Heading into next month’s Nürburgring 6 Hours, round four of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid squad of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani sits atop the FIA WEC Drivers’ Championship standings.
With double points on offer at Le Mans, the race-winning trio scored the maximum 51 points from the event, with 50 for the win plus the extra point for pole position, increasing their total to 94.
Heading into the French classic, they already led the championship having won at Silverstone and finished second at Spa. Going forward they have a real chance of taking their first World Championship.
The round in France has always proved crucial for the WEC teams and drivers in the past, and this year is no exception.
P1 rivals left chasing
Sitting in second is the #8 Audi of Oliver Jarvis, Loic Duval and Lucas Di Grassi with 55 apiece, benefiting from the misfortune of the #5 Toyota’s retirement, claiming 30 points for finishing on the podium at La Sarthe. Third is the crew in the #6 Toyota, Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin after finishing second at Le Mans.
The drama in the dying minutes of last weekend’s race not only prevented the #5 Toyota crew from going down in history as Le Mans winners, but has severely hindered their chance of taking the world championship. Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi sit a lowly 23rd, with just one point to their names after missing out on points at Le Mans, and only scoring half a point at both Silverstone and Spa.
It’s a similarly disappointing situation for the current champs in the #1 Porsche, who sit 19th with just 3.5 points. Not the start to the season Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard envisioned or deserve.
A retirement at Le Mans means the dark-horse #13 Rebellion’s chances of doing damage in the standings took a hit too. Still with 30 points, Dominik Kraihamer, Matteo Tuscher and Alex Imperatori have slipped from second to fifth. Rebellion is still dominating the Privateer points though, after ByKolles’ CLM failed to finish at Le Mans.
On the manufacturer points front, Porsche hold the lead with 127 points, Audi is second on 95 ahead of third-placed Toyota on 79.
Consistency pays off for Aston
The GTE Pro standings post-Le Mans has seen Aston Martin take the lead in the GT Manufacturers standings, with 112 points, just nine points ahead of Ferrari and 14 ahead of Ford. The shakeup at the top is a product of AMR’s cars finishing races in and around podium spots.
Ford won convincingly at Le Mans, but the two GTs on the podium were the IMSA crews which were not eligible for WEC points. The Risi Ferrari which finished second also didn’t score points at the 24-hours. A the event full points are still awarded to the WEC runners in pure order though so the #66 Ford picked up 50, despite finishing fourth.
The driver standings therefore favoured Ford. The #66 Olivier Pla, Stefan Mucke and Billy Johnson car moves into the lead with 60 points, picking up 50.
They’re now ahead of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird who won both the pre-Le Mans rounds but retired at Le Mans in the #71 AF Corse 488 and the #95 Aston combo of Darren Turner, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim. It’s tight for second, with the Ferrari boys on 52, and the Aston boys on 51!
Alpine top G-Drive in P2
Signatech Alpine’s Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi followed up their win at Spa with a dominant showing at Le Mans, and the drivers now hold a 23 point lead over G-Drive Racing’s full-season drivers Rene Rast and Roman Rusinov with 87 points.
RGR Sport by Morand battled through to the finish 10th in LMP2 at Le Mans and were awarded valuable points. Having scored 16, Filipe Albuquerque Bruno Senna and Ricardo Gonzalez currently sit third on 53 points, bolstered by their exceptional victory at Silverstone.
The same situation in the LMP2 Teams standings, which sees Alpine lead G-Drive, 87 to 66.
AF Corse take over in Am
The Am-winning Scuderia Corsa Ferrari wasn’t eligible for WEC points, leaving the second place #83 AF Corse Ferrari to pick up the full haul of 50.
It was a real reward for Manu Collard, whose charge to second could prove pivotal by the end of the year. It leaves himself, Francois Perrodo and Rui Aguas leading the championship 93 points, ahead of the Abu-Dhabi Proton Porsche crew of Pat Long, David Heinemeier Hansson and Khaled Al Qubaisi.
Moving up to third is the Larbre Corvette drivers with 50, after the #98 Aston Martin Vantage DNF’d at Le Mans and is still on 45.
With six rounds remaining, there’s still a plenty of points on offer. The World Endurance Championship continues on 22-24th of July in Germany, for the final European round of the season at the Nürburgring.
