It was edge-of-the-seat stuff at yesterday’s Six Hours of Silverstone as a battle between the two
Audi R18s in the closing hour of the race resulted in victory for the number two car of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loic Duval.
Toyota's TS030s came in third and fourth
After an hour spent swapping positions with his team-mate, world champion Benoit Treluyer, McNish swept past for the final time, finishing the race less than four seconds ahead and, in doing so, claiming both the race victory and this year’s RAC International Tourist Trophy.
The one-two for Audi represents a continuation of the team’s LMP1 dominance, with closest rival Toyota’s lead TS030 hybrid, driven by Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin, finishing a lap behind the two R18s.
In the LMP2 class, the rain shower that hit the race in the third hour (and reminded us that we'd forgotten to bring any sort of weatherproofing) spelled disaster for the number 26 G-Drive car, then being driven by John Martin, who span his car on the exit of the final turn, clouting the pit wall and ending his race. That gifted the lead to the number 25 Delta-ADR car driven by Tor Graves, Antonio Pizzonia and James Walker, who duly went on to win the class.
Corvette and Astons performed well
Meanwhile, there was triumph for the thundering Aston Martin V8 Vantages in both GTE classes, with Darren Turner, Stefun Mucke and Bruno Senna claiming victory in
GTE-Pro, and Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen taking the GTE-Am victores, both having qualified first in their respective classes. Kamui Kobayashi and team-mate Toni Vilander piloted their
Ferrari458 Italia to second in the GTE-Pro class, and the Chevrolet Corvette of Patrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal and Fernando Rees took second in GTE-Am. Sadly, though, the works-supported Manthey
Porsche 991 RSR cars made their GTE-Pro debut with less of a bang and more of a gentle phut, struggling to match the pace of the Astons and coming in with fourth- and sixth-place finishes in their class of six. Let's hope their fortunes improve later in the season so that the
celebratory tone of the 911's 50th anniversary year can be maintained!
[Images: Prime Exposures]
