Race - 6 Hours of Spa
Audi’s perfect balance of high down-force and recently integrated air-channels saw them win an intense arm-wrestle with Porsche that also saw the No. 7 Audi smash the six-hour distance record in the process - completing 1232.7 kilometres.
After Porsche locked out the first three positions after qualifying, Brendon Hartley took an early lead in the #17 919-Hybrid, but just before he was due to hand over the car to Timo Bernhard after 23 laps, he locked the brakes before the bus stop chicane and used the escape road to get back onto the track. He was given a 15 second stop and go penalty, which saw the car drop back to second place, before a damper change during the driver change to Webber after 47 laps cost even more time.
Mark Webber managed to improve to third during a double stint. After 95 laps Hartley took over, refuelled after 119 laps and handed over to Bernhard after 137 laps. Bernhard came in for his final stop for fuel after 161 laps and finished third.
The #7 Audi and #18 Porsche drove flat out during the final two hours, with both teams refuing to change tyres in order to save time in the pits. Benoit Treluyer and Marc Lieb took multiple turns at the front – on occasion swapping paint in the process.
In the end, the race was decided in the final round of pit stops, with Jani first to blink; coming in for fuel only with 36 minutes to run. It was then that Audi’s brilliant engineer Leena Gade once again showed her mastery
and steely determination by not only pitting Treluyer 15
minutes later, but also choosing to triple-stint
his tyres.