Another race in the FIA World
Endurance Championship, another Porsche win, as the slight
difference between the German manufacturer and Toyota was
enough for the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid to go away and get it with
ease. The LMP2 and GTE-Pro classes gave a lot of drama
during the afternoon, being decided in the final minutes, a proper
goodbye to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as it won't be in the
calendar next season.
Things started without no one pulling
away in any of the classes, although the Porsches were showing better
pace than the Toyotas. The only odd thing in the first moments was
the brake problems with the No. 97 Aston Martin, forcing it to go to
the pits and stay out of the GTE-Pro battle.
In LMP2, while the No. 31 Rebellion
Oreca was opening the gap as the class leader, hell was breaking
loose for second place with the No. 36 Signatech Alpine and the No.
26 G-Drive Oreca in an open fight while the Nos. 38 DC Racing Oreca
was in spectator mode in fourth place with Oliver Jarvis conserving
the car and waiting for a mistake. A few moments later traffic played
a part in the fight, with the No. 26 overtaking the No. 36 and
pulling away quickly.
Things stayed in place for around more
than an hour until the next car being knocked out as the No. 38 DC
Racing Oreca had its problems with the clutch and went straight to
the garage for further checks. Eventually the No. 24 Manor Oreca
jumped to third in LMP2 thanks to the difficulty of the No. 36
Signatech Alpine to deal with traffic.
The prototype classes were having their
own little dramas at halfway as the No. 26 G-Drive lost ground and
two positions, going down to fourth in LMP2, while the leading No. 2
Porsche had a malfunction in the fuel flow meter, going to the pits
for a quick change of the device. Trouble eventually rose to AF Corse
though as the car got stuck into first gear due to electronic
problem, having to lap the course before rejoining the pits and
staying out of a potential class podium.
A few minutes later AF Corse had their
second big blow as the No. 71 Ferrari, major GTE-Pro leader,
lost the top spot to the No. 95 Aston Martin at the pit exit
after regular service, and with tires still needing to be heated the
No. 71 lost contact by a little.
With an hour and a half to go a full
course yellow was called to catch the strangest of the debris in a
sportscar race: a baseball. Thankfully the retrieval work was quick
and the action got in 3 minutes with the green flag. The LMP2 class
still had a titanic class between Manor and Rebellion as the No. 24
Oreca was keeping the No. 31 at bay in the fight for P1, and after 30
minutes of sparks flying out there another full course yellow was
called due to debris, this time being from the No. 61 Clearwater
Ferrari, which was also solved quickly to bring the green flag again.
In the final hour dark clouds started
to round the circuit, meaning that rain was a possibility, although
the Porsche guys remained pretty calm due to the huge gap to the
Toyotas, and while that in LMP2, Bruno Senna put a wheel wrong and
spun the No. 31 Rebellion Oreca, losing contact to the No.
24 Manor car, although it was still in the target for a comeback.
In GTE-Pro, AF Corse has more drama as the No. 71 Ferrari was hit
with a penalty as the car was caught speeding under full course
yellow period.
During the rest of the final hour the
Porsches were pretty much on conservative mode, so the cars No. 2 &
1 just cruised to the finish without interference. In LMP2 the No. 31
Rebellion established a good lead and wasn't disturbed into its race
to P1 in class while the No. 24 Manor lost second place as Ben Hanley
spun in the stadium section, handing it to the No. 36 Signatech
Alpine.
In GTE-Pro the No. 95 Aston Martin
stayed close to the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari but it didn't represent a
threat as the Italian car still had the penalty to be applied to its
time so they switched places in the timesheet. In GTE-Am the No. 77
Dempsey-Proton Porsche overcame an impressive of the No. 98 Aston
Martin as the British car was penalized in the final hour.
PHOTO: Porsche
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