Audi sweeps WEC podium, Stanaway 6th in class

Autosport

Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer led home an Audi one-two-three victory at the Spa round of the World Endurance Championship.

The winning trio and the reigning world champions had to fight back from two early setbacks, but they had the pace to overcome both two sets of team-mates and the challenge from Toyota to claim victory by over a minute ahead of Loic Duval, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish.

The #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, which had won pole in the hands of Lotterer and Fassler, lost time at the start when Lotterer went wide at the first corner and lost out to both his sister cars and the latest Toyota TS030 HYBRID driven by Nicolas Lapierre.

Lotterer fought back into the lead before the end of the opening stint only to lose time in the second hour when he sustained a puncture during the only safety-car period of the race.

That left Fassler more than a minute down on Kristensen in the #2 Audi, but the eventual winners were able to fight back into contention as the six-hour race passed the halfway mark.

A series of fastest race laps from Lotterer after the German climbed back aboard the car for the final stints put the result beyond doubt.

Lotterer, who was brought up in Belgium near Spa, said: “It was a good thing that our problems happened in the early stages. We knew the car was fast and I knew I could rely on my team-mates.

“I think this was one of our greatest victories. We all enjoyed it so much.”

The #2 Audi was rarely on the pace of the winning car. Its drivers thought they struggled in comparison to their team-mates in the second stint on a set of Michelin tyres.

The new ‘long-tail’ R18 shared by Marc Gene, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis rounded out Audi’s clean sweep of the podium a further 50 seconds down.

TOUGH RACE FOR TOYOTA

Toyota’s Le Mans car, which was shared by Lapierre, Kazuki Nakajima and Alex Wurz (who did not get to drive), was able to run with the Audis for the first three stints.

The car subsequently lost the use of its energy-retrieval system, which aids braking, and as a result its brakes overheated, resulting in its retirement in the fourth hour.

The 2012 Toyota did not have the same pace and finished fourth, a lap down on the Audis, in the hands of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin.

The Rebellion Racing team again led the LMP1 privateer order, Nick Heidfeld, Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost taking fifth place.

The AF Corse-run Pecom squad took LMP2 honours despite a late-race scare. Nicolas Minassian, Luiz Perez Companc and Pierre Kaffer were on top for most of the race, only to lose the majority of their advantage in the final 45 minutes with a puncture.

Ferrari beat Aston Martin in the GTE Pro class, AF Corse duo Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella coming out on top of an intense battle with the Aston Vantage GTE shared by Rob Bell, Bruno Senna and Frederic Makowiecki.

Results - 168 laps:

Pos  Cl     Drivers                         Team/Car                    Time/Gap
 1.  P1     Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler       Audi                    6h00m55.971s
 2.  P1     Kristensen/Duval/McNish         Audi                     + 1m05.815s
 3.  P1     Di Grassi/Gene/Jarvis           Audi                     + 1m54.992s
 4.  P1     Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin         Toyota                       + 1 lap
 5.  P1     Prost/Jani/Heidfeld             Rebellion Lola-Toyota       + 3 laps
 6.  P1     Belicchi/Beche/Cheng            Rebellion Lola-Toyota       + 3 laps
 7.  P1     Leventis/Watts/Kane             Strakka HPD                 + 7 laps
 8.  P2     Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer  Pecom ORECA-Nissan         + 11 laps
 9.  P2     Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle  OAK Morgan-Nissan          + 11 laps
10.  P2     Dolan/Turvey/Luhr               Jota Zytek-Nissan          + 11 laps
11.  P2     Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman       OAK Morgan-Nissan          + 12 laps
12.  P2     Rusinov/Martin/Conway           Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan     + 16 laps
13.  P2     Nicolet/Merlin                  OAK Morgan-Nissan          + 16 laps
14.  P2     Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz        Lotus                      + 16 laps
15.  GTE P  Bruni/Fisichella                AF Ferrari                 + 19 laps
16.  GTE P  Senna/Makowiecki/Bell           Aston Martin               + 19 laps
17.  GTE P  Kobayashi/Vilander              AF Ferrari                 + 19 laps
18.  GTE P  Turner/Mucke/Dumbreck           Aston Martin               + 20 laps
19.  GTE P  Lieb/Lietz/Dumas                Manthey Porsche            + 20 laps
20.  GTE P  Dalla Lana/Lamy/Stanaway        Aston Martin               + 21 laps
21.  GTE A  Potolicchio/Aguas/Malucelli     8Star Ferrari              + 21 laps
22.  GTE A  Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen        Aston Martin               + 22 laps
23.  GTE A  Bornhauser/Canal/Rees           Larbre Corvette            + 23 laps
24.  P2     Weeda/Liuzzi/Rossiter           Lotus                      + 24 laps
25.  GTE A  Goethe/Hall/Campbell-Walter     Aston Martin               + 24 laps
26.  GTE A  Ried/Roda/Ruberti               Proton Porsche             + 25 laps
27.  GTE A  Narac/Vernay                    Imsa Porsche               + 25 laps
28.  GTE A  Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani           Krohn Ferrari              + 26 laps
29.  P2     Fatien/Giroix/Ihara             Gulf Lola-Nissan           + 28 laps
30.  GTE A  Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank        AF Ferrari                 + 30 laps
31.  GTE A  Gerber/Griffin/Cioci            AF Ferrari                 + 43 laps

Retirements:

     GTE P  Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard      Manthey Porsche             123 laps
     P1     Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima          Toyota                       99 laps
     P2     Graves/Pizzonia/Walker          Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan       25 laps

Audi sweeps WEC podium, Stanaway 6th in class

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