Audi topples Porsche as Evans wins LMP2

Audi takes an epic Spa 6 Hour victory, covering a record distance of 1232km

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

See below video highlights

Join the discussion below in the Speedcafe.com comments section

Please note: Speedcafe.com reserves the right to remove any comment that does not follow the comment policy. For support, contact [email protected]