FIA WEC Silverstone Six Hours

Audi claimed on-track victory over Porsche in a controversial opening round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship…

The final race result will be decided by an FIA panel, after the race winning #7 Audi R18 was excluded for failing post event scrutineering checks. The hearing will not be held until after round two of the championship at Spa in May.

Race Report

Audi locked out the front row of the grid in a damp qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, and converted their front row starts into an early lead in the race, with Andre Lotterer in the #7 car leading Oliver Jarvis in #8. Mark Webber was keen to demonstrate the dry weather pace advantage of the Porsche 919 Hybrid however, picking off both Audi’s in the first half hour of the race and quickly establishing a 10 second advantage by the first pit stops.

Webber handed the #1 Porsche over to Brendan Hartley, who had built up a 40 second cushion over the chasing pack by the end of the second hour. The leading car then retired in spectacular fashion, with Hartley tripping over the #86 GTE Porsche of Michael Wainwright as the cars came through the ultra fast Farm curve. The #1 Porsche was pitched onto its side, almost flipping over before landing on top of the hapless GTE car as both cars headed for the barriers. During the subsequent full course caution, the #8 Audi R18 of Lucas Di Grassi also retired with a hybrid electrical system failure.

This left the #7 Audi leading from the #2 Porsche, with the Toyota’s in touch in third and fourth place. The Audi pulled away at the front of the field, before a second safety car period caused by a catastrophic tyre failure for the #5 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sebastian Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.

Once the circuit was cleared, the #7 Audi and #2 Porsche ran close together for many laps, before Romain Dumas in the Porsche lost time after contact with Marino Franchitti’s Ford GT at Club. A puncture and a late race splash and dash pitstop for the Porsche left Audi to take a comfortable 46 second victory. However, this was overturned in post race scrutineering, with the Audi being excluded and the win being given to Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani. The Toyota crew of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin were promoted to second place, with the privateer Rebellion R-One of Alex Imperatori, Matheo Tuscher and Dominik Kraihamer inheriting third. These results are provisional pending the Audi appeal.

In LMP2, the #43 RGR Sport by Morand Ligier took a comfortable victory, winning by over a lap from Extreme Speed Motorsports, with G-Drive Racing in third place.

Ferrari dominated the GTE Pro class, with the #71 AF Corse entry of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird leading almost throughout the race from the sister #51 car of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado, the pair having to start from the back of the grid following issues in qualifying and then suffering a three minute stop and go penalty for an engine change. The #95 Aston Martin finished third in class. AF Corse also too GTE Am victory with Emmanuel Collar, Rui Aguas and Francious Perrodo.

Full Results can be found here.