2016 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The 2016 6 Hours of Silverstone was a six hour endurance sports car racing event held for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England on 15–17 April 2016. Silverstone served as the opening round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the fifth running of the event as part of the championship. A total of 52,000 people attended the race weekend.

Audi's No. 7 car of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer won the pole position and maintained their advantage on the race's first lap. Lotterer initially pulled away from the field but lost the lead to Mark Webber in Porsche's No. 1 car who remained in the position. Co-driver Brendon Hartley remained in first until he retired following heavy contact with Michael Wainwright in the No. 86 Gulf Racing car. This handed the lead to Neel Jani in the sister No. 2 car, but it switched again to Tréluyer when Jani's co-driver Marc Lieb was delayed by a slower vehicle. Although he was challenged by Lieb after being blocked by slower cars Tréluyer pulled away from him and the No. 7 Audi maintained its advantage over the No. 2 Porsche for the majority of the remainder of the event to finish the race first. However the No. 7 Audi was disqualified when scrutineers discovered that its front skid block was worn out by more than the regulations allowed for, handing the victory to Lieb, Jani and Romain Dumas. Toyota No. 5 drivers Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi finished in second and Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher came in third to secure Rebellion Racing's first podium in the series since 2013.

The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the No. 43 RGR Sport by Morand car of Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo González. Senna took the lead in the event's closing stages and earned him and Albuquerque their first World Endurance Championship class victories and González's fourth. Sam Bird and Davide Rigon in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari were unchallenged throughout the race and took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class ahead of their teammates Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado in the sister Ferrari who served a three-minute stop-and-go penalty for an engine change after qualifying. The Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was led throughout the final stages by François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas who won their first race of the season in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari with a one-lap advantage over the second-placed No. 98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy.

The result meant Lieb, Jani and Dumas became the leaders of the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven ahead of their nearest rivals Sarrazin, Conway and Kobayashi, and a further three in front of Kraihamer, Imperatori and Piquet. Their teammates Nico Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Nelson Piquet Jr. were fourth on 12 points with Senna, Albuquerque and González rounding out the top five with ten points. Toyota claimed the Manufacturers' Championship lead with 33 points, eight ahead of their rival Porsche in second; the third-placed manufacturer Audi had scored one point with eight races left in the season.

Background

Entrants

A total of thirty-three cars were officially entered for the 6 Hours of Silverstone with the bulk of the entries in Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). The 2015 race winners, Audi Sport Team Joest, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers, Porsche, Toyota and Audi Sport Team Joest, were represented in LMP1 by two cars each. Rebellion Racing and ByKolles Racing were the two representatives of the LMP1 privateer teams. Super Formula and Super GT driver James Rossiter returned to sports car racing in the 4 Rebellion Racing entry, replacing Pierre Kaffer who had other motor racing commitments for the season's first two races. 2014–15 Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr. took over from Mathias Beche and joined fellow racers Nick Heidfeld and Nico Prost in Rebellion Racing's No. 12 car for the season's first three rounds. LMP2 consisted of 11 cars with 32 drivers in five different types of chassis. Manor made its début in the series at Silverstone with a two-car entry, fielding Will Stevens, James Jakes and Tor Graves in its first vehicle, along with Matt Rao, Richard Bradley and Roberto Merhi in the team's second entry. David Markozov was scheduled to take part at Silverstone in the No. 27 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 car but was unable to participate because of family problems.

The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field consisted of four manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ford, Ferrari and Porsche), while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants were six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, KCMG, Larbre Compétition, Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing and Gulf Racing. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entered the series, fielding two full-time Ford GT vehicles driven by Andy Priaulx, Marino Franchitti, Harry Tincknell in its No. 67 entry and Olivier Pla, Stefan Mücke and Billy Johnson behind the wheel of the No. 66 car. Patrick Long was committed to participating in the Pirelli World Challenge event on the Streets of Long Beach and was replaced by Klaus Bachler in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, joining the team's regular drivers David Heinemeier Hansson and Khaled Al Qubaisi. Gulf Racing made their first appearance in the series with 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix driver Adam Carroll, Porsche Supercup podium finisher Ben Barker and the team's co-founder Michael Wainwright.

Preview

The 6 Hours of Silverstone was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2016 schedule in December 2015 at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris. It was the first of nine scheduled endurance sports car rounds of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and the fifth running of the event as part of the championship. The race was held on 17 April 2016 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England with two preceding days of practice and qualifying. The Silverstone Circuit is a race track that is long and is composed of 18 corners in varying degrees of sharpness, ranging from gentle sweeping turns to one sharp hairpin.

Heading into the new season, co-defending World Endurance champion Mark Webber stated Porsche's performance advantage over their two main rivals could possibly disappear at Silverstone but felt the team could successfully retain the drivers' and manufacturers' titles. He said his team's expectations were ambitious. Although Webber was aware of the tight opposition he was confident that Porsche could fight well: "We have a very stable concept, let’s say, so it’s very well known for us. We of course want to aim for another win at Le Mans and win the championships, so the goals are very, very high." Audi No. 8 co-driver Lucas di Grassi believed that Toyota's new chassis, the TS050 Hybrid, would allow its drivers to run at the front of the field after they experienced a difficult 2015 season: "I expect them to make a big step, because they have changed the engine and the hybrid system. They are a good team, they won the championship in 2014. They will be strong."

Practice

There were three practice sessions—one 90-minute session each on Friday morning and afternoon and a third one-hour session on Saturday morning—were scheduled to precede Sunday's race. The first session was held on a wet track from earlier morning rain and lap times reduced as the 90-minute period progressed due to the track drying out. No incidents were reported. Timo Bernhard in the No. 1 Porsche led the practice session in its final minutes with a lap time of 1 minute and 42.182 seconds, eight-tenths of a second faster than Marc Lieb in the sister entry. René Rast in G-Drive Racing's No. 26 Oreca 05 Nissan led LMP2 with a fastest lap of 1 minute and 51.617 seconds set in the session's final 15 minutes. The No. 51 AF Corse car driven by Gianmaria Bruni was fastest in LMGTE Pro while Rui Águas in the sister team's No. 83 entry helped the Italian marque to be the fastest vehicle in LMGTE Am.

In the second practice session, which took place in dry weather conditions for most of the 90-minute period and became wet when rain fell in the closing stages which prevented any drivers from improving on their fastest times, Brendon Hartley in Porsche's No. 1 car set an early lap time of 1 minute and 39.655 seconds which remained the fastest time for the remainder of the session. He was 1.6 seconds quicker than Romain Dumas in the team's No. 2 entry, who in turn, was two-tenths of a second faster than Loïc Duval in the No. 8 Audi. A LMGTE car impacted Dumas, causing him to spin into the turn seven gravel trap, and sustained damage to his car's right-rear tyre, causing the deployment of a full course yellow flag. He was extracted from the gravel trap and drove back to the pit lane for car repairs. Jonny Kane in the No. 36 Signatech Alpine was the fastest driver in LMP2 with a 1-minute and 49.632 seconds set lap in the session's closing minutes, nearly one-tenth of a second in front of Jakes. LMGTE Pro was led by James Calado in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, while Carroll's Gulf Racing car was fastest in LMGTE Am, despite driving off the track in the session's closing minutes.

The third (and final) practice session started with a morning sleet shower and Anthony Davidson in Toyota's No. 5 entry drove off the circuit at Luffield turn. Davidson later aquaplaned backwards off the track and into the Chapel corner gravel trap. The session was stopped to allow the stricken Toyota to be extracted from the gravel trap and it was able to return to the pit lane with assistance from a recovery crane, allowing on-track action to recommence. Sleet later turned to snow necessitating track officials to stop the session for the second time. Driver adviser Yannick Dalmas was asked to assess the track's condition during the stoppage and gave feedback that prompted the session's premature end with half an hour remaining. Eleven cars took to the track but nobody recorded a timed lap. Tincknell completed the most out-laps of any driver in the session with three.

Qualifying

Saturday's late afternoon qualification session was divided into two groups lasting 25 minutes each. Cars in LMGTE Pro and AM were sent out first and, after a five-minute interval, LMP1 and LMP2 vehicles drove onto the track. All cars were required to be driven by two participants for one timed lap each and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest average times. The fastest qualifier was awarded one point which went towards the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships. The session started on a wet track but dried out as it progressed. André Lotterer and Marcel Fässler in the No. 7 Audi clinched the vehicle's first pole position of the season, and the team's first since the 2013 6 Hours of Fuji, with an average lap time of 1 minute and 53.204 seconds. Manor's No. 44 car made contact with Fässler at the end of the session but both vehicles sustained no apparent damage. It also ended Porsche's streak of 11 consecutive pole positions, extending back to the 2014 6 Hours of Shanghai. They were joined on the grid's front row by the team's No. 8 sister entry. Di Grassi recorded the fastest qualifying timed lap late in the session but went off the track heading into Vale corner while attempting to go faster. He went into the turn's gravel trap, preventing him from achieving the pole position. The two Porsche cars were third and fourth (the No. 1 vehicle in front of the No. 2 entry). Hartley was delayed by slower traffic on his final timed lap and believed he could have improved on his time. Toyota's entrants had unsuitable car control settings and a different vehicle set-up, restricting to them to qualifying on the grid's third row (their No. 5 car ahead of the No. 6 entry). Oliver Webb and Rossiter in the ByKolles Racing CLM P1/01 and the two Rebellion Racing cars rounded out the LMP1 field; Rebellion elected not to record any lap times.

In LMP2, Rast used intermediate tyres before making a pit stop for full wet tyres and recorded a lap time of 2 minutes and 7.374 seconds which gave him and co-driver Roman Rusinov a pole-setting two-lap average time of two minutes and 8.479 seconds. The two drivers were 1.1 seconds faster than the second-place class qualifier, the No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P2 of Pipo Derani and Chris Cumming. Derani set the category's fastest individual lap which was 0.059 second's faster than Rast. The No. 43 RGR Sport team qualified in third with both SMP Racing cars rounding out the top five LMP2 qualifiers. Sam Bird and Davide Rigon, competing in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari, were the fastest LMGTE Pro drivers with a two-lap average time of 2 minutes and 12.440 seconds. They qualified 1.3 seconds in front of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen in Dempsey-Proton Racing's No. 77 Porsche. Mücke and Pla in Ford Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 66 car took third despite Pla going into the Stowe corner gravel trap late in the session. Their sister No. 67 GT and the KCMG Porsche rounded out the top five class qualifiers. Calado recorded a time of 2 minutes and 11.589 seconds, and, after Bruni got into the car, he was unable to record a lap time and returned to a pit lane with an engine bay technical issue and started from the back of the overall field. Bachler and Khaled Al Qubaisi took the pole position in LMGTE Am, their first in the series, 2.297 seconds ahead of the second-place qualifier, KCMG's No. 78 car. Paolo Ruberti in Larbre Competition's No. 50 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R held the class pole position in the early part of the session but the team fell to third following the handover to co-driver Yutaka Yamagishi.

Qualifying results

Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold.

Race

Weather conditions at the start of the event were dry and sunny. The air temperature throughout the race was between with a track temperature ranging from ; although conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race, the possibility of a late rain shower was forecast. 52,000 people attended the race weekend. The race began at 12:00 British Summer Time ( UTC+01:00) with actor Patrick Dempsey having the honour of waving the green flag. Lotterer maintained his pole position advantage going into the first corner. Jarvis behind him held second place, but came under pressure from Webber. Derani immediately attacked Rusinov and moved to the lead of LMP2 after overtaking him under braking at Brooklands corner. Sébastien Buemi overtook Toyota teammate Mike Conway to move into fifth place but the latter retook the position three minutes later. Webber set the race's fastest lap so far, at one minute and 30.309 seconds, to run one second behind Jarvis. Jarvis was delayed by a slower car and Webber passed him for second. Jarvis then fended off a challenge from Dumas for third. Lotterer used the battle to increase his advantage to five seconds while Stevens and Vitaly Petrov impacted each other while battling for fifth in LMP2.

Buemi moved back ahead of Conway in the battle for fifth, while Lotterer was impeded by an LMP2 and LMGTE car at Becketts corner and Webber was delayed by the two vehicles at Stowe corner. Jarvis came across the two slower cars at Copse corner and narrowly held off an overtaking manoeuvre from Dumas. The Audi moved across the track at Becketts corner upon coming across more slower traffic. Webber caught Lotterer and after closing up to him through Club corner. While lapping Rossiter, Webber moved to the front of the race heading into Abbey corner. Webber began to pull away from Lotterer. Jarvis was delayed by Rossiter, allowing Dumas to attack but went into grass on the Wellington straight. After making contact Bruno Senna overtook Rusinov driving into Maggots corner for second place in LMP2. The first round of pit stops began after 37 minutes with Derani making a pit stop, promoting Senna into the LMP2 lead. Jarvis was the first of the overall leaders to make a pit stop for fuel and tyres and was followed by teammate Lotterer one minute later. Dumas and both Toyota cars made stops with Jani taking over from Dumas and Kamui Kobayashi switched positions with Conway. Webber stopped one lap later and Hartley climbed aboard the No. 1 Porsche.

After the pit stops Hartley remained the leader in the No. 1 Porsche while Jarvis moved in front of Lotterer because the latter had a longer pit stop. Cumming lost control of the No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier driving into Club corner after encountering a LMGTE Ferrari, went across grass, and spun at the turn's center, allowing Rusinov to move into the lead of LMP2 and Ricardo González took over second. The LMGTE field began making pit stops after 52 minutes when Darren Turner drove the No. 95 Aston Martin into his pit box while Fernando Rees in the sister No. 97 car was issued with a stop-and-go penalty for exceeding track limits. Both Ford cars moved into second and third in LMGTE Pro when the No. 77 Porsche had only fuel placed inside it. Turner overtook Priaulx for fourth place in LMGTE Pro while Christensen moved ahead of Mücke for second position in the category at Stowe corner. Merhi went wide at Copse corner, which allowed Nelson Panciatici

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