6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

Throughout the race, the 499Ps of the Ferrari – AF Corse team, started by Nicklas Nielsen and James Calado, consistently ranked among the frontrunners. Despite fierce competition, particularly between the mid-point and final stages of the race, the team’s flawless strategy allowed the crews of Pier Guidi–Calado–Giovinazzi and Fuoco–Molina–Nielsen to maximise tyre performance and showcase the full potential of the 499P. In the end, the Italian driver crossed the line first, just four seconds ahead of his Danish teammate. 

However, the 499P number 83 of the AF Corse team experienced an engine issue that required a turbo replacement. Thanks to swift work by the mechanics, the car was back on track by the second hour, allowing the crew – Ferrari official driver Yifei Ye, Robert Kubica and Phil Hanson – to finish the race and collect valuable points in the standings for independent teams. 

The weekend at Spa began in the best possible way, with three Ferraris locking out the front of the grid. The number 50 crew secured pole position ahead of the 499P in Giallo Modena livery and the number 51 factory entry. With this latest result, the 499P's tally of overall victories in endurance racing's top class rises to six. The three wins in 2025 – in Qatar, Imola and Belgium – add to those achieved in 2024 (at Le Mans with the number 50, and at COTA with the number 83 of AF Corse), along with the unforgettable triumph at the Centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023, claimed by Pier Guidi, Calado and Giovinazzi.

This achievement recalls Ferrari's 1972 season in the World Sportscar Championship when the 312 PB secured three consecutive one-two finishes in the opening rounds: at the 1,000 Kilometres of Buenos Aires – where Peterson and Schenken finished ahead of Regazzoni and Redman – followed by the 6 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, both won by Andretti and Ickx ahead of Schenken and Peterson. That same year, Ferrari claimed ten victories out of eleven races on the calendar, including a one-two finish at the 1000 Kilometres of Spa, where Redman and Merzario took the win ahead of Ickx and Regazzoni. 

Indeed, the track immersed in the green of the Ardennes still has nearly all the technical characteristics of the original circuit (which was about 14 kilometres long), making it exciting from first to last from the technical point of view. It is full of technical aspects that can bring out differences between drivers. The fans' pulses quicken when the cars pass by the Eau Rouge or Radillon, and nerves fray when a driver goes at full tilt (or not) into this fearsome dip.

Of course, drivers don't only set their best times courtesy of the Eau Rouge and Radillon. The central part of Spa is very interesting, with its sequence of fast curves interspersed with short straights. This second stage is perhaps the most technical, with the driver needing to take a very particular approach so as not to spin out. After the mixed section, at the exit of the treacherous Stavelot, the drivers go back in time to the evocative straight in the Ardennes forest, the Blanchimont, which leads to the final turn, the Bus Stop.

However, the Belgian circuit is also famous for its very changeable weather conditions, which often produce wet and dry stretches on a track that is almost seven kilometres long!