6 heures de Spa-Francorchamps – Audi wins after a crazy race
At the end of a race punctuated by incidents at every turn, it was finally the N°8 Audi that won, ahead of the N°2 Porsche and the N°13 Rebellion. Toyota, long in the lead, was forced to retire.
We experienced one of the craziest races in the WEC. In fact, almost all the LMP1 competitors encountered problems at one point or another during the race. During the qualifications, the two Porsches clearly dominated, ahead of the Toyotas and Audis, which shared the second and third row positions.
But the Porsche team didn’t enjoy their one-two lead for long. Indeed, within the first quarter-hour, the first dramatic turn of events struck the race: Marc Lieb’s Porsche No. 2 was experiencing issues with its hybrid system. Without its crucial hybrid system, the Porsche began to lap in line with the non-hybrid LMP1 cars from Rebellion, several seconds per lap behind its rivals.
But while one Porsche was out of contention, the second was still leading. However, it was then Toyota’s turn to face a first scare when Mike Conway got caught in traffic and collided with the No. 37 LMP2 of SMP Racing. The British driver ended up having to pit for a new front nose before serving a drive-through penalty.
Nevertheless, Toyota made a daring strategic choice by not changing Sébastien Buemi’s tires on the other Toyota during his first pit stop. This stop was therefore much shorter than those of his rivals, allowing him to take the lead. But with his worn tires, he had to contend with the thundering return of Timo Bernhard.
The battle between the two men was superb, with Sébastien Buemi making a mistake in the last corner, allowing the Porsche driver to take the lead, only to be overtaken again. As the two were very close to each other, bad luck struck Porsche No. 1: it suffered a puncture. Although the team took advantage to make a driver change, with Mark Webber now at the wheel, the bad luck continued as the Australian suffered the same puncture just a few laps after entering the track! Indeed, the first puncture damaged the bodywork, which then cut the new tire installed.
Team Principal Andreas Seidl: 1st puncture damaged body work. This caused 2nd puncture. We changed critical parts — Porsche LMP1 Team (@Porsche_Team) 7 May 2016
He was then forced to go through the pits again to change his front gearbox. In total, the Porsche n°1 spent 1h40 in the pits!
Reliability was clearly the problem of the day as Audi also experienced its share of issues. Thus, the Audi No. 7 also had to go to the pits for significant repairs to its underbody, damaged on the curbs, which also relegated it to the lower depths of the standings.
After its early race mishaps, the Toyota No. 6 continued its comeback, chasing down the Audi No. 8. It consistently achieved better lap times, allowing it to gradually make up a gap that was an entire lap. However, at this point, it was the Japanese manufacturer’s turn to be afflicted by mechanical issues. Thus, the No. 6 was forced to return to the pits to abandon the race due to electronic problems that damaged its engine.
Meanwhile, the Toyota No. 5 was calmly leading the field, without experiencing the slightest problem. The question was then when it would lap its closest competitor. But it was written that nothing would go as planned today. As Kazuki Nakajima had just taken over from Anthony Davidson and there were only two hours of racing left, thick white smoke billowed from his car. A few minutes later, the verdict came: the TS050’s internal combustion engine had given up the ghost. While at mid-race, Toyota could dream of a one-two finish, it lost everything in a matter of minutes. They can take consolation in noting that the gap with the competition is much smaller than last year, which leaves great hope for Le Mans.
With such an avalanche of misadventures, it was the Audi No. 8 that took the lead in the race, with two laps ahead of the Porsche No. 2. Thus, it is the Rebellion No. 13 that occupies the third step of the podium.
