WEC & Le Mans 2016

Even the rally cars at Lydden Hill were stonking. That used to be a lovely day out watching Trevor Hopkins win again.
 
I love the English motorcar tracks. It is great fun watching the Touring cars. Go Gordon Sheddon! Also off topic, there is the Blancpain Super Trofeo all Lamborghini series if you want to listen to some great noise. That is, if you are a noise connoisseur.
 
There's only one kind of grunting I want to hear!

My mate just sent me pics of him and the gang in their tent at Tetre Rouge. They have a TV for watching the footy!
 
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Wow, what a finish to the race - unreal from Toyota #5, they must be truly gutted.
 
Very very unlucky for Toyota, 24 hrs then that happens poor buggers.
 
Extremely challenging weekend.

It had been raining for 3 weeks beforehand and the ground was saturated. Alot of people couldn't put their cars on their pitches (fortunately, it was my mates turn to drive this year).

Apart from the first 45 minutes of safety car due to torrential rain (umbrella at the ready), it was a dry race. Dramatic finish, and for any team other than Porsche grabbing the victory, I would have felt sorry for Toyota :D but that's endurance racing for you. The events unfolded in front of us, we could see the stricken Toyota stranded by the pit wall from where we were sitting.

Porsche had pushed Toyota for hours on end.

Journey back was pissing down with rain all the way, then a 5 hour delay on Eurotunnel meant I didn't get back until after 1.

Porsche victorious in the final minutes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2016
What looked set to be a dream race for Toyota turned into the ultimate nightmare on the final lap of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The #5 Toyota TS 050 Hybrid driven by Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima ground to a halt just before the line as it was about to begin its final lap. The #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb naturally overtook and powered on to the chequered flag.

As the race entered its final hour, the #5 Toyota TS 050 with Kazuki Nakajima at the wheel had a twenty-second lead on the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb. The final pit stop went off without a hitch for both teams, Porsche bringing in the #2 on the 373rd lap for refuelling only. This meant that Neel Jani had kept the same tyres for four stints!

Likewise for the Toyota on lap 374: refuelling but no tyre change. The Japanese car’s tyres were then on their third stint. The pit stop was better handled by the Japanese team who were more than four seconds faster. With just 30 minutes to go, the gap between the two cars widened to 30 seconds.

Disaster struck as the #5 Toyota TS 050 was coming up to its final lap. Kazuki Nakajima slowed down then came to a complete standstill just before the line. Neel Jani, in the #2 919 Hybrid, stormed past for his final lap and clinched the win for Porsche.

In LM P2, the win went to Alpine! The Alpine A460, powered by a Nissan engine and driven by Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stéphane Richelmi, had been leading since the tenth hour of the race. A fine victory for the French marque that has been competing in endurance for several seasons now and recently announced its commercial revival. Their success harks back to the manufacturer’s overall Le Mans win in 1978 with an Alpine A442B driven by Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and Didier Pironi.

Ford clinched the LM GTE Pro class victory 50 years after the triumph of the Ford GT40. The Ford GT was among the leaders in its class throughout the race, in what has turned out to be a flamboyant Le Mans comeback for the manufacturer. Last but not least, Ferrari and Scuderia Corsa top the LM GTE Am class , after leading over the final hours of the race.

LM P1

1 - Porsche Team (#2 Porsche 919 Hybrid) Romain Dumas - Marc Lieb - Neel Jani
2 - Toyota Gazoo Racing (#6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid) Mike Conway - Kamui Kobayashi - Stéphane Sarrazin
3 - Audi R 18 Team Joest (#8 Audi R 18 Team Joest) Lucas Di Grassi - Loïc Duval - Oliver Jarvis

LM P2

1. Signatech Alpine (#36 Alpine A460-Nissan) Gustavo Menezes - Nicolas Lapierre - Stéphane Richelmi
2. G-Drive Racing (#26 Oreca 05-Nissan) Roman Rusinov - Will Stevens - René Rast
3. SMP Racing (#37 BR Engineering BR01-Nissan) Vitaly Petrov - Viktor Shaitar - Kirill Ladygin

LM GTE Pro

1 - Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA (#68 Ford GT) Joey Hand - Dirk Müller - Sébastien Bourdais
2 - Risi Competizione (#82 Ferrari 488 GTE) Giancarlo Fisichella - Toni Vilander - Matteo Malucelli
3 - Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA (#69 Ford GT) Ryan Briscoe - Richard Westbrook - Scott Dixon

LM GTE Am

1 - Scuderia Corsa (#62 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2) Bill Sweedler - Townsend Bell - Jeff Segal
2 - AF Corse (#83 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2) François Perrodo - Emmanuel Collard - Rui
3 - Águas Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing (#88 Porsche 911 RSR) Khaled Al Qubaisi - Patrick Long - David Heinemeier Hansson
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http://www.lemans.org/en/News/porsc...minutes-at-the-24-hours-of-le-mans-2016/41651
 
Winning Porsche parked below where they hand out the trophies:

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We walk back along the track to our campsite and found that this year, the inside of the Ford Chicanes had been converted into Parc Ferme, an unexpected bonus:

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Stricken Toyota:

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Winning 919 just after crossing the finishing line:

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This report from Highlands Today(!):

The fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in Mexico saw a six-hour race that had drama and excitement that had the large and enthusiastic Mexican crowd on the edge of their seats. The weather also played its part with two periods of rain forcing the teams to adjust their strategy to cope with the changing conditions.

The No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard took their second win of the season but they had to overcome some setbacks to come through to take the checkered flag ahead of the No. 7 Audi R18 of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler and the No.6 Toyota TS050 of Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi.

In LMP2, it was a joy for the Mexican fans as the RGR Sport by Morand Ligier of Ricardo Gonzalez, Bruno Senna and Filipe Albuquerque took a home win, their second victory of 2016. Albuquerque raced for more than two hours in the extremely tricky track conditions to bring the car home just two seconds ahead of the No. 36 Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre. The No. 31 Tequila Patron ESM Ligier JS P2-Nissan finished third, giving the Rolex 24 At Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring winners their fourth podium in five races in the WEC.

“I’m so impressed by this team and the way they can keep battling,” said ESM driver Chris Cumming. “We started 10th and moved up the whole day. I’m really proud of all the guys and my two co-drivers. Every single person on the team did a great job.”


The team overcame contact with the No. 6 Toyota, which saw the Toyota handed a drive through penalty for the incident.

The No. 30 ESM Ligier JS P2 was involved in a collision with the No.27 SMP Racing BR01

The No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca was fast in race trim and Rene Rast was holding a comfortable lead when brake failure forced the German into the pits and out of contention for the victory.

In LMGTE Pro, the No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Darren Turner and Richie Stanaway gave the British manufacturer its first victory in the category this season, finishing just 0.9 seconds ahead of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado. The No. 95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen was third.

In LMGTE Am ,the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 of Pat Long, Khaled Al Quabaisi and David Heinemeier Hansson scored their first win of 2016, one lap ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, Rui Aguas and Francois Perrodo.

The race ended under caution, as the No.50 Larbre Competition Corvette of Yutaka Yamagishi spun off at Turn 12 and speared into the wall.

The FIA World Endurance Championship continues its North American rounds, now crossing the border to the United States to compete at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, Sept. 17. The event will run in conjunction with the IMSA WeatherTech Series, in which the Florida-based Tequila Patrón ESM team will compete in later this month for Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

“On to Circuit of the Americas, which is the team’s only home race, as far as racing in the United States,” said ESM driver Ryan Dalziel. “We’re looking forward to going there and we’re still looking for our first WEC win of the year.”
Click to expand...

http://www.highlandstoday.com/hi/sports/porsche-wins-6-hours-of-mexico-20160905/
 
Hmmmmm, I had not heard this and checking on sportscar365.com, which has IMSA news, nothing on this. You must have inside connections. Are you a spy?
 
Barbara Charles said:
Hmmmmm, I had not heard this and checking on sportscar365.com, which has IMSA news, nothing on this. You must have inside connections. Are you a spy?
Click to expand...

Me & my mate are very friendly with the organisers of the campsite we use, they have many meetings with the ACO regarding the campsite and it came up in one of the meetings, relayed to my mate who, in turn, told me.

Obviously, it's unofficial as it's rather embarrassing having fought with Porsche for the best part of 24 hours. Would look a bit lame if the the team leader, in the post race interview, started shuffling his feet, and looking at the ground mumbled "we ran out of petrol", "Pardon, I can't hear you properly?", "We, ran out of petrol"(mumbling again), "No I didn't get it". (Shouting) "Look, we ran out of petrol, now feck OFF!!!".
 
There is a double header at Circuit of the Americas in Texas Saturday. A two hour IMSA race at 12:30 Eastern time and a six-hour endurance at 6 pm Eastern time. Don't have the line-ups yet.
 
Toyota win on home soil, great stuff!

Toyota secured its first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship for almost two years in the 6 Hours of Fuji, as a late strategic gamble allowed Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin to take the win.
The race was controlled virtually throughout by the polesitting #8 Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval, but the #6 Toyota crew was able to stay close enough in the closing stages to grab the lead in the final hour by virtue of not equipping fresh tyres at the final pitstop.

That allowed Kobayashi to turn a seven-second deficit to Duval into a 13-second advantage that he had to nurse on worn tyres through the final 45 minutes of the race.

At first, the gap came down rapidly, but stabilised at four to six seconds until the final 10 minutes, when a renewed charge from Duval saw the Audi man reduce Kobayashi's lead to under two seconds.

But the Frenchman ran out of time to get close enough to attempt a pass, Kobayashi crossing the finish line with 1.439s in hand to take Toyota's first WEC win since Bahrain in 2014 - and his own first win since joining the team this year.

Third place went to the #1 Porsche of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, whose winning streak came to an end on a day when the Weissach marque seemed to lack ultimate pace.

Bernhard passed Sarrazin for second place after the fourth round of pitstops, only for the #1 car to fall back behind the #6 Toyota after the next round of stops. Hartley brought home the car 17.3s off the lead.

The #5 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima was never a major factor for the win, settling into fourth place early on and ending up 53s behind its victorious sister car at the finish.

Points leaders Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb had to settle for fifth in the #2 Porsche, which had suffered a problem in qualifying that seemed to translate into a subdued race pace. The trio lost further time with a front bodywork change at the halfway point.

Worse luck was to befall the #7 Audi car of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer, which suffered a hybrid system failure early on and was forced to retire after a long spell in the garage to remove the front driveshaft - which rendered the R18 illegal.

The LMP1-L class was won by the #13 Rebellion, as its sole rival - the #4 ByKolles - caught fire at the start of the third hour and retired.

G-Drive wins LMP2 epic
The battle for honours in the LMP2 class was equally thrilling, with the #26 G-Drive Oreca car of Will Stevens, Roman Rusinov and Alex Brundle beating #43 RGR Sport by Morand car of Filipe Albuquerque, Ricardo Gonzalez and Bruno Senna to finally take its first win of the year.

G-Drive led the majority of the race, but couldn't quite stretch its stints as long as the RGR Sport Ligier - and when Stevens brought in the #26 for the final time, he came out just behind Senna in the #43.

Stevens went on to slipstream his way past Senna along the main straight, but in doing so he crossed the white line demarcating the edge of the track on the right-hand side, as he positioned his Oreca right by the pitwall.

The Briton was therefore instructed to give back the position to Senna, which he did before finally getting back ahead legally to grab the win with five minutes to go.

Third place went to the LMP2 points-leading #36 Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi, followed by the #30 ESM Ligier of WEC debutant Antonio Giovinazzi, Sean Gelael and Giedo van der Garde.

The #44 Manor of Roberto Merhi, Richard Bradley and Matt Rao had been in the mix in the first part of the race before its chances were ruined by a drive-through penalty for pitlane speeding and then a further unscheduled stop to repair a number panel.

Manor's other car, the #45 of Alex Lynn, Tor Graves and Shinji Nakano, had a lengthy spell in the garage to fix a starter motor early on that removed it from contention.

Ford takes first regular WEC win
In the GTE-Pro class, the two Ford GTs were in a class of their own, as Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx secured the American marque its first WEC win since its famous Le Mans 24 Hours triumph.

The #67 pair swapped positions with the sister car of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke several times in the early running, but the battle was effectively ended when Pla suffered a spin at the end of the penultimate hour.

Third place went to the #51 Ferrari of James Calado and Gianmaria Bruni, with the #71 AF Corse-run machine of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon taking fourth ahead of the two Aston Martins.

While the British manufacturer couldn't keep up with its GTE-Pro class rivals, its #98 car was unstoppable in the GTE-Am division, as Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana sauntered to victory by a lap over the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Aguas, Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard.
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http://www.motorsport.com/wec/news/...first-wec-win-since-2014-on-home-soil-839265/
 
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Porsche secured its fourth FIA World Endurance Championship win in five races in the 6 Hours of Shanghai, but a second place for Toyota ensured the race for the drivers' title goes to the final race in Bahrain.
Starting from pole, the #1 crew of Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard were never truly challenged, the trio sealing victory by a minute and clinching Porsche the manufacturers' title to boot.

But a fourth-place finish for the sister #2 car of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb behind both Toyotas means that the #6 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin head to Bahrain with an outside shot at the drivers' title.

The #2 car was in position to potentially take the title prior to half-distance, as it ran second behind the #1 car with Lieb at the wheel, until Kobayashi passed the German for second.

Toyota then seemed on course for an easy second place before the #6 machine had to make not one but two unscheduled stops in the penultimate hour, both times as a result of a slow left-rear puncture.

That meant the battle for third between the #2 Porsche and the #5 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima assumed critical importance, with Buemi swinging the pendulum back in Toyota's favour by going ahead of Jani in the fourth hour.

Quicker pit-work gave the #2 Porsche a temporary reprieve, but Jani was powerless to stop both Toyotas going through in the final hour, after the #6 machine in Kobayashi's hands moved back ahead of the #5 following its spate of punctures.

A fuel-only final stop for Davidson in the #5 cemented third for the Briton and his teammates, who took their first podium finish of a campaign dogged by misfortune, as the #2 crew went a fifth straight race without a top-three finish in fourth, 1m40s behind the victorious #1 car.

Disaster for Audi
In its first race since announcing its impending WEC withdrawal, Audi suffered a nightmare race, with the title hopes of the #8 crew of Lucas di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval being extinguished early on by a malfunctioning fuel rig.

That meant the car had to make more pitstops and lost time with each of them, leaving it a distant fifth place at the flag, three laps down on the victors.

The #7 car of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer fared even worse, lacking the pace to fight Porsche and Toyota early on before dropping out of contention completely after a collision between Treluyer and Jarvis in the #8 at the hairpin.

That forced the #7 into the garage for around 20 minutes to repair an airjack, although it recovered to sixth overall ahead of the LMP1-L class-winning #4 ByKolles CLM.

ByKolles' first LMP1 privateer win since last year's Austin race came largely thanks to reliability issues for the #13 Rebellion car, which suffered a water leak in the second hour and then set on fire at the start of the final hour.

Signatech clinches LMP2 title
While the LMP1 title remains up for grabs, Signatech Alpine was able to clinch the LMP2 crown courtesy of a fourth place for the #36 car of Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi.

Lapierre took the class lead at the start, although he was passed by a flying Alex Brundle in the #26 G-Drive Oreca towards the end of the opening hour.

From there, the Jota-run car was nigh-on unstoppable, with Roman Rusinov and then Will Stevens pulling out a big advantage to take a second straight win, 1m20s ahead of the #30 ESM Ligier of Antonio Giovinazzi, Sean Gelael and WEC rookie Tom Blomqvist.

The battle for third was between the first two cars in the points, the #36 Signatech Alpine and the #43 RGR Sport by Morand Ligier, which had earlier earned a drive-through penalty when Bruno Senna punted Menezes into a spin.

Recovering from that setback, Filipe Albuquerque managed to fend off Lapierre in the final hour to take the final step on the podium for the #43 car, but this wasn't enough to keep the title fight alive.

Having taken pole position, the Manor squad endured a wretched race, losing its #45 car at the very first corner after a spin for Mathias Beche, who was then clouted by Richie Stanaway's Aston Martin.

The Swiss driver was out on the spot, while the #44 - started by poleman Alex Lynn - fought in the top four early on before losing several laps due to a spell in the garage to repair a broken trackrod, the result of contact with the #27 SMP car.

Ford unstoppable in GTE
In the GTE-Pro division, Ford converted its front-row lockout into a one-two finish, with the #67 machine of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx taking a second successive class win following their Fuji triumph.

As in Japan, the #66 of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke ran the sister car closely at first, but dropped back with a slow puncture in the third hour - putting the duo out of sequence with the rest of their competitors.

But such was the pace of the Ford that the #66 car was able to overhaul the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado and the sole surviving Pro class #95 Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim in the second half of the race to finish second.

A first-lap puncture and a late pitlane infringement penalty meant the second of the Ferraris, the #71 of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird, could no better than fifth in class.

Meanwhile, the #98 Aston Martin crew of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda kept their slim GTE-Am title hopes alive by taking a dominant fifth win of the season.

The #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, Rui Aguas and Francois Perrodo, however, remains in command of the standings thanks to a third-place finish, surviving a last-lap tangle with the #78 KCMG Porsche amid a fierce race-long battle for second in class.

UPDATE: A post-race penalty for the #78 KCMG car means it remains on the podium but is moved behind the AF Corse Ferrari in the fight for second. As such, Collard, Aguas and Perrodo strengthen their lead in the standings heading into Bahrain.
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http://www.motorsport.com/wec/news/shanghai-wec-porsche-wins-toyota-keeps-title-race-alive-847002/
 
Glad Webber won now that he is bowing out of the sport. I would love to see one or two of the retiring NASCAR drivers take up endurance. I think Tony Stewart would be a perfect fit.

You don't know what I'm talking about, do you.
 
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