The 6 Hours of the Circuit of the
Americas started being as competitive as possible in the LMP1
class, but then Porsche showed the huge gap that opened to
Toyota and did another 1-2 finish this year, with the other
classes having dominant victories too.
Toyota started splitting both Porsches
with competitive laps being clocked, although not enough to surpass
the German cars. The LMP2 and LMGTE-Pro classes were in
a case of a car holding a team, as the No. 36 Signatech Alpine had
both Vaillante Rebellion Orecas in chase while the No. 95
Aston Martin was with both AF Corse Ferraris
right behind. The No. 8 Toyota held the No. 7 one for quite a while,
but a boost override problem was the trigger for position switching
so they could chase the leading No. 1 Porsche, and still in the full
pro side, after lots of pressure the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari overtook
the No. 95 Aston Martin, opening the gap almost immediately.
The first hour ended with Toyota
claiming top positions by skipping tire changes, but Porsche's
counter strategy was about lasting more on track by using super hard
tires, making lap times more even than in the first stint, with
Porsche regaining the top by double stinting later.
Andre Lotterer in the No. 1 Porsche
took a lot of time to go past José Maria Lopez in the No. 7 Toyota
as the WTCC champion applied all tricks up his sleeve to defend
himself, but older tires were the point and the Argentine couldn't do
much more, losing even the third place to the No. 2 Porsche. Near the
end of the second hour Porsche got their strategy working and retook
the lead, but now the No. 1 was with the No. 2 right behind while the
Toyotas were relegated to third and fourth. The LMP2 was also pretty
eventful at that point as the lead switched from Signatech, Rebellion
and then to the No. 37 DC Racing Oreca, and with worn tires on
it the No. 36 Signatech Alpine was in front again in the class.
In LMGTE-Pro, the Ferrari 1-2 simply
disappeared in front while the No. 95 Aston Martin was holding firmly
the third place in class as the No. 92 Porsche was eager to pass.
Ferrari was dominating in LMGTE-Am as the No. 61 Clearwater
Ferrari was capitalizing in the amount of mistakes of the other
competitors in the class. The No. 95 Aston Martin eventually became a
guest in the battle and jumped to third in LMGTE-Pro with an inspired
Nicki Thiim at the wheel.
While the No. 1 Porsche enjoyed a
monster lead, the No. 2 had its woes with a charging No. 7 Toyota
trying to get second place, what eventually happened thanks to a
longer stop from the Porsche side. Talking about stops, Michael
Wainwright and the Gulf Racing squad had two heart-stoppers in
less than a minute as the No. 86 Porsche lost control and avoided the
barriers by little, what didn't happen later in the hairpin to the
back straight, as a lockup made the car go rear-first to the barriers
and damage the rear wing heavily, but it still kept going to repair
the mess in the garage.
Almost ten minutes after Wainwright's
shunt and at the end of the third hour the staff had to work in the
damaged barriers, which brought the Safety Car for 10 minutes, with
the chasing competitors in the class having all the reasons to
celebrate this, and one of the first car that took the benefits was
the No. 92 Porsche as it passed by the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari for
second in LMGTE-Pro and soon transformed it in a three-way battle
again, working its way into the No. 71 car with older tires and
getting first place. With the Porsche being quicker, AF Corse cars
switched positions to chase the Porsche and keep it honest, and when
James Calado threw the bait to Kevin Estre by doing a feint, the door
was open and there is where Calado went for the lead.
While that in LMP2, the No. 36
Signatech Alpine was in a lone lead while hell was breaking loose for
second in class, as both Vaillante Rebellion entries were defending
their positions bravely from the No. 38 DC Racing Oreca, even going
for some risky moments with the traffic to keep their places.
Near the last hour mark things were
almost settled in LMP1 the Porsches swapped places, and with Toyota
not offering threats to them, things stayed like this after the final
regular pit stop until the No. 1 passed again.
In LMGTE-Am, Dempsey-Proton received a
huge blow with 30 minutes to go as the No. 77 Porsche, third in
class, was seen limping on the track with an oil leak, entering the
garage a few moments after that for immediate checks and fixes, which
if made in time would be enough to send the car back on track to at
least get the points. In LMGTE-Pro, Michael Christensen in the No. 92
Porsche was determined to not let the AF Corse 1-2 happen, rubbing
doors with Sam Bird in the No. 71 Ferrari for second.
In the final moments Porsche decided to
switch places of its LMP1 cars as the No. 1 left the door open for
another victory of the No. 2, meaning this was the fourth straight
win for Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber.
The leaders in LMP2 and LMGTE-Pro had
their worries in the final 10 minutes other than their opponents, as
the No. 36 Signatech Alpine had a rear bodywork change due to a
malfunctioning light, and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari had a puncture
that sent it to a quick stop too, with good gaps and perfect pitwork
securing their leads and class wins.
The decisive overtake in the final hour
was more than enough for the No. 98 Aston Martin to secured another
LMGTE-Am win, the second in 2017.
The winning trio at COTA now holds 159
points against 108 of the No. 8 Toyota crew, though only with
Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, and another good result may
secure the championship for Porsche. Despite the awful show at home,
Ford still leads the GT championship with Andy Priaulx and Harry
Tincknell having 102 points, with Fred Makowiecki and Richard Lietz
in second with 96 points and Davide Rigon in third with 95,5 points.
Next FIA WEC stop will be the 6 Hours
of Fuji in Japan as Toyota relies in the home race to recover the
lost ground on October 15th.
PHOTO: FIA WEC
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