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Conway retained the lead from pole in the #7 Toyota. In the #26 G-drive Lynn slipped to 3rd from LMP2 pole, behind #36 and #31. After 10 minutes Buemi passed Conway to put #8 into lead but Conway managed to post the fastest lap on lap 4 (1:39.656) In the two Fords GTs Priaulx and Mucke were in charge of GTE Pro from front row. Spirit of race #54 Ferrari led the #98 Aston Martin in GTE Am. More woes for the ByKolles CLM #4 which was wheeled into its garage after only 15 minutes of racing with brake problems.
The 2 Fords were side by side then Priaulx was passed by team mate followed by Mako in Porsche #91. Problems for #67 relegated him swiftly down the order. Lamy took GTE Am lead at 12:35 in Aston Martin #98 passing Castellacci in #54 Ferrari at Luffield. Mako passed the Ford #66 to put Porsche #91 into lead of GTE Pro. Both Toyotas were first of LMP1-H cars to do scheduled stop at 12:46. There was minor contact between Calado in the #51 Ferrari and Christensen in the #92 Porsche. There was a problem with the door of the #26 G-Drive that required replacement of the entire door at the car's next scheduled stop.
Conway in Toyota #7 retook the lead from Buemi in #8 at 13:10 but #8 won a track limits warning at 13:21. There was a big wiggle for Buemi in Toyota #8 as he braked very late for the pit lane speed limit. Davidson took over the car at 13:36. Manor (Hirschi) #24 and Vaillante Rebellion (Heinemeiner Hansson) #13 made contact at The Loop - #13 the loser in that battle - the incident won #13 a 15s penalty.
Problems for #7 Toyota were reported and Kobayashi slipped to 4th at 13:50. There were sprinkles of rain on and off at that time but nothing serious. Bernhard in #2 Porsche was catching Davidson in Toyota #8 only 3.5s ahead at 14:10. Estre in Porsche #92 took 3rd in GTE Pro at 14:19.
Rear roll bar was reported as the problem afflicting the #7 Toyota and there was new bodywork for #7 at regular stop at 14:30. Kobayashi had a trip to gravel in #7 on a damp track. Porsche #1 made an unscheduled stop to change tyres at 14:37 and leading #2 Porsche was fortunate to put on intermediates at exactly the right moment. #8 Toyota was back into lead after more tyre stops for Porsche. The damp caught out Dala Lana who had a spin at Vale in leading GTE Am #98 at 15:15.
There was a Fire for the #92 Porsche which stopped at Luffield at 15:20 bringing about a brief full course yellow. Lopez was another driver caught out by rain at Copse and put #7 Toyota hard into the tyres at 15:30 bringing about another FCY. Lopez seemed determined to get himself out of the gravel despite the heavy damage to the nose of the Toyota. Finally craned onto tarmac and crept back to the circuit for a long drive back to pit lane dropping debris around the track. The FCY turned into a Safety Car situation while the track was cleared of debris and the barriers repaired.
There was contact between #71 (Bird) and #13 (Beche) at Abbey resulting in damage to #13 which required a 12 minute pit garage visit and resulted in a 15 second penalty for #71. Tincknell in #67 Ford GT passed Mako in #91 Porsche for 3rd place at 16:13. Vaxiviere muscled the #28 TDS Racing past Rao in the #36 Alpine to take the lead of LMP2 at 16:15
Lots of cars were pinged for speeding under the FCY / SC period including class leaders.
The #7 Toyota that Lopez managed to limp back to the pits finally made it back onto the track at 16:50 with Conway at the wheel. Lopez was taken to hospital for precautionary tests but appeared to be unharmed. Once repaired, the #7 seemed to be more on the pace than when it was carrying the roll bar handling problem. At 17:15 there was a bizarre incident when Rossiter in the ByKolles #4 ENSO CLM collided with Adam in the #97 Aston on pit entry. The #4 was the loser in that contact and was retired, while #97 rejoined.
With 30 minutes remaining Hartley was leading in the #2 Porsche 919 but had to make his last stop for a splash before the flag. He emerged from pit lane just 8.9s ahead of Buemi in the #8 Toyota. There was a tense last half hour in GTE Am also with a battle between Griffin in the #61 Ferrari and Lamy in the #98 Aston Martin. Griffin finally made the pass at Copse and pulled out a couple of car lengths on Lamy.
With 20 minutes until the chequered flag the gap between Hartley and Buemi was down to 3.9s and was whittled down to less than a second just as rain started with 15 minutes remaining. Buemi finally (inevitably) made his way past the Porsche #2 in The Loop with 12 minutes remaining and was uncatchable until the finish.
In LMP2 Jackie Chan DC Racing won the race with the #38 Oreca of Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent. Nico Prost, Bruno Senna & Julien Canal came home second in the #13 Rebellion, ahead of the #28 TDS Racing who took the third podium spot. First LMP2 race and immediately first podium for last year's LM GTE Am champions Emmanuel Collard & François Perrodo joined by Matthieu Vaxiviere.
In the final minutes the #67 Ford GT was leading GTE Pro but had a reappearance of a door problem they had early in the race but made it home to the class win. Griffin in the Ferrari #61 slipped to 3rd behind the #54 Ferrari. Barker in the Gulf Racing Porsche #86 came out for the last lap after a 45 minute stop.
Lamy in #98 and Molina in #54 had last lap contact at Stowe leaving #98 Aston stopped just after the finish line salvaging second place and Molina in the Spirit of Race Ferrari stopped on track. The #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari snatched the GTE Am win with the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche third.
Full results can be found HERE
Dave DAVIES
