Championship points round-up as WEC gears up for season-closer
After taking their fourth WEC Super Season win of the year, Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima have put one hand firmly on the FIA World Endurance LMP Drivers’ Championship.
The trio now sit 31 points ahead of the No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing trio of Mike Conway, Jose-Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi with a total 39 points available at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month.
The FIA World Endurance LMP1 championship saw Toyota Gazoo Racing sweep the title silverware as they have an unassailable 61-point advantage over Rebellion Racing.
In the GT FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship, long-time leaders Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen of Porsche GT Team extended their lead to a healthy 36 points over stablemates Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz who finished a lowly eighth at Spa-Francorchamps.
Porsche claimed the GT Manufacturers’ FIA World Championship as they scooped 19 points in Belgium. The 93 point gap to Ferrari is unassailable and means the trophy heads to Weissach this season.
The LMP2 standings are the closest of all with just fourth points covering Signatech Alpine Matmut’s squad of Nicolas Lapierre, André Negrão and Pierre Thiriet plus the No.38 Jackie Chan DC Racing crew of Ho-Pin Tung, Stéphane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry.
Even Spa LMP2 victors DragonSpeed’s Anthony Davidson, Pastor Maldonado and Roberto Gonzalez can still mathematically take the crown. However, it would take an unlikely set of circumstances for them to claw back the 26 point swing to their rivals.
The FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams mirrors the drivers’ points with Signatech holding a four point advantage.
Team Project 1’s Egidio Perfetti, Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Lindsey remain at the top of the LMGTE AM standings after their fifth place at the TOTAL 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps last weekend.
Their lead was reduced by two points by the Spirit of Race Ferrari trio of Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Giancarlo Fisichella who took fourth.
The LMGTE Am title chase also sees an outside chance of TF Sport’s Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc achieving a dramatic claim on the title, but the British/Turkish alliance would need a win and misfortune for the Team Project 1 and Spirit of Race cars to transpire at the 24 Hours of Le Mans next month.
