2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

Belgium 6 Hours of Spa-Francordchamps of 2015
Event information
Round 2 of 8 in the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship
Date2 May 2015
LocationStavelot
VenueCircuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Duration6 Hours
Results
Laps completed176
Distance (km)1232.704
Distance (miles)765.952
LMP1
Pole position
Time1:54.767
TeamGermany Porsche Team
DriversGermany Timo Bernhard
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Winners
TeamGermany Audi Sport Team Joest
DriversGermany André Lotterer
Switzerland Marcel Fässler
France Benoît Tréluyer
LMP2
Winners
TeamUnited Kingdom Jota Sport
DriversUnited Kingdom Simon Dolan
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
New Zealand Mitch Evans
LMGTE Pro
Winners
TeamUnited Kingdom Aston Martin Racing V8
DriversBrazil Fernando Rees
United Kingdom Alex MacDowall
New Zealand Richie Stanaway
LMGTE Am
Winners
TeamUnited Kingdom Aston Martin Racing
DriversCanada Paul Dalla Lana
Portugal Pedro Lamy
Austria Mathias Lauda

The 2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, formally the WEC 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, was a six-hour endurance sports car racing event held for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars on 2 May at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium. Spa-Francorchamps hosted the second race of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship with 54,000 people attending the race weekend.

The No. 17 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, and Mark Webber qualified in pole position and maintained the lead until it was issued with a stop-and-go penalty, allowing Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani to take over the lead. Audi's No. 7 car of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer took over the lead when Jani made a scheduled pit stop. Lotterer and Lieb battled for the position until the former made a pit stop that had Tréluyer assume his driving duties. He overtook Lieb to move to the front of the race where he remained for the rest of the event to win after Audi elected to keep him on track. Lieb, Dumas and Jani finished second and Bernhard, Hartley and Webber was third. Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer covered a record-breaking track distance of 765.967 miles (1,232.704 km) over 176 laps.

The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the No. 38 Jota Sport of Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Mitch Evans. The car was penalised for jumping the start, but Evans took the class lead after passing co-pole sitter Julien Canal in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing entry and held it for most of the race to earn his first category win in the World Endurance Championship; while it was Dolan and Tincknell's second in the sport. The No. 99 Aston Martin Racing car of Fernando Rees, Richie Stanaway and Alex MacDowall took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class, their first in the World Endurance Championship. Porsche Team Manthley's cars finished second and third after Gianmaria Bruni was penalised for a pit stop infringement, and Darren Turner in the No. 97 Aston Martin entered the pit lane. The Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda, ahead of AF Corse's No. 83 Ferrari of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas.

The result meant Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer extended their Drivers' Championship advantage over Lieb, Dumas and Jani to be 14 points ahead of the three drivers. Alexander Wurz, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin moved from fourth to third with their Toyota teammates Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi dropping to fourth position. Bernhard's, Hartley's and Webber's third-place finish meant they moved into fifth place. Audi moved further ahead of Porsche in the Manufacturers' Championship while Toyota dropped to third position with six races left in the season.


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