Championship classifications after 24 Hours of Le Mans
With increased points on offer for not just one edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans but two, plus the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the WEC Super Season championships will be wide open for some time to come.
However, 38 points for a win gives teams and drivers a considerable boost to their title hopes and here’s a look at how things stand after the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Note that the race results remain provisional until the appeal against disqualification lodged by LMP2 class winners, G-Drive Racing, has been heard by the FIA Court of Appeal. The classifications are therefore also provisional.
FIA World Endurance Championship – Drivers and Manufacturers
The 38 points scored by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso in the No.8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID has given them a 20-point lead at the head of the LMP World Endurance Drivers’ Championship.
In second place are José Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway on 45 points, the No.7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID crew having been runner up to its sister car at both Spa and Le Mans. Just 7 points behind them are the trio of drivers from the No.3 Rebellion Racing R13 Gibson, Mathias Beche, Gustavo Menezes and Thomas Laurent following two excellent podium finishes in the opening rounds of the season.
Toyota’s victories also mean that it holds the lead in the LMP1 World Endurance Championship with 65 points. Rebellion Racing is in second place with 38 points, with ByKolles Racing Team in third place.
LMP2 World Endurance Teams Trophy
Following the disqualification (subject to appeal) of LMP2 race winner G-Drive Racing and TDS Racing, Signatech Alpine Matmut has jumped to the top of the points table. The No.36 Alpine A470 Gibson (André Negrão-Nicolas Lapierre-Pierre Thiriet) has 57 points, with Jackie Chan DC Racing in second.
As non-full season entries don’t score championship points, the No.38 driver line up of Ho-Pin Tung-Stéphane Richelmi-Gabriel Aubry has taken second place with 43 points (4th place finish at Le Mans combined with maximum points at Spa) – just one point ahead of the young Malaysia trio of Jazeman Jaafar-Nabil Jeffri-Weiron Tan who performed extremely well on their debut at Le Mans.
FIA World Endurance GTE Drivers Championship
Porsche and Ford’s strong start to the Super Season is reflected in the GTE Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ championships with the German marque holding a strong lead in the Manufacturers’ tables – 96 points over Ford’s 50 in second place, with Ferrari on third (45.5 points).
In the GTE Drivers World title chase, Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen from the Porsche GT Team’s No.92 911 RSR are leading the way with 56 points, 8 ahead of Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK’s Bill Johnson, Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla (No.66 Ford GT) in second place. In third place in the standings, thanks to two podium finishes, is Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz from the No.91 Porsche GT entry with 40 points.
GTE Am FIA World Endurance Teams and Drivers Trophies
It’s Porsche, Ferrari, Ferrari and Aston Martin in the top four spots of the Teams’ championship – with the No.77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR of Christian Ried-Matt Campbell-Julien Andlauer having taken the full 38 points at Le Mans to add to their Spa total (51 points in total).
Singaporean team Clearwater Racing (Keita Sawa-Weng Sun Mok-Matt Griffin) are in second place with 33 points, their No.61 Ferrari 488 GTE just 2 points ahead of the Spirit of Race trio of Francesco Castellacci-Giancarlo Fisichella-Thomas Flohr in the No.54 Ferrari.
Aston Martin Racing’s 2017 championship-winning line up of Mathias Lauda, Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy failed to score at Le Mans but have 25 points (4th place in the classifications) thanks to a win at Spa.
As stated earlier, with another edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans as well as five other rounds, there is still everything to play for!
The next round of the FIA WEC will be the 6 Hours of Silverstone on 19th August.
