toyota listed all their fuel flow meters on the same serial number). So, the no. 8 Alonso, Buémi and Nakajima at the wheel could start the race from pole, the no. 7 had to start from pit lane.
Although it could be more or less predicted, the race was slightly disappointing. The Toyota no. 8 took off right after the start, as the no. 7 had to start a lap down only followed by the privateer entries from Rebellion, SMP and ByKolles (in that order). There was no way however they could keep up with the Hybrids. Mid-race an interesting fight between the two Rebellions and the no. 17 SMP racing car developed that lasted several laps. The skirmish was then brutally ended by an incredible crash of the SMP car with by then Isaakyan at the wheel (check the movie here). At the end of the race the no. 7 Toyota had caught up with Alonso in the no. 8 car, but he controlled the race until the end to take the victory.
Post-race, the 3rd placed Rebellion no. 1 car of André Lotterer, Bruno Senna and Neel Jani got disqualified because of the skid-block under the car being to worn down (18.8mm instead of the allowed 20mm). The no. 3 Rebellion inherited the 3rd place.
LMP2
In the first stages of the race, Giedo van der Garde in the no. 29 Racing Team Nederland quickly ploughed through the field from his 7th starting position to take the lead in LMP2. Unfortunately, electrical issues led to an early and lengthy pitstop that costed the car too much time to score a good result. The race was then controlled by the no. 26 G-Drive racing Oreca 07, driven by Roman Rusinov, Andrea Pizzitola and Jean Eric Vergne. Their victory never really was in danger, in the end they had a 20 second gap to the no. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca. The 3rd placed no. 36 Alpine entry was over 55 seconds behind the winner.
GT Pro
Most interesting fight of the race was between the Porsches and by then lone Ford GT after a huge crash of Harry Tincknell at Raidillon. The no. 66 with Pla at the wheel managed to undo the advantage taken by Lietz in the no. 92 Porsche at the last round of pit stops. He was able to get a better run out of La Source heading for Eau Rouge and use the acceleration of the Ford to pass Lietz. He was then also passed by the sister car driven by Christensen at that moment, and in the second-to-last lap even fell of the podium, being past by the no. 71 Ferrari of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon.
New cars Aston Martin and BMW couldn’t fight for the podium spots yet, BMW having the upper hand over the Brits finishing 5th, the Astons coming in on place 6 and 7.
GT Am
In GT Am the year-old Aston Martin Vantage showed great race-pace. Both the factory entry and the TF Sport car battled for victory until the last lap, with an advantage of more than a lap on the 3rd placed Clearwater Ferrari 488 which ran clear of technical issues all race long. It was AMR’s Pedro Lamy who managed to stay in front of TF Sport’s Euan Hankey in the last lap, only 0.221s between them at race-end.
Where during the Prologue at Le Castellet it was feared that the Porsches had somewhat of an advantage, being able to even do battle with the GT Pro cars, this was not the case in Spa. Running into several problems, none of the entries from Stuttgart could challenge the win after the first stages of the race.
Took me a while, but the photo’s of the 6 hours of Spa are now online! Find them here or in the “Events”-section.
High quality images are now available on my Flickr-page here!
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I’ve added pt. II of the 2018 FIA WEC – Prologue @ Circuit Paul Ricard. Find them here or in the “Events” section!
High quality images will (very) soon be uploaded to my Flickr-page here!
Wanna stay up-to-date? Follow me on Instagram or Facebook.
I’m currently working hard to get te first gallery of the FIA WEC Prologue 2018 at Circuit Paul Ricard up on the site. Here’s already a small sneak peek…
Not long now until the new FIA WEC Superseason kicks off with the Prologue at Paul Ricard: Friday the 6th, at 10 o’clock the light goes green. It will be the first time contenders of the 2018/2019 Superseason, which reaches its climax during the 2019 24hrs of Le Mans, cross swords with each other in their new cars!
LMP1
In LMP1 Toyota is the only remaining factory-team fielding two LMP1-hybrids. Their updated TS050 hybrid is challenged by no less than four other chassis from different privateer teams: Rebellion with their R13, SMP racing and Dragonspeed with their BR1-chassis, CEFC with the Ginetta P1 and of course ByKolles with their CLM P1/01 chassis. Can the privateer teams challenge the Toyota?
LMP2
Two new contestants in the LMP2 category where Larbre steps up from GT Am (with their amazing Chevrolet C7) to the LMP2 with a Ligier JSP217, and Racing Team Nederland makes the jump from ELMS to the World Championship with their Dallara P217. It will be interesting to see how the newcomers compare to the more experienced teams of TDS, Dragonspeed, Jackie Chan DC and Signatech Alpine and their Oreca chassis.
GT Pro
Many new cars in the GT Pro category with of course eyecatcher BMW with their brandnew M8 GTE. The car already made an appearance in the IMSA races at Daytona and Sebring, with encouraging results (Pole at the 12hrs of Sebring…), but how will it perform against the also brandnew Aston Martin Vantage, the new Ferrari 488 GTE, the Porsche 911 and the Ford GT in the WEC-field?
GT Am
In GT Am three new teams make their debut this superseason: Project 1 Racing, which earned his laurels in the Porsche Supercup, fields a Porsche 911 RSR, MR Racing with their Ferrari 488 GTE and TF Sport, well known in the British GT scene with their Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
Rick Kiewiet Photography 