[WEC Race] 2016 FIA WEC 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas aka Lone Star Le Mans

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by TF110

What a scrap with Davidson and Hartley!

and ongoing, nice. Jani's caught up with the battle as well. Changing track conditions will keep on painting a different picture WRT the teams' relative strengths.

And one could argue Audi is finally putting their diesel to use to counter their shortened stint length

One hour under green. Hoping for 20 more quarter hours of green as well.

#26 G-Drive snuck up to third position after the first round of pit stops after starting in the very back of the field in the meantime.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Starfish Primer

Great racing between Davidson and the Porsches. Come on Kamui, Anthony needs help!

He'll probably pass Davidson in a few laps. He's going a lot quicker.

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by TF110

He'll probably pass Davidson in a few laps. He's going a lot quicker.

half a second quicker on L36, one second slower on L37, not sure Kamui's really quicker?
...and 1.5s quicker on L38, maybe he is, maybe it's traffic...

[TF110]

Almost a coming together with the Alpine and the #6. This is why p2's needed more power. Hopefully next year the congestion won't be so bad.

[J Jay]

Jani reporting pickup problems on the #2.

Have Audi finally passed off this pox to Porsche?

[TF110]

Originally Posted by J Jay

Jani reporting pickup problems on the #2.

Have Audi finally passed off this pox to Porsche?

Davidson was complaining of the same issue. I guess it's more track related.

[Starfish Primer]

The track must be dirtier than usual because of the IMSA race before. In other races there aren´t +2hr races with more than 30 competitors.

[TF110]

Koby passes his teammate. Logical move.

[Maelochs]

F1 from Singapore practice now competing with WEC .... WEC is lucky Toyota is showing up this round.

[bentley speed 8]

Just woke up. What did I miss?

[ederss7]

Edit: ^^ not much, boring race so far.

Davidson with problems. Power loss. 1:55, 1:56 etc.

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

F1 from Singapore practice now competing with WEC ....

huh?

Meanwhile, #8 jumps #7 after the latter had a slow(er) pit stop (+4s over #8)

[TF110]

Audi's pit and now comes the #2.

[Maelochs]

Sorry ... F1 qualifying from Singapore on another channel .... I wouldn't call it at all a boring race, even with Audi running away with it, because it is interesting to see Toyota being competitive ... for a while at least.

P2 and GTE holding up their ends, as well. But F1 quali is also interesting.

And Matt Rao in the #44 Manor takes the place from Ricardo Goncalez, attacking out of the sun like a WWI fighter pilot ....

[Ephaeton]

seems audi lost some 6 seconds to the porsches during this round of pit stops (now leading by "only" 44s). AFAIUI, porsche doesn't have a stop in hand, "just" some 12 or so laps of fuel mileage over the course of the (green) race

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Sorry ... F1 qualifying from Singapore on another channel .... I wouldn't call it at all a boring race, even with Audi running away with it, because it is interesting to see Toyota being competitive ... for a while at least.

P2 and GTE holding up their ends, as well. But F1 quali is also interesting.

And Matt Rao in the #44 Manor takes the place from Ricardo Goncalez, attacking out of the sun like a WWI fighter pilot ....

Toyota also have another set of fresh tires vs the competition. That may come into play later?

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Sorry ... F1 qualifying from Singapore on another channel ....

Ah I see. I had seen that live, which is why I was confused.

Originally Posted by Maelochs

And Matt Rao in the #44 Manor takes the place from Ricardo Goncalez, attacking out of the sun like a WWI fighter pilot ....

Or that classic 1988 pikes peak vid with ari vatanen

Meanwhile, #88 has a little bbq incident during its pit stop (fire marshal on it (yet beaten by the team's own fire extinguisher), front bonnet off for a moment to access the fire)

[Acid09]

Is it me or have refuelling fires become more common recently? We haven't seen these for a long time but had several incidents this season already.

[TF110]

Sarrazin losing all the ground Kobayashi made up.

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Is it me or have refuelling fires become more common recently? We haven't seen these for a long time but had several incidents this season already.

I have the same feeling. Interestingly they are strange in IMSA, Blancpain or ELMS.

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by Acid09

Is it me or have refuelling fires become more common recently? We haven't seen these for a long time but had several incidents this season already.

Seems like it, also with different cars as well (ford at nuerburgring, porsche now, who else (this season?)) yet could be skewed perception...

meanwhile, Audi has lapped the first P1-H (#5)

[kvenom]

So Nakajima getting lapped 2hrs is "progress" for Toyota.

[Ephaeton]

not sure why the venom, audi's got half a lap on porsche as well atm... with the (quicker) toyota currently being 10/30s behind the slower/quicker porsche

[kvenom]

Originally Posted by Ephaeton

not sure why the venom, audi's got half a lap on porsche as well atm... with the (quicker) toyota currently being 10/30s behind the slower/quicker porsche

Oh I'm a Toyota fan, but I consider meaningful progress to be fighting up front, not being lapped. This year was always going to be tough, so we'll most likely have to wait till next year for that to happen, Le Mans this year notwithstanding.

[Ephaeton]

damnit, we didn't complete a whole IMSA race without a yellow. At least it's a local yellow only, the first after 2h20 of green racing.

edit: boo, it's going to be a FCY
...and 10 seconds later the SMP (whose stopping caused it) is going again.

...and Audi's taking advantage of the FCY, clawing back some 5 of their lap fuelage disadvantage