After six hours of tight endurance racing in Silverstone the win went to Audi car #7 – or so drivers Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer thought – at the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in the United Kingdom. However, stewards had a report from the Technical Delegate saying that the thickness of the front skid block #7 doesn’t comply with article 3.5.6 a3 of the LMP1 Technical Regulations so the Audi victory was tossed.
Audi Sport Team Joest has appealed against the exclusion of winners Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer. Hence the result of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season opener remains provisional.
Neel Jani (CH) in the Porsche 919 Hybrid he shares with Romain Dumas (FR) and Marc Lieb (DE) thought he finished second – 46 seconds back – when the checkered flag was waved. The disqualification of Audi handed the win to its sister brand at the beleaguered Volkswagen Group. Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi crossed the line in third to extend Toyota’s run of podiums at Silverstone which stretches back to its first WEC season in 2012. That became second place when the winning Audi was excluded
After Silverstone saw rain and snow on the previous days, on Sunday the race start was in bright sunshine. All three manufacturers that are involved with the fastest, most expensive class of P1 Le Mans Prototypes – Audi, Porsche and Toyota – had trouble in the race. Porsche suffered the biggest incident when the #1 car of reigning World Champions Timo Bernhard (DE), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AU) crashed after two hours. Hartley – who has been sanctioned for recklessness – banged a GT car when lapping it. Both drivers walked away.
