Two points separate top three LMGTE-Am teams at halfway stage
While title battles begin to take shape in LMP1, LMP2 and LMGTE-Pro at the halfway point of the FIA World Endurance Championship season, LMGTE-Am remains wide open with just two points between the top three teams in points after the 6 Hours of Nürburgring
At the head of the standings is the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche of Christian Ried, Matteo Cairoli and Marvin Dienst. The German-Italian trio became the fourth different team to score a GTE-Am class victory this year courtesy of victory on home turf at the Nürburgring, the first for series rookies Cairoli and Dienst and Ried’s first since Bahrain in 2012.
Having finished in the top three at every race so far, the Porsche team has adopted the mantra of consistent point-scoring used so successfully by last year’s champions AF Corse, although their job certainly isn’t over yet.
Level on points, but second in the standings courtesy of scoring one fewer podium are Silverstone winners Clearwater Racing with drivers Matt Griffin, Keita Sawa and Weng Sun-Mok. In their first season in the championship, the Ferrari squad sensationally capitalised on last lap contact between the duelling Pedro Lamy and Miguel Molina to snatch victory in the UK, which they followed up with third at Spa and second at Le Mans behind the Spirit of Race Ferrari driven by Marco Cioci, Aaron Scott and Duncan Cameron.
However, a fourth place finish for the Singaporean team at the Nürburgring allowed Dempsey-Proton to draw level and brought the No. 98 Aston Martin Racing of class stalwarts Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda back to within two points, after a damage caused by a puncture thwarted their efforts at Le Mans.
Despite securing a fourth pole position from as many races in Germany, the Aston crew were unable to add to their 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps success and pushed down to third in the final reckoning by a season-best performance from the No. 54 Spirit of Race Ferrari driven by Molina, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr.
However, with the hot temperatures expected in the North-American double-header in September, which played into Aston Martin’s hands last year, the championship could yet take a turn in their favour.
With five races still to go and a possible 130 points on offer, all bets are off!
The FIA World Endurance Championship resumes after its summer break with the 6 Hours of Mexico on September 3rd.
