MOTORSPORT: Toyota on tenterhooks for Le Mans

Toyota will go to the Le Mans 24 Hours next month with wins in the two lead-up events under its belt but still huge doubts that it can finally pull off victory in the world's greatest race.

Toyota TS050 Hybrids finished first and second in the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium at the weekend, but the victors knew the runners-up should have beaten them – and perhaps Porsche's form was better anyway.

Audi, which dominated Le Mans this century until Porsche reclaimed its mantle with wins there the past two Junes, is out of the World Endurance Championship this year.

There will be three 2.4-litre V6 Toyotas up against two 2.0-litre V4 Porsche 919 Hybrids for outright honours in the French classic on June 17-18, as there were at Spa at the weekend.

Mazda is the only Japanese manufacturer to have won Le Mans – in 1991, with its rotary-engined 787B.

For five times Toyota has been runner-up there, most painfully last year – when it led as it was about to begin the final lap, only for a small electrical connector on the air line between the turbocharger and the intercooler to play up. By the time the control settings were modified to restore power a Porsche had raced by to steal a record 18th victory for the German marque.

Both six-hour WEC rounds so far this year – the first was at Silverstone in Britain – have been won by Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi, Japan's Kazuki Nakajima and Britain's Anthony Davidson.

At Spa that trio finished less than 2 seconds ahead of the second Toyota driven by Brit Mike Conway and Japan's Kamui Kobayashi, who had led by half a minute in the third hour.

"Today we were not the fastest by far," Buemi said. "The No. 7 car [Conway-Kobayashi] deserved the victory more because they lost so much time with the full-course yellows. They lost close to a minute."

Conway said he and Kobayashi "got screwed by the two full-course yellows at exactly the wrong time".

Davidson said that the victorious Toyota had a glitch that lost it power on Spa's long straights. "We were six or seven tenths off [potential] all weekend," he said.

Those two Toyotas ran in high-downforce configuration at Spa, while the third-placed Porsche driven by German Timo Bernhard and New Zealanders Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber was within 35.5 seconds of the winners running the low-downforce trim developed for Le Mans.

That Porsche had an unscheduled stop because of a slow puncture and lost more time when it needed a nose change after Hartley clipped another car.

The other Porsche, with the same aerodynamic kit and driven by Switzerland's Neel Jani, Germany's Andre Lotterer and Britain's Nick Tandy, was another 50 seconds back in fourth.

A distant fifth, two laps down, was the third Toyota, clad in the Japanese company's own Le Mans aero kit. Crewing the car were Stephane Sarrazin and Nicolas Lapierre, joined by Japanese Super Formula champion but WEC rookie Yuji Kunimoto.

So perhaps Porsche has the better aerodynamics for France, and maybe it would have won at Spa had it run a high-downforce set-up.

While Toyota's Buemi said that "it feels like our luck is turning ... hopefully we can extend it to Le Mans", the Japanese outfit will be on tenterhooks going to the 24 Hours wondering whether it can finally conquer it.

Three-time world touring car champion, Argentinean Jose Maria Lopez, should return to join Conway and Kobayashi for Le Mans after missing Spa because of a back injury sustained in the season-opener at Silverstone.

A Porsche 911 RSR entered by Gulf Racing UK in the LMGTE class was one of just two cars to retire among the 30-car field at Spa – after 76 laps. The top four finishers completed 173 laps.

One of three drivers sharing the 911 RSR, Australian Nick Foster posted on Facebook that "debris cut our wiring loom. Tough weekend all round. Bring on Le Mans!"

In American sports car racing, Cadillac prototypes swept the podium in a two-hour 40-minute event at the Circuit of the Americas, with brothers Ricky and Jordan Taylor claiming a fourth straight victory after successes at Daytona, Sebring and Long Beach.

Australian Kenny Habul was on the podium in the GT Daytona class, partnered in his Mercedes-AMG GT3 by Frenchman Tristan Vautier.

The Ford GT that Aussie Ryan Briscoe shared with Brit Richard Westbook in the GTLM class finished 10 laps down after having been involved in a five-car crash on the opening lap.
A century up for BMW in BTCC
BMW chalked up its 100th race win in the British Touring Car Championship in the weekend's round at Thruxton in Hampshire.

Northern Irishman Colin Turkington, a two-time BTCC champion, brought up the century in a 125i M Sport after his West Surrey Racing teammate, Rob Collard, had already scored a win for the round.

However, youngster Tom Ingram still leads the series in a Toyota Avensis for the privateer Speedworks Motorsport.

Ingram, on 131 points, has a 17-point lead over Honda driver and three-time champion Gordon Shedden, with Turkington another two points back and Collard fourth on 103.
Ford powerhouse back in NASCAR winner's circle
The once-mighty Ford team Roush Fenway Racing has scored its first NASCAR Cup victory since 2014.

Ricky Stenhouse Junior, the partner of fellow NASCAR racer Danica Patrick, overtook Toyota driver Kyle Busch on the last lap to win at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, with the Chevrolet of Jamie McMurray – which had nudged Stenhouse into the lead – squeezed between them.

It was Stenhouse's first Cup victory in 158 starts.

The race had the inevitable "big one", with AJ Allmendinger's Chevrolet flipped on its roof in what became an 18-car incident with less than 20 of the scheduled 188 laps remaining.

Penske-Ford's Joey Logano and Chevrolet man Chase Elliott were the other main victims of the pile-up, although there were no serious injuries.

Patrick was an early retirement from the race.

Kyle Larson (Chevrolet) has a 54-point lead over Martin Truex Junior (Toyota) in the championship.
Such Swede success in World Rallycross
'Mr Verstatile' Mattias Ekstrom has completed a World Rallycross Championship season hat-trick and was joined on the podium by two other Swedes.

After his victories in Spain and Portugal, reigning series champion Ekstrom won again for Audi at Hockenheim in Germany, where he also raced in the DTM (German touring car championship).

Second was Johan Kristoffersson for Petter Solberg's Volkswagen team, while Peugeot driver Timmy Hansen was third, with WRC greats Solberg and Sebastien Loeb (Peugeot) fourth and fifth.

The series now heads immediately to Mettet in Belgium, where the Ekstrom team has won the past three years.

He has 85 points in this year's drivers' championship, 16 more than Kristoffersson, with Solberg on 62, Loeb 48 and Hansen 47.

However, Solberg's outfit leads Ekstrom's by 17 points in the team standings.