Audi Trio Maintain Championship Lead after 24H Le Mans

Photo: Audi

Audi’s Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler continue to lead the FIA World Endurance Championship following the conclusion of the double-points scoring 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Audi trio, which finished third on Sunday, hold a 20-point margin over the Nick Tandy, who along with Earl Bamber and Nico Hulkenberg claimed overall victory in the French endurance classic.

While Porsche’s Bamber and Hulkenberg are not scheduled to complete the remainder of the season, Tandy is, although at the wheel of the KCMG Oreca 05 Nissan, which incidentally scored LMP2 class honors at Le Mans.

Drivers in LMP2 are awarded points in the Drivers’ World Championship based on their overall finish in the race.

Lotterer, Treluyer and Fassler’s biggest title threat will come from the No. 18 Porsche of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb, which are a further three points behind in fourth, as well as the other full-season Porsche of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.

Porsche has taken over the lead of the LMP1 Manufacturers’s World Championship as a result of its 1-2 finish in France, with Audi now trailing by 16 points and Toyota losing further ground due to another disappointing finish.

Points have finally been put on the board in the LMP1 Private Teams Trophy, thanks to a double finish by Rebellion Racing, with the No. 13 Rebellion R-One AER of Alexandre Imperatori, Daniel Abt and Dominik Kraihalmer out front.

The LMP1 subclass had seen involvement from only the ByKolles CLM P1/01 AER prior to Le Mans, which had not been classified in either of the opening two rounds.

KCMG, meanwhile, has taken over the lead in the LMP2 title race, thanks the maximum points scored by Matt Howson, Richard Bradley and Nicolas Lapierre in the No. 47 Oreca 05 Nissan last weekend.

Howson and Bradley hold a four-point margin over G-Drive Racing’s Gustavo Yacaman, Pipo Derani and Ricardo Gonzalez in second, with Lapierre, who was only slated to drive for KCMG at Spa and Le Mans, sitting in third.

The Hong Kong-backed squad is also now out front in the LMP2 teams’ title race, ahead of the two G-Drive Racing entries and the No. 31 Tequila Patron ESM car in fourth.

In GTE-Pro, AF Corse’s Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander maintain their championship lead, although now only four points ahead of teammates Davide Rigon and James Calado, which claimed a runner-up finish in the race.

The Le Mans class-winning SMP Racing trio of Andrea Bertolini, Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaytar have taken over the top spot in GTE-Am and sit an impressive third overall in the GT Drivers’ World Cup.

The No. 98 Aston Martin Racing entry had held the championship lead after winning the opening two rounds, but a late-race crash by Paul Dalla Lana resulted in retirement and only one point scored, for Pedro Lamy’s pole, from the weekend.

Ferrari, meanwhile, has pulled out a 45-point lead over Porsche in the GT Manufacturers’ World Cup.

Next up for the FIA WEC is the Six Hours of Nurburgring, set for Aug. 28-30.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John