24 Hours of Lemans is the next race on the WEC schedule.
IMOLA, Italy—Kamui Kobayashi held off Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Kevin Estre by seven seconds to take Toyota Gazoo Racing’s first season victory Sunday at the Six Hours of Imola.
Along with Hypercar co-drivers Mike Conway and Nyck De Vries, the team took advantage halfway through the race when rains had to make drivers change to wet tires, mixing up the grid where the leading Ferraris, who began the race in partly cloudy conditions in the first three positions, led the class until all three cars decided to stay out on the circuit with the damp circuit, which turned out to be a mistake in which all three had to eventually come in for rain tires, which lost their lead for good.
In the last hour of the race, the number seven Toyota held the lead with Conway at the controls which the Briton had to make a final pit stop in which Kobayashi took over. Estre took the lead for the Stuttgart giant until he also had to pit. This gave Kobayashi the lead, but Etre had more energy in his Porsche, which, even with a few minutes left in the race and having to serve a five-second penalty for passing another car under the yellow flag, closed in, challenging Toyota. But even with the intense threat from the Frenchman, Kobayashi held firm and gave the team their first win of the season. But because they finished second and third, Porsche Penske Motorsport still holds the lead in the constructor’s championship after two rounds.
In the LMGT3 category, the rains also helped the WRT Team finish 1-2, following the Manthey Purexraing car held the lead for most of the race. Drivers Darren Leung, Sean Galeal, and Augusto Farfus took the honors, giving the German/Belgian-sponsored team their first win under the car giant’s name. Finishing in second was even greater for the 73,600 fans attending, as former MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi was part of the WRT team that finished in second. Manthey Purexracing ended up in third.
The race began tough for the hypercars as there was a collision at the beginning of the race with both Alpines, along with the Manthey EMA Porsche and a Peugeot being involved in the accident with all entries having to go back to the pits for repairs. All of those involved eventually returned to the race but finished far down the grid.
The next round of the championship will take place at the Spa-Franchorchamps Circuit from May 9 to 11. This is the final race before the 24 Hours of Lemans on June 15-16 in France.
