The FIA World Endurance Championship, has reached the United States, and, the Lone Star State's capital. Austin, Texas, and Circuit of the Americas, will host the latest round of the world championship. We last saw the gladiators and their space age racers, in Germany, at the Nurburgring. I digress, but, yours truly, has yet to be able to blog the full race, from Spa Francorchamps, in Belgium, back in May. Will get around to that one, soon, hopefully. For now, all eyes, are on the drivers and teams, for the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas.
Audi and Porsche have split the wins, this year. Two for each brand. This track, is a spectacular venue. In qualifying, in GTE Am, Patrick Long did a last lap flyer, and he is polesitter along with team mate, Patrick Dempsey. In LM GTE Pro, Richie Stanaway and Fernando Rees have pole for Aston Martin. Nicolas Lapierre and Matthew Howson have pole in LMP2. Neel Jani, Marc Lieb, and Romain Dumas, get pole position. But, in LMP2 action, car #47 was disqualified. Therefore, the #26 G Drive Racing car is on pole. Romain Rusinov is lead driver, sharing with Julien Canal, and Sam Bird.
The cars are on the warm up lap. This is the only North American race this year. But, next year, the series will race in Mexico City, Mexico. We're set to race. Porsche, Audi, Toyota, and Rebellion make up the first four rows. Go! We are green! Neel Jani gets the inside line and holds the lead. No, wait. Mark Webber heads into the lead. Webber is in the zone. Mark Webber knows this track well. He's booking it already as we watch Audi's going for it, too. Pedro Lamy spins and heads to the pits in the GTE Pro Aston Martin.
Sebastien Buemi is going for it in the Toyota now, too. #26 of Sam Bird goes off the road. We've got the Ligier Honda, the Gibson Nissan, and the Ligier Nissan battling in LMP2. This race is fully timed at six hours. One of the Rebellion cars is also having issues. The #36 SignaTech Alpine and the KCMG machine are also running well. We also watch Darren Turner leading the other Aston Martin's of Fred Makowiecki and Fernando Rees. The start is under investigation, by the stewards.
Sebastien Buemi and Andre Lotterer are battling for fourth. It's Toyota vs. Audi. Incident involving the Ligier and the Rebellion, under investigation, by the stewards. Patrick Long passes the #51 and #71 AF Corse Ferrari's. Lotterer holds station, but, there's a definite battle between he, and the Toyota of Buemi. Sebastien Buemi did not want to give up that spot. Ferrari has had an ugly weekend this weekend, and they don't have good balance with their cars. We also see Fred Makowiecki and Richard Lietz in the factory Porsche's pass the Aston Martin's.
Patrick Long is pushing, hard. He's got Gianmaria Bruni all over him, like a rash. Already 1.3 seconds between the two factory Porsche's in front. Mark Webber is one driver who has donated a race suit, to the Justin Wilson memorial fund. Many F1 drivers, have also donated worn race suits. The whole motorsport community has pitched in to help Justin Wilson's family. Sam Bird is leading LMP2 by a long way right now. The LMP2 machines are liner stern right now. Mark Webber is running quicker in sector two right now.
Sam Bird is booking it, and is gapping his rival by five seconds. Neel Jani is responding to Mark Webber, and is making up time. The gap is 1.4 seconds at the moment. The Porsche's are whistling off into the distance. Patrick Long dives inside the Aston Martin through the endless right hander. Extreme Speed Motorsports runs third in LMP2. Ryan Dalziel has passed Gustavo Yacaman in LMP2. We have a neat class by class formation now. We've run for 15 minutes so far. Ryan Dalziel passes for second in LMP2 and Nicolas Lapierre passes Danny Watts.
Viktor Shaitar and Emmanuelle Collard, are running well, too, in the LM GTE Pro class if I am right. Paul Loup Chatin and Oliver Webb also run well in LMP2. Viktor Shaitar and others are racing well in LM GTE Am. We watch in replay, of some slight contact, someplace. Gianmaria Bruni is closing on the Aston Martin's of Darren Turner and Fernando Rees. Aston Martin hav started the race on harder tires. Correction, it was AF Corse with the Ferrari's. Gianmaria Bruni is trying to pass Fernando Rees. With all the rubber down from other races, there's been littl grip on the road here at COTA.
Patrick Long and Christian Ried have both been warned to obey track limits. There's nowhere to hide from this track limit violation. There's a display on the dashboard, to let them know when tye've been warned about track limits. It is extraordinary how quick these prototype cars are. Car #83 of Emmanuel Collard, gets a penalty for jumping the start. Collard shares with Francois Perrodo and another driver. We see Allan McNish, looking on. Collard has indeed jumped the start. Mark Webber is still leading. You haven't missed much, as we're halfway through hour one.
Traffic is playing a factor. It's a different deal with track limits here in the FIA WEC than it is, in the Tudor Championship, which, we'll highlight, tomorrow. Fastest lap has gone to Neel Jani at 1:47.684. Three wide for a minute, and, ooh! Some dodge 'em cars between Darren Turner and Fernando Rees. There are more and more warnings for disobeying track limits. Keep it clean out there, boys. Nicolas Lapierre is the latest. Lots of warnings being pickd up in turn twelve. Sam Bird leads LMP2 over Nico Lapierre, by some 13 seconds. Lapierre has no traffice. He has to catch up.
Pit stop strategies are being planned. Neel Jani still leads. Gustavo Yacaman has been warned, in the #28 machine. This is the second G-Drive car. The deal is, the warning is for the car, and not the driver. You have to serve the penalty, no matter which driver you are. Stay in the boundaries, blokes. Stay in the boundaries. Dominik Kraihamer makes a pit stop, coming in off-strategy. Mathias Beche is the first privateer team LMP1 driver. Game over for Rebellion #13. Meanwhile, no further action, to the earlier penalty. #13 is in it's box, with engine issues. The #4 CLM is now second in class. This is the car for ByKolles Racing. No urgency in the Rebellion garage. Again, it could be game over.
This race will go into full darkness in another hour and a half. Mark Webber leads by 12 seconds. Lucas di Grassi at the controls of Audi #8 is catching Neel Jani. The LMP1 cars are pitting. Benoit Treluyer takes over the #7 Audi R18 eTron Quattro. Things are beginning to shuffle now. LMP2 teams are running on Dunlop's "medium plus" compound. We watch the sister Audi #8, pit. The diesel cars, don't have the same fuel capacity as the petrol hybrids like the Porsche and the Toyota. As fuel is going in, you cannot change tires. Oliver Jarvis is at the controls of Audi #8. Benoit Treluyer ran the fastest third sector time, before pitting. Lap tims are heating up.
Neel Jani runs a 1:48.5. Richard Bradley and Paul Loup Chatin are battling in LMP2. The cloud cover and shadows, will be a blessing for the blokes in closed cockpit racers. Richard Bradley took over Paul Loup Chatin on his outlap, as Neel Jani hands the #18 Porsche to Marc Lieb. The tires are starting to grain, from heat degradation. The Porsche's are abusing their tires. They've had real trouble in the second stint on their tires. Not the first, but the second. Gianmaria Bruni is making inroads in LM GTE Pro on the two factory Porsche GT cars. Porsche #17 is in from the lead. Mark Webber gets out.
There will be new tires for the car. Brendon Hartley is now driving the Porsche, as both Toyota's come in. Hartley will be the race leader. Toyota might be improving. Anthony Davidson takes over the #1 Toyota and Stephane Sarrazin will drive #2. The first round of pit stops is completed, for the Prototypes. The GTE production cars, are next, to pit. The GT cars have now pitted. It's hot. 90 degrees Fahrenheit, ambient temperature. Single stints by the drivers, are the norm, so far. In LMP1, they have six sets of tires. They will have to try and double stint their tires.
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