Race day at the Circuit of The Americas saw the thermometer pushing 100 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) for Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
After a weekend dominated by Audi in Free Practice and Qualifying, the no1 Porsche 919 of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley took their third victory in a row after getting ahead of the no7 Audi by pitting during a Full Course Yellow. Once the Porsche crew were ahead they couldn’t be caught and Bernhard crossed the line to secure another victory and keep the defence of their world title alive.
The no8 Audi of Lucas Di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval was leading the race when it suffered total electrical failure. The team were able to reset the electronics and rejoin the race to bring the car home in second place. The no6 Toyota TS050 of Kamui Kobayashi, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway ran a strong race and took their second podium finish in a row. Current championship leaders, Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb in the no2 Porsche, finished 4th to maintain their place at the top of the table with three races remaining.
The no5 Toyota finished 5th after suffering a puncture and the no7 Audi, which had started on pole, finished 6th after Benoit Treluyer was clipped by the no66 Ford and ended up in the barriers at turn 18, dropping the car down the order while it was recovered and repaired. The LMP1 Privateer class was won by the no13 Rebellion Racing R-One of Dominik Kraihamer, Matheo Tuscher and Alex Imperatori, which now puts the no13 crew into the championship lead for the first time in 2016.
The LMP2 battle was won by the no36 Signatech Alpine of Nico Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi from pole position. The no36 crew secured their fourth win of the 2016 season a lap ahead despite a strong challenge from the no43 RGR Sport Ligier and the recovering no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca, which had started at the back of the grid, during the race. The no44 Manor Oreca also ran well up the order until a collapsed suspension forced the car into the pits and into retirement with just 20 minutes left on the clock. The no42 Strakka Racing Gibson also challenged for a podium spot before an electrical issue meant the British squad became the first retirement of the race on lap 58.
In LMGTE it was a double victory for Aston Martin with the no95 Vantage of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen, which started from pole position, taking their first victory of the 2016 season to put them back at the head of the LMGTE Pro championship table. The ‘Dane Train’ finished ahead of the two AF Corse Ferraris, with the no51 488 just 12.3 seconds behind the lead car at the chequered flag.
The no66 Ford GT of Stefan Mucke had to pit early on due to a malfunction of the air conditioning system which sent the cockpit temperature above the permitted level. The German rejoined the race but well down the order. The no97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage that started the 6 Hours of CoTA as the championship leader could only finish in 5th place behind the no67 Ford GT in 4th, with the no95 Aston Martin now leading the class by 12 points from the no71 AF Corse Ferrari.
The no98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy also took a pole to flag victory to record their third win in LMGTE Am this season. Lauda took the chequered flag over a minute ahead of the no78 KCMG Porsche driven by Wolf Henzler and 1 lap in front of the no50 Larbre Competition Corvette.
The championship leading no83 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui AGuas, Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo finished the 6 Hours of CoTA in last place after the car suffered a transmission problem early on but with the no88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche only managing to finish fifth after also hitting technical problems the championship lead is still a healthy 33 points with three races remaining.
The next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship will take place in Japan on Sunday 16 October with the 6 Hours of Fuji.
