The final result of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s second round the Six Hours of Spa, was questionable only as to the precise details; broadly, everyone knew in advance Audi would win.
While the overall outcome was never in question, several issues remained to be resolved. Among them: how far off were the gasoline-powered privateers compared to the factory behemoth’s turbodiesel hybrids; how well would said hybrids run in their first race; would Audi’s drivers get caught up in traffic and left by the roadside waiting for wreckers; and how well would the also-rans run, considering they would be there to take over if Audi miscalculated?
The race was all Audi, all the way; there were no major miscalculations this time. Audi held the top four positions from the first practice session until the podium ceremonies were over.
André Lotterer in the #1 e-tron quattro passed Mark Bonanomi at the start and then Tom Kristensen for the lead on lap three. The #1 car led until Lôic Duval took the lead on lap 63; the #3 car led for the remaining three-and-a-half hours.
“We had a perfect race. My team-mates and our squad showed a brilliant performance. Our strategy was right on the mark and our fuel consumption was low. That paid off. That way, we increased our advantage,” said Romain Dumas, who drove the last stint in the #3 Audi. “The tires were very good, that’s why I opted not to change tires in the end. That was another reason for our success.”
“Today, we experienced a surprise,” said Lôic Duval in the same Audi press release. “This was only my second race with Audi and already my first victory. As always, there wasn’t a single problem when I’m sitting in an Audi.
“The conditions were very difficult in the beginning but the car was fantastic. We had no problems whatsoever. It’s a nice result for Audi to finish on positions one, two, three and four. I’m very happy to be on the very top of the podium.”
For Mark Bonanomi and Oliver Jarvis, this was their Audi endurance-racing debut.
“It was really a great race. This was my first one in an Audi sports prototype, so I can’t expect any more than this,” said Bonanomi. “Yesterday, we were second in qualifying and today we finished in third place. The pit crew did tremendous stops. Unfortunately, we struck by misfortune during the first safety car period and lost one lap at the red lights at the end of the pit lane.”
Oliver Jarvis was equally happy. “A great day. The most important thing was to not make any mistakes and to complete as many kilometers as possible. We may be inexperienced but the pace was there. Now the wish remains to finish on the podium at Le Mans as well—maybe we'll even move up a bit more.”
Kristensen, Allan McNish, and Dindo Caprello lost time due to a tires top and stop-and-go penalty with siz laps remaining—apparently the team was worried about rear tire wear, and opted to play it safe. The stop alone might not have hurt so much, but adding the penalty—in effect, another entire pit stop—dropped the car to fourth.
Next: Racing, The New Contact Sport
Racing: The New Contact Sport
Two bits of drama ensued before the race actually started: NASCAR star Brian Vickers, brought in to co-drive for the #61 GTE-Am AF Waltrip Ferrari, lost control on the wet warm-up lap and totaled the car. Then Karun Chandhok in the JRM HPD ARX-03a spun on the formation lap. Luckily for the team, the crew was able to reassemble the car in time to make the start.
Two cars started from pit lane: the #32 Kolles Lotus, for changing an engine, and the JRM HPD.
Almost immediately, the #29 Gulf Racing Lola Nissan sounded its leitmotif: “I will block, slide and spin and pull into traffic,” said the car, with Jean-Deniz Deletraz at the wheel—and it did, nearly causing disaster half-a-dozen times at least in the course of the race. Still, near-disaster is not disaster, and the car finished 23rd overall and ninth in class—though it caused much gnashing of teeth.
Though Delatriz might have scared a lot of people, he was far from the only P2 driver involved in incidents—indeed it would be hard to name a P2 car which never went off or hit a competitor.
Philippe Haezebrouck in the Extreme Limite Aric Norma went off on lap 4, Enzo Potolicchio in the Starworks HPD went off on lap 12, and burst into flame in the pits on lap 16. Karun Chandhok in the JRM nailed John Martin in the ADR-Delta Oreca—Martin later hit Nicolas Armindo in the IMSA Performance GTE-Am Porsche.
Soheil Ayari and other drivers in the #49 Pecom Oreca hit or were hit by the Boutsen Ginion Oreca, the #35 Oak Morgan, and the IMSA Performance Porsche, as well as spinning on its own. The #26 Signatech Nissan lost a wheel, the #32 Lotus slammed the wall by pit-in, and Potolicchio, back out in the no-longer-burning Starworks HPD, hit race leader Lôic Duval as he was setting up the pass for the lead.
And those are just a few incidents in the first 72 laps.
Many Incidents, Not Many Safety Cars
Full-course cautions were blissfully few: one on lap 92 when Luis Perez Companc in the #49 Pecom Oreca rammed Tracy Krohn’s #57 GTE-Am Ferrari. This was cleaned up and the race went green for one lap when Philippe Haezebrouck in the Extreme Limite Aric Norma went off hard at Eaux Rouges. Haezebrouck was fine, and on lap 100 the race was green until the end.
One casualty of this caution was the #1 Audi of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, and Benôit Tréluyer. “We had the pace for winning. That safety car period separated us from the cars in front and caused us to lose ground from a 15- to a 50-second gap. It was difficult to make up such a gap,” Fässler said in the Audi press release.
Fässler’s woes weren’t over. He was trying to close the gap when, on lap 139, he went off after a pit stop. “After my pit stop a wheel locked once when I hit the brakes. Afterward there were heavy vibrations and I was no longer in contention for victory.”
Fässler brought the Audi back in on lap 148 for fresh rubber. He was very fast on his new tires, but the added pit stop, plus the 25 seconds lost to the pace car shuffle, cost his car any chance at the win. He made the best of it: “I secured second place in order to score important points for the World Championship,” he concluded.
Next: Close Finishes
Close Finishes
While all this was going on, there was a lot of great racing, too. Nicolas Armindo in the GTE-Am IMSA Porsche went head-to-head with the GTE-Pros for most of his first stint, and writhing GTE-Pro, there were numerous Ferrari battles while the #77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche of Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz set out to win the class. Unfortunately, the #97 Aston Martin Vantage lost its transmission after 13 laps, or the GT race would have been even more exciting.
It came down to the Felbermayr Porsche battling the #51 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni. The Ferrari used a fuel-conservation strategy, while the Porsche went for pure pace, and in the end, the two strategies brought the two cars together in the closing laps. Lietz held on to beat Bruni by .628 seconds—a tenth of a second per hour of racing. Pretty close racing.
P2 offered a similar cliff-hanger, as ADR Delta in the #25 Oreca 03 Nissan, an established team new to P2, fought to stay ahead of the Jota Zytek Nissan, Jota also being a small team new to the class, while right behind the Murphy Prototypes team, reconstituted from RLR, hounded them in its Oreca-Nissan.
Jota beat ADR Delta by 6.378 seconds after six hours. Both small teams, and Murphy, 40 seconds back, beat the series regulars Oak Racing, Boutsen Ginion, Greaves Motorsport, and Gulf Racing. ADR came within three laps of winning, but their fuel ran too low; the team called the car in for a splash, giving up the class win in order to save second place.
Even P1 had some stirring battles behind the in-their-own-race Audis. The new/old Dome S102.5 (“All hits, all the time,” as Mr. Hindhaugh might describe it) showed great speed in the hands of former Peugeot aces Nic Minassian and Sebastien Bourdais. Bourdais battled hard against the Rebellion Lolas through his three-hour stint, and Minassian was keeping up the pace when gearbox troubles cost the cart time in the pits. Still the car was fast; come June, it might make waves at Le Mans.
With the Dome out of contention, the fight for fifth and sixth overall was between the Rebellions and the Strakka Racing HPD. Nicolas Prost, Neel Jani, and Nick Heidfeld in the #12 Rebellion nailed down fifth, but Andrea Belicchiin the #13 car didn’t take sixth until eight laps from the end.
The #67 IMSA Matmut Porsche of Nicolas Armindo, Raymond Narac, and Anthony Pons earned a well-deserved GTE-Am win, beating the GTE-Am Felbermayr Porsche by nearly a minute and the GTE-Am AF Corse Ferrari by a lap. This team raced fast and clean, and managed to survive getting punted by a few of the faster cars.
Le Mans is Coming
Despite the top four spots being pretty certain before the race even started, the FIA/WEC Six Hours of Spa was an exciting race. Some teams learned what they need to work on for Le Mans—for some teams, that would be primarily driving between the lines and not hitting competitors. Add another dozen cars including a pair of Toyota Hybrids and the Delta Wing to the mix, and the 24 Hours could be an exciting race or a wreckfest. Well, even if attrition is high, it will be an exciting race.
Toyota had best test with great diligence; the Audi train is already running strongly and smoothly, gathering speed to roll across the finish line in formation at La Sarthe. Hopefully the largest automaker in the world can field an effort capable of truly challenging what is now the best prototype team on the planet—but mostly by default.
Audi is good, but not so good they deserve a free ride. Here’s hoping whoever wins at Le Mans has to really work for it.
Next: Full Results
