The Briton, who secured a second WEC win of the season with Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, defined that he knew the decision to start out their Toyota GR010 HYBRID on dry-weather Michelins was “the proper one even when we knew it was going to be a bit difficult”.

“On the primary lap, I regarded on the automobiles round me on wets and thought, man, that is going to be onerous,” Conway advised Autosport.

“I had an actual wiggle on the prime of Eau Rouge [Raidillon] and thought, ‘that was shut’.

“It was tough on the market as a result of from Eau Rouge to Flip 5 [Les Combes], it was fairly moist, so any tyre temperature you probably did have was gone by the point you bought to the braking zone on the prime of the hill.

“It was all about attempting to outlive at that time.”

Conway dropped from the pole place Kobayashi inherited after Ferrari driver Antonio Giovinazzi misplaced his quickest lap for a track-limits infraction to seventh place on the primary racing lap of the Spa 6 Hours.

He was as much as sixth when the primary of 4 security automobiles was referred to as earlier than the top of lap 4, moved as much as fourth when the race went inexperienced 4 laps later and was main by the top of lap 10.

“As soon as I’d acquired the settings sorted by enjoying with the traction management and issues like that and the monitor began to dry slightly bit, the tyres out of the blue switched on,” defined Conway.

“Abruptly the automobile was within the window and it was nearly being affected person and choosing off the fellows forward once we may.”

Conway held a lead of greater than 15 seconds from Laurens Vanthoor in the perfect of the manufacturing unit Porsche 963 LMDhs when he made his first gas cease shortly after the one-hour mark.

The profitable Toyota was considered one of solely 5 automobiles on the lead lap, all of which had began on slicks, by early within the second hour.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

Picture by: Eric Le Galliot

Conway revealed that he totally trusted the choice of the Toyota Gazoo Racing squad led by Pascal Vasselon, who lives near Spa and was previously director of the Michelin System 1 programme, to start out each its Le Mans Hypercars on slicks.

“Pascal lives 10 minutes up the highway, so is aware of all concerning the climate right here,” he mentioned.

“I used to be pleased with the choice to go on slicks and was fairly positive it was the precise one.”

Toyota didn’t reveal which of the three specs of Michelin slick its two automobiles began, Vasselon solely calling it “the precise tyre for the situations”.

However Conway intimated that it was the low-temperature smooth, also referred to as the smooth chilly.

Vasselon acknowledged the choice to start out on dry-weather tyres was key to Toyota’s 1-2 end at Spa saying “the race was determined on this early part”.

The #7 Toyota ended up profitable by 11s from the sister automobile shared by Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa after Kobayashi was docked 5 seconds after the chequered flag for passing #8 with 4 wheels off the monitor after the ultimate spherical of pitstops.

The #51 Ferrari 499P that took a last-gasp third place within the fingers of Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi was the highest-placed finisher to have began the race on the Michelin moist tyre.