Three-in-a-row for Ferrari/Michelin!
Saturday's 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps saw Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi (#51 499P) secure Ferrari/Michelin's third win of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, ahead of the Italian make's #50 sister car and the #36 Alpine A424. BMW, Peugeot and Toyota also played a part in making the Belgian race particularly entertaining, and that bodes well for this year's Le Mans 24 Hours on June 14-15.
The 98,000 spectators who turned out to enjoy the season's third clash in glorious sunshine were rewarded with a superb race and plenty of breath-taking action and overtaking through such famous turns as Eau Rouge, Combes and Blanchimont.
With half-an-hour remaining, even the experts were incapable of predicting the finishing order with any certainty after the teams' carefully planned strategies were turned on their head by a number of Safety Car, Virtual Safety Car and Full Course Yellow interruptions.
In the end, Ferrari prevailed to claim another one-two result after its #51 and #50 prototypes succeeded in reaching the checkered flag without having to pit for fuel in the dying moments. A brief stop for a late splash prevented the #36 Alpine from challenging for the win, while the #8 Toyota and #12 Cadillac had to settle for fourth and fifth places, which meant that four different makes finished inside the day's top five!
BMW and Peugeot contributed to the spectacle, too, but were eliminated from the fight for top spot by a variety of incidents. The #20 BMW and #94 Peugeot both retired, leaving the #15 BMW and #95 Peugeot to pick up 10th and 11th places.
“We were treated to a splendid race and there was suspense until the end,” commented Pierre Alves, the manager of Michelin Motorsport's endurance-racing programs. “Due to the fine weather, the Hypercars ran the medium MICHELIN Pilot Sport chiefly. That said, former F1 racer Kevin Magnussen took the start with four softs on his #15 BMW, and they proved competitive and consistent despite the high track temperature [35°C]!
“Spa-Francorchamps has been resurfaced in places since last year, making it much faster. We therefore advised our partners to plan double stints in order to make the most of their tires. It's important to note that no fewer than eight cars improved on the previous Hypercar track-record during the Hyperpole session!”
With barely a month to go until Le Mans, the 6 Hours of Spa played its usual role as the last dress-rehearsal ahead of the year's showpiece in June. This applied not only to the teams but also to Michelin Motorsport whose rain tire and soft, medium and hard slicks have taken turns to showcase their performance and consistency since the start of the season.
That's clearly an encouraging pointer as the French firm sets its sights on a 34th victory in La Sarthe to equal the record for the highest number of Le Mans wins by the same tire manufacturer.