Multiple winners in the Belgian Ardennes?
Of all the teams at the start of the next 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, only three drivers will be eligible for a second overall victory in a race that has increased from 1000km to 6 Hours.
Appearing in the Le Mans Series schedule since its inception in 2004, this race in the Belgian Ardennes has had different winners each year. Audi R8 won its first edition in the UK with Audi Veloqx Johnny Herbert-Jamie Davies. The first has now oratorical talents on British television and the second with no endurance program since 2009, they will repeat their feat.
In 2005, the trio John Nielsen-Casper Elgaard-Hanayari Shimoda won in the swift but fragile Zytek. Emmanuel Collard and Jean-Christophe Boullion would follow suit next year with Pescarolo Sport. They thought they could defend their chances of victory on the second slide of the Ardennes, but wham, the team of Henri Pescarolo Pescarolo become Team, announced its plan for the second round of the World Championship.
In recent years Peugeot have dominated, winning five times in Belgium since 2007, and on each occasion with a different driver crew. If Toyota had been ready its new Hybrid TS030, Alexander Wurz, who won last year, could have scored a second victory in a row, a feat that (so far) only Pagenaud, who is absent this year, and Nicolas Minassian have managed to do.
Minassian, who comes from Marseilles and is based in England, could win a third time, and his team-mate Sebastien Bourdais for the second time. The French drivers of the Dome of Pescarolo Team, will have a tough time beating Marc Gene (winner in 2008 and 2011), who found refuge at Audi after the accident of Timo Bernhard during testing at Sebring.
Strangely, the count for Audi at Spa-Francorchamps is stuck on one, but he Ingolstadt based manufacturer has good chance on improving that score this year with four prototypes entered, two with hybrid engine. Marc Gene may have an advantage over his former team-mates Nicolas Minassian and Sebastien Bourdais, but in the Belgian Ardennes, there is always the threat of rain, which may upset the order. Stephane Sarrazin, a former winner, could then shine as he did at Sebring in March, where he took third place with Honda of Starworks Motorsport entered in the LMP2 category.
Cécile Bonardel
Photo : FRANCORCHAMPS (LIEGE, BELGIUM), CIRCUIT OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, 1000 KM OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, SATURDAY 7 MAY 2011, RACE.