Audi Decide on FIA Tribunal for Appeal
Audi Sport decided to appeal the decision to exclude the race winning #7 Audi R18 from the results of the 6 Hours of Silverstone to an FIA Tribunal.
That process can take some weeks and presently looks highly unlikely to be completed before Round 2 of the 2016 FIA WEC at Spa.
Brendon Hartley on His Silverstone Shunt
Brendon Hartley took to social media yesterday to say:
“Hugely disappointed with yesterday. MW did a mega job getting the car to the lead, car was awesome and we were stretching it. I had high speed contact with a GT car before the 3 hour mark.
“Passing traffic with more than 50km/h speed difference is never straight forward but very easy for critics to point fingers. It is normal for the prototype cars to pass around the outside of turn 2 as the normal racing line is just half track to make the braking for the next tight right.
“It’s my job as a LMP1 driver to read the car in front and get around safely, I didn’t. It is of course the right of the car in front to take what ever line they want. It all happened very quick and In hindsight I would have done it differently! I will learn from this experience.
“Team spirit could not be higher on car #1 and I thank the entire Porsche team for the job they did yesterday. Not the result we wanted but Myself, Timo and Mark stand together and will fight back in Spa.”
‘Big Honking Fin’ Works!
It’s worth mentioning that with there have been sharp critics of the aesthetics of the ‘big honking fin’ and large louvre-less openings over the wheels on LMP cars but they clearly all played a part in preventing the #1 Porsche from flipping.
Toyota lead World Championship
By dint of getting both cars home in competitive for the Toyota Gazoo Racing lead the World Championship for Manufacturers after Silverstone with 33 points to Porsche’s 25 points.
Ferrari Top WEC Class Wins Charts
Almost lost in all the excitement Ferrari became the marque with most class wins in WEC history, overhauling Aston Martin with their double win at Silverstone and taking their total to 24 (15 in LM GTE Pro, 9 in LM GTE Am) Porsche meanwhile moved up to 22 wins, one behind Aston Martin’s 23.
Bird Makes it Wins in Two Classes
Sam Bird followed up his part in setting pole position in the #71, and thereby setting his first GTE Pole position, and a pole in a third different WEC class, with a win, making it wins in two different classes, matching the achievement of a select group of drivers Messrs Beche, Canal, Conway, Dumas, Lieb, Lapierre, Potolicchio and Sarrazin.
But Senna Makes it a Record Three
That mark was bettered though by the first man in WEC history to score a class win in three different classes, stand up Bruno Senna who added an LMP2 win with RGR by Morand to his wins in both GTE Pro and GTE Am with Aston Martin.
