Ryo Hirakawa leads the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Portimao with two hours gone, but it hasn’t been plain sailing Toyota, with mechanical issues for the sister #7 Toyota.
Hirakawa has just replaced teammate Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota, as the Swiss driver started the race.
This has put the two Ferrari 499Ps of Miguel Molina, in the #50, and Antonio Giovinazzi, in the #51, in second and third, with Molina just over 23 seconds back from Hirakawa, and closing on the Toyota driver. Giovinazzi just replaced Calado in latter, while Molina has climbed into the #50 recently vacated by Nielsen.
The #7 Toyota, with Mike Conway at the wheel, had to be pushed back into the garage to have a driveshaft changed, losing the car eight laps.
Buemi slipped back to third at the start behind Calado, as the Brit muscled his way into second, but the Swiss driver soon got by and the Toyotas stretched their legs. Conway led the race early on but swapped positions with Buemi, but the two maintained position until Conway reported a loss of power on the radio and the team told him to pit.
The team told media that the driveshaft sensor was broken, but that this was not related to the loss of power reported by Conway.
In fourth position is Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche 963, 51 seconds back from Buemi. The leading Peugeot, #94 with Nico Muller at the wheel, is fifth, with Dane Cameron in the #5 Porsche 963.
Richard Westbrook in the 32 Cadillac is seventh, with Olivier Pla eighth in the #708 Glickenhaus eighth and Tom Dillmann ninth in the #4 Vanwall 680. Paul di Resta rounds out the top 10 in the #93 Peugeot, which started from the pits as it had a power steering issue prior to the start.
In LMP2, United Autosports leads 1-2 with Josh Pierson in the #23 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson leading Frederick Lubin in the sister #22 car. Third is Daniil Kvyat, who recently got into the #63 Prema Oreca 07-Gibson, replacing Doriane Pin who started the car.
In GTE-Am, Lilou Wadoux leads the class in the #83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, with another Ferrari, the #21 AF Corse car, second with Diego Alessi at the wheel. Alessi took the lead at the start and led most of the race until Wadoux overtook him, with the French driver now seven seconds up the road.
