The second round of the FIA WEC season took place at the legendary Circuit of Spa-Francorchamps on Saturday. Christoph Ulrich started in the AF Corse Ferrari with Simon Mann and Toni Vilander. The trio finished eleventh in the LM GTE AM class during the race, which was characterized by chaotic weather.

• Christoph Ulrich, Simon Mann and Toni Vilander in #21
• P13 in qualifying
• P11 in the second FIA WEC round of the season

Spa. The 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps promised excitement for the spectators: three times red, six safety car phases and five times full course yellow. The weather chaos caused accidents and exciting overtaking manoeuvres.

For the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, qualifying for the long-distance classic wasn’t ideal. Due to track limits, Christoph Ulrich’s lap time on Friday was canceled and the #21 had to kick off the race from the last position. Toni Vilander started and was able to fight his way up to first place before handing it over to the Swiss. The weather conditions in the double stint were extremely difficult. Due to accidents, the red flag was waved just after half of the distance. Ulrich sat in the vehicle for around three hours during the entire rainy period and successfully mastered the aquaplaning situations, so that he handed the Ferrari over to Simon Mann, who gave his best in the final two hours. In the end, the trio of Christoph Ulrich, Simon Mann and Toni Vilander crossed the finish line in eleventh place in the #21 car.

“Not the result we were hoping for, but we’re taking a lot of positive things with us. We had a very good performance with fast times in all practice sessions, but we weren’t able to implement that in qualifying and the race. My only timed lap in qualifying was canceled due to track limits (P4) and so we had to start at the very end of the field. Toni handed the car over to me after his stint in P1 when it started to rain. Eau Rouge, Radillion and Blanchimont were all wet, but the rest was dry. Then the ups and downs and the poker with the tires started where we somehow always chose the wrong ones. In the monsoon rain I was out with wets instead of full wets and then when the track dried out with full wets instead of wets. Later, when there was a dry track, we had medium slicks instead of soft, so Simon couldn’t bring the tires into the temperature range. All in all, a bit disappointing. But we were able to gather very important insights. This experience can only be gained in races, the conditions cannot be simulated in tests and so I was able to drive Michelin rain tires for the first time ever. Of course, with so little experience in the WEC, you quickly reached the end of the field.

The next race is already the highlight of the season. We are looking to the future and hope that we can now get the small details that are not quite perfect yet right then,” says Christoph Ulrich.

The next FIA WEC event with the classic, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is scheduled from June 8th to 12th.

Results  TotalEnergies 6h of Spa – LM GTE AM

1. #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing / C. Ried, S. Priaulx, H. Tincknell
2. #33 TF Sport / B. Keating, H. Chaves, M. Sorensen
3. #98 Northwest AMR / P. Dalla Lana, D. Pittard, N. Thiim
4. #54 AF Corse / T. Flohr, F. Castellaci, N. Cassidy
5. #46 Team Project 1 / M. Cairoli, M. Pedersen, N. Leutwiler
6. #86 GR Racing / M. Wainwright, R. Pera, B. barker
7. #777 D’Station Racing / S. Hoshino, T. Fujii, C. Fagg
8. #60 Iron Lynx / C. Schiavoni, M. Cressoni, G. Fisichella
9. #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing / F. Poordad, P. Linsey, J. Heylen
10. #85 Iron Dames / R. Frey, D. Pin, C. Nielsen
11. #21 AF Corse / S. Mann, C. Ulrich, T. Vilander
12. #71 Spirit of Race / F. Dezoteux, P. Ragues, G. Aubry