Massive Deluge Causes Chaos, Red Flag in COTA Second Hour

What began as “light rain reported in Turn 11” with 4 hours, 41 minutes remaining, has turned into a full on deluge to put the FIA WEC Six Hours of the Circuit of The Americas under a red flag in the second hour. The clock is still running with just over four hours remaining.

Within a mere five minutes, both Toyota TS040 Hybrids, both Porsche 919 Hybrids, the No. 1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, both AF Corse GTE-Am Ferrari F458 Italias, and a number of other cars hydroplaned off the circuit.

The trouble spot was Turn 12, where at least four cars went off course and into the gravel. The No. 20 Porsche, driven at the time by Timo Bernhard, was craned out of the gravel.

Once the red flag was displayed, the remaining cars tiptoed around the circuit to the front straight, where they have been stopped.

For those cars with open-top cockpits, the FIA WEC will allow cars to be covered. Additionally, car windscreens can be demisted inside for visibility purposes.

At the moment of red, Benoit Treluyer (No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, LMP1-H), Nick Heidfeld (No. 12 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-One Toyota, LMP1-L), Scott Sharp (No. 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b), Darren Turner (No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage, GTE-Pro) and David Heinemeier Hansson (No. 95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage, GTE-Am) were class leaders.