2015 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps

Entrants

34 cars were officially entered for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, with the bulk of the entries in Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). The 2014 race winners, Toyota, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers were represented in LMP1, including a trio of cars entered by Audi Sport Team Joest and Porsche, while Toyota elected to bring only two vehicles. René Rast, Marco Bonanomi and Filipe Albuquerque made their first appearances in the 2015 championship driving the No. 9 Audi, while Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy in Porsche's No. 19 car all entered the LMP1 category for the first time in their motor racing careers. As in Silverstone, Rebellion Racing chose to not take part in the event leaving Team ByKolles as the sole LMP1 privateer team. Christian Klien returned to compete for Team ByKolles having originally intended to race for the team only at Silverstone.

LMP2 consisted of ten cars with 30 drivers. With Tandy driving for Porsche, KCMG employed Toyota's test and reserve driver Nicolas Lapierre to fill his position for the Spa-Francorchamps race and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while GP2 Series driver Mitch Evans made his first appearance in sports car racing alongside European Le Mans Series competitor Simon Dolan, and Nissan factory driver Harry Tincknell for Jota Sport. Despite a failed purchase for the team because of an data encryption failure, Team SARD Morand confirmed their commitment to the World Endurance Championship and opted to bring one car which was driven by Oliver Webb, Pierre Ragues and Zoël Amberg. Johannes van Overbeek returned to co-drive for Extreme Speed Motorsports after missing the season's opening round because of a rib injury.

The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field comprised of three manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche), while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants consisted of six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, Larbre Compétition, Dempsey-Racing Proton, Porsche Team Manthley, SMP Racing. The No. 91 Porsche 911 was vacated after regular driver Michael Christensen missed the Spa race because of a United SportsCar Championship commitment while Richard Lietz moved to the team's No. 92 entry and the car was driven by Sven Müller and Kévin Estre. Nicki Thiim was unable to attend the event because he was taking part in the ADAC GT Masters Championship and the No. 95 Aston Martin was driven as a two-driver operation by Marco Sørensen and Christoffer Nygaard. The team's No. 97 entry became a three-person driver team when McLaren factory driver Robert Bell made his first start of the year alongside Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner. Ferrari's factory team AF Corse entered a second car in LMGTE Am which was driven by Duncan Cameron, Alex Mortimer and Matt Griffin.

Preview

The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2015 schedule in an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Doha on 3 December 2014. It was the second of eighth scheduled endurance sports car races of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, and the fourth running of the event as part of the championship. It was held on 2 May 2015 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium with two preceding days of practice and qualifying. The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is a race track that is 7.004 kilometres (4.352 mi) long and has twenty corners.

Endurance racing events were first held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 1924 with the Spa 24 Hours. 39 years later, the track began holding World Sportscar Championship races at a distance of 500 kilometres (310 mi) which was later expanded to 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) before it was cancelled after the 1975 running because of modern safety concerns. It was resurrected in 1982 on the reconfigured Spa-Francorchamps track layout and remained on the calendar until 1990. Spa-Francorchamps began holding endurance sports car races again from 1999 and the 6 Hour event was made part of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012. The race is considered by many as a final preparation event for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Before the race Audi Sport Team Joest drivers André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer led the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven ahead of their nearest rivals Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani in second and a further three in front of third-placed Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. Their teammates Alexander Wurz, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin were in fourth on 12 points and Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis stood in fifth place on ten points. Audi were leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 35 points, seven ahead of their rival Toyota in second; the third-placed manufacturer Porsche had scored 19 points. Audi had won the preceding 6 Hours of Silverstone with Lieb, Dumas and Jani finishing in second place while Davidson, Buemi and Nakajima came in third position.

Some teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. Audi fitted low-downforce setups on its No. 7 and 8 cars while their third entry used a version observed at the Silverstone race. The design was optimised to omit downforce, thereby reducing drag, for better preparation on competing on high-speed tracks. It was achieved by modifying the car's side pods and openings on the inside surface of its fenders. New cooling techniques were achieved by creating new suspension solutions to restrict spring displacement which also reduced underside turbulent airflow. Porsche chose to use high downforce configurations on all three of their 919 Hybrid cars as they previously did at Silverstone. The ByKolles CLM P1/01 was further developed and had a new front nose equipped after completing a shakedown test on 24 April.

Practice

Three practice sessions—two on Thursday and a third on Friday—were held before the Saturday race. The Thursday afternoon and evening sessions lasted 90 minutes; the third, one-hour session was held on Friday afternoon. The first session was held in heavy rain. The No. 18 Porsche of Lieb was fastest with a time of two minutes and 16.616 seconds, ahead of Davidson in the No. 1 Toyota in second. Brendon Hartley and Hülkenberg in Porsche's other two cars were third and fourth and Rast's No. 9 Audi rounded out the top five. The LMP2 category was led by Jonny Kane's No. 42 Strakka Racing Nissan with a lap of two minutes and 32.672 seconds and battled with Tincknell for the quickest class time. Estre's Porsche was quickest in LMGTE Pro while Klaus Bachler helped the German marque to be fastest in the LMGTE Am category.

The session was disrupted when Nakajima drove into the back-end of Jarvis's car which he was unable to see because of low visibility caused by heavy spray on the Kemmel Straight heading into Les Combes corner. Nakajima complained of severe back pain and was transported to Verviers hospital and was deemed unfit to take part in the race because a check-up found he had fractured vertebra. Toyota's test and reserve driver Kamui Kobayashi was not available because he was in his native Japan and the No. 1 car was run as a two-driver operation for the remainder of the race weekend although it missed the second practice session because it required monocoque rebuilding. The No. 8 Audi also missed the second practice session because it was undergoing rear-end repairs.

Heavy rain continued to affect the track in the second practice session where conditions deteriorated as the session advanced and several cars elected not to improve their quickest times to avoid driving off the track after going through standing water. The conditions allowed the fastest LMP2 and LMGTE vehicles to reach the top five quickest overall times. Bamber recorded the fastest time of the 90-minute period at two minutes and 25.495 seconds, nearly half a second faster than Bernhard in the sister Porsche in second. Lotterer was third-fastest and had the top time early in the session. Evans achieved the only time under the two minute and 34.500 seconds mark in LMP2 with a lap of two minutes and 34.370 seconds. The LMGTE Pro category was led by Lietz with No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari co-driver Rui Águas the fastest of the LMGTE Am runners.

The final practice was held on a dry race track which allowed for faster lap times throughout the 60-minute period. Lotterer set the fastest time of the race weekend so far with a one-minute and 57.368 seconds lap which was recorded in the session's final minute, 0.011 seconds faster than the second-quickest car of Hülkenberg. Jani was a further five-tenths of a second behind the two cars in third place and was narrowly faster than teammate Hartley in fourth position. Sam Bird was the fastest LMP2 driver in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing car with a time of two minutes and 8.415 seconds, four-tenths ahead of Matthew Howson's KCMG Oreca. Toni Vilander recorded the quickest LMGTE Pro time ahead of Fernando Rees in the No. 97 Aston Martin while Pedro Lamy, driving the British marque's No. 98 car, was the fastest driver in the LMGTE Am category. A brief full course yellow flag was displayed when Bachler collided with the Pouhon corner tyre barrier with his car's back went, while Turner avoided going into the Les Combes wall and was temporarily beached in the turn's gravel trap. Both drivers returned to the track and continued.

Qualifying

Friday's late afternoon qualification session was divided into two groups that lasted 25 minutes each. Cars in the LMGTE Pro and AM categories were sent out first and, after a five-minute interval, LMP1 and LMP2 vehicles drove onto the track. All vehicles were required to be driven by two participants for one timed lap each and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest average times. The fastest qualifier was awarded one point which went towards the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships. The session took place in clear, mild and dry weather conditions. Hülkenberg's first timed lap of one minute and 55.130 seconds supprassed the LMP1 pole position record time only to be followed by Hartley with a one-minute and 54.777 seconds lap time to place the No. 17 Porsche in provisional pole position. Bernhard took over from Hartley and recorded a lap that was 0.027 seconds faster than the New Zealand driver to lower the car's two-lap average time to one minute and 54.767 seconds and clinched pole position. It was the third consective event that Bernhard, Mark Webber and Hartley started from the pole position.

They were joined on the grid's front row by the sister No. 19 car after Tandy set a lap time at the session's conclusion that saw him be 0.257 seconds slower than his teammates. Jani and Lieb qualified in third position, three-tenths of a second slower than the two faster Porsche cars. Lotterer went onto the track twice and improved his first lap time from a one-minute and 55.230 seconds to one minute and 55.114 seconds, while Fässler was unable to find a rhythm and could not improve on his co-drivers fastest time, restricting them to qualifying fourth. Duval and di Grassi took fifth place with the latter stating that the team was not happy with the No. 8 car's setup and that overnight work had to be undertaken. Davidson and Buemi held fifth place until di Grassi and Duval's lap times meant they fell to sixth. Conway and Sarrazin secured seventh with the latter saying that he was held up by slower cars on his two timed laps. Albuquerque and Rast filled the grid's fourth row by qualifying eighth ahead of the No. 4 Team ByKolles car.

In LMP2, Bird and Julien Canal took the fastest two-lap average time of two minutes and 7.761 seconds; Canal pushed hard on new tyres during his second timed run after he disliked his first attempt. The two were two-tenths of a second faster than the second-place qualifiers, Howson and Lapierre, and held the class pole position until Canal's lap. Team SARD Morand's No. 43 car took third in the category, while the second G-Drive Racing entry was fourth, with fifth-placed qualifier Tincknell recording the session's best class individual lap time. Richie Stanaway and Rees, competing in the No. 99 Aston Martin, were the fastest LMGTE Pro qualifiers with a two-lap average time of two minutes and 16.840 seconds. Gianmaria Bruni set the fastest class individual lap late in the session but was 0.070 seconds off the Aston Martin's pace and started from second place in the category, displacing Turner and Mucke from the position. Turner's fastest lap was invalidated after he went off the track and was required to set another time. James Calado and Davide Rigon secured fourth in AF Corse's No. 71 Ferrari with Sørensen and Nygaard rounding out the top five. Aston Martin's No. 98 entry driven by Paul Dalla Lana and Lamy took the pole position in LMGTE Am, more than a second faster than Larbre Compétition's No. 50 Corvette of Paolo Ruberti and Gianluca Roda.

Post-qualifying

KCMG's No 47 car had its qualifying lap times disallowed after it was discovered in post-qualifying scrunteering that the vehicle's skid block had insufficient rigidity and had been excessively flexible. The penalty meant Team SARD Morand's No. 43 car was promoted to second in LMP2 and the No. 47 entry was required to start from the pit lane with a 30-second time penalty.

Qualifying results

Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.

^1 – The No. 47 KCMG had all laptimes deleted because of insufficient rigidity of the skid block and started from the pit lane.

Race

Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry and cloudy with an air temperature ranging from 12.6–14.1 °C (54.7–57.4 °F) and a track temperature between 13.3–16.1 °C (55.9–61.0 °F); a 50 percent chance of rain was forecast. 54,000 people attended the race weekend. The race began at 14:30 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00). Hartley maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first turn. Lieb passed Tandy to take over second position, while Fassler moved from fourth to third. Team SARD Morand held the LMP2 lead before its car was overtaken by Tincknell and Bird on lap two. Duval moved in front of Wurz for fifth before the Toyota driver dropped to seventh overall. Jota Sport was issued with a drive-through penalty after its car was judged to have jumped the start and rejoined in sixth in LMP2, allowing Bird to the front of the category. Tandy went to the inside of Estre to lap him but made head-on contact with his car and went straight into the barriers at Pouhon corner. Both drivers continued but Tandy drove into the pit lane for damage repairs and dropped to the back of the field. Fässler battled with Lieb for second as the two pass slower cars spun but the Audi driver spun at the Bus Stop chicane, allowing Lieb to take over second.

The majority of the field elected to make their first scheduled pit stops before the first hour ended with Hartley going straight on at the Bus Stop chicane after locking his front brakes, rejoining the track by driving onto the escape road but made contact with a marshals post, prompting the stewards to call him up to their office. Tincknell had moved back into second place in LMP2 and separated both G-Drive cars. Roald Goethe went backwards into the Eau Rouge corner exit barrier after taking over from Stuart Hall, requiring lengthy repairs to his car. Estre was issued with a drive-through penalty after he was judged to have caused the collision between himself and Tandy. Tandy briefly stopped his Porsche at the pit lane entry, while Bonanomi went wide driving up to Radallion during a battle with Wurz for sixth place. The No. 17 Porsche was issued with a 15-second stop-and-go penalty after it was judged to have not respected track limits and caused danger to marshals. Bernhard took the penalty on the 17th lap, resulting in Jani moving to the front of the field. Evans moved to the front of the LMP2 field after overtaking Canal heading into the Bus Stop chicane. Fässler ceded third position to Duval at Les Combes.

Bernhard was caught by Duval and used his car's hybrid boost system on the Kemmel straight but the French driver moved ahead of the German under braking into Les Combes corner. Fässler briefly pressured Bernhard before entering the pit lane for a scheduled stop and Lotterer took over his seat. Lotterer lap times in the one minute and 58 second range allowing him to run 12 seconds behind race leader Dumas. Bonanomi left-hand window became detached on the Kemmel straight, necessiating an extra pit stop for a replacement window. Patrick Dempsey spun his No. 77 car at the Bus Stop chicane which forced several drivers to take avoiding action. Trummer drove into his garage with back-end technical problems with his car and retired. His co-driver Marco Seefried spun and heavily struck the left-hand turn tyre barrier before Pouhon corner. Dumas extended his advantage over Lotterer to 19 seconds while Canal reclaimed the LMP2 category lead when Evans made a scheduled pit stop. Lotterer made a pit stop for tyres and fuel while Dumas and Jarvis reacted shortly afterwards. Di Grassi took over from Jarvis while Lotterer gained five seconds on Dumas. While switching from Bernhard to Webber, Porsche changed a problematic damper on the No. 17 vehicle. Kristian Poulsen went backwards into the barrier approaching Blanichmont corner while being lapped by an LMP2 car, allowing Aleksey Basov and Khaled Al Qubaisi to inherit second and third places in LMGTE Am.

Webber passed Rast for sixth place while Poulsen retired from accident damage while attempting to return to the pit lane. Dumas held a 24-second advantage over Lotterer with di Grassi in third while Evans moved back into the LMP2 class lead. Both Toyota cars were battling for fourth position with Webber close behind. He overtook Davidson for fifth at the exit of Radillion corner before driving on the Kemmel straight, and moved ahead of Sarrazin one lap later. Di Grassi slowed with technical problems and drove into his garage for an engine control unit and front-left nose change. Toyota's No. 1 car was pushed into his garage with mechanical problems before rejoining the circuit for a few laps before a throttle problem emerged, causing the car to run at a reduced pace. Lotterer retook the lead after the No. 18 Porsche driver switch took longer than expected. Rast passed Conway around the outside for fourth at the Bus Stop chicane. Vilander challenged Lietz for second in LMGTE Pro but ended early because Vilander was issued with a track limit abuse penalty. Lotterer and Lieb battled each other for the first place with the former driving defensively after driving past slower cars going into Les Combes corner to keep the position. Lieb ran wide off the track at the exit of Stavelot corner while lapping an slower car.

Lotterer made a pit stop with saw Tréluyer take over his driving duties and Lieb moved back to the front of the field. Tréluyer's fast pace allowed him to close the gap to Lieb within 15 minutes. He caught Lieb and passed him around the outside at the Bus Stop chicane and held the lead until Lieb reclaimed it by overtaking the French driver on the Kemmel straight. Tréluyer managed to take over the first position when he got ahead of Lieb around the outside of Pif Paf corner despite the two making contact at Pouhon corner. Lieb made a pit stop for new tyres and switched driving positions with Jani. Bruni passed Bell to move into second in LMGTE Pro while smoke billowed from the left exhaust of Bird's car and went to his garage for diagnosis. Bruni reduced the time deficit to Rees and passed him to claim the LMGTE Pro lead. Tréluyer was under eight seconds in front of Lieb as the final hour began. Lapierre moved ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin to take over fourth place in LMP2 while Jani reduced the time deficit to be two seconds behind Tréluyer on lap 154 and passed him by using his hybrid boost system on the Kemmel straight on the following lap. Audi elected to keep Tréluyer on track when Lieb made a pit stop for fuel and remained there until lap 164 when stopped for fuel and no tyres. Jarvis went straight into Stavelot corner's barriers in the event's closing two minutes.

Tréluyer maintained the lead for the rest of the race to win after completing 176 laps at a record-braking distance of 765.967 miles (1,232.704 km). Jani finished second, 13.424 seconds adrift of the No. 7 Audi, and Bernhard completed the podium positions by finishing third, albeit one lap behind. Unchallenged in the closing stages, Jota Sport were victorious in the LMP2 class, one lap ahead of second-placed G-Drive Racing and third-position finishers Team SARD Morand. It was Evans's first LMP2 victory in the World Endurance Championship, and Tincknell and Dolan's second in the sport. Rees maintained his advantage over Bruni who was issued with a one-minute stop-and-go penalty for a pit lane infringement to clinch victory in LMGTE Pro. Turner held third but made a pit stop, allowing Lietz and Muller to finish in second and third places in the category. It was Rees's, Stanaway's and Alex MacDowall's first class victories in the World Endurance Championship. Aston Martin finished as the winners in the LMGTE Am category, ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Agias with SMP Racing's No. 72 entry of Viktor Shaitar, Aleksey Basov and Andrea Bertolini completing the class podium positions. Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda's and Lamy's win was their second consective in LMGTE Am.

Post-race

The top three finishers of all the classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. Tréluyer was delighted with the victory, saying: "What a race, It was a tough lights-to-flag job, just like at Silverstone, but it was huge fun and we’re already looking forward to Le Mans.” He further stated: "We did it and I am very happy for the team because we had a really strong weekend and it feels great to win in this fashion." Lotterer said of the result: "It's no holds barred all the time and is very fun, especially at Spa-Francorchamps. It's for this type of race that we hit track." Dumas, who finished in second alongside Lieb and Jani, stated he found driving in dry weather conditions difficult because he was not experience in participating in such conditions. Lieb said his battle with Tréluyer was "great" and said the contact between the two drivers was part of motor racing. Jani stated while he did not win the race he felt the car was "really good". Third-place co-finisher Webber said that his team had execessive own goals and that they did not wanted to be handed result if they were not performing at the highest level. Bernhard said that despite taking a stop-and-go penalty his team did not give up and gave it their best effort to stand on the podium.

The result meant Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer increased their Drivers' Championship advantage to be 14 points ahead of second-placed Lieb, Jani and Dumas. Wurz, Conway and Sarrazin moved from fourth to third with 22 points, three in front of their teammates Davidson and Buemi. Bernhard's, Webber's and Hartley's third-place finish meant they rounded out the top five with 17 points. Audi increased its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship on 70 points, 17 ahead of their nearest rivals Porsche in second, and a further six in front of third-placed manufacturer Toyota with six races left in the season.

Race results

The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of the overall winning car's race distance) was 123 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.