All photos: John Rourke/Gabi Tomescu, Adrenal Media for FIA WEC
With double points on offer for the third round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, a team’s result from the 24 Hours of Le Mans often has a strong impact on a season’s outcome. Here is how things stand now.
Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas have consolidated their lead at the head of the FIA World Endurance Drivers Championship. The trio from the Porsche Team now have 94 points over the 55 of Audi Sport’s Di Grassi-Duval-Jarvis. Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Conway-Kobayashi-Sarrazin is just one point behind on 54. In the Manufacturers’ title race, Porsche leads Audi by 32 points, with Toyota in third.
In the fight for the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers, Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK’s Olivier Pla, Stefan Mücke and Billy Johnson are heading the classifications with 60 points, just 8 ahead of AF Corse Ferrari’s Rigon-Bird pairing who retired from Le Mans with multiple car problems. The Ford trio took maximum WEC points as the first three finishers in the LMGTE Pro class were non-championship entrants.
Points for second place in class went to Aston Martin Racing’s Turner-Thiim-Sorensen, putting them just one point behind the Ferrari drivers on 51. The result – combined with a strong showing from the British marque’s other cars – puts Aston Martin Racing at the top of the tables for the FIA World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers with 112 points, with Ferrari on 103 and Ford in third place with 98.
Rebellion Racing never gave up during the 24 Hours of Le Mans, overcoming many setbacks to take maximum points and the No.12 crew now leads the No.13.
Signatech Alpine’s Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi followed up a win at Spa with a splendid victory at Le Mans, and the drivers now hold a 23 point lead over G-Drive Racing’s Rast and Rusinov with 87 points. RGR Sport by Morand battled through to the finish at Le Mans to take valuable points, and Albuquerque-Senna-Gonzales are third on 53.
The first WEC finisher in the LMGTE Am category was the No.83 of Emmanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Aguas and the French-Portuguese line up now leads the Drivers’ classification with 93 points over the 55 of Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing’s Al Qubaisi-Heinemeier Hansson-Long.
All points tables can be found HERE
The next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship will be the 6 Hours of Nürburgring between 22-24 July.
