{"id":8134,"date":"2025-05-11T01:36:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T05:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8134"},"modified":"2025-05-12T01:37:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T05:37:48","slug":"ferrari-holds-its-nerve-to-triumph-in-spa-francorchamps-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/11\/ferrari-holds-its-nerve-to-triumph-in-spa-francorchamps-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"Ferrari holds its nerve to triumph in Spa-Francorchamps thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

Record crowd on hand as Ferrari scores double-victory<\/em><\/p>\n

11 May, 2025–In front of the biggest crowd in 14 visits to Spa, the 98,874 on-site spectators were treated to a race that will live long in the memory. While the results sheet might confirm a Ferrari one-two \u2013 the #51 taking the checkered flag just four seconds ahead of the sister #50 scarlet prototype \u2013 the truth was that the 2025 TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps marked the first time this season that the Italian marque\u2019s hegemony was truly threatened.<\/p>\n

One of the most remarkable aspects of the final result was the fact that the winning Hypercar had required a significant repair job after Antonio Giovinazzi crashed at the top of Eau Rouge on his first lap out of the pits during Thursday\u2019s FP2 session, putting the #51 trio immediately on the back foot. In company with team-mates James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, however, the Italian repaid the Ferrari mechanics\u2019 toil in fine style.<\/p>\n

The Briton confessed to a conservative opening stint as he looked after his Michelin tyres, before pressing on and handing over to Giovinazzi, who maintained the momentum. Pier Guidi took over for the remainder of the race, engaging in some epic battles along the way \u2013 most notably with BMW\u2019s Robin Frijns and Alpine\u2019s Mick Schumacher, thrilling fans with a spectacular three-way tussle in the fifth hour.<\/p>\n

By taking on less fuel, the #51 Ferrari leapfrogged the #50 car \u2013 the pole position-winner having led the majority of the race \u2013 during the subsequent pit-stop phase, and while its short-fuelling tactic meant it would have to stop again, by the time it did, Pier Guidi had built up enough of a margin to retain the lead, going on to cement the first back-to-back win for the same crew in FIA WEC since 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good, fun race,\u201d reflected the Italian. \u201cI had a few enjoyable fights with the Toyota and the Alpine, and my stints flew by, because I could never be relaxed inside the car \u2013 towards the end especially, I had to produce qualifying-style laps to create a gap. The team did an amazing job, especially with the strategy. In some ways, this result is a kind of revenge for last year at Spa, which was quite painful. This year, we are smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank my team-mates and the mechanics, who did a fantastic job on Thursday to put the car back together,\u201d added Giovinazzi. \u201cIt was not a smooth start to the weekend, but we fought back well. If you want to win in FIA WEC, you need to be in the right place at the right time, and I think we all deserve this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the #50 car could reach the checkered flag without having to make a late splash \u2018n\u2019 dash pit visit was far less clear, but ultimately, Nicklas Nielsen clung grittily onto the runner-up spoils by less than a second in the car he shares with Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina.<\/p>\n

The Hypercar podium was completed by the #36 Alpine Endurance Team A424 piloted by Schumacher, Jules Gounon and Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Makowiecki. The latter was on a mission right from the start as he scythed from sixth on the grid up to second, before countryman Gounon boldly snatched the lead from Molina on the run towards Eau Rouge at the beginning of his stint.<\/p>\n

Schumacher subsequently continued that excellent form, pushing Nielsen right to the end to secure Les Bleus\u2019 second podium in a row and consolidate the French manufacturer\u2019s strong start to 2025.<\/p>\n

In the #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing entry, S\u00e9bastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ry\u014d Hirakawa exploited an alternative strategy to climb from a lowly 15th on the grid up to fourth, as Cadillac claimed its best finish of the season to-date with fifth and sixth places for the #12 and #38 Cadillac V-Series.R prototypes.<\/p>\n

FERRARI BEATS OLD RIVAL IN LMGT3 DUEL<\/p>\n

Two legends of GT racing went head-to-head in the LMGT3 category, as Ferrari and Ford reprised their classic duel from the 1960s \u2013 and on this occasion, it was the Italian marque that emerged on top.<\/p>\n

During the early phases, Lexus looked to be on-course to break its duck in FIA WEC competition as Arnold Robin established an advantage of ten seconds in the pole-sitting Akkodis ASP Team RC F LMGT3, but a slow pit-stop for the Japanese sportscar dropped it down the order, and thereafter, the #78 crew never truly recovered.<\/p>\n

That thrust VISTA AF Corse and Proton Competition into the spotlight \u2013 and into a fight for the top step of the podium. After hitting the front of the field, the #21 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 \u2013 shared by Alessio Rovera, Fran\u00e7ois Heriau and Simon Mann \u2013 made good its escape. The trio duly clinched the Italian outfit\u2019s first victory of 2025 \u2013 and third from the last five races \u2013 by a shade over 40 seconds.<\/p>\n

Less than three seconds blanketed the #88 Ford Mustang, #54 Ferrari and #77 Mustang in the scrap for the runner-up spot, while Aston Martin\u2019s bid was ultimately undone by incidents and ill-timed safety car interventions.<\/p>\n

Round four of the 2025 FIA WEC campaign \u2013 the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans in northern France \u2013 will take place on 11-15 June.<\/p>\n

Watch FIA WEC live<\/a>\u00a0or on-demand via the official FIA WEC TV app \u2013 your full-access pass to the FIA World Endurance Championship including the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. Don\u2019t miss a moment. For further information, check out the app.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.fiawec.com\/en\/news\/ferrari-holds-its-nerve-to-triumph-in-spa-francorchamps-thriller\/8317<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos via DPPI<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Record crowd on hand as Ferrari scores double-victory 11 May, 2025–In front of the biggest crowd in 14 visits to Spa, the 98,874 on-site spectators were [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-fia-wec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8136,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8134\/revisions\/8136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}