Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber were on fire! And not just because of the temperature outside. Just as they had the race in the bag, they incurred a penalty, which allowed their teammates Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb to take the lead. But, half an hour from the end of the race, the latters' No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid had to be pushed into its pit, with the French driver who won at the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans descending from the car as a result of electrical failure. Nevertheless, the trio was able to take off again to complete the last lap and cross the finish line in view of the championship, but the win went to the No. 17 sister car for the second time in a row after the Nürburgring.

So Porsche has clinched a third win in a row after the one-twos at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, but must settle this time for the victory itself, allowing the Audi R18 e-tron quattros to climb a notch in the hierarchy. As in Germany, the No. 7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by the three-time winners at the 24 Hours of Le Mans - Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer - finished ahead of its No. 8 sister car which had taken a penalty for a misstep during a refuelling stop.

The world champions' No. 1 Toyota TS040 Hybrid also incurred a stop & go for a hazardous maneuver in pit lane when Anthony Davidson missed the entry for his refuelling stop. The Brit had to complete a circuit lap at reduced speed so as to avoid running out of fuel, while the No. 2 sister car's race came to an abrupt end in the barrier after Mike Conway's incident caused the second Full Course Yellow procedure.

The first procedure was brought on by ESM's No. 31 Ligier's incident due to brake problems. Mechanical concerns, sometimes after contact, did not spare the two Rebellion Racing R-Ones that finished deep in the standings, leaving the trophy for the best private LM P1 team to Team ByKOLLES whose No. 4 CLM P1/01 had the best race of its short career in the hands of Pierre Kaffer and Simon Trummer. The Austrian team finished eighth in the overall standings, behind three LM P2 class prototypes.

G-Drive Racing, like Porsche, achieved a nearly flawless race in LM P2, but unlike the German manufacturer, the Russian team placed its two Ligier JS P2-Nissans on the podium. Sam Bird, quite in the zone, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal made it to the top step, while their teammates Gustavo Yacaman, Pipo Derani and Ricardo Gonzalez joined them on the third step. Only KCMG's No. 47 Oreca 05-Nissan, class winner at Le Mans, managed to slip between the two Slavic cars - despite their times being annulled during qualifying and receiving a penalty.

It wasn't a penalty, rather an obstinate door that put an end to the hopes of the 2014 GT Drivers' World Cup winners in the LM GTE Pro class. Indeed, during refuelling for AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari 458 Italia, mechanics had a lot of trouble closing the door as Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander were in third place. This mishap left the door wide open so to speak for their teammates, Davide Rigon and James Calado, third, and especially for the winners, the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen and the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR of Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet, who himself raced in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship round before taking the start of the World Endurance Championship race.
(WEC).

On the other hand, the order got reversed in the LM GTE Am class since Ferrari won thanks to SMP Racing, as it did at the 83rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the same trio: Andrea Bertolini, Victor Shaytar and Aleksey Basov. Two of the Italian manufacturer's cars even claimed podium finishes with third place for François Perrodo, Rui Aguas and Emmanuel Collard in AF Corse's No. 83 458 despite a penalty incurred by the latter for an early start. That stop & go allowed Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing's No. 88 Porsche 911 RSR to slip between the two Italian cars, and for one of the three overall winners at the 24 Hours of Le Mans to claim a podium finish since the New Zealander Earl Bamber provided major support this weekend to Christian Ried and Khaled Al Qubaisi. They will soon rejoin their regular teammate, Klaus Bachler, for the sixth World Endurance Championship (WEC) round that will take place in Fuji, Japan on October 11th.

Results

Cécile Bonardel / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

PHOTO: AUSTIN (TEXAS, UNITED STATES), CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS, FIA WEC, 6 HOURS OF COTA, FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 18 2015, QUALIFYING.