2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
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| Event information | |
|---|---|
| Round 2 of 8 in the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship | |
 | |
| Date | 2 May 2015 |
| Location | Stavelot |
| Venue | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps |
| Duration | 6 Hours |
| Results | |
| Laps completed | 176 |
| Distance (km) | 1232.704 |
| Distance (miles) | 765.952 |
| LMP1 | |
| Pole position | |
| Time | 1:54.767 |
| Team |  Porsche Team |
| Drivers | Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley |
| Winners | |
| Team | Audi Sport Team Joest |
| Drivers | André Lotterer Marcel Fässler Benoît Tréluyer |
| LMP2 | |
| Winners | |
| Team |  Jota Sport |
| Drivers | Simon Dolan Harry Tincknell Mitch Evans |
| LMGTE Pro | |
| Winners | |
| Team | Aston Martin Racing V8 |
| Drivers |  Fernando Rees Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway |
| LMGTE Am | |
| Winners | |
| Team | Aston Martin Racing |
| Drivers |  Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda |
The 2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, formally the WEC 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, was a six-hour endurance sports car racing event held for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars on 2 May at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium. Spa-Francorchamps hosted the second race of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship with 54,000 people attending the race weekend.
The No. 17 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, and Mark Webber qualified in pole position and maintained the lead until it was issued with a stop-and-go penalty, allowing Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani to take over the lead. Audi's No. 7 car of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer took over the lead when Jani made a scheduled pit stop. Lotterer and Lieb battled for the position until the former made a pit stop that had Tréluyer assume his driving duties. He overtook Lieb to move to the front of the race where he remained for the rest of the event to win after Audi elected to keep him on track. Lieb, Dumas and Jani finished second and Bernhard, Hartley and Webber was third. Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer covered a record-breaking track distance of 765.967 miles (1,232.704 km) over 176 laps.
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the No. 38 Jota Sport of Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Mitch Evans. The car was penalised for jumping the start, but Evans took the class lead after passing co-pole sitter Julien Canal in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing entry and held it for most of the race to earn his first category win in the World Endurance Championship; while it was Dolan and Tincknell's second in the sport. The No. 99 Aston Martin Racing car of Fernando Rees, Richie Stanaway and Alex MacDowall took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class, their first in the World Endurance Championship. Porsche Team Manthley's cars finished second and third after Gianmaria Bruni was penalised for a pit stop infringement, and Darren Turner in the No. 97 Aston Martin entered the pit lane. The Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda, ahead of AF Corse's No. 83 Ferrari of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas.
The result meant Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer extended their Drivers' Championship advantage over Lieb, Dumas and Jani to be 14 points ahead of the three drivers. Alexander Wurz, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin moved from fourth to third with their Toyota teammates Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi dropping to fourth position. Bernhard's, Hartley's and Webber's third-place finish meant they moved into fifth place. Audi moved further ahead of Porsche in the Manufacturers' Championship while Toyota dropped to third position with six races left in the season.
Entrants
A total of thirty-four cars were officially entered for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, with the bulk of the entries in Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). The 2014 race winners, Toyota, returned to defend their title.[1] Three manufacturers were represented in LMP1, including a trio of cars entered by Audi Sport Team Joest and Porsche, while Toyota elected to bring only two vehicles.[2] René Rast, Marco Bonanomi and Filipe Albuquerque made their first appearances in the 2015 championship driving the No. 9 Audi, while Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy in Porsche's No. 19 car all entered the LMP1 category for the first time in their careers.[2] As in Silverstone, Rebellion Racing chose not to take part in the event, leaving Team ByKolles as the sole LMP1 privateer team.[2] Christian Klien returned to compete for Team ByKolles having originally intended to race for the team only at Silverstone.[3]
LMP2 consisted of ten cars with 30 drivers.[1] With Tandy driving for Porsche, KCMG employed Toyota's test and reserve driver Nicolas Lapierre to fill his position for the Spa-Francorchamps race and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.[4] GP2 Series driver Mitch Evans made his first appearance in sports car racing alongside European Le Mans Series competitor Simon Dolan,[5] and Nissan factory driver Harry Tincknell for Jota Sport.[6] Despite a failed buyout of the team by Kairos, a data encryption company, Team SARD Morand confirmed their commitment to the World Endurance Championship and opted to bring one car which was driven by Oliver Webb, Pierre Ragues and Zoël Amberg.[7] Johannes van Overbeek returned to co-drive for Extreme Speed Motorsports after missing the season's opening round because of a rib injury.[8]
The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field consisted of three manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche), while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants were six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, Larbre Compétition, Dempsey-Racing Proton, Porsche Team Manthley, and SMP Racing.[1] The No. 91 Porsche 911 was vacated after regular driver Michael Christensen missed the Spa race because of a United SportsCar Championship commitment, while Richard Lietz moved to the team's No. 92 entry and the car was driven by Sven Müller and Kévin Estre.[9] Nicki Thiim was unable to attend the event because he was taking part in the ADAC GT Masters Championship, so the No. 95 Aston Martin was driven as a two-driver operation by Marco Sørensen and Christoffer Nygaard. The team's No. 97 entry became a three-person driver team when McLaren factory driver Robert Bell made his first start of the year alongside Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner.[2] Ferrari's factory team AF Corse entered a second car in LMGTE Am which was driven by Duncan Cameron, Alex Mortimer and Matt Griffin.[10]
Preview
The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2015 schedule in an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Doha on 3 December 2014.[11] It was the second of eight scheduled endurance sports car races of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship,[11] and the fourth running of the event as part of the championship.[12] It was held on 2 May 2015 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium following two days of practice and qualifying.[11]
The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is a race track that is 7.004 kilometres (4.352 mi) long and has twenty corners.[13] Endurance racing events were first held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 1924 with the Spa 24 Hours. Thirty-nine years later, the track began holding 500 km (310 mi) World Sportscar Championship races which later expanded to 1,000 km (620 mi). It was cancelled after the 1975 running because of modern safety concerns. It was resurrected in 1982 on the reconfigured Spa-Francorchamps track layout and remained on the calendar until 1990. Spa-Francorchamps again began holding endurance sports car races from 1999, and the 6 Hour event was made part of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012.[14] The race is considered by many as a final preparation event for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.[15]
Before the race Audi Sport Team Joest drivers André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer led the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven ahead of their nearest rivals Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani in second, and a further three in front of third-placed Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. Their teammates Alexander Wurz, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin were fourth on 12 points, and Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis stood in fifth place on ten points.[16] Audi led the Manufacturers' Championship with 35 points, seven ahead of rival Toyota in second; the third-placed manufacturer Porsche had scored 19 points.[16] Audi had won the preceding 6 Hours of Silverstone with Lieb, Dumas and Jani finishing in second place, while Davidson, Buemi and Nakajima came in third position.[16]
Some teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. Audi installed low-downforce setups on its No. 7 and 8 cars while their third entry used a version observed at the Silverstone race.[17] The design was optimised to omit downforce, thereby reducing drag, for better preparation for competing on high-speed tracks. This was done by modifying the car's side pods and openings on the inside surface of its fenders. New cooling techniques were achieved by creating new suspension solutions to restrict spring displacement which also reduced underside turbulent airflow.[18] Porsche chose to use high downforce configurations on all three of their 919 Hybrid cars as they did previously at Silverstone.[19] The revised ByKolles CLM P1/01 LMP1 car was further developed and had a new front nose equipped after it completed a shakedown test on 24 April ahead of his debut in Belgium.[19][20]
Practice
There were three practice sessions—one 90-minute session each on Thursday afternoon and evening and a one-hour session on Friday afternoon—preceding Saturday's race.[12] The first session was held in heavy rain.[21] Lieb's No. 18 Porsche lapped fastest at 2:16.616, ahead of Davidson's No. 1 Toyota in second. Brendon Hartley and Hülkenberg in Porsche's two other cars were third and fourth; Rast's No. 9 Audi rounded out the top five.[22] LMP2 was led by Jonny Kane's No. 42 Strakka Racing Nissan with a lap of 2:32.672; he battled with Tincknell for the quickest class time. Estre's Porsche was the quickest in LMGTE Pro while Klaus Bachler helped the German company to be the fastest in LMGTE Am.[21]
The session was disrupted when Nakajima drove into the back-end of Jarvis's car heading into Les Combes corner in a 12G impact. Nakajima was unable to see Jarvis because of heavy spray reducing visibility on the Kemmel straight.[20][23] Nakajima complained of severe back pain and was transported to Verviers hospital where a check-up found he had fractured vertebra. He was deemed unfit to take part in the race.[23] Toyota's test and reserve driver Kamui Kobayashi was in Japan and unavailable, so the No. 1 car ran as a two-driver operation for the remainder of the event weekend. It missed the second practice session because it required monocoque rebuilding.[24] The No. 8 Audi also missed the second practice session because it was undergoing rear-end repairs.[25]
Heavy rain continued to affect the track in the second practice session. Conditions deteriorated as the session advanced, and several cars elected not to improve their quickest times to avoid driving off the track after going through standing water.[25][26] Conditions allowed the fastest LMP2 and LMGTE vehicles to reach the top five quickest overall times.[26] Bamber recorded the fastest time at 2:25.495, nearly half a second faster than Bernhard in the sister Porsche in second. Lotterer was third-fastest and had the fastest time early in the session. Evans achieved the only time under the 2:34.500 mark in LMP2 with a lap of 2:34.370. Lietz led LMGTE Pro with No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Águas the fastest driver in LMGTE Am.[26]
The final practice was held on a dry race track which allowed for faster lap times.[27] Lotterer set the quickest time of the weekend so far at 1:57.368 recorded in the session's final minute,[28] and was 0.011 seconds faster than the second-fastest car of Hülkenberg.[27] Jani was a further five-tenths of a second behind in third place, and was narrowly faster than teammate Hartley in fourth.[29] Sam Bird was the fastest LMP2 driver in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing car with a time of 2:08.415, four-tenths ahead of Matthew Howson's KCMG Oreca. Toni Vilander recorded the quickest LMGTE Pro time ahead of Fernando Rees in the No. 97 Aston Martin, while Pedro Lamy, driving the British marque's No. 98 car, was the fastest driver in LMGTE Am.[29] A brief full course yellow flag was displayed when Bachler's back-end collided with the Pouhon corner tyre barrier,[28][30] while Turner avoided going into the Les Combes wall and was temporarily beached in the turn's gravel trap.[30] Both drivers returned to the track and continued.[28]
Qualifying
Friday's late afternoon qualification session was divided into two groups lasting 25 minutes each.[12] Cars in LMGTE Pro and AM were sent out first and, after a five-minute interval, LMP1 and LMP2 vehicles drove onto the track. All cars were required to be driven by two participants for one timed lap each, with the starting order determined by the competitors' fastest average times. The fastest qualifier was awarded one point which went towards the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships.[31] The session took place in clear, mild and dry weather.[32] Hülkenberg's first timed lap of 1:55.130 surpassed the LMP1 pole position record time only to be surpassed by Hartley's 1:54.777 lap time to place the No. 17 Porsche in provisional pole position.[32] Bernhard took over from Hartley and recorded a lap that was 0.027 seconds faster than the latter lowering the car's two-lap average time to 1:54.767 clinching pole position.[33] It was the third consecutive event where Bernhard, Mark Webber and Hartley started from pole position.[32]
They were joined on the grid's front row by the sister No. 19 car after Tandy set a lap time at the session's conclusion that put him 0.257 seconds behind his teammates. Jani and Lieb qualified in third position, three-tenths of a second slower than the two sister Porsche cars.[33] Lotterer twice went onto the track and improved his first lap time by 0.116 seconds to 1:55.114,[32] while Fässler was unable to find a rhythm, and could not improve on his co-driver's fastest time, restricting them to qualifying fourth.[34] Duval and di Grassi took fifth place with the latter stating that the team was not happy with the No. 8 car's setup, and that overnight work had to be undertaken.[34] Davidson and Buemi held fifth place until di Grassi and Duval's lap times demoted them to sixth.[32] Conway and Sarrazin secured seventh with the latter saying that he was held up by slower cars on his two timed laps.[35] Albuquerque and Rast filled the grid's fourth row by qualifying eighth ahead of the No. 4 Team ByKolles car.[32]
In LMP2, Bird and Julien Canal took the fastest two-lap average time of 2:07.761;[36] Canal pushed hard on new tyres during his second timed run having disliked his previous attempt.[32][33] The pair were two-tenths of a second faster than the second-place qualifiers, Howson and Lapierre, and held the class pole position until Canal's lap.[32] Team SARD Morand's No. 43 car took third in the category,[36] while the second G-Drive Racing entry was fourth, with fifth-placed qualifier Tincknell recording the session's best class individual lap time.[32] Richie Stanaway and Rees, competing in the No. 99 Aston Martin, were the fastest LMGTE Pro qualifiers with a two-lap average time of 2:16.840.[37] Gianmaria Bruni was 0.070 seconds off the Aston Martin's pace, and started from second place in the category, displacing Turner and Mücke from the position. Turner's fastest lap was invalidated after he went off the track and was required to set another time. James Calado and Davide Rigon secured fourth in AF Corse's No. 71 Ferrari with Sørensen and Nygaard rounding out the top five.[38] Aston Martin's No. 98 entry driven by Paul Dalla Lana and Lamy took pole position in LMGTE Am,[37] more than a second faster than the No. 50 Larbre Compétition Corvette of Paolo Ruberti and Gianluca Roda.[38]
Post-qualifying
KCMG's No 47 car had its qualifying lap times disallowed after it was discovered in post-qualifying scrutineering that the vehicle's front skid block had insufficient rigidity and had been excessively flexible.[20][39] The penalty meant Team SARD Morand's No. 43 car was promoted to second in LMP2 and the No. 47 entry was required to start from the pit lane with a 30-second time penalty.[40]
Qualifying results
Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold.[41]
| Pos | Class | Team | Average Time | Gap | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LMP1 | No. 17 Porsche Team | 1:54.767 | 1 | |
| 2 | LMP1 | No. 19 Porsche Team | 1:55.025 | +0.258 | 2 |
| 3 | LMP1 | No. 18 Porsche Team | 1:55.284 | +0.517 | 3 |
| 4 | LMP1 | No. 7 Audi Sport Team Joest | 1:55.540 | +0.773 | 4 |
| 5 | LMP1 | No. 8 Audi Sport Team Joest | 1:56.541 | +1.774 | 5 |
| 6 | LMP1 | No. 1 Toyota Racing | 1:57.487 | +2.720 | 6 |
| 7 | LMP1 | No. 2 Toyota Racing | 1:57.929 | +3.162 | 7 |
| 8 | LMP1 | No. 9 Audi Sport Team Joest | 1:58.000 | +3.233 | 8 |
| 9 | LMP1 | No. 4 Team ByKolles | 2:07.286 | +12.519 | 9 |
| 10 | LMP2 | No. 26 G-Drive Racing | 2:07.761 | +12.994 | 10 |
| 11 | LMP2 | No. 43 Team SARD Morand | 2:08.055 | +13.288 | 11 |
| 12 | LMP2 | No. 28 G-Drive Racing | 2:08.258 | +13.491 | 12 |
| 13 | LMP2 | No. 38 Jota Sport | 2:08.329 | +13.562 | 13 |
| 14 | LMP2 | No. 36 Signatech Alpine | 2:08.901 | +14.134 | 14 |
| 15 | LMP2 | No. 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports | 2:09.989 | +15.222 | 15 |
| 16 | LMP2 | No. 42 Strakka Racing | 2:11.655 | +16.888 | 16 |
| 17 | LMP2 | No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports | 2:16.721 | +21.954 | 17 |
| 18 | LMGTE Pro | No. 99 Aston Martin Racing V8 | 2:16.840 | +22.074 | 18 |
| 19 | LMGTE Pro | No. 51 AF Corse | 2:16.910 | +22.143 | 19 |
| 20 | LMGTE Pro | No. 97 Aston Martin Racing | 2:17.231 | +22.464 | 20 |
| 21 | LMGTE Pro | No. 71 AF Corse | 2:17.526 | +22.759 | 21 |
| 22 | LMGTE Pro | No. 95 Aston Martin Racing | 2:17.757 | +22.990 | 22 |
| 23 | LMGTE Pro | No. 91 Porsche Team Manthey | 2:18.025 | +23.258 | 23 |
| 24 | LMGTE Pro | No. 92 Porsche Team Manthey | 2:18.038 | +23.271 | 24 |
| 25 | LMP2 | No. 35 OAK Racing | 2:18.487 | +23.720 | 25 |
| 26 | LMGTE Am | No. 98 Aston Martin Racing | 2:19.578 | +24.811 | 26 |
| 27 | LMGTE Am | No. 50 Larbre Compétition | 2:20.694 | +25.927 | 27 |
| 28 | LMGTE Am | No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | 2:21.142 | +26.665 | 28 |
| 29 | LMGTE Am | No. 55 AF Corse | 2:21.893 | +27.126 | 29 |
| 30 | LMGTE Am | No. 83 AF Corse | 2:21.958 | +27.191 | 30 |
| 31 | LMGTE Am | No. 72 SMP Racing | 2:22.909 | +28.142 | 31 |
| 32 | LMGTE Am | No. 77 Dempsey Racing-Proton | 2:23.303 | +28.536 | 32 |
| 33 | LMGTE Am | No. 96 Aston Martin Racing | 2:24.519 | +29.752 | 33 |
| – | LMP2 | No. 47 KCMG | No Time | – | PL1 |
^1 – The No. 47 KCMG had all its laptimes deleted because of insufficient rigidity of the front skid block and started from the pit lane.[39][40]
