24h Le Mans
Porsche won the fourth World Endurance Championship round in a row at the 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas last Saturday. Let’s take a look at a few key figures.
1:45.703
André Lotterer clocked the fastest lap of the weekend. The Audi driver beat Neel Jani’s (Porsche) previous record of 1:46.018. Then again, records don’t last long in the 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas. The fastest lap time has been broken every year since the first WEC round in Austin in 2013. Benoît Tréluyer set the first record of 1:47.375.
2
Two French drivers were the fastest in their respective class. Nicolas Lapierre in LM P2 and Kévin Estre in LM GTE Am. Experienced driver Lapierre races with Alpine. He and crew members Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi won their class at Le Mans and are in a good position to top the championship. The fastest man in LM GTE Am is Abu Dhabi-Proton’s Kévin Estre. He was standing in for Patrick Long, sharing the Porsche with Khaled Al Qubaisi and David Heinemeier Hansson. His first outing for the privateer did not go unnoticed. What are the odds on the Porsche works driver racing a full World Endurance Championship season next year?
3
Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Mark Webber take their third WEC victory in a row. The reliable, focussed trio took Nürburgring, then Mexico and now COTA, but their teammates, Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas still lead the drivers’ championship having bagged double points for the Le Mans 24 Hours win.
72
Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer in the #7 Audi R18 held on to the lead for 72 laps while the winning #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid was out in front for 71 laps. Both Audi R18s and the #6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid also took their turn to lead the race.
100%
Aston Martin Racing totally dominated LM GTE Pro and LM GTE Am. The V8 Vantages got off to a flying start and never looked back. The #95 and #97 took turns in the lead but AMR didn’t give any other teams a look-in, not even for a lap.
1025.97
Competitors usually cover around 1,000 kilometres in a six-hour race. To simplify the rules, drivers have a time limit rather than a distance to cover, which was the case in the past. The winners of the 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas covered a distance of 1025.97 kilometres. That’s like driving from London to Marseille in France or Prague in the Czech Republic, or from Austin to Madison or Minneapolis.
Photo (FIA WEC © Marius Hecker - AdrenalMedia.com): Start of the 2016 WEC 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas
