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Prelude To Le Mans – 6 Hours of Silverstone

Easter Sunday emerged gray and overcast at dawn but nothing was going to dampen my enthusiasm for getting to Silverstone just in time for the gates to open because Porsche were due to make their first official appearance in top line sports car racing since 1998 Le Mans winning Porsche GT1-98 was retired from competition.

Dallara F312, Ocon, Verstappen, Silverstone

Before the pits walk about which would give spectators an opportunity to see the new Wundercar the third FIA Formula 3 race of the weekend was run. The cars were all mandated 2012 Dallara F312 but now running motors which are sealed and have to last a whole season. Much to the delight of his vocal fan club Ferrari’s protege Antonio Fuoco won the event by just under five seconds from sixteen year old Max “Son of the Boss” Vertappen who is seen above being gifted second place by third place finisher Esteban Ocon who wound up the weekend with the championship lead having finished 2nd and then 1st in the weekends earlier races. Max is son of former Formula One Racer Jos ‘The Boss’ Verstappen perhaps best remembered as the driver sitting in the Benetton which erupted into a fireball at the 1994 German Grand Prix and winner of the 2008 LMP2 Le Mans series title.

Porsche 919, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

By the time I got to the pit lane for the walkabout the queue was already enormous but within a couple of minuets it was moving and unsurprisingly spectators were standing 6 deep trying to get a glimpse of the Porsche 919 Hybrid which was started from scratch, leaving the past behind, as evidenced by the turbocharged 2 litre V4 and and two energy recuperation systems that has been developed over the last 30 months.

The #14 driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb and the #20 driven by Timo Benhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley showed phenomenal speed in free practice being over 10 mph faster than their rivals in a straight line. They lined up 3rd and 6th on the grid respectively despite being the only runners in low down force Le Mans spec.

Anthony Davidson, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The #7 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid driven by Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima was on pole ahead of the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Tom Kristensen. Forth on the grid was the #2 Audi of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer ahead of fifth place Anthony Davidson, seen seated above right, who shared the #8 Toyota with Nicolas Lapierre and Sebastian Buemi, seated above right. Less than half a second covered the qualification times of the 6 work LMP1 cars.

Toyota TS 040, Audi R18, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Toyota led the opening laps of the race but it was not long before André Lotterer in the #2 Audi, seen above about to relieve the Sebastian Buemi of third place, got to the front of the field. As the first hour of the race unfolded rain started to fall that would, unknown to anyone at the time decide the outcome of the race. Buemi pitted from fourth to take on a set of intermediates, Wurz pitted from second to take on full wets as Toyota wisely split it’s strategy between its cars while the ever optimistic Audi Team elected to stay on slicks.

Porsche 911 RSR, Holzer, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The Porsche 919’s were running comfortably in 5th and 6th places until the #14 first lost a wheel and then returned only to experience a drive problem and retire after completing only 30 laps. In the LMGTE Pro class however the works 911 RSR’s were comfortably running 1st and 2nd with the #91 driven by Patrick Pilet, Jörg Bergmeister and Nick Tandy easing away from the #92 seen above driven by Marco Holzer, Frédéric Malowiecki and Richard Lietz. With less than an hour to go the #91 pulled into pit for full wets but when the #92 was about to follow suit the pit lane was closed, and was to remain so until the race was called nearly half an hour early handing the LMGTE Pro class win and 7th place overall to the #92 of Holzer, Malowiecki and Lietz who finished just over 40 seconds ahead of their team mates.

Morgan Nissan, Pla, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The LMP2 class pole was won by Roman Rusinov, Oliver Pla and Julien Canal driving the #26 Morgan – Nissan, seen with Oliver Pla driving through Becketts above, from the similar #47 Oreca 03 badged example driven by Mathew Howson, Richard Bradley and Tsugio Matsuda. On their way to a 5th place finish overall the #26 had to change their nose twice, to repair damage the first time and then fit one with the correct dive planes the second, but managed to catch and pass the #47 which received a 10 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane and was later penalised a lap for unsafe release from a pit stop.

Porsche, Toyota, Aston Martin, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Meanwhile the #7 Toyota, seen above about to overtake the #88 LMGTE Am Porsche RSR driven by Christian Ried, Claus Bachler and Khaled Al Qubaisi, on the full wets was struggling and fell behind the sister #8 car of Davidson,Lapierre and Buemi on intermediates which inherited the lead after the #1 Audi which di Grassi crashed into the barriers on slicks in the wet at Woodcote had to retire with a broken suspension pick up point and the #2 Audi also on slicks lost four laps and five places when Lotterer went off at Stowe.

Ferrari F458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

While the #2 was making up lost time the #71 LMGTE Pro Ferrari F458 Italia, seen above was being driven by Davide Rigon and James Caldo to an eventual 5th in class finish ahead of the #81 F458 Italia driven by Stephen Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Sam Bird which recorded a third place class finish in the LMGTE Am division behind …

Aston Martin Vantage V8, Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

two works Aston Martin Vantage V8’s. On this occasion #95 Aston Martin seen above brought home the GTE Am bacon with Danes Kristian Poulsen, David Heinemeir Hansson, Nicki Thiim recording a 15th place overall along with class honours.

Audi R18 e-tron quattro, Treluyer, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

On intermediate tyres Benoit Treluyer recovered to 4th place in the #2 Audi when just after the 3 hour mark he appears to have locked a wheel braking for Copse corner, clouted the inside barrier and then went sailing over the kitty litter to come to rest on solid ground against the barrier, which he hit hard enough for the front wheels to be facing in different directions. Benoit valiantly cleared up the worst of the mess, against the marshals better judgement, jumped back in the car fired it up and got it going all of 5 yards before the Audi steered its self into the gravel trap and retirement. For the first time in 18 races going back to 2011 neither Audi finished which “may” yet have effectively handed not just the race but also the World Endurance Championship to Toyota.

Porsche 919, Hartley, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

On his LMP1 debut New Zealander Brendon Hartley meantime kept the #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid on the black stuff as it progressed to a third place with Timo Bernhard and Formula One™ refugee Mark Webber sharing the podium finish. Porsche will be keeping their Le Mans low down force spec bodywork for the next round of the WEC championship at Spa where they will continue their preparations for Le Mans which they are obviously very keen to win on their return to top flight endurance racing.

Lola B12/60 - Toyota, Heidfeld, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

“Quick Nick” Heidfeld was the immediate beneficiary of the #2 Audi’s misfortune as he was handed back 4th place in the race driving a triple stint in the long in the tooth Toyota powered Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 which by Le Mans should be replaced by a pair of Oreca built Toyota powered R-One LMP1 Coupés. Quick Nick with team mates Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche came home fourth overall a distant 8 laps behind the winning #8 Toyota.

Safety Car, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

With an hour to go the rain returned getting ever more heavy, this led to the Pace Car being brought out and for twenty odd minuets we had a curious situation where, other than those immediately behind the pace car when it came out, none could maintain anything like the pace necessary to actually catch it. For some like the #12 Rebellion Lola this may well have been because cockpit was steaming up reducing visibility, for others like the #91 Porsche RSR it was because they were on the wrong tyres and the pit lane was closed, because the pace car was out and so with twenty six mins to go the race director sensibly called the race.

The Wing, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Anthony Davidson is seen above celebrating Toyota’s 6th WEC victory with his team mates and the third place Porsche crew on the podium built into The Wing, while the rest of the cars are seen in Parc Ferme on the start finish straight.

The Silverstone 6 Hours, the 2014 edition of which can be seen on this link, has often been used by the works Porsche team as a prelude to it’s assault on the Le Mans 24 hours, on this occasion one of the cars performed well enough to show that the team should be in the ball park for victory in the 24 hour classic, while Toyota cleverly split their tyre strategy during a period of weather uncertainty to secure a victory for one of it’s cars leaving the other well placed.

Last years 6 Hours of Silverstone, Le Mans and World Endurance Championship winners completely dropped the ball when the weather threw a curve ball leaving both of their entries on the wrong tyres at the wrong time showing that not even the very best of teams over the last 15 years always has things to learn and room for improvement.

I am not sure that I’ll be able to make it to Le Mans or indeed any of the rest of the WEC rounds but I’ll be following it with keen interest until the end of the season.

Thanks for joining me on this “Prelude To Le Mans” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me for Americana Thursday tomorrow ! Don’t forget to come back now !

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Zwei Eins – 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Thanks to catching a break with my car insurance last week I found I had just enough petrol in the tank and cash in my pocket to take a 2 hour drive to go and see the 6 Hours of Silverstone World Endurance Championship Sports Car race.

6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Recently there has been a lot of debate about the possibility of a female ever winning the World Championship, 33 years ago I remember seeing Desiré Wilson co drive her de Cadenet Ford to victory in the Silverstone 6 hour race with Alain de Cadenet and the top line cars have not become anymore physically demanding since. So it was a tad disappointing to see the sports governing body the FIA setting a bad example of equality by sanctioning the use of so many females as eye candy with out giving the ladies in the audience something corresponding to look at, such a move might just make the sport a little more appealing across the board.

ROSENQVIST,  MARCIELLO, Dallara, FIA Formula 3, Silverstone, UK

First race of the day was the third and final Formula 3 race of the weekend, that forms part of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship. Starting on a slippery track it was not long before six competitors fell off requiring the use of the pace car to clear up some of the mess. Felix Rosenqvist was leading from a third place on the grid, in the #6 Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes, when the action resumed but Raffaele Marciello driving the #1 Prema Powerteam Dallara-Merc who was the man on the move having out braked his team mate and pole sitter Alex Lynn going into Club after the Safety Car was withdrawn and then chased down Rosenqvist and over taking him on the outside of Stowe. Full results for all three FIA Formula 3 races can be found on this link. Ferrari protege Marciello leads the new championship from Rosenqvist, Harry Tincknell, and third place finisher Lynn, the next round is at Hockenheim on May 4th.

Howson, Ka To, Impertori, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

After the Formula 3 race it was time to go on the pits walk about where many of the drivers were busy signing autographs that is all except KCMG Motorsports trio (left to right) Matthew Howson, Jim Ka To and Alexander Imperrori who had no giveaways to sign, they were however armed with their own pens and they kindly signed my programme before going on to finish the race 12th overall, 6th in class from a 25th place start in their #47 Morgan Nissan.

Lotus Praga T128, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Not for the first time two Lotus share the same Type Number, the original Lotus T128 was a Renault powered 2011 Formula One car built by what is now called the Caterham Formula One team while seen in the pits above is the new Type 128 a LMP 2 Endurance racer running with a Judd V8 motor that carries the name plate of the Czechoslovakian kart manufacturer Praga. The #31 Lotus Praga T128 scheduled to be driven by Kevin Weeda, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Christophe Bouchut completed the least number of laps, 44, and was classified 31st and last, while the sister #32 driven by Thomas Holzer, Dominik Kraihamer and Jan Charouz completed 113 laps and was classified 29th on the teams debut outing.

Aston Martin, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

A timely reminder of Aston Martin‘s centenary year appeared just before the start of the race, expect to see some more Aston Martin blogs in the months ahead.

Start, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

31, of an expected entry of 33, cars took the start of the 6 Hours of Silverstone race the front row was locked out by Toyota TS030 Hybrids with Alexander Wurz starting on pole in the #7 car. The Audi R18 e-Tron quattro‘s of Tom Kristensen and André Lotterer started line astern in 3rd and 5th places flanked by the Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé’s of Nicolas Prost and Matthias Beche.

Kristensen.Audi, Wurz, Toyota, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Toyota’s moment of glory proved to be short lived as Kristensen relieved Wurz of the lead going into Vale after only a hand full of laps, the sister Audi also made short work of both Toyota’s and soon settled into second place.

Toyota TS030 Hybrid, Maggotts, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

While the Audi’s sailed into the distance the Toyota’s which looked great in the corners like Maggotts above were visibly unstable on the straights when compared to the overall leaders.

Pla, Morgan Nissan, Pit Straight, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

While I was spectating at the end of, the original now ‘National’ pits straight, I remembered that it was 35 years since I had first attended the Silverstone 6 hours and seen the awesome Porsche 935/78 “Moby Dick” win by a comfortable 7 laps. Above Oliver Pla guides the #24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan he shared with David Heinemeier Hanson and Alex Brundle to an eight place overall finish, 2nd in class.

Aston Martin, Lola, Toyota, Luffield, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

Aston Martin fielded four Vantage V8’s two in the LMGTE Pro class and two in the LMGTE Am class all four cars finished with the #97 of Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke and Bruno Senna winning the Pro class and #95 of Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen winning the Am class. Above the Am class #96 of Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall and Jamie Campbell-Walter leads the Rebellion Racing #13 Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé of Andrea Belicchi, Mathias Beche and Cong Fu Cheng, which finished 6th overall and the 4th place finishing #7 Toyota of Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre through a slippery Luffield as light rain that caught out a couple of competitors was falling.

Loic Duval, Audi R18 e-tron quattro, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

Loic Duval, seen above at Club, drove the winning Audi through the middle of the race swapping the lead with the sister Audi as the pit stops cycled through.

Bruni, Ferrari F458 Italia, Club, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

The LMGTE class Ferrari 348 Italia’s all appeared to get involved in incidents of one kind or another the AF Corse #51 Pro entry for former Formula One Drivers Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella carries war wounds on it’s way to an 18th place finish overall, 5th in class.

Ferrari, Chevrolet, Porsche, Hangar Straight, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

The appeal of Endurance racing is that somewhere there is always a battle over tarmac above the 6th in class #57 LMGTE Am Krohn Racing Ferrari of Tracey Krohn, Nicoläs Johnson and Maurizio Mediani dukes it out going on to the hangar straight with the 2nd in class LMGTE AM class Labre Compétition Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1 of Patrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal and Fernando Rees with the 3rd in class LMGTE Pro works Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR of Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Domain Dumas in hot pursuit.

SARRAZIN, Toyota TS030 Hybrid, The Loop, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Like the works Porsche AG Manthey team cars the works Toyota and Audi entries finished in reverse order the #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sébastian Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin leading the #7 Toyota home to 3rd and 4th place finishes respectively. Sarrazin is seen above negotiating the Loop.

Ferrari, Chevrolet, Toyota, Porsche, Club, 6 Hours of Silverstone

There was drama right through the field right up until the end with only 5 mins to go a tyre on the 8 Stars Motorsports LMGTE Am #81 Ferrari 458 Italia of Vicente Potolicchio, Rui Aguas and Philip Peter let go demoting it to a 3rd in class finish on it’s WEC debut, behind the following #50 Corvette above, despite having earlier had to stop to replace a door.

Alan McNish, 6 Hours of Silverstone

The #1 Audi of reigning world endurance champions Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fässler was leading with 5 mins to go when a front drive shaft broke which allowed team mate Allan McNish to nip through and take a three second victory over the now two wheel drive #1 both Audi’s finishing a lap ahead of the #8 and #7 Toyota’s. McNish is seen above taking a bow after finishing the race. Full results for the 6 Hours of Silverstone can be found on this link.

All in all £40 including official programme well spent on 6 hours of nonstop action with an 8 mile walk in and around the track thrown in. Next time I must remember to take more batteries for my trusty AM/FM Sony Walkman Compact Cassette player with which to stay in touch with the on track action via Radio Silverstone.

Thanks for joining me on this “Zwei Eins” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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