With the 2016 6 Hours of Silverstone truly race winding down the seventh set of stops occurred, after which the #7 Audi’s lead was cut to seven seconds for the run to the flag.
In LMP2, the order remainder the same, with the #43 Morand Racing Ligier with Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel maintaining a the lead over the #31 ESM LIgier, and #36 Alpine. The trio were spread out.
With just 24 minutes left, the #97 Aston Martin with Richie Stanaway driving pulled off to the side of the circuit to retire, running sixth in GTE Pro. A disappointing end to the car, which had a few hiccups during the race, resulting in it circulating further down the order than the #95 which ran faultlessly.
As the final quarter of an hour approached, the gap between the top two fluctuated somewhat, to 10 seconds, and then back to seven. Jani was clearly struggling to make any significant gains on the leading Audi through traffic.
The third place #6 Toyota was also falling back to over a minute off Fassler up front.
Then, with 10 minutes remaining, the #2 Porsche had to come in for a splash, sealing the victory for Audi, and taking all the pressure off.
Down in GTE Pro and Am, the contenders were also pretty far apart. It was settled that AF Corse were going to win both classes, with the #71 of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird having a faultless run for the entire race.
It was the cherry on top of the 488’s outstanding debut having the #51 secure second place too, the car had to do one less stop than the #95 Aston, snatching the spot it had held for the entire second half.
Up front it was an exceptional performance from the #7 Audi, converting pole position to a win for the first time in a long time.
