KCMG scored an emphatic second win after their ground-breaking Le Mans victory to extend its title leads in the drivers’ and teams’ title fight.
Nick Tandy gave onlookers a scare as the #47 entry failed to move away on the formation lap, but once away the outright Le Mans winner immediate stole a march on both G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan entries. KCMG’s lead eroded after the second scheduled stops, Matt Howson was able to chase down Roman Rusinov’s No.26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan and once again put daylight between them.
Richard Bradley again had to battle his way back up from 6th position after the final stops, but put in some sizzling times to extended their LMP2 title lead to 15 points.
While unable to keep pace with the #47 entry, G-Drive Racing claimed a fine double podium position. Rusinov, Canal and Bird were 71 seconds adrift in second place, while Derani, Yacaman and Gonzalez scored their third podium of the season after a spirited race, which saw Derani pull off one of the moves of the race when he overtook Nelson Panciatici’s Signatech Alpine at turn two.
In LM GTE Pro, Porsche Team Manthey scored a superb 1-2 to vault Ferrari in the battle for the FIA World Endurance Cup for Manufacturers.
The normally bullet-proof #51 AF Corse Ferrari hit electrical issues after just 15 minutes of racing, allowing the #91 entry of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen to lead the majority of the 6 hrs and give Christensen his debut WEC win and hand Team Manthey the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers points table, just a single point ahead of James Calado and Davide Rigon.
Frederic Makowiecki was penalised for having jumped the start and was making ground back after a stop-go penalty before collecting the #71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 of James Calado; the incident causing a puncture to the Ferrari and some light bodywork damage for the Porsche.
The two cars later engaged in a titanic duel with 2nd drivers Patrick Pilet and Davide Rigon, but not even a drive-through penaltyfor the #91 car (as a result of the contact with Calado) was enough to put a dent in their lead.