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Lotterer, Treluyer and Fassler beat Porsche to win Spa WEC for Audi

Audi drivers Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler made it two World Endurance Championship race wins out of two after another thrilling race with Porsche

Audi drivers Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler made it two World Endurance Championship race wins out of two after another thrilling race with Porsche.

The Audi triumphed in the Le Mans-spec, low-downforce R18 e-tron by just 13 seconds from the Porsche 919 Hybrid shared by Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani.

The Porsche was the faster LMP1 car over a stint at Spa, but the Audi was quicker when it came to double-stinting its Michelin tyres. It was this that ultimately gave it victory.

Lotterer jumped the Porsche in the pits early in the fourth hour by double-stinting his tyres.

Porsche doubled next time around with Marc Lieb, but he lost out to a hard-charging Treluyer, who took the lead with an around-the-outside manouevre at Fagnes.

Jani came back at Treluyer in the penultimate hour and regained the lead for Porsche, but the Audi was back ahead at the next round of stops courtesy of doubling again.

Treluyer then kept the same tyres the short run to the flag, ensuring the victory.

"When they told me that I was going to keep the tyres for a third stint, I thought, oh!" said Treluyer.

"But that was our chance to win and I was still able to take risks in traffic and push like hell."

The top two of only three LMP1 cars to have clean races finished a lap clear of their nearest pursuer, the pole-winning Porsche shared by Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Mark Webber.

It lost time with a drive-through penalty early in the race after Hartley overshot the Bus-Stop chicane and nipped through a gap between the tyre barriers and the start of the guard rail on the start/finish straight.

The car subsequently lost more time with a damper problem, which explained the one-lap deficit at the finish.

Fourth place went to the high-downforce Audi R18 shared by Marco Bonanomi, Rene Rast and Filipe Albuquerque, which was delayed by the loss of the window from the left door.

Fifth place went to the Toyota TS040 HYBRID shared by Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway, which had a clean race but wasn't on the pace of the Audis or the Porsches.

The Porsche shared by Nick Tandy, Nico Hulkenberg and Earl Bamber finished three laps down in sixth after losing time to front body repairs after Tandy came together with the factory Manthey Porsche 911 RSR driven by Kevin Estre early on.

Reigning champions Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi, who drove as a duo after Kazuki Nakajima was injured in free practice, finished down in eighth after suffering throttle and then electrical problems.

JOTA SPORT TAKES LMP2 WIN

European Le Mans Series regular Jota Sport sealed victory in LMP2 with its Gibson-Nissan 015S, driven by Harry Tincknell, Mitch Evans and Simon Dolan, despite an early-race drive-through for a jump-start.

Amateur Dolan looked to have done enough during his double stint before handing back to Tincknell to secure victory, but retirement for the chasing G-Drive Ligier-Nissan JSP2 of Sam Bird, Julien Canal and Roman Rusinov left him and then Evans a clear run to a one-lap victory.

Aston Martin Racing took honours in GTE Pro with the Vantage GTE shared by Richie Stanaway, Fernando Rees and Alex MacDowall, which battled with the AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander for much of the race.

Bruni was just over a second behind Rees when he was forced to take a stop-go penalty of one-minute for a pitstop infringement that dropped the car to fourth.

AMR also won in GTE Am with Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana.

RESULTS - 176 LAPS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Gap
1 LMP1 M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 6h01m08.896s
2 LMP1 R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb Porsche Team Porsche 13.424s
3 LMP1 T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley Porsche Team Porsche 1 Lap
4 LMP1 F.Albuquerque, M.Bonanomi, R.Rast Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 2 Laps
5 LMP1 A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway Toyota Racing Toyota 3 Laps
6 LMP1 N.Hulkenberg, E.Bamber, N.Tandy Porsche Team Porsche 3 Laps
7 LMP1 L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 8 Laps
8 LMP1 A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima Toyota Racing Toyota 14 Laps
9 LMP2 S.Dolan, M.Evans, H.Tincknell JOTA Sport Gibson/Nissan 15 Laps
10 LMP2 G.Yacaman, P.Derani, R.Gonzalez G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 16 Laps
11 LMP2 P.Ragues, O.Webb, Z.Amberg Team SARD Morand Morgan/SARD 17 Laps
12 LMP2 M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Lapierre KCMG ORECA/Nissan 17 Laps
13 LMP2 N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, V.Capillaire Signatech Alpine Alpine/Nissan 17 Laps
14 LMP2 N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane Strakka Racing Dome/Nissan 20 Laps
15 LMP2 J.Nicolet, J-M.Merlin, E.Maris Oak Racing Ligier/Nissan 24 Laps
16 GTE Pro A.MacDowall, F.Rees, R.Stanaway Aston Martin Racing V8 Aston Martin 25 Laps
17 GTE Pro F.Makowiecki, R.Lietz Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 25 Laps
18 GTE Pro S.Muller, K.Estre Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 25 Laps
19 GTE Pro G.Bruni, T.Vilander AF Corse Ferrari 25 Laps
20 GTE Pro D.Turner, S.Mucke, R.Bell Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 26 Laps
21 GTE Pro C.Nygaard, M.Sorensen, J.Adam Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 26 Laps
22 GTE Pro D.Rigon, J.Calado AF Corse Ferrari 26 Laps
23 LMP2 E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 27 Laps
24 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 28 Laps
25 GTE Am F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas AF Corse Ferrari 28 Laps
26 GTE Am V.Shaytar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov SMP Racing Ferrari 29 Laps
27 GTE Am C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, K.Bachler Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 30 Laps
28 GTE Am P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 31 Laps
29 GTE Am F.Castellacci, R.Goethe, S.Hall Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 38 Laps
30 LMP2 S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.H.Hansson Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 42 Laps
31 LMP2 R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 52 Laps
- GTE Am D.Cameron, M.Griffin, A.Mortimer AF Corse Ferrari Retirement
- GTE Am G.Roda, P.Ruberti, K.Poulsen Larbre Competition Chevrolet Retirement
- LMP1 S.Trummer, V.Liuzzi, C.Klien Team ByKolles CLM/AER Retirement
- LMP1 Kazuki Nakajima Toyota Racing Toyota Withdrawn
- GTE Pro Jonny Adam Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Disqualified

LEADING LMP1 STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points
1 Andre Lotterer 50
1 Benoit Treluyer 50
1 Marcel Fassler 50
2 Neel Jani 36
2 Romain Dumas 36
2 Marc Lieb 36
3 Stephane Sarrazin 22
3 Alexander Wurz 22
3 Mike Conway 22
4 Anthony Davidson 19
4 Sebastien Buemi 19
5 Mark Webber 17
5 Brendon Hartley 17
5 Timo Bernhard 17
6 Lucas di Grassi 16
6 Oliver Jarvis 16
6 Loic Duval 16

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