There was blue skies and sunshine in paddock at Spa Francorchamps today for round two of the FIA World Endurance Championship, a stark contrast to the cold and conditions at Silverstone a few weeks ago.
There was drama at the first race as Porsche claimed the win after Audi were excluded.
Audi Sport Team Joest’s André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoit Tréluyer driving the Audi R18, took the chequered flag to win the 6 Hours of Silverstone after an intense battle with Porsche.
However, the #7 car was found not to be in compliance with article 3.5.6 a3 of the LMP1 Technical Regulations (thickness of the front skid block), during the post-race scrutineering and so the Stewards of the Meeting excluded the car from the race.
The decision meant the win was awarded to the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb.
A battle raged between the Audi R18 e-tron quattro and the Porsche for the second half of the race. Fassler was 16s ahead when he made his final full pit stop with just over an hour to go. The Porsche was able to reduce the gap to 6s because Jani took only two tyres at his pit stop six laps later.
Jani was forced to return to the pits only three laps later after sustaining a right front puncture. With only 35 minutes to go, Jani was back within 10s of the Audi when Fassler came in for a splash-and-dash pit stop.
However the Porsche’s unscheduled stop had come too early to make it to the flag without a final top-up of fuel. The Porsche came back into the pits only seven laps before the end of the six-hour race.
The #2 Porsche also lost time with a nose section that was damaged early in the race and wasn’t changed until the fourth hour, as well as a spin. Porsche and Audi each got one car to the chequered flag.
Mark Webber had built up a clear lead after overtaking the pole-winning Audi with Lotterer at the wheel on lap 17. Brendon Hartley continued to extend the advantage and was more than 40s ahead of the #2 Porsche just after the two-hour mark when he made contact with the GTE Am class Gulf Racing Porsche.
Hartley was reprimanded for overtaking the Porsche with Michael Wainwright at the wheel around the outside of Farm, which resulted in retirement for both cars.
The second Audi driven by Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi retired early in the third hour before Loic Duval could get behind the wheel. A problem with the energy-retrieval system forced di Grassi to turn off the single front-axle motor generator before the car stopped on track with what Audi described as “hybrid malfunction”.
The Toyota TS050 HYBRID driven by Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi took the final spot on the podium. The sister car shared by Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima had been ahead until it sustained a puncture in the fourth hour. Nakajima had to drive a full lap on the punctured right rear, resulting in a lengthy pit stop and an eventual 17th place.
Rebellion equalled its best WEC result for the R-One chassis thanks to the problems of the factory teams. Alexandre Imperatori, Matheo Tuscher and Dominik Kraihamer claimed fourth position after enjoying a trouble free race.
The RGR Sport by Morand squad took honours in LMP2 with its Ligier-Nissan JSP2 driven by Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzalez. The Morand car finished half a minute up on the best of the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier-Nissans driven by Pipo Derani, Ryan Dalziel and Chris Cumming.
Ferrari dominated the GTE Pro class on the way to a one-two result for the AF Corse team led by Sam Bird and Davide Rigon. Their Ferrari 488 GTE was in front from the start and was barely challenged during the race.
The second-placed Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado came back from a three-minute stop-go penalty for a post-qualifying engine change.
GTE Am was won by the AF Ferrari 458 Italia shared by Emmanuel Collard, Rui Aguas and Francois Perrodo.
So the WEC drivers and team arrived in Spa with Porsche setting the pace in Free Practice 1 but it was Toyota setting fastest time in Free Practice 2, as they continue to develop the new Toyota TS 050 HYBRID and with Le Mans on the horizon competition is fierce between the top teams.
Drivers and fans now look forward to a thrilling qualifying session later today. by Melissa Warren
