World Endurance Championship 2015 - Spectacular Spa

The start of the race

Sunday saw the second round of the FIA WEC, and once again the series served up another incredible race. Audi took the fight to Porsche who locked out the top 3 positions on the grid in qualifying and once again it was the #7 Audi that took the victory, again ahead of the #18 Porsche. 6 hours of racing, and the gap at the end between P1 and P2 was less than 15 seconds.

Car #7 / AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST (DEU) / Audi R18 e-tron quattro Hybrid / Marcel Fassler (CHE) / Andre Lotterer (DEU) / Benoit Treluyer

Porsche held the advantage at the start of the race, with a 1-2-3 but the #19 car, driven at the start by Nick Tandy, collided with the Porsche 911 GT car of Kevin Estre. This resulted in not only a drive through for the 911 but a 3 minute visit to the pits for the #19 919, putting it several laps down. This was bad news for WEC debutante and Force India F1 driver Nico Hulkenburg, who sadly would not be able to show what he could do in the car. Hopefully more luck will come the way of the Hulk and his team mates. Out in front though Brendon Hartley continued to lead in the #17 car, from the sister #18 car.

Car #17 / PORSCHE TEAM (DEU) / Porsche 919 Hybrid Hybrid / Timo Bernhard (DEU) / Mark Webber (AUS) / Brendon Hartley (NZL) - FIA WEC 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps at Stavelot - Route du Circuit - Belgium

Disaster then struck the #17 car. Hartley earned a 15 second stop go penalty for using a run off area near a group of marshals, after missing the last corner, dropping the car to 2nd. Then, as Mark Webber prepared to take over from Timo Bernhard, the car suffered a right rear suspension issued and went three laps down. This left an incredible battle between the #7 Audi and #18 Porsche, the two cars going wheel to wheel and making contact at the unnamed right hander, with Andre Lotterer in the #7 then going round the outside of Neal Jani in the #18 at Fagnes. The #7 and #8 Audis were running the lower downforce bodywork, with the #9 Audi running the higher downforce package and that car could not keep up with the other two, the #7 and #8 still having great grip and downforce to pull of those kind of moves on the Porsche.

Car #7 / AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST (DEU) / Audi R18 e-tron quattro Hybrid / Marcel Fassler (CHE) / Andre Lotterer (DEU) / Benoit Treluyer

A late pit stop for the #7 with Benoit Treluyer at the wheel provided a bit of tension, but Treluyer brought car home to secure the win for Audi after another incredible race. the #18 Porsche was 2nd and the #17 car was 3rd after a great comeback drive from its issues. The #8 Audi of Oliver Jarvis, Loic Duval and Lucas Di Grassi, delayed earlier on by ECU problems, crashed into the barriers at Stavelot on the final lap of the race. The #9 high downforce Audi of Filipe Albuquerque, Rene Rast and Marco Bonanomi finished in a fine fourth place, after battling with the Toyota's.

The #2 Toyota leading the #9 Audi

Speaking of Toyota, they had an awful race. The TS040's were woefully of the pace and finished in 5th and 6th places, the #1 car of Anthony Davidson and Sebastian Buemi leading home the #2 car of Mike Conway, Alex Wurz and Stephan Sarazin. Kazuki Nakajima couldn't race after being injured in an accident during Friday practice involving the #8 Audi. That really was the start of Toyota's issues and from then on they couldn't recover.

Car #38 / JOTA SPORT (GBR) / Gibson 015S - Nissan / Simon Dolan (GBR) / Mitch Evans (NZL) / Harry Tincknell (GBR)

In LMP2, the Jota Sport Gibson #38 car, driven by Mitch Evans, Harry Ticknell and Simon Dolan put in a stonking drive to win in the category.  Evans, racing normally in GP2 with the Russian Time squad, was very impressive, putting in a great move for the lead on the #26 G-Drive car at the final chicane. The team took the win after a great comeback from a jump start by Harry Ticknell. It was the teams 4th podium at Spa and their 2nd win for the reigning LMP2 Le Mans 24 hour champions.

Car #99 / ASTON MARTIN RACING V8 (GBR) / Aston Martin Vantage V8 / Alex MacDowall (GBR) / Fernando Rees (BRA) / Richie Stanaway (NZL)

In GTE Pro, the #99 Aston Martin of Richie Stanaway, Fernando Rees and Alex MacDowall took the win, after a great battle with the AF Corse Ferrai of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander throughout the race. Bruni was just over a second behind the Aston Martin as the race reached its closing stages when he was forced to take a stop-go penalty of one-minute for a pitstop infringement that dropped the car to fourth. A tyre during the cars last pit stop ran out into the path of an incoming 911, the mechanic grabbing it but it wasn't the safest thing to have happened.

Car #98 / ASTON MARTIN RACING (GBR) / Aston Martin Vantage V8 / Paul Dalla Lana (CAN) / Pedro Lamy (PRT) / Mathias Lauda (AUT)

Aston Martin also took victory in GTE AM, the #98 car of Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana rounding off a perfect day for the Aston Martin Racing squad, and the #98 car taking its second consecutive win.

The #7 Audi takes the win as the fireworks go off

The WEC again served up another 6hour thriller, with record times being smashed in the race and qualifying and the winning #7 Audi completed 1,232.704 km, an all time record for a 6 hour race! The next race of course is the big one...Le Mans. With Nissan joining the battle in LMP1, expect yet another thriller from the FIA WEC. Until next time folks. Ciao.

The podium for LMP1

Photo's copyright fiawec.com and Toyota Racing