Originally Posted by 458 Italia
Naughty Word Mod
CAVALLINO RAMPANTE PER SEMPRE
Full Member
#71 and #95 trading lap times.
#51 pits. (James now in the car)
Naughty Word Mod
Full Member
I should leave the AF Corse info to you really!
Audi going like of old
Full Member
I have to say I've mainly stuck with Motors
Naughty Word Mod
Audi, so far so good. Looking forward to it turning to night.I should leave the AF Corse info to you really!
Audi going like of old
Naughty Word Mod
yeah same here. I switch over during advert breaks.I have to say I've mainly stuck with Motors
Talking of breaks, its coffee time
Full Member
Yep same for me with the adverts
I'm on the Montepulciano myself
You'll probably stay awake longer than me!
Naughty Word Mod
Yep same for me with the adverts
I'm on the Montepulciano myself
You'll probably stay awake longer than me!fair play, after this in about 30 odd minutes i will be having another Peroni
Full Member
Nice one!!
Full Member
I miss Leena
Naughty Word Mod
yeah same here, i was lucky enough to meet her at Silverstone this year.I miss Leena
Full Member
Damn Sam :(
Naughty Word Mod
Full Member
As you're the naughty word mod, I won't say what I'm thinking right now...
Naughty Word Mod
As you're the naughty word mod, I won't say what I'm thinking right now...
Full Member
Any word from the track?
Naughty Word Mod
not yet, #51 pits
Naughty Word Mod
some pictures for you Nova, hope you like them...
Naughty Word Mod
DOUBLE PODIUM FOR FERRARI AT THE 6 HOURS OF COTA
Austin, 17 September 2016 – Ferrari clocked up the best possible result at the 6 Hours of COTA (Circuit of the Americas) in Austin, leaving the US with a double podium won by the two GTE 488s of AF Corse, the no. 51 of Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni and James Calado, and the no. 71 of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon. In GTE-Am class there was a disappointing race for the 458 Italia no. 83 of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Aguas, which after many difficulties managed finish in sixth bringing home important points for the championship.
GTE-Pro. In GTE-Pro class at the start, with the asphalt at a temperature of almost 50 degrees, Davide Rigon in the 488 no. 71 managed to hold onto second position while Gianmaria “Gimmi” Bruni dropped a place. However, he regained it shortly after when the Ford no. 66 had to make a long stop to fix the cockpit AC system. The opening of the second stint saw car no. 51 driven by a James Calado on top form, overtaking Sam Bird and then, with the help of the pit strategy, also passing the Aston Martin no. 97 of the series leader Darren Turner and Brazilian Fernando Rees. Meanwhile, Bird slipped back all the way to fourth behind the Aston Martin that with almost an extra 10 km/h of speed on the straight, was virtually untouchable. While all this was going on, in front the other British car, the no. 95 of Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim, dominated undisturbed. Car no. 71 retook third position with the help of the AF Corse pits and its superior management of two Full Course Yellows (when the cars have to keep to 80 km/h even on the track), and a Davide Rigon in fantastic form.
GTE-Am. It was uphill all the way for the only Ferrari in the GTE-Am class, the no. 83 AF Corse 458 Italia driven by Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Aguas. Starting from penultimate position with Collard at the wheel, it was punished by a series of mishaps from which it failed to recover. The car could only hold onto sixth, but still took some useful points for a championship that Perrodo, Collard and Aguas continue to lead. Victory in the category went to the Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda, while the Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley was the overall winner. The next race is at Fuji in mid-October.
Naughty Word Mod
POINTS CHECK AFTER SIX ROUNDS OF THE 2016 WEC SEASON
Porsche retain the lead of the FIA World Endurance Driver’s and Manufacturer’s Championship standings after a thrilling 6 Hours of COTA, but the momentum has shifted to the No. 1 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard after their third successive victory. The defending champions endured a difficult start to the season, taking only 3.5 points from the opening three rounds, but have recovered in fine style to leapfrog the No. 7 Audi R18 of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler for fourth in the standings.
A fourth-place finish for the Le Mans-winning No. 2 Porsche of Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas ensures they hold a 37.5 point advantage over the No. 8 Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis at the top of the table, relegating the No. 6 Toyota to third. The No. 13 Rebellion of Dominik Kraihamer, Matheo Tuscher and Alexandre Imperatori consolidated their advantage in the LMP1 Privateers competition with another class win.
In LMP2, Signatech-Alpine redressed the balance after their victory streak was ended by RGR Sport in Mexico. A fourth win of the season for Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi has extended their lead over Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzalez to 41 points. A third place finish for Roman Rusinov, Rene Rast and Alex Brundle enabled G-Drive Racing to retake third in the standings from ESM trio Pipo Derani, Ryan Dalziel and Chris Cumming after their costly brake failure in the closing stages in Mexico.
Aston Martin Racing seized the top spot from Ferrari in the WEC Manufacturers Championship with a clean sweep of the GTE Pro and Am classes, while Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen’s first win lifts them to the lead in the Driver’s Cup. Davide Rigon and Sam Bird still hold second in the points after finishing third behind team-mates James Calado and Gianmaria Bruni, whose second place helps them rise to fourth in the standings at the expense of the absent Richie Stanaway.
In GTE-Am, a problematic run for the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, Francois Perrodo and Rui Aguas opened the door for Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda to win, but the No. 98 Aston Martin will still have some work to do to make up their 41-point deficit in the remaining three rounds. David Heinemeier-Hansson and Khaled Al Qubaisi still hold second in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche, with the No. 98 crew third.
Naughty Word Mod
CoTA Victory Makes It Three Straight For #1 Porsche
Dominant runs for Alpine and Aston Martin in LMP2, GTE Pro and GTE Am
The perfect run since Le Mans for the reigning champions in the #1 Porsche continued in Texas, with Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley snatching the win off Audi who lost out during a second half Full-Couse Yellow period. The #8 Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval came home 22 seconds behind the winner in second, with the #6 Toyota taking a surprise podium ahead of the championship-leading #2 Porsche in fourth.
“It was a really hard earned victory, I’m so happy, we need to keep going, Audi were quicker but we came back. We were lucky with a Full-Course Yellow but we made no mistakes,” said the victorious Bernhard after the race.
It was a bizarre race from start to finish. Audi looked to be the team to beat in all the pre-race sessions, and dominated the first half of the race, running in formation at the front with almost a minute lead. The #7 R18 of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer led from pole early, but lost out after a slower stop just before the halfway mark, letting the #8 take the reigns at the front. The German marque still seemed to have everything under control though.
Behind, the Toyotas and Porsches squabbled over the remaining spots in the top six. Toyota will be pleased to have left with a far more competitive showing, able to lap quicker than the Porsches throughout. Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Buemi in particular were rapid, Buemi taking third place at one point in the #5, representing the best of the rest before the #1 retook the place late in the third hour.
However, once the sun set, Audi’s comfortable lead and hopes of a cruise to the line began to crumble. With two hours and fifty minutes remaining the #8 lost all power on the exit of Turn one with Loic Duval driving, resulting in the #7 retaking the lead. Duval managed to get the car firing after a total reset, but it cost the team dearly; in the end would cost the #8 crew the race.
The Audi falling back inspired Hartley in the #1 to push on, the gap between them down from 40 seconds to just five. Unable to catch up on track, the Porsche team would receive another break in a caution period though, which was called for after the Manor Oreca with Richard Bradley driving collided with the #66 Ford GT out on track leaving Stefan Mucke stranded in a gravel trap.
The Audis had pitted early just before the incident because of Duval’s drinks bottle failing. The Porsche hadn’t, resulting in the #2 emerging from the pits under FCY conditions in the lead with the #6 Toyota second.
Things then turned from bad to worse when the #66 tapped the #7 Audi into a spin that ended with the car in the wall at Turn 18. Crucially, the #7 had gambled on strategy and leapfrogged the second placed Toyota, allowing Benoit Treluyer to press on for the lead. Treluyer was hunting down Bernhard, but it all came to nothing and after repairs the car limped home sixth after 11 minutes in the garage.
It left the #1 with a comfortable lead heading into the final hour, with the #8 recovering to second after a quicker stop in which the team opted not to change tyres, ahead of the #6 which put on fresher rubber at the end. The gamble to make up the time to the leader wasn’t enough though, and di Grassi who was in the car at the end had to worry more about Sarrazin catching him and making a pass.
Behind the #2 Porsche in fourth and ahead of the sixth place #7 Audi was the #5 Toyota which was had a quiet race due to engine issues preventing it from competing on pace with the top four.
LMP1 L saw Rebellion take an easy victory with its #13 R-One, coming home four laps ahead of the ByKolles CLM, that failed to end the night classified ahead of the top three LMP2 runners.
In LMP2, the #36 Signatech Alpine of Gustavo Menezes, Stephane Richelmi and Nicolas Lapierre once again proving to be the class of the field, winning by a whole lap. The trio had to fight for the lead with the Manor Oreca (which ended up retiring after multiple incidents) at the start, but once the race settled down the trio resumed control and dominated, putting the title ever more out of reach for the other runners.
Coming home second was the #43 RGR Sport by Morand Ligier fresh from its Mexico win. Bruno Senna, Ricardo Gonzalez and Filipe Albuquerque did well to fight against the Oreca chassis’ on pace throughout, and took another well earned podium finish.
Rounding out the top three was the #26 G-Drive Oreca which had the pace – especially at the start, when Alex Brundle drove from the very back of the field into the top five – but once again the team failed to score that all-elusive win. It was nevertheless a solid performance from Brundle, Rene Rast and Romain Rusinov.
The #31 ESM Ligier finished up fourth, promoted after Manor’s late retirement, ahead of the first of the two SMP BR01s – the #27 – in fifth.
GTE Pro was a similar story to LMP2, with the #95 Aston Martin Vantage of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen taking a lights-to-flag victory. The Danish duo came home with a comfortable lead over the two AF Corse 488s in second and third, it was Sorensen’s first WEC class win and Thief’s first since 2014. The #51 of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado that finished second just didn’t have the pace to mount a serious challenge, but came home just 12 seconds behind the winning crew.
Behind the #71 AF Corse squad in third and just off the podium was the #67 Ford GT, which was on course late to make a run for a trophy with Andy Priaulx at the wheel. But the Brit came up short, unable to repeat the crew’s Spa performance.
The #97 Aston Martin with Darren Turner and the returning Fernando Rees at the wheel came home a disappointing and distant fifth, not the performance they were hoping for after winning in Mexico.
AMR did however have two sets of silverware to return back to the UK with, taking the GTE Am victory too, which makes it the winningest marque in the WEC with 28 class wins. The #98 of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda took the win in commanding fashion, a minute ahead of the second place KCMG Porsche, and third place #50 Larbre Corvette which had a very consistent run.
Further down the order though, it was a disastrous outing for championship leaders Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Aguas in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, who came home last after mechanical trouble set them back.
The Gulf Racing and Abu Dhabi Porsches that finished fifth and sixth also had disjointed races with multiple issues, off track excursions and penalties between them.
The next round of the FIA WEC is at 6 Hours of Fuji on the 16th of October.
Naughty Word Mod
Naughty Word Mod
Naughty Word Mod
Full Member
Missed the race over the weekend as I was on holiday. Tried to avoid seeing the result so I could watch it without knowing the result but unfortunately got spoiled elsewhere. A good showing from Sarrazin and the #6 again.
What went on in GTE-Pro - did Ferrari have any obvious issues? From handing the championship on a platter to Ford, it seems Aston Martin continue to be handed fresh life support.
Naughty Word Mod
I hate it when that happens. It was a good race. Both Toyotas were running good. Next race, Fuji. Hope they can show good race at their home race.
No issue for AF Corse, just that the Astons air restrictor, as i have been led to believe. Was the same as Mexico round, which was larger. And no BoP adjustments for us.
Naughty Word Mod
PACE BRINGS A PODIUM FOR TOYOTA GAZOO RACING
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing earned another podium finish after a strong performance in a closely-fought 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas, the sixth round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
The #6 TS050 HYBRID of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi finished third for their fourth podium of 2016, finishing just 26.096secs behind the winner after an exciting victory battle between all three LMP1 hybrid manufacturers.
Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima in the #5 suffered another unfortunate race, with several minor issues combining to keep it out of the podium fight, finishing in fifth.
The race had started promisingly for the #5, when Sébastien moved from sixth on the grid to fourth place during a charging first stint under blazing sunshine and with air temperatures over 35°C.
Mike took the start in the #6 and ran sixth during the opening stint before handing over to Kamui at the first pit stops. At the same time, great pit work on the #5 allowed Anthony to emerge in third, an issue on the wastegate of the turbo began to compromise performance and the #5 slipped to sixth by the 90-minute mark.
As darkness fell and the race reached half distance, the #5 lost more time when a damaged front end was changed after Kazuki’s stint, then suffered again soon after when a rear left puncture forced an unplanned pit stop for Sébastien.
But the #6 was lapping very quickly and continuing to push the Porsches. Mike took fourth place before dramas for the #8 Audi helped Kamui, now at the wheel, to run third as the race entered its final two hours.
That became second, with the #5 also moving up a place when the #7 crashed as the close fight at the front began to take its toll. A three-way fight between three different manufacturers for victory developed in the final hour.
Stéphane took over from Kamui for the final stint in third place, with the Audi #8 not changing tyres during its last stop. Stéphane had fresh tyres and pushed to close the gap, with the race leader also not far away.
A fighting performance in the final laps saw the gap close, but second place was just out of reach, with Stéphane taking the chequered flag only 2.455secs behind the second-placed Audi #8 and 26.096secs behind the winning Porsche #1. Sébastien brought the #5 home two laps down in fifth.
TOYOTA will now travel with optimism to its home race, the 6 Hours of Fuji on 16 October, which takes place just a few kilometres from the Higashi-Fuji Technical Centre where the 1,000hp TOYOTA HYBRID System - Racing is developed and built.
Toshio Sato, Team President: “I am pleased with our performance here in Austin. We have focused all week on race pace and it paid off today because we showed strong performance. It was a great fight with Porsche and Audi all the way to the end of an exciting race. I am particularly proud of the job done by everyone in the team, especially considering how difficult it has been in this heat. Our quick pit stops and effective strategy helped to achieve a strong result. This has been a good step towards our home race at Fuji Speedway, where we want to give our Japanese fans and colleagues a result to enjoy.”
TS050 HYBRID #5 (Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima)
Race: 5th, 184 laps, 8 pit stops. Grid: 4th. Fastest lap: 1min 48.482secs
Anthony Davidson: “That was another disappointing day for car #5. It feels like we just keep getting bad luck. We had a technical issue which hindered our performance and seemed to get worse as the race progressed. We just had to keep fighting and do the best we could, which was fifth.”
Sébastien Buemi: “Congratulations to car #6; they had a strong race and another podium which is good. For us it was another tough race. We were up to third after the first stop and it looked good, but then we had some technical issues and we had no chance after that. Nothing is going our way at the moment but we will try to change this in the next race.”
Kazuki Nakajima: “It was a difficult race for us. We had many small issues and it just wasn’t possible to overcome that. So it was more bad luck for us in a tough season but that’s life; we just need to get on and keep pushing. It’s our home race next so we will pick ourselves up and fight for a good result.”
TS050 HYBRID #6 (Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi)
Race: 3rd, 186 laps, 7 pit stops. Grid: 4th. Fastest lap: 1min 48.544secs
Stéphane Sarrazin: “It was an incredible race. Kamui, Mike and me did a strong job and the team gave us a good car. Our pace just got better through the race and the last hour was incredible. We were really competitive today. Audi have been so fast this weekend so to be so close is a positive sign. Now we keep pushing for our home race.”
Mike Conway: “I’m very happy to be on the podium again, for the fourth time this season. Our car came alive halfway through the race when we had strong pace. It was nice to see the pace we could get out of the car today. Stéphane and Kamui did a great job and the mechanics as well were really good in such tough conditions.”
Kamui Kobayashi: “I am pleased with our performance. We closed the gap to Audi and Porsche at the end and were part of an exciting race. I appreciate the job from the mechanics who did great pit stops and thanks to the whole team for helping us to be on the podium for the second race in a row; we had absolutely no mistakes.”
6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas results:
1st #1 Porsche (Bernhard/Webber/Hartley) 186 laps
2nd #8 Audi (di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis) +23.641secs
3rd #6 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +26.096secs
4th #2 Porsche (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) +1 lap
5th #5 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing +2 laps
6th #7 Audi (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer +6 laps
Naughty Word Mod
Full Member
Great pics as always, Rob, and sorry if I sound thick, but how come the 488s couldn't keep up with the Astons at COTA, have I missed something or is it the BoP issue again?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks