6 Hours of Silverstone – Race: Audi in a Pocket-Handkerchief Lead Ahead of Porsche and Toyota
The first WEC race lived up to all its promises as after six hours, the Audi 7 finished with only a four-second lead over the Porsche 18 and 14 seconds over the world champions of Toyota 1.
However, initially, the favorites were not Audi but their cousins within the Volkswagen group, Porsche. Indeed, the two teams from Stuttgart started on the front row. Mark Webber managed to keep the lead during the first hour, marked by the off-track excursion of Paul-Loup Chatin’s Alpine, which required repairing the barrier at Copse corner.
Nevertheless, the black cat that seemed to follow Mark Webber during his F1 career appears to still be present in his new life. So, while he was still in the lead, he was forced to pit and retire after 1 hour and 23 minutes of racing due to a gearbox problem. He then handed the lead to the other Porsche driven by Marc Lieb. He led the Audi 8 of Lucas di Grassi and the Audi 7 of Benoit Tréluyer.
But the Brazilian from Audi will not stay in that position for long, as seven minutes later, it was his turn to return to his pit for repairs on his rear axle. Although he will not be forced to retire, he will lose precious time, which will rule him out from the list of candidates for victory in this event. He will therefore finish 5th, four laps behind his teammates.
The race continued to be extremely close since after 2 hours and 30 minutes, the top three cars were only separated by four seconds, but it was Toyota’s turn to bring one of their cars into the pits. Thus, the Toyota #2 came in to remove debris and install a front wing.
After three hours of racing, André Lotterer overtook Anthony Davidson’s Toyota to take the lead. 45 minutes later, he was 36 seconds ahead of his closest rivals. But nothing was decided yet, as with one hour remaining, the standings were extremely tight: Marcel Fässler in the Audi 7 was only 1.2 seconds ahead of Neel Jani’s Porsche 18, while Toyota 1 was 30 seconds behind.
However, the Audi driver managed to widen the gap again thanks to the pit stops of his closest rivals. He then had a 72-second lead, but a twist was about to completely restart the race: for exceeding track limits during an overtaking maneuver on the Porsche 18 and Aston Martin 95, the leaders received a Stop&Go penalty with only a quarter of an hour remaining!
Thus, five minutes later, the Audi 7 had only an 8-second lead before Neel Jani made a constant push to close in to just 4 seconds at the checkered flag! The three manufacturers each occupy a spot on the podium, promising a relentless battle for the remainder of the championship.
