Will Stevens, winner of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps alongside teammate Callum Ilott, told media in the post-race press conference that JOTA struggled to overtake rivals on track.
“Honestly, the first few stints were a bit of a struggle,” said the Brit.
“Especially the second stint when we came out and the Toyota didn’t change tyres.
“We found it quite hard to pass here this weekend — we generally struggled in the last corner and in Eau Rouge. And that means it was quite hard at the start to actually overtake.
“Once we got in clean air, we had strong pace, so it took me a few laps to get past the Toyota.
“But once we did, we could start cracking on and then our pace was pretty solid again, but you know these races. Even though they’re long, the battles are always pretty fierce.
“So, you need to be aggressive to stay ahead and make gains,” said the JOTA driver.
When Stevens came out of the pits he was fighting with the #7 Toyota of Mike Conway, who had not changed tyres. before the lengthy red flag for Earl Bamber and Sean Galael’s big crash on the Kemmel Straight, the duo were not truly in contention for the win.
Stevens’ teammate Ilott wasn’t sure if the duo could have won without the red flag, when speaking to MotorsportWeek.com after the race.
“I think we were hovering around P5, P6, P7,” he said.
“I think if you get it right with the GT traffic, I could have moved forward a bit.
“I had I had some really strong pace. I think what hurt me a bit was not getting past the six early on, because I lost so much time there. But, yeah, once I was ahead, I just, I kept chipping away and it was great.”
And in the final stint of the race, when the race restarted with an hour and 40 minutes on the clock, with Ilott ahead of #6 Porsche’s Kevin Estre, the Brit said he felt no pressure from behind.
“It was just cruise, well not cruise, I was still pushing, but I got in the zone and just lap after lap after lap I was super consistent.
“My engineer reminded me to stay focused, and then I was thinking about staying focused and I wasn’t really focused! But just in the zone if you know what I mean, so it was great, concluded the 25-year-old.
