Audi takes an epic Spa 6 Hour victory, covering a record distance of 1232km
Audi has prevailed following a fierce battle to deny Porsche victory in a record-breaking Round 2 of the World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps.
Benoit Treluyer guided the #7 Audi R18 home after a thrilling duel that saw the Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas #18 Porsche finish 13.4s adrift in second place.
The pole-sitting #17 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley finished third, a result which looked a longshot after the team received a penalty and lost considerable time in the pits with suspension problems.
For Treluyer and his crew of Marc Fassler and Andre Lotterer it was back-to-back victories after their opening round win at Silverstone last month.
“It was amazing race again. We had a really good fight with Porsche and the team did a great job,” Treluyer said.
Benefitting by less than 10 minutes of yellow flag running, the event saw 1232km logged, the greatest distance achieved in a 6 Hour race in the world.
Felipe Albuquerque, Marco Bonanomi and Rene Rast were fourth in the third Audi R18 e-tron quattro ahead of the Toyota TS040 of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.
The third Porsche 919 Hybrid of Nico Hulkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy was sixth with the #8 Audi seventh after Oliver Jarvis speared into the barriers in the closing minutes.
Toyota’s world champion line-up of Anthony Davidson and Sebastian Buemi were eighth.
In LMP2, Mitch Evans took a starring role in the winning effort of the Jota Sport wildcard entry.
Sharing the #38 Gibson Nissan with Harry Tincknell and Simon Dolan, GP2 racer Evans put in a sterling performance to overcome a jump start penalty and defeat established prototype starts in his WEC debut.
Aston Martin Racing, the class of the field in qualifying, landed both the LMGTE Pro and Am classes with the #99 and #98 Vantage V8s respectively.
The #99 saw Richie Stanaway join his Kiwi countryman Evans as a class winner with the Aston he was sharing with Fernando Rees and Alex MacDowell winning its maiden WEC event.
Full Spa 6 Hour result:
1
M.Fässler/A.Lotterer/B.Tréluyer
Audi
176
6:01:08.896
2
R.Dumas/N.Jani/M.Lieb
Porsche
176
13.424s
3
T.Bernhard/M.Webber/B.Hartley
Porsche
175
1 Lap
4
F.Albuquerque/M.Bonanomi/R.Rast
Audi
174
2 Laps
5
A.Wurz/S.Sarrazin/M.Conway
Toyota
173
3 Laps
6
N.Hülkenberg/E.Bamber/N.Tandy
Porsche
173
3 Laps
7
L.di Grassi/L.Duval/O.Jarvis
Audi
168
8 Laps
8
A.Davidson/S.Buemi/K.Nakajima
Toyota
162
14 Laps
9
S.Dolan/M.Evans/H.Tincknell
Gibson/Nissan
161
15 Laps
10
G.Yacamán/L.Derani/R.González
Ligier/Nissan
160
16 Laps
11
P.Ragues/O.Webb/Z.Amberg
Morgan/SARD
159
17 Laps
12
M.Howson/R.Bradley/N.Lapierre
ORECA/Nissan
159
17 Laps
13
N.Panciatici/P-L.Chatin/V.Capillaire
Alpine/Nissan
159
17 Laps
14
N.Leventis/D.Watts/J.Kane
Dome/Nissan
156
20 Laps
15
J.Nicolet/J-M.Merlin/E.Maris
Ligier/Nissan
152
24 Laps
16
A.MacDowall/F.Rees/R.Stanaway
Aston Martin
151
25 Laps
17
F.Makowiecki/R.Lietz
Porsche
151
25 Laps
18
S.Müller/K.Estre
Porsche
151
25 Laps
19
G.Bruni/T.Vilander
Ferrari
151
25 Laps
20
D.Turner/S.Mücke/R.Bell
Aston Martin
150
26 Laps
21
C.Nygaard/M.Sørensen/J.Adam
Aston Martin
150
26 Laps
22
D.Rigon/J.Calado
Ferrari
150
26 Laps
23
E.Brown/J.van Overbeek/J.Fogarty
Ligier/HPD
149
27 Laps
24
P.D.Lana/P.Lamy/M.Lauda
Aston Martin
148
28 Laps
25
F.Perrodo/E.Collard/R.Águas
Ferrari
148
28 Laps
26
V.Shaitar/A.Bertolini/A.Basov
Ferrari
147
29 Laps
27
C.Ried/K.Al Qubaisi/K.Bachler
Porsche
146
30 Laps
28
P.Dempsey/P.Long/M.Seefried
Porsche
145
31 Laps
29
F.Castellacci/R.Goethe/S.Hall
Aston Martin
138
38 Laps
30
S.Sharp/R.Dalziel/D.Hansson
Ligier/HPD
134
42 Laps
31
R.Rusinov/J.Canal/S.Bird
Ligier/Nissan
124
52 Laps
–
D.Cameron/M.Griffin/A.Mortimer
Ferrari
128
Retirement
–
G.Roda/P.Ruberti/K.Poulsen
Chevrolet
61
Retirement
–
S.Trummer/V.Liuzzi/C.Klien
CLM/AER
46
Retirement
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