no. 2 Toyota
and Oliver Jarvis in the no. 8 Audi suffered contact with GT cars that required attention on pit lane.
Such was the gap Lotterer was able to pull out on the rest that even the late penalty call would not put pay to Audi’s perfect start to the season, although Toyota, forced into double-stinting to remain in
contention, will be
optimistic of a return to form at Spa, where they have tasted success in the past.
“I think it’s fair to say that the competition have definitely caught up, maybe overtaken,” admitted Davidson.
“Hopefully when we get to some circuits where tyre-wear is a bit more critical than it is here at Silverstone then we can be in a position where we were last year, because our car is a bit kinder on tyres than most. This was never really a strong circuit for us, we’ve always seemed to struggle here and last year it’s fair to say we wouldn’t have won if it wasn’t for the changeable conditions. [If someone had offered us], I think we would have taken third, definitely.”
LMP2 was a more straight-forward affair, as G-Drive Racing dominated from the first hour to record a 1-2 finish. Nick Tandy made a terrific start from third on the grid to usurp both front-row men and lead the opening lap on his first start for KCMG, but simply couldn’t live with the pace of the Ligiers on the first outing for the new Oreca 05 and soon dropped back to third, before radiator problems prompted a lengthy stay in the pits, yielding 19th overall and fourth in class.
That left the way clear for Sam Bird, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal to romp to a comfortable victory, while pole sitters Pipo Derani, Gustavo Yacaman and Ricardo Gonzalez collected second.
“The race went according to plan for G-Drive. We knew that we had a very good package here at Silverstone and it went very, very well. The pit stops were very good, my team-mates drove exceptionally, I did my part and the result came,” said Bird. “There’s going to be tracks where our car isn’t suited to the circuit we’re at, so it’s important that when the car is suited to a given circuit that we make the most of it and that’s happened today, so I’m really delighted.”
Image: Octane Photographic