Silverstone Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Audi

***Sunday’s FIA WEC season-opening Six Hours of Silverstone was a real thriller, with the top three cars, one each from the LMP1 manufacturers, finishing within 15 seconds of each other. It marked Audi’s first win since Circuit of The Americas last year and proof that the German manufacturer is back to its winning ways after struggling in the second half of the 2014 season.

***Marcel Fassler questioned the late-race penalty for exceeding track limits when passing the No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage V8 on the outside of Club Corner. While the Swiss driver managed to rejoin with a 10-second lead after serving the penalty with less than 15 minutes to go, it nearly cost the Audi camp the race.

***While KCMG had a challenging debut race for the Oreca 05 Nissan, with the LMP2 coupe battling cooling issues, a mega opening stint by Porsche factory driver Nick Tandy — in his first prototype race — saw the Englishman impressively rocket to the lead ahead of the all-dominant G-Drive Ligier JS P2 Nissans. Many of the teething issues for the car will likely be sorted by the time Tandy returns to the cockpit post-Le Mans, following his two-race stint in Porsche’s third 919 Hybrid.

***The future of Team SARD-Morand is unclear following the last-minute withdrawal of its two Morgan EVO LMP2 cars from Silverstone. While the team cited “administrative and legal issues” for its pull-out, it caught a number of people within the team by surprise, including drivers and SARD personnel, who had already traveled from Japan for the race.

***Christian Klien was one of the drivers who arrived at Silverstone to be greeted with the news that he didn’t have a ride. However, the ex-Formula One driver landed a drive Friday morning with ByKolles Racing, the only LMP1 privateer in the field. The Austrian-badged team struggled all weekend with pace with its revised CLM P1/01 AER, and ironically went over its fuel allocation during qualifying.

***Tequila Patron ESM, which was denied its third place LMP2 class finish after not passing post-race technical inspection, is expected to take delivery of its new two new Ligier JS P2 Hondas within the next two weeks. The team is targeting a shakedown at Magny-Cours in the run up to the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

***The reported three-day weekend attendance at Silverstone, which included the first round of the European Le Mans Series, was 45,000 fans. Fans turned out in force particularly on Sunday, which saw the front-stretch grandstands and hospitality suites packed for the opening and closing stages of the race.

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