FIA WEC Spa: Race Data Analysis

Reviewing the data from the FIA World Endurance Championship pulls up some interesting extra nuggets of information about the race. Below we’ll take a little dip in the massive amount of data produced by the 6 hours of Spa and see what we can pull out.

Sector Times

Sheldon Van Der Linde driving the #20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 posted the fastest first sector of anyone with a time of 34.999 whilst Neel Jani in the #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963 was fastest in sector 2 with sector 3 going back to BMW, this time with Dries Vanthoor in the #15 Team WRT BMW. However, none of these drivers were able to post fastest times in all 3 sectors. The only drivers in the Hypercar class to succesfully do that were Calum Ilott, Kevin Estre, Davide Rigon, Mikel Jensen, Phil Hanson and Jean Karl Vernay.

In LMGT3 Richard Lietz in the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 who was fastest in sector 1 with the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini of Sarah Bovy being quickest in sector 2. Alessio Rovera in the #55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 took the top time in sector 3. Across the whole class, the drivers to post top times in every sector were Alessio Rovera, Franck Perera, Sébastien Baud, Marco Sorensen, Ben Barker, Klaus Bachler, Nicolas Pino, Sean Geleal and Ahmad Al Harthy.

Lap Times

Adding up the best sector times for each car regardless of the driver can also give an idea of the ideal lap time a particular car is capable of. In the Hypercar class, the #99 Proton Competition Porsche had an ideal lap of 2:06.041, which compared well with its best lap of 2:06.459 posted by Julian Andlauer on lap 48, a difference of 4 tenths of a second.

Whilst the #99 car ideal lap was put together by a combination of best sectors from Andlaur and Jani, Calum Ilott who posted the second-best time, strung together all 3 best sector times to give the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche an ideal time of 2:06.349 which was just .119 seconds slower than his actual best time of 2:06.468 completed on lap 31.

The third-best ideal lap was from the #51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P. However the car struggled to put the sector times together in one lap, only producing the 6th fastest actual lap time 0.689 seconds slower than their ideal time.

In LMGT3 an interesting situation arises with the #85 Iron Dames putting together the fastest ideal lap time but only managing the third fastest actual time. Their ideal lap of 2:21.314 was 0.647 seconds quicker than their best lap of 2:21.961.

However, the #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R posted the third fastest LMGT3 ideal lap but also the fastest actual lap with a time of 2:21.525 which remarkably matched their ideal time of 2:21.525 with all three sector times completed by Sébastien Baud. Despite this, their ideal lap time was the third slowest behind Iron Dames and the #777 D’Station Racing team who posted the second-fastest actual time of 2:21.696 just 0.233 seconds off their ideal time

Laps Led

In the Hypercar class 7 different teams led the pack, with the most laps led being the #99 Proton Competition Porsche who managed a total of 57 laps at the front of the field over two different stints. Their first stint commenced on lap 16 and lasted for 12 laps up to lap 27. Their second stint started on lap 29 and lasted for 45 laps up to lap 73.

The second most led laps came from the winning car. #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche did just one stint in the lead but it was the all-important final stint. Calum Ilott started the stint on lap 101 and held the lead for 41 laps to the end of the race.

The #50 AF Corse Ferrari that should have started from pole before a penalty dropped them to the back of the grid, managed to claw it’s way back to the front, hitting the lead on lap 97 but holding it for just 4 laps when the red flag brought it’s stint to an end. The #51 AF Corse Ferrari did better and picked up the lead on lap 75 before pitting 22 laps later and handing the lead to the sister #51 car.

LMGT3 saw 7 cars holding the lead, however, the lead changed much more often with a total of 17 changes at the front of the pack. The #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini did a total of 70 laps at the front split over 4 sessions.

The winning car, #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 led for a total of 22 laps spread over 3 stints, the longest being a 17-lap stint starting on lap 76. The shortest was just one lap and argueably the most important as it was the final lap of the race.

Driver Lap Times

The top 5 drivers with the fastest average lap times in the Hypercar class were Callum Ilott, Kévin Estre, Matthieu Vaxivière, Frédéric Makowiecki, and Julien Andlauer.

Calum Ilott had a faster average lap time compared to Kevin Estre in the Hypercar class where Ilott’s lap time was 2:09.334, while Kevin Estre’s fastest lap time was 2:10.897. In the final run to the flag after the red flag period, Ilotts first stint gave an average lap time of 2:08.538 which was marginally quicker than Kevin Estre who logged an average time of 2:08.692.

In the final stint Estre was quicker with an average time of 2:09.886 compared to Ilotts time of 2:09.964.

In LMGT3 Richard Lietz drove the final stints for the #91 Manthey EMA team and posted average lap times in his two stints of 2:22.981 and 2:23.426 seconds. This compares with the second-placed #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche of Klaus Bachler who posted average times of 2:25.076 and 2:25.333 in his respective stints.

Combining the stint times shows Lietz average lap time was 2:22.723, which was 1.172 seconds quicker than Bachler. Their best times also show Lietz well ahead with the Austrian posting a personal fastest lap of 2:22.456 compared to Bachlers personal best of 2:23.061 seconds.

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