231 replies to this topic

[OSX]

Audi Beats Porsche In Epic Silverstone WEC Battle
12 April 2015

 

 

The #7 Audi of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler came out on top of an enthralling duel with the #18 Porsche of Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani to win the WEC-opening 6 Hours of Silverstone.

Both cars were split by just 4.610s seconds at the finish, the Audi having enough of a margin to survive a late extra stop for fuel and a stop-and-go penalty for exceeding track limits during its final stint with Fassler behind the wheel.

Those delays virtually wiped out what had been a 1m12s cushion for the #1 car over Jani in the #18 Porsche, which had been built up largely thanks to a superb triple stint in the middle of the race by Lotterer.

 

Full Report: Motorsport...epic-silverstone-wec-battle

[Rjpscr]

What a race! didnt think #7 Audi was gonna keep the lead after getting that stop and go. Thinking it was gonna be between #18 and the #1 for the win, and wow that Porsche is mega down the straights they should be the favorites for spa with those long straights. Wasn't really much happing in LMP2 other than the start, GTEP and GTEAM had decent battles. Overall very good race roll on Spa!   

[OSX]

[Victor_RO]

#30 ESM excluded from 3rd place in LMP2 due to excessive floor wear. 

[TimRTC]

Good race live and I bet the Audi/Porsche battle looked amazing on TV.

The full course yellow worked very well, avoiding any of the race changing issues that a safety car would have. No penalties either so I guess everyone respected it.

In answer to my earlier post, 169 laps of the current Silverstone circuit would make 1000km. So with 201 laps they went a lot further today.

[Peat]

Whatever happened to the HPD wail? The ESM's sounded like they were barely ticking over. 

[Victor_RO]

Whatever happened to the HPD wail? The ESM's sounded like they were barely ticking over. 

 

V6 turbo, not the old yowling 3.4 V8.

[WhiteBlue]

They did almost 1200 km. That is nearly four F1 race distances. Shows how fast the LMP1 now are.

[Peat]

Surely current P1's would dust F1 cars over a grand prix distance given the woeful Pirelli tyres. 

The fastest race lap was only a few tenths off the pole time, F1 seem to troll around 5s off the pace  for 95% of the race. 

Can anyone work this out with the data available?

[Victor_RO]

Can anyone work this out with the data available?

 

Give me a minute. Need to look up the lap charts and lap times in a fully-green section.

 

EDIT: Will take laps 100-151 from the WEC race as a comparison. #7 Audi was leading at the start and end of that period, so it's easier to gather the data.

 

EDIT 2: Laps 100-151 (a F1 race distance) were completed by the #7 Audi, with two pitstops (stop 1 - fuel only, about 35-40 seconds lost over a F1 pitstop, stop 2 - fuel and tires, about a minute lost over a F1 pitstop), in 1h31m54.394s. The last fully-green F1 race I can find is 2012, and the race time there was 1h25m11.288s. Will redo the maths with Lotterer's first 52 laps of the middle stint.

[Peat]

You da man.

[Victor_RO]

Lotterer's first 52 laps in the middle of the race, excluding his out-lap from the driver change but including a fuel-only stop 29 laps into his run, were completed in 1h30m33.471s.

[Peat]

Might have to shorten it, given the long Red Flag at the GP last year, to make a better comparison. (?)

[TimRTC]

Don't forget the LMP cars are far more often held up by the mobile chicanes of the GT field than F1 cars are by the backmarkers there.

[Victor_RO]

Very true, it was obvious on the live timing. If a LMP1-H car caught a gaggle of traffic at the wrong point, let's say 4 GTE cars into Maggots/Becketts, it could lose over 5 seconds on that lap.

[Haribo]

I didn't watch all of the race, but I caught most of it after I Sky+ it and watched it later

 

* The battle for the lead between the Porsche and the Audi was fantastic. The speed of that Porsche was something else! It made the Audi look like an LMP2 car on the straights!. Then again, the Audi was supreme through the twisty bits

 

* Webber was unlucky again. Porsche still seem to be fast, but fragile

 

* The "not respecting track limits" thing was a bit ridiculous. LMP1 cars were off all over the place and only the #7 got dinged for it

[TimRTC]

* The "not respecting track limits" thing was a bit ridiculous. LMP1 cars were off all over the place and only the #7 got dinged for it

 

I watched at Copse for a bit and every car seemed to be going wide on the corner there.

 

So glad it didn't affect the race result, would have made a mockery of it. I'd have thought a 5 second time penalty would be a more reasonable punishment if one was required.

[Haribo]

Oh I forgot to mention that the virtual safety car worked brilliantly, and I hope that more series adopt it. No closing and opening of the pits, no red lights (or are there? I'm not sure), no waiting for cars to unlap themselves (I know this doesn't happen in WEC, but it would really help F1).

[BCM]

First time I've watched a WEC race and it was absolutely fantastic.

 

The period between the Porsche and the Audi early on was a pleasure to behold. The Audi so much quicker in the corners and a Porsche that looked like it had been dropped off a cliff on the straights. It was hard to believe it could start a couple car lengths behind the Audi on the straight and end up the same distance in front by the time they got to the end of it. 

 

Porsche need a bit more downforce and some reliability. If they can find those two things and keep the same acceleration they'll be unstoppable.

 

I enjoyed the race more than the Chinese GP.

Edited by BCM, 13 April 2015 - 10:04.

[FerrariV12]

Was out all Saturday so spent all Sunday with a 10-plus hour Sky+ marathon of ELMS and the WEC race that took me right up till bedtime

 

Great finish to the ELMS race, took the commentators a while to notice Tincknell was coming right back into it after his spin (when Gommendy and Lancaster were battling), surprised Jon didn't take a penalty to be honest though.

 

Nice to see the LMP3s make their bow too, hopefully Ginetta will get some competitors soon though, as right now it's basically closed-top LMPC, but excited for the future of that category.

 

Figured it would be hard for the WEC race to top that but it did, showing not for the first time that interesting and diverse technology, and interesting on-track action, don't need to be mutually exclusive.

 

This is going to sound weird for an endurance race but my one gripe was that it seemed all over a bit too quickly (and I watched the whole thing). Obviously not every race can be a 24 hour, but for all the non-LM races, it'd be nice to maybe see a bit of diversity in length rather than all being 6 hours long.

 

The other slight negative was the size of the field, although hopefully if Nissan, Rebellion and SARD Morand can get sorted out then things will look much better post-LM.

 

As far as the dubious late penalty for the #7 Audi goes, that's something common across series and an issue of track design. When the consequences of leaving the track are in the hands of human officials rather than in the hands of nature in the form of gravel and grass, you're always going to get things like this, and a level of inconsistency. I think the fact he powered past the GT while off the track, in comparison to the other prototype which slowed up and then passed the GT on the track, is what swung it for the officials.

Edited by FerrariV12, 13 April 2015 - 10:41.

[TimRTC]

A couple of quick pics from the weekend:

 

Patrick Dempsey taking selfies on the grid by Tim R-T-C, on Flickr

 

The new Le Mans style start at Silverstone by Tim R-T-C, on Flickr

 

Mark Webber leads the WEC pack to the start by Tim R-T-C, on Flickr

 

Neel Jani and Marcel Fässler in an epic duel by Tim R-T-C, on Flickr

 

Gianmaria Bruni in the AF Corse Ferrari at Copse by Tim R-T-C, on Flickr

 

I also filmed the cars departing on their formation lap from the Le Mans style grid - it was very impressive and gave it a 'big race feel'.

 

[Option1]

A couple of quick pics from the weekend:

 

...

 

Neel Jani and Marcel Fässler in an epic duel by Tim R-T-C, on Flickr

 

Gianmaria Bruni in the AF Corse Ferrari at Copse by Tim R-T-C, on Flickr

 

...

These are two excellent pics, Tim.  Well done, and thank you for posting them.

 

Neil

[Jeeves]

Full race: https://www.youtube....h?v=6VibdXK7X7o

[JeordieX]

Does anyone know how much a standard ticket cost for the event?

[TimRTC]

Does anyone know how much a standard ticket cost for the event?

 

Cost me £40 for a Sunday only ticket on the gate, it was a little cheaper to buy in advance.

[F166]

Full race has been uploaded in HD. Weekend ticket if bought in advance was £40, with pit walk tickets going to the first 2000 tickets bought. Really good weekend at the track, two cracking races and some insane of track battles. Roll on Spa!

 

[Dan333SP]

As someone who has regularly paid $500+ dollars for a weekend grandstand seat for F1 races, the value per dollar/pound presented by a weekend with 10 total hours of racing bewteen ELMS and WEC is mind boggling.

[Wingcommander]

A couple of quick pics from the weekend:

 

Any pics of the berlin wall at the Porsche garage? 

[bushgold]

Those Audis are the most technologically advanced, futuristic-looking cars I've ever seen in my life. Watching them go through Maggots and cresting and disappearing through Stowe (from ground level on Hangar straight)... it's like they're gliding or hovering above the tarmac. Very impressive sight. On the negative side, the WW2-era megaphone PA system needs updating. Wind dissipates all the sound. Install sound systems underneath the grandstands or something. You could only follow the race at Woodcote corner. Then there's the burger mafia. Feels like one mobile catering business holds a total monopoly on all the food and drink stands. Bring some competition/variety then we'll see if they still charge £7 for burger. Felt like last year was better attended. Club/IPS were totally packed for the start last year. Great value for money event all the same. Well worth the £40.

[Risil]

I had a really nice chilli dog at a van behind the paddock, next to the Bureau de Change. Unfortunately when I picked it up to eat it, the wind blew away my plate and reconstituted wood fork. Not sure who's fault that was, if anyone's.

 

Oh, and the racing was good too.

Edited by Risil, 13 April 2015 - 15:39.

[TimRTC]

On the negative side, the WW2-era megaphone PA system needs updating. Wind dissipates all the sound. Install sound systems underneath the grandstands or something. You could only follow the race at Woodcote corner. Then there's the burger mafia. Feels like one mobile catering business holds a total monopoly on all the food and drink stands. Bring some competition/variety then we'll see if they still charge £7 for burger.

 

Take a radio, it is the only way to really follow this sort of racing. They were actually selling them at the entrance when I came in, not sure on the quality.

 

There did feel to be a lot of people there, I walked around more than usual and there were a surprising number of people gathered around Woodcote and Copse but not in the grandstands. As usual Silverstone management being very tight with which grandstands were opened making things probably look quieter than they were, but the buses seemed to be in frequent use to make up for the marathon trek to get to the paddock and fan zones (I never bothered!).

 

On the food front, Silverstone is always poor - particularly when you compare with Santa Pod drag raceway where they have a whole mass of different food vans - Indian, noodles, pizza, Mexican etc. for the big event. Not necessarily cheaper but certainly a lot nicer and more interesting.

 

Still compare the food on offer with that in an arena and they don't do too badly - at least you can bring food and drink in freely which certainly for any indoor events you are usually banned from doing.

[TimRTC]

I had a really nice chilli dog at a van behind the paddock, next to the Bureau de Change. Unfortunately when I picked it up to eat it, the wind blew away my plate and reconstituted wood fork. Not sure who's fault that was, if anyone's.