Completely Green But Action-Filled First Hour

Mark Webber started the race on a mission: to regain the pole position the #17 had been robbed of from the sister car. A daring move on the outside into turn one saw Webber rush into the lead and pull the gap on teammate Neel Jani in the #18. The second Porsche looked to be under pressure from the #8 Audi as De Grassi closed down the gap to Jani but it came to no avail. The Audi’s pitted four laps earlier than the Porsches and Toyotas, but the Porsches tyres had a lot of graining when they came off the cars. The reining champion Toyota managed to get the jump on current championship-leading Audi #7 off the start and moved up to P4 but it didn’t take long for business as usual to returned, with the two Porsches being chased by the two Audis, followed by the two Toyotas. The Rebellion team lead the non-hybrid LMP1 cars with #12, with #13 having more issues and currently, at the end of hour one, still sits in the garage.

After yesterday’s qualifying KCMG car #47 was stripped of their pole position for exceeding track limits, something that is still a big talking point through the race, and so started at the back of the LMP2 class, along with Signtech Alpine’s car. However, the KCMG car made easy work of the field, progressing to P3 within the first ten minutes. Car #26 was under investigation with car #13 for the start but there is no further action for this incident. Extreme Motorsport’s car #30 managed to get up in between the two G-Drive cars off the start and with a late pit stop lead the class at the end of the last hour.

Porsche lead both of the LMGTE classes, with Makowiecki in the #92 leading Lietz in the #91 in Pro, whilst the Dempsey car retained the lead they achieved yesterday in th Am class. Pat Long took the wheel of car #77 to start the race and made and attack, passing Pro AF Corse car #51 through the first few laps. It is good to note here that the specifications for the LMGTE Pro and Am cars are exactly the same, it is the qualifications of the drivers that differentiate between Pro and Am, so the pace of the Am #77 matching and passing the #51 Pro car is not surprising. The surprising factor of the pace and speed of Long at the beginning of the race is that he is an Am driver, so to match the pace of the Pros is very impressive. The Aston Martins seem to be slipping off the pace a bit in both Pro and Am as the race goes on.

The AF Corse cars were looking to gain back some positions after their poor show in qualifying yesterday. Car #71 made a brave move to try and pass car #97. They went three abreast down towards the corner and late braking made it appear that #71 had made an amazing move to gain two positions into the corner. However, late braking meant going deep into the corner, and so the two positions he had gained were instantly lost as he ran wide off track, giving back the positions. The Ferraris took a while to warm up to the track but now, an hour in, are running strong with #51 in P3 for the Pro class. The Aston Martins – who had good form yesterday in qualifying – seem to be struggling a bit, especially after the pit stops.

The running has been completely green, with only Rebellion #13 having issues that have confined them to the garage for repairs. Hour two suggests that track limit penalties may begin to come into play, whilst everyone’s eyes are on the Porsches, looking to see if tyre degradation will ruin their strong lead to the race.

(image: www.fiawec.com)

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