What the Winners Said after Epic Spa Race

HYPERCAR winner: José-María López #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing, Toyota GR010 Hybrid

“At the beginning, I didn’t want to get left behind, so we made our way through to past the Glickenhaus and - for about an hour - enjoyed the best of the conditions of the day.

"Then, the conditions changed, and the wet running was really treacherous – a lot of standing water and it was just hard to keep it on the road, but we stayed out of trouble. And that’s what we needed – to get some points on the table. Unfortunately for car 8, they had their issues.”

LMGTE Pro winner: James Calado #51 AF Corse, Ferrari 488 GTE Evo

“It’s not a nice feeling getting into the car for the first time on a wet track on slicks and cold tyres, because we were under a full course yellow, but I just got into the groove and managed to improve my driving a little bit. I didn’t have any references due to the lack of running throughout the race. I eventually got up to speed but I knew the Porsche will be there in the end. I could see its speed, especially in sectors one and two they were very strong.

"I didn’t want to give up and I gave it my absolute all, sometimes over the limit. I nearly crashed the car three times. It’s nice to have a battle with them again and nice for Ferrari to have two cars on the podium.”

LMP2 winner: René Rast #31 WRT, Oreca 07 – Gibson

“You can feel that everyone [within the team] is very happy with a 1-2 for WRT. Everyone has worked very hard for this result and everyone invited their families and friends as it’s a home race. There was a bit of chaos going on – going out on slicks in half dry, half wet conditions is never easy. I tried to be very conservative and don’t do any mistakes.

"There was an LMP2 car spinning in front of me I went on the brakes, locked up, but he still came towards me. We had slight contact, I damaged the splitter and after I felt huge vibrations and had loads of understeer. It was just five minutes from the end, so we were happy at the time that the race didn’t go for very long.”

LMGTE AM winner: Harry Tincknell # 77 Dempsey – Proton Racing, Porsche 911 RSR - 19

“Seb [Priaulx] did a great job in his stint. He was on the softs and for sure that was the right tyre at the time. He advanced through the field pretty quickly, up to third and was catching the two Astons ahead pretty fast. Then all the chaos with the full course yellow started to happen. They both boxed and we went for a fuel marathon. I tried to save as much as I could.

"The pace was really strong until it restarted to dry out and the soft tyre started to degrade really fast. I went from thinking 'we’re OK,' to ‘we’re in trouble now,' but the last full course yellow not only helped with the fuel but also helped to cool the tyres down. There was a couple of points on the track where it was really tricky and very easy to make a mistake. I said to myself that I’m going to take maximum risk and managed to pull away for around 4-5 seconds. Fantastic job by the two guys to my left who set me up perfectly.”

LMP2 PRO/AM winner:  Alessio Rovera #83 AF CORSE, Oreca 07 – Gibson

“I had a great start, managed to overtake both of the Toyotas but then I was in trouble for Eau-Rouge because I was stuck between them and had a poor exit out of Eau-Rouge and was overtaken by two cars. Then I tried to keep the pace and not make a mistake.

"The car was not perfect, I was struggling a bit. The last stint was quite difficult – tricky conditions on slick tyres, damp track, a lot of full course yellows so low pressure, so I tried to keep the car on the road, but we made it in the end, and we won.”