Porsche Leads 6H Silverstone After One Hour

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Mark Webber passed Andre Lotterer during the first hour of the FIA WEC Six Hours of Silverstone, putting his No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid into the lead with 16 laps completed.

From third on the grid, Webber passed Oliver Jarvis in the No. 8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro a few laps in, before continuing on to take the lead. The team remains out front, after passing the car over to Brendon Hartley in the first round of pitstops.

Audi Sport Team Joest decided not to do any driver changes, and so Jarvis is in second ahead of Lotterer, as the cars swapped places in the round of pitstops.

Neel Jani is fourth, while Anthony Davidson and Kamui Kobayashi complete the LMP1-H running order.

Roman Rusinov leads the LMP2 action after starting on the class pole in the G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 Nissan.

Rusinov had lost the lead to Pipo Derani early on, but the decision to pit early to hand over the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P2 Nissan to Chris Cumming didn’t work out as planned when Cumming stepped onto the grass later in the hour and lost time as a result.

Ricardo Gonzalez for RGR Sport By Morand and Jonny Kane in the Strakka Racing Gibson 015S Nissan complete the top three in LMP2.

Of note, Will Stevens performed a risky but successful pass on Rusinov for second place but eventually ended the hour eighth in class in the No. 44 Manor Oreca 05 Nissan.

Davide Rigon, and later Sam Bird, commanded the GTE-Pro field in AF Corse’s No. 71 Ferrari 488 GTE, and at the hour Bird had a lead of seven seconds to Stefan Mucke’s Ford GT.

Ford team-mate Andy Priaulx was in third after the pitstops but was passed by Michael Christensen on the hour mark, putting the Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR out front.

Richie Stanaway had to serve a stop-go penalty for the No. 97 Aston Martin Racing crew as he and Fernando Rees repeatedly ignored track limits. Gianmaria Bruni had a similar penalty early for a pre-race engine change.

Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing led the entire first hour in GTE-Am, after Klaus Bachler started.

The class’ action has so far been rather uneventful, and Khaled Al Qubaisi, now in control of the Proton Porsche, is four seconds ahead of Christian Ried in the KCMG Porsche. Francois Perrodo was third for AF Corse.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.