Hour 4:
Audi and Porsche continue to battle for the lead of the FIA WEC Six Hours of Silverstone, with only two hours remaining.
The No. 7 Audi R18 of Benoit Treluyer has a 14-second lead over the Romain Dumas-driven No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid, following a spin for Porsche late in the fourth hour.
Dumas, who was right up to the bumper of Treluyer’s Audi, had contact with the No. 67 Ford GT of Marino Franchitti. The Frenchman quickly rejoined but lost more than 10 seconds.
The No. 6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Stephane Sarrazin now runs in third, after a right-rear tire puncture that ripped apart the sister No. 5 entry of Kazuki Nakajima early in the fourth hour.
Debris from the car brought out the safety car for nearly 15 minutes, while the Toyota went straight to the garage for repairs.
Bruno Senna holds control of LMP2, with the RGR Sport by Morand Ligier JS P2 Nissan holding a 24-second lead over Nathanel Berthon’s G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 Nissan in second.
The No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Sam Bird continues to lead GTE-Pro, with the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR of David Heinemeier Hansson out front in GTE-Am.
Hour 3:
A heavy accident between Brendon Hartley, in the leading Porsche 919 Hybrid, and Michael Wainwright, in the Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR, brought out the first Full Course Yellow of the Six Hours of Silverstone.
Hartley had been at the wheel of the Porsche for around 100 minutes and had led the entirety of his stint. Three minutes after the two hour mark, Hartley collided with Wainwright in spectacular fashion at The Loop and the pair ended up in the tire barrier.
Both Hartley and Wainwright exited the cars and walked away from the track safely.
Soon after, Lucas di Grassi’s Audi R18 e-tron quattro stopped in the center of the track between turns four and five, and was unable to continue.
Safety workers attended the car, which abruptly started to produce smoke.
The field is under a Full Course Yellow, the first of the race, with the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Marc Lieb having assumed the lead, ahead of Benoit Treluyer’s No. 7 Audi R18 and the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids.
Rene Rast leads for G-Drive Racing in LMP2. Meanwhile, Davide Rigon has kept his GTE-Pro lead as has Khaled Al-Qubaisi.
Hour 1:
Mark Webber passed Andre Lotterer during the first hour of the Six Hours of Silverstone, putting his No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid into the lead with 16 laps completed.
From third on the grid, Webber passed Oliver Jarvis in the No. 8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro a few laps in, before continuing on to take the lead. The team remains out front, after passing the car over to Brendon Hartley in the first round of pit stops.
Audi Sport Team Joest decided not to do any driver changes, and so Jarvis is in second ahead of Lotterer, as the cars swapped places in the round of pit stops.
Neel Jani is fourth, while Anthony Davidson and Kamui Kobayashi complete the LMP1-H running order.
Roman Rusinov leads the LMP2 action after starting on the class pole in the G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 Nissan.
Rusinov had lost the lead to Pipo Derani early on but the decision to pit early to hand over the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P2 Nissan to Chris Cumming didn’t work out as planned when Cumming stepped onto the grass later in the hour and lost time as a result.
Ricardo Gonzalez for RGR Sport By Morand and Jonny Kane in the Strakka Racing Gibson 015S Nissan complete the top three in LMP2.
Of note, Will Stevens performed a risky but successful pass on Rusinov for second place but eventually ended the hour eighth in class in the No. 44 Manor Oreca 05 Nissan.
Davide Rigon, and later Sam Bird, commanded the GTE-Pro field in AF Corse’s No. 71 Ferrari 488 GTE, and at the hour Bird had a lead of seven seconds to Stefan Mucke’s Ford GT.
Ford team-mate Andy Priaulx was in third after the pitstops but was passed by Michael Christensen on hour mark, putting the Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR out front.
Richie Stanaway had to serve a stop-go penalty for the No. 97 Aston Martin Racing crew as he and Fernando Rees repeatedly ignored track limits. Gianmaria Bruni had a similar penalty early for a pre-race engine change.
Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing led the entire first hour in GTE-Am, after Klaus Bachler started.
The class action has so far been rather uneventful, and Khaled Al Qubaisi, now in control of the Proton Porsche, is four seconds ahead of Christian Ried in the KCMG Porsche. Francois Perrodo was third for AF Corse.
