Toyota is still pushing hard with their #1 and #2 TS 040 Hybrids. The problems in the Porsche garage, plus a one minute stop and go penalty, meant the #1 took fourth place. The #2 was making gains before Mike Conway lost control of the car while trying to overtake an Aston Martin.
In the LMP1 privateer class, serious technical issues for both Rebellion R-One AERs allowed Pierre Kaffer and Simon Trummer’s ByKolles CLM P1/01 AER to take a class victory for the second time in a row.
LMP2 had G-Drive Racing’s Sam Bird, Roman Rusinov, and Julien Canal lead the class after putting up a long fight with KCMG ORECA and collected their hard-earned points. Nicolas Lapierre, Matt Howson and Richard Bradley staged a herculean comeback from the rear of the grid to lead the class, but their second place enabled the Chinese-Anglo outfit to retain their championship lead.
Porsche showed their competitive spirit in to the LMGTE categories, both Pro and Am. In Pro, Porsche Team Manthey took both the top spots with their 911 RSRs. Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen secured the win with their #91 car when the second to last pit stop was quick enough to beat the #92 car of Frederic Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet.
The real drama in this class surrounded the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia. A broken door closing mechanism meant multiple track limit penalties, black-and-orange flags, and a scramble in the garage as the team struggled to repair the door. After the team spent precious minutes working on a replacement door, the Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander pair was able to capture only seventh place.
LMGTE Am had its own inter-class battles as well, with Pat Long in the Dempsey-Proton Porsche exchanging places with the SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia, Abu-Dhabi Proton racing Porsche, and the AF Corse Ferrari for the first hour. At times the cars were three-wide across COTA’s multi-apex turns under the famous observation tower. At the end, the SMP Racing Ferrari took the win along with a 35-point lead among competitors.
Next up for WEC is a trip to Fuji, Japan, for the sixth round to be held this weekend on October 10th.