The 2016 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, formally the WEC 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, was a six-hour endurance sports car racing event held for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium on 5–7 May 2016. Spa-Francorchamps served as the second race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the fifth running of the event as part of the championship. A total of 56,000 people attended the race.

The No. 1 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley started from pole position and held the race's overall lead until the No. 5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima gained it after the first pit stop phase after electing not to change tyres. He held it until smoke billowed from his engine, causing him to return to his garage for repairs. Audi's No. 8 car of Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and Loïc Duval inherited the lead which they maintained for the remainder of the race to secure the team's first victory of the season. Porsche's first car, driven by the eventual Drivers' Champions, Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb finished second, and the No. 13 Rebellion Racing car of Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher came in third. It was Jarvis's and di Grassi's first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the Signatech Alpine driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi. Lapierre took the lead in the closing stages of the race after passing No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports driver Pipo Derani which earned Menezes and Richelmi their first LMP2 class victories in the World Endurance Championship. Sam Bird and Davide Rigon in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Tourer Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) class with a one-lap advantage over second-placed No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team drivers Andy Priaulx, Marino Franchitti and Harry Tincknell. The Le Mans Grand Tourer Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was led for most of the final hour by the No. 98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda and held it to clinch victory in the class, ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas.

The result meant Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas maintained their Drivers' Championship lead with 43 points, 15 ahead of third-place finishers Kraihamer, Imperatori and Tuscher, and a further point in front of race winners Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis. Nick Heidfeld, Nico Prost and Nelson Piquet Jr. retained fourth place and Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin rounded out the top five. Porsche increased its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship on 56 points, 13 in front of their nearest rival Toyota in second, and a further two ahead of Audi with seven races left in the season.

Entrants A total of 34 cars were officially entered for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, with the bulk of the entries in Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). The 2015 race winners, Audi Team Joest Racing, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers were represented in LMP1, including a pair of cars entered by Porsche, Toyota and Audi who all elected not to included a third car at this year's race. Rebellion Racing and ByKolles Racing were the two representatives of the LMP1 privateer teams. David Markozov returned to drive the No. 27 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 car after he was prevented from taking part at Silverstone because of family problems. LMP2 consisted of 12 cars with 36 drivers in five different types of chassis with one additional Gibson 015S from G-Drive Racing who fielded the 4 Hours of Silverstone winners Giedo van der Garde, Simon Dolan and were joined by GP3 Series driver Jake Dennis.

The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field consisted of three manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ford, and Ferrari) with one change of driver: Jonny Adam, who missed the opening race because he was participating in the British GT Championship, returned to the World Endurance Championship to Aston Martin Racing while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants consisted of six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, KCMG, Larbre Compétition, Abu Dhabi Proton Racing and Gulf Racing. Patrick Long made his first start of the year in the championship alongside Khaled Al Qubaisi and David Heinemeier Hansson in Abu Dhabi Proton Racing's 88 Porsche 911 RSR after missing the first round because of commitments to other motor racing series.

Background

The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2016 schedule in December 2015 at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris. It was the second of nine scheduled endurance sports car rounds of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and the fifth running of the event as part of the championship. The race was held on 7 May 2016 at the 20-turn Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium with two preceding days of practice and qualifying.

Endurance racing events were first held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 1924 with the Spa 24 Hours. 39 years later, the track began holding World Sportscar Championship races which later expanded to . It was cancelled after the 1975 running because of modern safety concerns. It was resurrected in 1982 on the reconfigured Spa-Francorchamps track layout and remained on the calendar until 1990. Spa-Francorchamps again began holding endurance sports car races from 1999 and the 6 Hour event was made part of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012. The race is considered by many as a final preparation event for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Before the race Porsche drivers Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas led the Drivers' Championship with 25 points each, seven points ahead of their nearest rivals Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin, and a further three in front of third-placed Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher. Nick Heidfeld, Nico Prost and Nelson Piquet Jr. were fourth on twelve points, and Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo González rounded out the top five with ten points. Toyota were leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 33 points, eight ahead of their rival Porsche in second; the third-placed manufacturer Audi had scored one point. Porsche had won the preceding event, the 6 Hours of Silverstone, after the No. 7 Audi car was disqualified when it was discovered that its front skid block was worn out by more than the amount permitted in the sport's technical regulations.

After being unable to win the previous running of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Dumas said that Porsche had to be focused, remain calm, and ensure the team did not make any mistakes. Brendon Hartley, driving the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid, said he was looking forward to racing the circuit because it is one of his favourite tracks and spoke of his feeling it would be a good race for him and his teammates. He also stated that he felt that his defence of the World Drivers' Championship would be revived at the track following his disqualification from the Silverstone event. Toyota No. 5 car co-driver Anthony Davidson said that the race would give them an indication of the segments that needed focus on before heading to Le Mans and was looking forward to competing at Spa-Francorchamps. Having missed the previous year's running of the event due to injury, Kazuki Nakajima was pleased to return to the circuit and spoke of his belief that the race would be better than Silverstone.

Due to the configuration of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, with its high average speed and abundance of elevation change, the teams all set up their cars to produce the maximum amount of downforce possible and to have the least amount of drag available. Toyota, however, opted to use a high-downforce specification which gave them have an advantage in the track's second sector. The teams tested the aerodynamic changes in a two-day testing session at the MotorLand Aragón in April where they learned more about the package and better understood how they operated. Aston Martin were allowed to decrease the minimum weight of their cars by , making it the lightest vehicle in LMGTE Pro, and Ford Chip Ganassi Team were granted permission to increase their refuelling restrictor by which allowed for faster refuelling pit stops.

Practice There were three practice sessions—one 90-minute session each on Thursday afternoon and evening and a single one-hour session on Friday afternoon—preceding Saturday's race. The first session was held in sunny weather conditions. The No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Hartley led the 90-minute period through its mid-way point with the fastest lap time of the day, at 1:58.012, almost six-tenths of a second ahead of teammate Jani in second. Audi's second R18 was twice shown a black and orange flag because of a lack of telemetry for which the team was given a €1,000 suspended fine for the remainder of the race weekend and were required to change the vehicle's battery. LMP2 was led by Pipo Derani's No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Oreca with a lap of 2:08.974 which was recorded within the session's first 15 minutes. Adam's No. 97 Aston Martin was quickest in the LMGTE Pro while Pedro Lamy helped the British manufacturer to be fastest in LMGTE Am.

In the second practice session, which took place in cooler weather conditions, Sarrazin in the No. 6 Toyota, was fastest with a time of 1:58.566, which was set early in the 90-minute period. His teammate Nakajima finished with the second-quickest time, with Mark Webber in the No. 1 Porsche ending up third-fastest. The second Audi vehicle did not take part because their mechanics were unable to repair a failed front axle drivetrain. Roberto Merhi achieved the only time under the 2:08 mark in LMP2 in the No. 45 Manor Oreca with a lap of 2:07.865, eight-tenths of a second faster than the second G-Drive car of van der Garde. LMGTE Pro was led by James Calado in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari with the Italian marque setting the fastest time in the LMGTE Am with Rui Águas driving the No. 83 vehicle. The session ended prematurely with seven minutes remaining when Yutaka Yamagishi in Larbre Compétition's No. 50 Chevrolet was reported to have dropped fuel on the track and then collided with the barriers at Stavelot corner.

The final practice session occurred in sunny weather conditions. Timo Bernhard set the fastest timed lap of the weekend so far at 1:56.456 in the No. 1 Porsche, 1.6 seconds faster than the second quickest car of teammate Jani. Loïc Duval made contact with Christian Ried's No. 78 Proton Porsche 911 RSR driving into the Bus Stop chicane in the session's halfway period, damaging his vehicle's front-left quarter, but managed to return to his garage where it remained until the end of practice for repairs to its bodywork. René Rast was the fastest LMP2 driver in the No. 26 G-Drive Oreca with a time of 2:07.341, four-tenths of a second quicker than Nelson Panciatici's No. 35 Signatech Alpine Oreca. Gianmaria Bruni recorded the quickest LMGTE Pro time ahead of AF Corse teammate Davide Rigon while Paolo Ruberti, driving the No. 50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet, was the fastest driver in LMGTE Am.

Qualifying