Action Packed and Incident Filled Hour Three
- Aug 30, 2015
- 2 min read
Porsche’s spectacular one-two run was demolished when car #18 was hit with not one but two stop/go penalties: again, for excessive fuel consumption. First they were hit with a thirty second stop and then, the following lap, a 60 second stop/go penalty was awarded to them. This dropped car #18 down into forth place. The assumption is that the team have told the drivers of car 18 to soft pedal the car and take the race easy to make sure the fuel consumption can be monitored – unable to trust their instruments. Luckily for them, they were able to take their regular pit stop under full course yellows. The issues at Porsche prompted Audi up to second and third.
LMP2 saw KCMG retaking the lead of the class, setting some fast laps after the pit stop to bring the gap down to the number 26 car. A nice manoeuvre into turn one saw the position swap, putting #47 back into the class lead. Full course yellows were out at the beginning of the hour to clear some gravel off the track, which served to be purposeful as only a few laps after the track had gone green again Ed Brown spun car 31 by taking too much curb over turn fifteen. He brought the yellows out for a few laps but managed to get the LMP2 car back to the pits for repairs.
LMGTE Pro made a dramatic turn to the race towards the end of the hour. The incident started when car #88 made contact with LMP1 car #4 and spun, bringing out yellow flags in the original area of contact. From damage suffered in that incident, car #4 lost its rear wing coning into turn one, leaving the debris in the middle of the track. This brought out the third full course yellows on the track but unsuspecting LMGTE Pro car #92 was unsuspecting of the sudden slow down. He had been, at the time, in a close fight for second in class with #71 but, as the Ferrari slowed for the full course yellows, the Porsche went straight into the back of the F458. Damaged was cause to the Ferrari, where the body work and diffuser was rubbing onto the rear left tyre, forcing the second placed car to pit. A quick turn around from AF Corse saw #71 hold position but as the track returned to green #92 made quick work of the damaged Ferrari as the quick fix was clearly not enough.
Car #98 still leads the LMGTE Am after an amusing four-a-breast overtake that saw the two LMP1 Audis brought very close together as they tried to fight through the heavy traffic of GT cars. #92 is under investigation for the contact with #71 for not slowing for the full course yellows.
Race Order: 17, 7, 8, 18, 1, 2, 47, 26, 28, 43, 36, 42, 30, 4, 91, 71, 92, 95, 98, 99, 77, 72, 97, 50, 31, 88, 83, 96, 51, 12, 13
(Image: www.fiawec.com)
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