Silverstone, 10 – 12 April, 2015
The first round of the FIA World Endurance Championship was
held at the Silverstone circuit on Sunday 12 April, preceded by
the first round of the European Le Mans Series on the Saturday,
and a trio of European F3 Championship races. Bright Spring
weather attracted a good crowd over the weekend, with the
organisers giving a figure of 45,000 plus. It was not only the fine
weather that was the attraction, as the ongoing track and
technology duel between Audi, Porsche and Toyota has captured
people’s imagination, whilst the GT categories provide people with
cars on track that they can relate to in road car configuration.
There were certainly massive crowds for the always popular
autograph sessions in the respective pit lanes, for the ELMS on
Saturday, and the FIA WEC on the Sunday. The latter was
particularly popular, as Mark Webber has a great UK fan base,
and the Porsche pit was mobbed from the start to end of the
session. Further down the pit lane, many were trying to get close
to the Dempsey Racing Garage to get close to the American
actor Patrick Dempsey. Another popular target for autograph
hunters on the Saturday was British cycling legend and six time
Olympic Gold Medal winner, Sir Chris Hoy MBE, who was
participating in his first endurance racing event in a LMP3
Ginetta-Nissan, in the ELMS race, winning his class with
co-driver Charlie Robertson first time out.
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Nissan were supposed to have debuted their LMP1 contender, but
they have decided to miss the first two rounds of the series, to
concentrate on development for the Le Mans 24 Hour Race in
June. However, they had two examples of the model on display in
the pit lane on the Thursday afternoon, after which they stayed in
their garage. Porsche had a third 919 Hybrid at the circuit, which
was finished in the orange and white colour scheme of the 1970
Le Mans 24 Hour Race winning Porsche 917K. As an aside to
this, the design on the side of the Porsche transporters, and also
on the wall in their hospitality suite, shows how the current livery
on both their LMP1 and LMGTE cars is configured, it is based on
the words “Porsche Intelligent Performance” (see picture in the
gallery for the explanation).
The entry comprised of 29 cars, 7 in the LMP1 category,
including the new Team ByKolles CLM P1/01-AER, which was no
match for the works hybrids, 8 in the LMP2 class, which included
the race debut of the Strakka Racing Dome S103-Nissan, plus 7
each in the LMGTE PRO and LMGTE AM classes. The FIA WEC
competitors had three practice sessions, two 90mins sessions on
the Friday, and a 60mins one on the Saturday morning, with
separate qualifying sessions for the prototype and GT cars at
lunchtime on the Saturday. The Saturday morning practice
session was the only time during the weekend that they
experienced real wet weather running, but it at least provided the
opportunity to get the set-up right should the dry forecast for
Sunday be incorrect. Fortunately the rain ceased quickly, and
long before the qualifying session started the track was
completely dry.
The LMP1 and LMP2 qualifying session saw the pair of Porsche
919 Hybrids claim the front row of the grid, with the # 17 example
of Bernhard/Webber/Hartley 0.619sec quicker than the # 18
example of Dumas / Jani / Lieb. The qualifying times are an
aggregate of two drivers best times during the session. Third
quickest was the # 8 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro, driven by Di Grassi
/ Duval / Jarvis. In the LMP2 group it was the # 28 G-Drive Racing
Ligier JS P2-Nissan of Yacaman / Derani / Gonzalez that took the
class honours by under a 1/10sec from the # 26 sister G-Drive
entry of Rusinov / Canal / Bird, with the # 47 KCMG entered
Oreca 05-Nissan of Howson / Bradley / Tandy next up. The
LMGTE PRO qualifying session was an Aston Martin whitewash,
filling the top three positions with their Vantage V8s, with the # 95
example of Nygaard / Sorenson / Thim taking pole position from
the # 99 car of Macdowell / Rees / Stanaway and the # 97 car of
Turner / Mucke. It was also an Aston Martin that headed the
times in the LMGTE AM division, with the # 98 Vantage V8 of
Dalla Lana / Lamy / Lauda claiming the laurels, from the # 50
Larbre Competition Corvette C7 of Roda / Ruberti / Poulsen, and
the # 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR of Ried /
Qubaisi/Bachler.
After all the pre-race preambles, like the autograph session and
grid walk, it was time to get down to business at midday on
Sunday. From the rolling start the front row Porsches led the field
away from the line, with the pole sitting # 17 car driven by Mark
Webber capitalising on the pole position to head the # 18
example, chased by the rest of the field, apart from the Strakka
Racing Dome, which was muscled out on the run into Village
Corner, and had to go straight on to avoid contact, dropping to the
tail of the field. The # 17 Porsche continued to lead during the
early stages, but then a gearbox problem manifested itself after
about 80mins of the race, and it was pushed into the garage and
retired. Shortly afterwards the # 8 Audi had an unscheduled stop,
and was pushed into the garage to repair damage to the rear of
the car. Just before these problems for the leading group, the # 36
Signatech Alpine had crashed heavily into the barriers at Copse
Corner when a wheel came off, necessitating a full course yellow
while the car was moved to a position of safety, and the barriers
repaired.
The battle at the head of the field continued to rage between the
remaining # 18 Porsche, the # 7 Audi and the # 1 and # 2
Toyotas, with all taking turns at the head of the field. At half
distance it was the # 7 Audi leading from the # 1 Toyota, whilst in
the LMP2 class it was the pair of G-Drive Racing Ligiers at the
head of the group, with the # 26 car leading the # 28 example. In
the LMGTE PRO class, the full course yellow had tripped up the
trio of Aston Martins, whilst the # 92 Porsche and # 51 AF Corse
Ferrari benefitted from pitting at that time to leapfrog them, which
was the order at half distance. In the LMGTE AM class it was the
# 83 AF Corse Ferrari leading from the # 98 Aston Martin.
For most of the rest of the race there was little to choose between
the leading cars, until lap 96 when Lotterer in the # 7 Audi found a
way past the # 1 Toyota to take the lead, which he then managed
to extend to a comfortable margin by the end of his stint, handing
the Audi over to Marcel Fassler for the final 60mins of the race.
The race nearly came undone for Audi, as Fassler was deemed to
have exceeded the track limits, and was given a Stop-Go penalty,
which reduced the lead over the now 2nd place # 18 Porsche to
around 8secs with 15mins of the race remaining. The chasing
Porsche managed to reduce this to 4.6secs by the time the
chequered flag fell, but it was first blood to Audi, with the # 7
example of Fassler / Lotterer / Treluyer, heading home the # 18
Porsche of Dumas / Jani / Lieb and the # 1 Toyota of Davidson /
Buemi / Nakajima. With three different makes on the podium it
bodes well for an interesting season.
In the LMP2 class the pair of G-Drive Racing Ligiers had a perfect
weekend, after capturing the top two positions in qualifying, they
converted them into a 1-2 class victory, with the qualifying
positions reversed, the # 26 car of Rusinov / Canal / Bird taking
the win from the # 28 example of Yacaman / Derani / Gonzalez.
3rd on the road was the # 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD
ARX 038, but this was subsequently excluded from the results
due to the front and rear planks being below the minimum
thickness of 20mm. Thus the # 42 Strakka Racing Dome of
Leventis / Watts / Kane was elevated to 3rd place in class.
In the LMGTE PRO class victory went to the # 51 AF Corse
Ferrari of Bruni / Vilander, after an almost race long battle with the
# 91Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR of
Lietz/Christensen. The second # 71 AF Corse Ferrari of Rigon /
Calado took the final podium spot, to make it a good weekend for
the Italian, especially after four of their entries had retired in the
ELMS race on Saturday. The LMGTE AM class win was taken by
the class pole sitting # 98 Aston Martin of Dalla Lana / Lamy /
Lauda, to give Aston Martin some consolation for lack of success
in the PRO class. The podium was completed by a pair of
Ferraris, with the # 83 AF Corse car driven by Perrodo / Collard /
Aguas finishing 2nd, with the # 72 SMP Racing example driven by
Shaytar / Bertolini / Basov taking the final podium place.
FIA WEC
r# Model Chassis # Team Colour Drivers Position O/A Cl.
Class LMGTE PRO
51 Ferrari 458 GT2 2886 AF Corse Multicolour G. Bruni/ T.
Vilander 10th 1st
71 Ferrari 458 GT2 2884 AF Corse Multicolour D. Rigon/ J.
Calado 12th 3rd Class
LMGTE AM
83 Ferrari 458 GT2 2880 AF Corse Red-RWG St’s F. Perrodo/ E.
Collard/ R. Aguas 18th 2nd
72 Ferrari 458 GT2 2872 SMP Racing Blue-Red-White V.
Shaytar/ A. Bertolini/ A. Basov 19th 3rd
Keith Bluemel
04/2015
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