After the dramas of the first four rounds of the 2014 World Endurance Championship, it came as something of a relief that round 5, held at the Fuji Speedway on Sunday, provided an altogether more predictable instalment. Too much drama is, in my view, a bad thing in top-level motor sport, reducing it to the status of soap opera or bare-faced commercial entertainment. It is especially true in this year’s WEC, based so strongly as it is on advanced technology – the fact that the season has provided the intensity of competition that it has is the biggest surprise.
That’s not to say it wasn’t a good race – it held the attention throughout its six-hour duration. Even though a win for Toyota on home soil always looked likely, and AF Corse’s Ferraris grip on the GTE-Pro class continued to be vice-like, there was some splendid racing, especially in the LMP2 class for a change.
Consistent conditions, and mostly green-flag racing allows lots of good comparisons to be made; here is the data for the LMP1-H class.
|
Stint no.
|
Driver
|
Stint length (laps)
|
Stint average lap time
|
Average best 20% of laps
|
|
1
|
Loïc Duval
|
35
|
1m 30.2s
|
1m 29.2s
|
|
2
|
Lucas di Grassi
|
68
|
1m 30.3s
|
1m 29.1s
|
|
3
|
Tom Kristensen
|
72
|
1m 30.6s
|
1m 29.7s
|
|
4
|
Loïc Duval
|
59
|
1m 30.7s
|
1m 29.5s
|
|
Stint no.
|
Driver
|
Stint length (laps)
|
Stint average lap time
|
Average best 20% of laps
|
|
1
|
André Lotterer
|
87
|
1m 30.3s
|
1m 29.3s
|
|
2
|
Benoît Tréluyer
|
73
|
1m 30.9s
|
1m 29.9s
|
|
3
|
Marcel Fässler
|
73
|
1m 30.8s
|
1m 29.9s
|
|
Stint no.
|
Driver
|
Stint length (laps)
|
Stint average lap time
|
Average best 20% of laps
|
|
1
|
Kazuki Nakajima
|
35
|
1m 29.3s
|
1m 28.5s
|
|
2
|
Stéphane Sarrazin
|
74
|
1m 29.2s
|
1m 28.6s
|
|
3
|
Alexander Wurz
|
37
|
1m 29.9s
|
1m 29.0s
|
|
4
|
Kazuki Nakajima
|
74
|
1m 28.9s
|
1m 28.1s
|
|
5
|
Stéphane Sarrazin
|
16
|
1m 29.5s
|
1m 28.5s
|
|
Stint no.
|
Driver
|
Stint length (laps)
|
Stint average lap time
|
Average best 20% of laps
|
|
1
|
Sébastien Buemi
|
36
|
1m 29.3s
|
1m 28.4s
|
|
2
|
Anthony Davidson
|
74
|
1m 29.0s
|
1m 28.2s
|
|
3
|
Sébastien Buemi
|
72
|
1m 29.1s
|
1m 28.3s
|
|
4
|
Anthony Davidson
|
54
|
1m 28.8s
|
1m 27.9s
|
|
Stint no.
|
Driver
|
Stint length (laps)
|
Stint average lap time
|
Average best 20% of laps
|
|
1
|
Marc Lieb
|
36
|
1m 29.7s
|
1m 28.7s
|
|
2
|
Neel Jani
|
74
|
1m 29.9s
|
1m 29.1s
|
|
3
|
Romain Dumas
|
74
|
1m 30.4s
|
1m 29.4s
|
|
4
|
Marc Lieb
|
50
|
1m 30.2s
|
1m 29.2s
|
|
Stint no.
|
Driver
|
Stint length (laps)
|
Stint average lap time
|
Average best 20% of laps
|
|
1
|
Mark Webber
|
84
|
1m 29.9s
|
1m 28.5s
|
|
2
|
Timo Bernhard
|
76
|
1m 30.0s
|
1m 29.2s
|
|
3
|
Brendon Hartley
|
75
|
1m 29.8s
|
1m 29.0s
|
Readers of these pages are surely wise enough to draw their own conclusions, but here a few of mine:
- The no. 1 Audi was quicker than the no. 2 Audi
- The two Audis both got slower as the race goes on, whereas both Toyotas got quicker
- The longest stint was by André Lotterer
- Anthony Davidson was quicker than Sébastien Buemi
- Only two cars (the no. 2 Audi and the no. 20 Porsche did only two driver changes
- Mark Webber may have set fastest lap, but the variability of his laps was greater than any other driver
- Stéphane Sarrazin was the most consistent driver – the difference between his average and full stint time just 0.6s
- Anthony Davidson’s final stint was the fastest stint of the race
A final point – the only car in LMP1-H to do two proper stints on a single set of tyres was the no. 20 Porsche, in the hands of Mark Webber. He did one stint (after his puncture) of 38 laps at an average of 1m 29.16s and then a further stint of 36 laps, but at an average of 1m 31.05s. Simple maths shows that cost more than a minute in total – at least 30 seconds more than a tyre change would have cost. Not enough to make a difference to the overall result, but nevertheless something for Porsche to put into their bank of experience.
Paul Truswell
