2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps

The 2016 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, formally the WEC 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium on 5–7 May 2016. Spa-Francorchamps served as the second race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the fifth running of the event as part of the championship. 56,000 people attended the race.

The No. 1 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley started from pole position and held the overall lead of the race until the No. 5 Toyota entry of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima gained it after the first pit stop phase after electing not to change tyres. He held it until smoke billowed from his engine, causing him to return to his garage for repairs. Audi's No. 8 car of Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and Loïc Duval inherited the lead which they maintained for the remainder of the race to secure the team's first victory of the season. Porsche's first car, driven by the eventual Drivers' Champions, Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb finished second, and the No. 13 Rebellion Racing car of Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher came in third. It was Jarvis's and di Grassi's first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the Signatech Alpine driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi. Lapierre took the lead towards the closing stages of the race after passing No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports driver Pipo Derani which eanred Menezes and Richelmi their first LMP2 class victories in the World Endurance Championship. Sam Bird and Davide Rigon in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Tourer Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) class with a one-lap advantage over second-placed No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team drivers Andy Priaulx, Marino Franchitti and Harry Tincknell. The Le Mans Grand Tourer Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was led for most of the final hour by the No. 98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda and held it to clinch victory in the class, ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas.

The result meant Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas maintained their Drivers' Championship lead with 43 points, 18 ahead of race winners Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis and a further three in front of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin who dropped to third. Imperatori, Kraihamer and Tuscher's third-place finish allowed them to move into fourth, and their team-mates Nick Heidfeld, Nicolas Prost and Nelson Piquet Jr. rounded out the top five. Porsche increased its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship on 55 points, 12 in front of their nearest rival Toyota in second, and a further three ahead of Audi with seven races left in the season.

Entrants

For the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, 34 cars were officially entered, with the bulk of the entries in Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). The 2015 race winners, Audi Team Joest Racing, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers were represented in LMP1, including a duo of cars entered by Porsche, Toyota and Audi who all elected not to included a third car at this year's race. Rebellion Racing and ByKolles Racing were the two representatives of the LMP1 privateer teams.^[1] David Markozov returned to drive the No. 27 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 entry after he was prevented from taking part at Silverstone because of family problems.^[2] LMP2 consisted of 12 cars with 36 drivers in five different types of chassis with one additional entry from G-Drive Racing who fielded the 4 Hours of Silverstone winners Giedo van der Garde, Simon Dolan and were joined by GP3 Series driver Jake Dennis.^[1]

The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field was comprised of three manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ford and Ferrari) with one change of driver: Jonathan Adam, who missed the opening race because he was participating in the British GT Championship, returned to the World Endurance Championship to Aston Martin Racing ^[2] while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants consisted of six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, KCMG, Larbre Compétition, Abu Dhabi Proton Racing and Gulf Racing.^[1] Patrick Long made his first start of the year in the championship alongside Khaled Al Qubaisi and David Heinemeier Hansson in Abu Dhabi Proton Racing's No. 88 Porsche 911 RSR after missing the first round because of commitments other motor racing series.^[2]

Background

Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, where the race was held

The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2016 schedule in December 2015 in a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris.^[3] It was the second of nine scheduled endurance sports car rounds of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, the fifth running of the event as part of the championship, and the race was held on 7 May 2016 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium with two preceding days of practice and qualifying.^[4] The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is a race track that is 7.004 kilometres (4.352 mi) long and has twenty corners.^[5]

Endurance racing events were first held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 1924 with the Spa 24 Hours. 39 years later, the track began holding World Sportscar Championship races at a distance of 500 kilometres (310 mi) and was later expanded to 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) before it was cancelled after the 1975 running because of modern safety concerns. It was resurrected in 1982 on the reconfigured Spa-Francorchamps track layout and remained on the calendar until 1990. Spa-Francorchamps began holding endurance sports car races again from 1999 and the 6 Hour event was made part of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012.^[6] The race is considered by many people as a final preparation event for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.^[4]

Before the race Porsche drivers Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas led the Drivers' Championship with 25 points each, seven points ahead of their nearest rivals Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin and a further three in front of third-placed Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher. Nick Heidfeld, Nicolas Prost and Nelson Piquet Jr. were fourth on twelve points, and Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo González rounded out the top five with ten points.^[7] Toyota were leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 33 points, eight ahead of their rival Porsche in second while the third-placed manufacturer Audi had scored one point.^[7] Porsche had won the preceding event, the 6 Hours of Silverstone, after the No. 7 Audi car was disqualified when it was discovered that its front skid block was worn out by more than the amount permitted in the sport's technical regulations.^[8]

After being unable to win the previous running of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Dumas said that Porsche had to be focused, remain calm and ensure that the team did not make any mistakes.^[9] Brendon Hartley, driving the No. 1 Porsche vehicle, said that he was looking forward to racing at circuit because it is one of his favourite tracks and felt that it would be a good race for him and his team-mates. He also felt that his defence of the World Drivers' Championship would be revived at the track following his disqualification from the Silverstone event.^[10] Toyota No. 5 car driver Anthony Davidson said that the race would give them an indication of the segments that needed focus on before heading to Le Mans and was looking forward to competing at Spa-Francorchamps. Having missed the previous year's running of the event due to injury, Kazuki Nakajima was pleased to return to the circuit and felt that the race would be better than Silverstone.^[11]

Due to the configuration of the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, with its high average speed and abundance of elevation change, the teams all set up their cars to produce the maximum amount of downforce possible and to have the least amount of drag available.^[9][11] Toyota, however, opted to use a high-downforce specification which saw them have an advantage in the track's second sector.^[12] The teams tested the aerodynamic changes in a two-day testing session at the Ciudad del Motor de Aragón in April where they learned more about the package and to improve their understanding on how it operated.^[9][11] Aston Martin were allowed to decrease the minimum weight of their cars by 20 kilograms (44 lb), making it the lighest vehicle in the LMGTE Pro category, and Ford Chip Ganassi Team were granted permission to increase their refuelling restrictor by 4.5 millimetres (0.18 in) which allowed for faster refuelling pit stops.^[13]

Practice

Three practice sessions—two on Thursday and a third on Friday—were held before the Saturday race. The Thursday afternoon and evening sessions lasted 90 minutes; the third, one-hour session was held on Friday afternoon.^[14] The first session was held in sunny weather conditions.^[15] The No. 1 Porsche driven by Hartley led the 90-minute period through its mid-way point with a fastest lap time of the day, at one minute and 58.012 seconds, almost six-tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Jani in second.^[16] Audi's second car was twice shown a black and orange flag because of a lack of telemetry for which the team was given a €1,000 suspended fine for the remainder of the race weekend and were required to change the vehicle's battery.^[16][17] The LMP2 category was led by Pipo Derani's No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Oreca with a lap of two minutes and 8.974 seconds which was recorded within the session's first-quarter. Adam's No. 97 Aston Martin was quickest in LMGTE Pro while Pedro Lamy helped the British manufacturer to be fastest in the LMGTE Am category.^[16]

Loïc Duval (pictured in 2011) damaged his car in a third practice session collision.

In the second practice session, which took place in cooler weather conditions,^[15] Sarrazin in the No. 6 Toyota, was fastest with a time of 1 minute and 58.566 seconds, which was set early in the 90-minute period. His team-mate Nakajima finished with the second-quickest time, with Mark Webber in the No. 1 Porsche ending up third-fastest. The second Audi vehicle was unable to take part because crew members were unable to repair a failed front axle drivetrain. Roberto Merhi achieved the only time under the two minute and eight second mark in the LMP2 category in the No. 45 Manor Oreca with a lap of two minutes and 7.865 seconds, eight-tenths of a second faster than the second G-Drive car of van der Garde. The LMGTE Pro category was led by James Calado in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari with the Italian marque setting the fastest time in LMGTE Am with its No. 83 vehicle being driven by Rui Águas.^[18] The session was prematurely ended with seven minutes remaining when Yutaka Yamagishi was reported to run out of fuel in Larbre Compétition's No. 50 entry and then collided with the barriers at Stavelot corner.^[18][19]

The final practice session occurred in sunny weather conditions.^[20] Timo Bernhard set the fastest timed lap of the weekend so far at one minute and 56.456 seconds in the No. 1 Porsche, 1.6 seconds faster than the second quickest car driven by team-mate Jani.^[21] Loïc Duval made contact with Christian Ried's No. 78 Proton Porsche driving into the Bus Stop chicane in the halfway period of the session, damaging his vehicle's front-left quarter but managed to return to his garage where it remained until the end of practice for repairs to its bodywork.^[20] René Rast was the fastest LMP2 driver in the No. 26 G-Drive Oreca with a time of two minutes and 7.341 seconds, four-tenths of a second quicker than Nelson Panciatici's No. 35 Signatech Alpine Oreca. Gianmaria Bruni recorded the quickest LMGTE Pro time ahead of AF Corse team-mate Davide Rigon while Paolo Ruberti, driving the No. 50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet, was the fastest driver in the LMGTE Am category.^[21]

Qualifying

Timo Bernhard (pictured in 2014) clinched Porsche's first pole position of the season.

Friday's late afternoon qualification session was divided into two groups that lasted 25 minutes each.^[14] Cars in the LMGTE Pro and AM categories were sent out first and, after a five-minute interval, LMP1 and LMP2 vehicles drove onto the track. All vehicles were required to be driven by two participants for one timed lap each and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest average times. The fastest qualifier was awarded one point which went towards the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships.^[22] The qualifying session took place in sunny weather conditions.^[23] Porsche led the time sheets early on with a flying lap from Hartley in the No. 1 entry before Bernhard improved it to clinch the team's first pole position of the season,^[24] Hartley's, Bernhard's and Webber's seventh of their career's, and the 13th for the German manufacturer, with an average time of one minute and 55.793 seconds.^[23] They were joined on the grid's front row by team-mates Jani and Lieb who were nearly eight-tenths of a second off Bernhard and Hartley's pace but it marked the first occasion that Porsche began an World Endurance Championship in the first two starting positions since the 2015 6 Hours of Bahrain.^[25][26] Lieb was not happy with his fastest lap because he braked early and was unable to achieve a rhythm he liked.^[23]

Further down the field, there was an intense battle between Audi and Toyota for positions three to six.^[24] Audi struggled to find an optimum set-up for their cars as they secured fourth and sixth positions. They were separated by the two Toyota vehicles in third and fifth places.^[25] André Lotterer was slowed by another car on the start of his first timed lap and was affected by oversteer on his second course of the circuit. Marcel Fässler took over the No. 7 Audi entry from Lotterer and abandoned his first attempt because his vehicle's rear-end became excessively light and later lost downforce behind two cars in Blanichmont corner which restricted the car to starting sixth.^[23] The two Rebellion Racing cars and the No. 4 ByKolles Racing entry rounded out the LMP1 qualifiers.^[25] Qualifying was stopped for ten minutes when the ByKolles car collided with the No. 43 Manor entry at La Source and littered debris coming from the former's rear bodywork onto the track at Radallion corner.^[24][27]

In LMP2 the No. 26 G-Drive Oreca car of Rast and Roman Rusinov took the fastest time at two minutes and 7.363 seconds,^[24] which was set towards the end of qualifying and was a new class record at the track.^[26] The two were half a second quicker than the second-place class qualifier, the No. 36 Singatech Alpine entry.^[24] Merhi held the category lead early in the session with a lap of two minutes and 7,920 seconds but his co-driver Matt Rao was unable to match the Spaniard's time and ended as the third fastest qualifier, ahead of G-Drive's No. 38 entry in fourth.^[27] Sam Bird and Rigon, competing in the No. 71 AF Corse entry, were the fastest LMGTE Pro qualifiers with a two-lap average lap time of two minutes and 17.644 seconds. Bruni in second AF Corse vehicle improved late in the qualifying session which meant Aston Martin's No. 97 car fell to third, and the two Ford Chip Ganassi Team entries rounded out the top five class qualifiers. The No. 98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana and Lamy took the pole position for the LMGTE AM class, 1.8 seconds ahead of second-place qualifier, AF Corse's No. 81 car.^[28]

Post-qualifying

Six drivers were issued reprimands by the stewards for being slow to react to the red flag, while the fastest times from the No. 50 Larbre Compétition Chevrolet, the No. 78 KCMG Porsche and No. 88 Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing entry were disallowed because the drivers were judged to have exceeded track limits. The ruling meant that Gulf Racing's No. 86 entry moved from sixth to fourth in the LMGTE Am class.^[29] The No. 51 AF Corse entry and Ford Chip Ganassi Team's No. 66 car failed their post-qualifying checks when it was discovered that the vehicles were able to start their engines with and without their fuel couplings engaged but were allowed to start the race.^[29] Michael Christensen, one of two drivers of the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, failed to reach the 107% mark of the fastest qualifying time in his category and was prohibited from starting the event but allowed to participate in the remainder of the race. The ruling meant the car's second driver Richard Lietz would take over Christensen's starting duties.^[30]

Qualifying results

Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.^[31]

Race

Weather conditions were dry at the start of the race with an air temperature ranging from 20–24.5 °C (68.0–76.1 °F) and the track temperature was between 24–52 °C (75–126 °F).^[32] 56,000 people attended the event.^[12] The race began at 14:30 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).^[14] Hartley maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first corner. After starting fourth, the No. 8 Audi moved to third while the team's second car had went from sixth to fourth driving up to Les Combes corner. Hartley began to pull away from the rest of the field.^[33] Merhi spun his car leaving the first turn but his team-mate Will Stevens overtook Nicolas Lapierre for second position in the LMP2 category.^[33][34] The No. 7 Audi went wide at La Source but narrowly maintained fourth place. In the LMGTE Pro class, Bruni passed team-mate Bird to claim the lead on the first lap. Vitaly Petrov's right-rear tyre was punctured following contact with another car on the first lap which caused him to make an unscheduled pit stop where his vehicle's floor and bodywork required changing. Dirani and Panciatici made contact at Les Combes but continued without any major damage.^[33]

Benoît Tréluyer (pictured in 2013) was afflicted with multiple issues with his Audi.

Benoît Tréluyer, driving the No. 7 Audi, was pressured by the two Toyota cars with Conway driving closely behind him heading into the Bus Stop chicane. Buemi got ahead of Conway to move into fourth place overall. Bird made a mistake at Pouhon, allowing his team-mate Bruni to reclaim the LMGTE Pro category lead.^[33] After twenty minutes of the race had been completed, Lieb slowed with an hybrid system problem and began lapping slower than most of the LMP1 runners.^[33][34] The result meant he was unable to utilise his car's full electric power capability for the remainder of the event,^[35] and the driver quickly fell to sixth place behind both Audi entrants and the first Toyota car.^[33] Tréluyer was overtaken around the outside for third place by Buemi at the Bus Stop chicane while Conway got ahead of the Porsche driver shortly afterwards.^[36] Lieb was told by his team to remain on the circuit and to manage the problem as Porsche were needing the extra points towards the championship. Derani and Panciatci continued to battle for position which was resolved when the former went slightly wide at Eau Rouge and had to reduce his speed to avoid contact, allowing the latter to take over the position. After spinning at the race's start, Merhi moved back into fifth place in the LMP2 field.^[33]

Van der Garde's car's sustained a damaged mirror and was ordered by race control to have it repaired at his scheduled pit stop. Buemi closed the gap to Lucas di Grassi in Audi's No. 8 entry and attempted to pass him driving into Eau Rouge and Raidillon but di Grassi was able to pull away on the Kemmel Straight.^[33] Buemi moved to the outside line at Blanchimont and moved in front of di Grassi, who went through grass, at the Bus Stop chicane for second place.^[33][36] Marino Franchitti's No. 67 Ford made contact with Aguas's car at Les Combes but both drivers were able to continue,^[33] although Augas lost the LMGTE Am category lead position.^[34] Fourth-place overall driver Conway locked his tyres and heavily collided with the delayed No. 37 SMP Racing car of Victor Shaytar going into the Bus Stop chicane while attempting to close the gap to di Grassi. Conway immediately drove into the pit lane for repairs to his car's front-end.^[34][36] Both Porsche cars made pit stops after 49 minutes which saw Jani taking over Lieb's driving duties while Hartley switched positions with Bernhard.^[33]

Buemi elected not to change tyres and gained the overall lead. Conway later served a drive-through penalty for his collision with Shaytar. The repairs to Van der Garde's vehicle meant he was stationary in his pit stall for four minutes which allowed Merhi to inherit fifth position in the LMP2 class. Tréluyer reported to Audi that his car had no front downforce, while Buemi went off the track at Raidillon during his efforts to push hard to increase his lead over Bernhard. Buemi was held up by one of the SMP entrants and an Aston Martin at Fagnes which caused his advantage to be reduced to 1.015 seconds. The Toyota driver missed his braking point at the Bus Stop chicane and went wide at La Source shortly afterwards, causing him to lose the first position to Bernhard. Buemi reclaimed the position at Eau Rouge but temporarily fell to second again after Bernhard overtook him on the Kemmel straight and retook the place before the entry to Les Combes. At Blanichmont corner, Bernhard avoided heavily colliding with the rear-end of Buemi's car after the latter slid while lapping Gulf Racing's Porsche entry.^[33]

Stefan Mücke (pictured in 2011) suffered brusing after heavily colliding with the tyre barriers in his car.

At the start of his 37th lap^[35] Bernhard reported a front-left puncture to his pit crew after driving over debris and had difficulty turning into the track's right-hand turns and fell to fourth place behind di Grassi and Tréluyer.^[33] The tyre degraded further which damaged his car's bodywork, but returned to the pit lane for a replacement front nose, and Webber took over his position.^[35] Strakka Racing's entry struck the Porsche's tyre carcass which became lodged in its right-front wheelarch but continued.^[33] Webber slowed with a front-left punctured tyre, causing him to return to the pit lane and pushed back into his garage for car repairs in a ten-minute period.^[37] His front-axle energy retrieval system was changed, forcing Webber to remain in his garage for more than one hour.^[33][38] The second round of green flag pit stops began after 90 minutes. The No. 7 Audi and the No. 5 Toyota had cosmetic alterations to their rear-ends and the former vehicle was taken over by Fässler. The first Toyota, driven by Davidson, kept the lead after the pit stops. The first full course caution was shown when Nicki Thiim's No. 95 Aston Martin was hit Dolan in the No. 38 G-Drive vehicle and went backwards into the Stavelot tyre barrier at high speed.^[33] His car flipped over but was unhurt. Marshals were required to repair the damaged barrier,^[34] and removed debris from the track.^[39]

During the yellow flag period, some cars elected to make pit stops, and Ricardo González spun the No. 43 RGR Sport Ligier.^[33] The No. 7 Audi rejoined the race after repairs to its floor which was damaged when the car drove over a kerb and its ducts required cleaning after rubber pick up from the circuit caused the vehicle to overheat. The entry rejoined in 15th place overall.^[40] The race restarted 12 minutes later with Davidson leading the field, ahead of the No. 8 Audi. Kobayashi immediately got ahead of Dumas to move into third position. Manor's No. 31 entry driven by Richard Bradley overtook the No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports car of Chris Cumming at Eau Rouge for fourth place in the LMP2 class. Nathanaël Berthon's No. 26 vehicle had its left-rear tyre punctured following contact with Abu Dhabi Proton's No. 88 Porsche at La Source, while Andy Priaulx in the No. 67 Ford passed Dempsey-Proton's No. 77 car for fifth place in the LMGTE Pro category. Berthon went off the track at the Bus Stop chicane while attempting to drive into the pit lane.^[33]

Upfront, the No. 5 Toyota increased its lead over the No. 8 Audi to 38.778 seconds, while the first Audi moved into 12th position.^[33] The No. 1 Porsche returned to the pit lane for a change of front axel and fell down the order in the LMP1 category because of different tyre speeds of the vehicle's front wheels.^[35] G-Drive's No. 38 entry was issued with a two-minute stop-and-go penalty for its role in the collision with the No. 95 Aston Martin. Fässler nearly placed Davidson into the grass at Stavelot while lapping ESM's Ligier entry. Fässler entered the pit lane for replacement front bodywork. Gulf's Porsche entry spun after contact with Emmanuel Collard's Ferrari at Rivage. The second full course caution was later necessitated when debris was located at three sections of the track. Davidson remained the leader at the restart, ahead of Duval, and immediately increased his advantage over the Audi driver. The No. 7 car hit the No. 36 Alpine at La Source, causing the latter to spin. The third round of pit stops commenced shortly afterwards when Audi and Toyota made their stops for fuel and driver changes.^[33] Kraihamer's No. 13 Rebellion Racing vehicle hit the LMP2 class leader Tor Gravesin the No. 44 Manor Oreca and his car was beached on La Source's apex for a long period before rejoining the event.^[33][39]

Oliver Jarvis (pictured in 2009) secured Audi's first overall victory of the season.

Graves's, who fell to second in class, went into Rivage's gravel trap with a left-front brake failure, causing him to retire.^[33][41] Toyota retired their No. 6 entry from the race because of an engine failure caused by an electrical fault. Smoke billowed from the rear-end of Nakajima's Toyota after leaving La Source and went back into the pit lane where his mechanics worked on rectifying the problem. allowing Oliver Jarvis in the No. 8 Audi to inherit the lead.^[33] Stefan Mücke, who was affected by turbocharger issues,^[34] lost control of the No. 66 Ford after one of his rear tyres was punctured, and narrowly avoided going airborne, before the vehicle made heavy contact with the right-hand side barriers at Raidillon, heavily damaging the front-end and removing both of its doors,^[33][42] as well as littering debris onto the circuit.^[39] His car stopped at the centre of the track,^[41] which caused the No. 2 Porsche to swerve to avoid hitting the vehicle,^[38] and the safety car was deployed to allow marshals to repair the heavily damaged tyre barrier. Drivers were instructed to steer onto the right-hand side of the track at Eau Rouge because of the corner being blocked by the stranded car.^[33] Mücke was transported to the track's medical centre and later taken to the local hospital for a precautionary check-up because of bruising.^[43]

Audi's No. 8 car made a pit stop for tyres, fuel and a replacement rear spoiler. The safety car went into the pit lane after 24 minutes and racing resumed with Jarvis leading the field back up to speed. Lamy passed François Perrodo's No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari at Rivage corner to take over the LMGTE Am class lead. Patrick Long in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing car overtook Perrodo at Les Comes to take over second position in the same category. Fässler closed the gap towards Heidfeld in the No. 12 Rebellion Racing vehicle but was spun by Albuquerque's RGR Sport car at La Source which resulted in heavy damage to the No. 7 Audi car.^[33] Baxi DC Racing's No. 35 entry and the Abu Dhabi's No. 88 car made heavy contact causing the former to sustain a right-rear puncture, littering the track with debris on the Kemmel Straight, and stopped on the side of the track.^[33][41] Caldao's engine failed which prevented him from clinching victory in the LMGTE Pro category and went into his garage to retire.^[41] Derani locked his tyres at La Source, allowing Lapierre to close the gap, and the French driver overtook Derani around the outside while lapping Franchitti's Ford GT at Fagnes to move into the LMP2 class lead.^[33][39]

Toyota's No. 5 entry returned to the track to gain championship points but ran solely with electrical power.^[41] Merhi collided with Albuquerque while claiming third position from the driver. Unhindered in the final hour Jarvis crossed the start/finish line to clinch Audi's overall victory of the season.^[33] It was Jarvis's and di Grassi's first win in the World Endurance Championship.^[41] The second Audi entry had secured its first victory since Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish in 2013.^[44] The No. 2 Porsche finished in second, two laps behind of Audi's No. 8 entry, and Rebellion Racing's No. 12 vehicle secured a third-place finish, albeit a further two laps behind.^[45] Lapierre maintained his advantage to take victory in the LMP2 category, earning his co-drivers Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi their first World Endurance Championship class wins, followed in second place by Derani, who was five seconds adrift.^[37] AF Corse Ferrari's No. 71 of Bird and Ridgon took their second consecutive victory in the LMGTE Pro category,^[41] while the No. 67 Ford and the No. 77 Aston Martin took second and third positions,^[45] the former narrowly finishing ahead to secure its first podium finish in the World Endurance Championship.^[46] The class win came after Bruni's engine failed nine minutes before the race's end, forcing him to enter the pit lane. In the LMGTE Am class, Aston Martin was unhindered after passing the No. 83 AF Corse entry and maintained its lead to win the category with a one-lap advantage.^[38]

Post-race

The top three drivers of each racing class appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. di Grassi described the event as "crazy" and that his team did not expect to achieve the victory. He stated that he was "very happy" about clinching his first victory with his team and it would increase their motivation and wished that he would do well at Le Mans.^[47] His co-driver Duval said that his team deserved the victory and that Audi had recovered and secured points towards the championship, while Jarvis stated that the team did not expect to secure the win because of the car's slow lap times over the race weekend.^[47] Dumas said the team's second-place finish were a reward for his mechanics, while Lieb said it had been frustrating to lose hybrid power early in the race. Jani revealed that they treated their vehicle carefully due to the loss of hybrid power.^[47] Impreatori said Rebellion Racing's third-place finish was "a dream result" and set the objective of repeating the result at the season's next race, and his co-driver Kraihamer hoped that the team's strong form would continue. Tuscher said that while the race was "tough", he was "super happy" about the result.^[47]

Davidson described the event as "strange" and stated that he had the pace to take the victory and had luck to his advantage while other competitors had problems: "I had everything crossed but it wasn’t meant to be today. That’s racing I suppose but it sure does hurt sometimes.”^[48] After finishing in 26th Webber said it had been an tough event for his team and revealed that they were confident that they could have battled for the victory had his car not sustained two punctured tyres: "It just goes to show how hard endurance racing can be. We’re all right on the limit and as we’ve seen here that’s causing quite a high rate of attrition. Third time lucky at Le Mans is the plan.”^[48] Mücke stated that he felt ok after his heavy crash and thanked his team for constructing a safe vehicle.^[49] The chief executive officer of the World Endurance Championship Gerard Neveu described the event as "a great day for motorsport" but felt that it was slightly strange.^[50] He revealed that after the race, he organised a meeting with several people and raised the question of why the level of competitveness in the event was high.^[50]

The result meant Lieb, Jani and Dumas maintained their lead in the Drivers' Championship with 43 points, 18 ahead of race winners Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis and a further three in front of Kobayashi, Conway and Sarrazin who dropped to third place. Imperatori, Kraihamer and Tuscher's third-place finish allowed them to move into fourth on 15 points, and their team-mates Heidfeld, Prost and Piquet rounded out the top five with 12 points.^[7] Porsche increased its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship on 55 points, 12 in front of their nearest rival Toyota in second, and a further three ahead of Audi with seven races left in the season.^[7]

Race result

The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of the overall winning car's race distance) was 112 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.^[45]

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP1	8	Audi Sport Team Joest	Loïc Duval Lucas di Grassi Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	M	160
					Audi TDI 4.0 L Turbo Diesel V6
2	LMP1	2	Porsche Team	Marc Lieb Romain Dumas Neel Jani	Porsche 919 Hybrid	M	158
					Porsche 2.0 L Turbo V4
3	LMP1	13	Rebellion Racing	Dominik Kraihamer Alexandre Imperatori Mathéo Tuscher	Rebellion R-One	D	156
					AER P60 2.4 L Turbo V6
4	LMP1	12	Rebellion Racing	Nicolas Prost Nick Heidfeld Nelson Piquet Jr.	Rebellion R-One	D	155
					AER P60 2.4 L Turbo V6
5	LMP1	7	Audi Sport Team Joest	André Lotterer Marcel Fässler Benoît Tréluyer	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	M	155
					Audi TDI 4.0 L Turbo Diesel V6
6	LMP1	4	ByKolles Racing Team	Simon Trummer James Rossiter Oliver Webb	CLM P1/01	D	151
					AER P60 2.4 L Turbo V6
7	LMP2	36	Signatech Alpine	Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Stéphane Richelmi	Alpine A460	D	151
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
8	LMP2	31	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ryan Dalziel Chris Cumming Pipo Derani	Ligier JS P2	D	151
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
9	LMP2	45	Manor	Matt Rao Richard Bradley Roberto Merhi	Oreca 05	D	151
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
10	LMP2	43	RGR Sport by Morand	Ricardo González Filipe Albuquerque Bruno Senna	Ligier JS P2	D	151
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
11	LMP2	26	G-Drive Racing	Roman Rusinov Nathanaël Berthon René Rast	Oreca 05	D	150
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
12	LMP2	38	G-Drive Racing	Simon Dolan Jake Dennis Giedo van der Garde	Gibson 015S	D	148
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
13	LMP2	30	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Scott Sharp Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek	Ligier JS P2	D	146
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
14	LMGTE Pro	71	AF Corse	Davide Rigon Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE	M	145
					Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8
15	LMP2	44	Manor	Tor Graves James Jakes Will Stevens	Oreca 05	D	144
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
16	LMGTE Pro	67	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Andy Priaulx Marino Franchitti Harry Tincknell	Ford GT	M	144
					Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6
17	LMGTE Pro	97	Aston Martin Racing	Fernando Rees Richie Stanaway Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	D	144
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
18	LMGTE Pro	77	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Richard Lietz Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR	M	142
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
19	LMGTE Am	98	Aston Martin Racing	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	D	140
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
20	LMGTE Am	83	AF Corse	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Águas	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M	139
					Ferrari F136GT 4.5 L V8
21	LMGTE Am	50	Larbre Compétition	Yutaka Yamagishi Paolo Ruberti Pierre Ragues	Chevrolet Corvette C7.R	M	139
					Chevrolet LT5.5 5.5 L V8
22	LMGTE Am	78	KCMG	Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joël Camathias	Porsche 911 RSR	M	139
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
23	LMGTE Am	86	Gulf Racing	Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	M	138
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
24	LMP2	37	SMP Racing	Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin	BR Engineering BR01	D	136
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
25	LMGTE Am	88	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Khalid Al Qubaisi Patrick Long David Heinemeier Hansson	Porsche 911 RSR	M	136
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
26	LMP1	1	Porsche Team	Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Mark Webber	Porsche 919 Hybrid	M	112
					Porsche 2.0 L Turbo V4
27	LMP1	5	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Anthony Davidson Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	M	110[N 1]
					Toyota 2.4 L Turbo V6
DNF	LMP2	35	Baxi DC Racing Alpine	David Cheng Ho-Pin Tung Nelson Panciatici	Alpine A460	D	143
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
DNF	LMGTE Pro	51	AF Corse	Gianmaria Bruni James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE	M	140
					Ferrari F154CB 3.9 L Turbo V8
DNF	LMP2	27	SMP Racing	Nicolas Minassian Maurizio Mediani David Markozov	BR Engineering BR01	D	123
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
DNF	LMGTE Pro	66	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Olivier Pla Stefan Mücke Billy Johnson	Ford GT	M	100
					Ford EcoBoost 3.5 L Turbo V6
DNF	LMP1	6	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Stéphane Sarrazin Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	M	87
					Toyota 2.4 L Turbo V6
DNF	LMP2	42	Strakka Racing	Nick Leventis Jonny Kane Danny Watts	Gibson 015S	D	78
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
DNF	LMGTE Pro	95	Aston Martin Racing	Nicki Thiim Marco Sørensen Darren Turner	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	D	40
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8

Notes

References