After the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the summer break, the FIA World Endurance Championship, returns to action, today, at the legendary Nurburgring in the Eiffel mountains in Nurburg, Germany.
This is the first visit for the WEC to the Nurburgring. We are live for the 6 Hours of the Nurburgring, starting, now.
This is round four of the series. Porsche, takes pole. In LM GTE Am, Viktor Shaitar and Alexey Basov scored pole in LM GTE Am. Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni, have LM GTE Pro pole position. Nick Tandy and Matt Howson are on pole in LMP2. In LMP1, Porsche, sweeps the front row. Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb, have pole. We are setting up, for a great race. Yours truly, has not had the chance to blog the Spa 6 Hours from back in May, yet. That will happen, soon. Stay tuned.
It is a beautiful day at the Nurburgring. We missed the start of the race. Right now, the start is under investigation. Drive through penalty for the #92 Porsche 911 RSR. Neel Jani leads in the first sector in the #18 Porsche, over Timo Bernhard. The Porsche's are running at the top of the table, so far. Porsche leads over Audi and Toyota at this time. Patrick Long passes Stefan Mucke. The Aston Martin is having issues, and gets passed by the LM GTE Am Porsche of Patrick Long. We're working the sixth lap of this six hour race.
Oops. We have a spin. But, we are also watching Sam Bird and Nick Tandy in the LMP2 class, running in the 1:47 range. Timo Bernhard takes some time off of Loic Duval in the Audi R18 eTron Quattro. The spinning Porsche was for Proton Competition. Fred Makowiecki has had a drive through penalty, too. We watch Marcel Fassler trying to catch Loic Duval. Porsche, 1-2. Audi, 3-4. Toyota, 5-6. In LMP2, it's a four way battle between Nick Tandy, Sam Bird, Luis Felipe Derani, and Nelson Panciatici.
Neel Jani is ahead by four seconds over Timo Bernhard. Audi vs. Porsche. Oops. We have a slow Ferrari. This is one of the AF Corse entries. This is at marshal position 23, the Dunlop hairpin. Gianmaria Bruni has an issue with the #51 Ferrari 458 Italia. Drama early at the Nurburgring. We are now under full course yellow. We have a virtual safety car. We've run for 15 minutes. Dramatic moments early on. The leader in LMP1L, from Rebellion Racing, did not take the start. Nick Heidfeld, was supposed to be at the controls.
The #71 Ferrari in LM GTE Pro, pits. We are back to green flag racing. Neel Jani sails into the lead. The battle for second intensifies. One second between the #17 Porsche, #8 Audi, and #7 Audi. Is Porsche letting Neel Jani light the afterburners? It could be. It's cat and mouse for second, third, and fouth, at the moment. Stefan Mucke and Aston Martin are going to pit soon. Marco Sorensen in the sister #95 car, has also been off. The marshals are able to look at each car, and what each driver is doing, so they don't take advantage of getting a position.
James Calado in the #71 Ferrari, has pulled off the road. Is it game over for Calado and company? We'll see. AF Corse has had both LM GTE Pro machines have issues! The leaders are coming to turns three and four. Timo Bernhard leads. It's not Calado. #51 was towed away and it's game over. Wait. #51 is in trouble again. Yikes. Gianmaria Bruni is still driving that car. Meanwhile, it's a battle between Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, and Marcel Fassler. We're nearly a half hour into this race. Porsche, Porsche, Audi, Audi, Toyota, Toyota. With the Rebellion's issues in the gasoline Prototype class, the CLM of Pierre Kaffer, is at the top of the table, at the moment.
Nick Tandy, Sam Bird, and Luis Felipe Derani, are top three in LMP2. Nick Tandy leads. He is racing in LMP2 for KCMG in this race, and not, for the Porsche factory squad. Patience will be key at this race, on the challenging 3 and 3/4 mile layout of the new Nurburgring, that has been around for at least 30 years. We are a half hour into this race, so far. This is the halfway mark of the race. Loic Duval and Timo Bernhard are still trying to pass the Porsche. The Porsche's were rocket quick, earlier in the season.
But, now, at the Nurburgring, the car is different. Same for the Audi R18 eTron Quattro. These cars, are different, from what they were at Spa or Le Mans. Again, Spa will be covered, even though it has already occurred. Meanwhile, Loic Duval is being challenged by Marcel Fassler. Porsche is concerned about brake temperatures. Are they having issues with the hybrid harvesting system? The Porsche still leads. It's a hot one at the Nurburgring today. It is in the 30s on the Celsius scale, meaning, the 90s on the Fahrenheit scale.
The issue for the Ferrari LM GTE car, was electronic. The #51 car is in damage limitation mode now. The #17 team has gone to plan B. They will do a different pit strategy. It is mandated that you have English radio translation that is not scrambled, so that the teams can communicate with the driver, and the fans at home, can hear it. Damaged splitter for the #18 Porsche in second in the overall. Pit stop time for the LMP1 hybrid cars, soon.
Neel Jani leads overall. Nick Tandy leads P2. Michael Christensen leads LM GTE Pro, and Patrick Long, leads LM GTE Am. The race goes on, and there was a power outage for a bit. Now, pit stop time. Porsche and Audi pit at the same time. Neel Jani, and Marcel Fassler. There's some crash damage on one of the cars. Now, they change tires. Will Porsche change the nose? Mark Webber will take over the car. The new nose is on. Mark Webber, is back in the motor race, ahead of Audi #7 of Loic Duval.
Toyota's (both of them) stayed on the track. Marcel Fassler continues driving the #7. There was no driver change. Did #17 have a dive plane failure on the front wing? The gap now is 37 seconds. 45 minutes have elapsed, of this six hour race. Neel Jani has lead since lights out for the start. Side-bu-side in LM GTE Am. Pedro Lamy vs. Viktor Shaitar. Lamy's Aston Martin V8 Vantage covered the inside over Viktor Shaitar's Ferrari 458 Italia.
In LMP2 we watch a battle for fourth between Nelson Panciaticci and Jonny Kane. Pedro Lamy is running in the 1:59 bracket. We watch the two G Drive P2 cars, pit together. Routine pit stops, for both, with no driver changes. The big story is still the issue with the #17 Porsche. The left front brake had been overheating. The #4 CLM is also in the lane. Pierre Kaffer is still at the wheel. Nelson Panciatici, Jonny Kane, and Oliver Webb, are all pitting. Loic Duval is told to stay out. Panciatici pits the Alpine Nissan. Now, it will be close in LMP2. There are a couple cars that beat Panciatici off pit lane.
Meanwhile, we see Loic Duval in the pits. This is a scheduled stop. Duval will stay in the car, and have a new drink put in the car. You have the bottle of fluid (electrolyte drink) in the reservoir in the car, and then, push a button, to take a drink. The #8 Audi is back on track. Mark Webber moves ahead of Loic Duval. P2 leader is in. Nick Tandy will stay in the car. He will keep the lead in LMP2 after a routine pit stop. The Toyota slices it's way through an awesome battle in LM GTE Pro. The #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid pits, as the #13 Rebellion continues to have a problem. Porsche pits car #18, with Marc Lieb now at the wheel.
Audi is double stinting drivers and tires. Porsche is doing single driver stints, it looks like. Marc Lieb is back on track. Toyota pits. They've had a hard season, and are already at work on their car for the 2016 season. We see the #12 Rebellion has pulled off the road. Both Toyota's have pitted. Next year, Toyota may use a turbo four cylinder, or a V6, abandoning their current V8 motor. Anthony Davidson is now in Toyota #1, and Mike Conway in car #2.
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