2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps

Kazuki Nakajima (pictured in 2012) withdrew from the race after fracturing his vertebra in a free practice incident.

Three practice sessions—two on Thursday and a third on Friday—were held before the Saturday race. The Thursday afternoon and evening sessions lasted 90 minutes; the third, one-hour session was held on Friday afternoon.[12] The first session was held in heavy rain.[20] Lieb's No. 18 Porsche was fastest with a time of 2:16.616, ahead of Davidson in the No. 1 Toyota in second. Brendon Hartley and Hülkenberg in Porsche's two other cars were third and fourth; Rast's No. 9 Audi rounded out the top five.[21] LMP2 was led by Jonny Kane's No. 42 Strakka Racing Nissan with a lap of 2:32.672; he battled with Tincknell for the quickest class time. Estre's Porsche was the quickest in LMGTE Pro while Klaus Bachler helped the German company to be the fastest in LMGTE Am.[20]

The session was disrupted when Nakajima drove into the back-end of Jarvis's car heading into Les Combes corner. Nakajima was unable to see Jarvis because of heavy spray reducing visibility on the Kemmel straight.[22] Nakajima complained of severe back pain and was transported to Verviers hospital where a check-up found he had fractured vertebra. He was deemed unfit to take part in the race.[22] Toyota's test and reserve driver Kamui Kobayashi was in Japan and unavailable, so the No. 1 car ran as a two-driver operation for the remainder of the event weekend. It missed the second practice session because it required monocoque rebuilding.[23] The No. 8 Audi also missed the second practice session because it was undergoing rear-end repairs.[24]

Heavy rain continued to affect the track in the second practice session. Conditions deteriorated as the session advanced, and several cars elected not to improve their quickest times to avoid driving off the track after going through standing water.[24][25] Conditions allowed the fastest LMP2 and LMGTE vehicles to reach the top five quickest overall times.[25] Bamber recorded the fastest time at 2:25.495, nearly half a second faster than Bernhard in the sister Porsche in second. Lotterer was third-fastest and had the fastest time early in the session. Evans achieved the only time under the 2:34.500 mark in LMP2 with a lap of 2:34.370. Lietz led LMGTE Pro with No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Águas the fastest driver in LMGTE Am.[25]

The final practice was held on a dry race track which allowed for faster lap times.[26] Lotterer set the quickest time of the weekend so far at 1:57.368 recorded in the session's final minute,[27] and was 0.011 seconds faster than the second-fastest car of Hülkenberg.[26] Jani was a further five-tenths of a second behind in third place, and was narrowly faster than teammate Hartley in fourth.[28] Sam Bird was the fastest LMP2 driver in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing car with a time of 2:08.415, four-tenths ahead of Matthew Howson's KCMG Oreca. Toni Vilander recorded the quickest LMGTE Pro time ahead of Fernando Rees in the No. 97 Aston Martin, while Pedro Lamy, driving the British marque's No. 98 car, was the fastest driver in LMGTE Am.[28] A brief full course yellow flag was displayed when Bachler's back-end collided with the Pouhon corner tyre barrier,[27][29] while Turner avoided going into the Les Combes wall and was temporarily beached in the turn's gravel trap.[29] Both drivers returned to the track and continued.[27]

Timo Bernhard (pictured in 2016) clinched the third consecutive pole position of his and his co-driver's careers.

Friday's late afternoon qualification session was divided into two groups lasting 25 minutes each.[12] Cars in LMGTE Pro and AM were sent out first and, after a five-minute interval, LMP1 and LMP2 vehicles drove onto the track. All cars were required to be driven by two participants for one timed lap each, with the starting order determined by the competitors' fastest average times. The fastest qualifier was awarded one point which went towards the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships.[30] The session took place in clear, mild and dry weather.[31] Hülkenberg's first timed lap of 1:55.130 surpassed the LMP1 pole position record time only to be surpassed by Hartley's 1:54.777 lap time to place the No. 17 Porsche in provisional pole position.[31] Bernhard took over from Hartley and recorded a lap that was 0.027 seconds faster than the latter lowering the car's two-lap average time to 1:54.767 clinching pole position.[32] It was the third consecutive event where Bernhard, Mark Webber and Hartley started from pole position.[31]

They were joined on the grid's front row by the sister No. 19 car after Tandy set a lap time at the session's conclusion that put him 0.257 seconds behind his teammates. Jani and Lieb qualified in third position, three-tenths of a second slower than the two sister Porsche cars.[32] Lotterer twice went onto the track and improved his first lap time by 0.116 seconds to 1:55.114,[31] while Fässler was unable to find a rhythm, and could not improve on his co-driver's fastest time, restricting them to qualifying fourth.[33] Duval and di Grassi took fifth place with the latter stating that the team was not happy with the No. 8 car's setup, and that overnight work had to be undertaken.[33] Davidson and Buemi held fifth place until di Grassi and Duval's lap times demoted them to sixth.[31] Conway and Sarrazin secured seventh with the latter saying that he was held up by slower cars on his two timed laps.[34] Albuquerque and Rast filled the grid's fourth row by qualifying eighth ahead of the No. 4 Team ByKolles car.[31]

In LMP2, Bird and Julien Canal took the fastest two-lap average time of 2:07.761;[35] Canal pushed hard on new tyres during his second timed run having disliked his previous attempt.[31][32] The pair were two-tenths of a second faster than the second-place qualifiers, Howson and Lapierre, and held the class pole position until Canal's lap.[31] Team SARD Morand's No. 43 car took third in the category,[35] while the second G-Drive Racing entry was fourth, with fifth-placed qualifier Tincknell recording the session's best class individual lap time.[31] Richie Stanaway and Rees, competing in the No. 99 Aston Martin, were the fastest LMGTE Pro qualifiers with a two-lap average time of 2:16.840.[36] Gianmaria Bruni was 0.070 seconds off the Aston Martin's pace, and started from second place in the category, displacing Turner and Mücke from the position. Turner's fastest lap was invalidated after he went off the track and was required to set another time. James Calado and Davide Rigon secured fourth in AF Corse's No. 71 Ferrari with Sørensen and Nygaard rounding out the top five.[37] Aston Martin's No. 98 entry driven by Paul Dalla Lana and Lamy took pole position in LMGTE Am,[36] more than a second faster than the No. 50 Larbre Compétition Corvette of Paolo Ruberti and Gianluca Roda.[37]

Brendon Hartley (pictured in 2014) held the lead in the race's early stages, but was penalised for going off the track causing danger to marshals.

Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry and cloudy with an air temperature ranging from 12.6 to 14.1 °C (54.7 to 57.4 °F) and a track temperature between 13.3 to 16.1 °C (55.9 to 61.0 °F);[41] a 50 percent chance of rain was forecast.[42] 54,000 people attended the race weekend.[43] The race began at 14:30 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).[12]

Hartley maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first turn.[44] Lieb passed Tandy to take over second position,[45] while Fässler moved to third, after passing Tandy at the Bus Stop chicane at the first lap's conclusion. Tandy reclaimed third from Fässler shortly afterward.[46] Team SARD Morand held the LMP2 lead before its car was overtaken by Tincknell and Bird on lap two. Duval moved in front of Wurz for fifth and the Toyota driver dropped to seventh. Jota Sport was issued with a drive-through penalty after its car was adjudged to have jumped the start and rejoined in sixth in LMP2, allowing Bird to the front of the category.[44] Tandy drove to the inside of Estre to lap him, but made head-on contact with his car and went straight into the Pif Paf corner barrier.[44][45] Both drivers continued, but Tandy drove into the pit lane for repairs, falling to the rear of the field. Fässler battled with Lieb for second as the two moved through slower traffic, but the Audi driver spun at the Bus Stop chicane allowing Lieb to take over second.[44] Ryan Dalziel brought the No. 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports car into the team's garage to allow his mechanics to replace a broken boost line falling to the rear of the LMP2 field.[47]

Most of the field elected to make their first scheduled pit stops before the first hour had passed. Hartley went straight on at the Bus Stop chicane after locking his front brakes. He rejoined the track by driving onto the escape road and through a marshal's post. This prompted the stewards to call Hartley up to their office and he went up after he was relieved.[44][45][48] Fässler crossed the white line at the pit lane entry, which led to Audi receiving a reprimand from the stewards.[49] Tincknell moved back into second place in LMP2 and separated both G-Drive cars. Roald Goethe went backwards into the Eau Rouge corner exit barrier after taking over from Stuart Hall, requiring lengthy repairs to his car.[44]

Estre was issued with a drive-through penalty after he was adjudged to have caused the collision between himself and Tandy.[50] Tandy stopped his Porsche briefly at the pit lane entry, while Bonanomi went wide driving up to Radallion corner battling Wurz for sixth. The incident involving Hartley handed the No. 17 Porsche a 15-second, stop-and-go penalty as he was deemed not to have respected track limits and causing danger to marshals. Bernhard took the penalty on the 17th lap, promoting teammate Jani to the lead. Evans moved to the front of the LMP2 field after overtaking Canal heading into the Bus Stop chicane. Fässler ceded third position to Duval at Les Combes corner.[51]

Bernhard was caught by Duval and used his car's hybrid boost system on the Kemmel straight, moving ahead of the German under braking for Les Combes corner. Fässler briefly pressured Bernhard before entering the pit lane for a scheduled stop and Lotterer took over his seat. Lotterer lapped in the 1:58 second range which allowed him to run 12 seconds behind leader Dumas.[51] Bonanomi's left-hand window became detached on the Kemmel straight, necessitating an extra pit stop for a replacement window.[50][51] Patrick Dempsey spun the No. 77 car at the Bus Stop chicane, forcing several drivers to take avoiding action.[51] Trummer drove into his garage with back-end technical problems with his car and retired.[52] Dempsey's co-driver Marco Seefried spun and heavily struck the left-hand turn tyre barrier before Pouhon corner.[53]

Dumas extended his advantage over Lotterer to 19 seconds, while Canal reclaimed the LMP2 lead when Evans made a scheduled pit stop. Lotterer made a pit stop for tyres and fuel. Dumas and Jarvis reacted shortly afterwards. Di Grassi took over from Jarvis, while Lotterer gained five seconds on Dumas.[53] While switching drivers from Bernhard to Webber, Porsche changed a problematic damper on the No. 17 car.[48] Approaching Blanchimont corner Kristian Poulsen went backwards into the barrier after colliding with a G-Drive Racing car that was lapping him. This prompted a localised yellow caution flag, and enabled Aleksey Basov and Khaled Al Qubaisi to inherit second and third places in LMGTE Am.[53][54] Rigon was lapping Al Qubaisi at the Bus Stop chicane, but the Porsche driver drove defensively and both cars spun. Bruni reduced his speed to avoid colliding with the stationary cars.[54][55]

Webber passed Rast for sixth place, while Poulsen retired because of accident damage while attempting to return to the pit lane. Dumas held a 24-second advantage over Lotterer with di Grassi in third, while Evans moved back into the LMP2 lead.[53] Both Toyota cars were battling for fourth position with Webber close behind. Webber overtook Davidson for fifth at the Radillion corner exit moving ahead of Sarrazin on the Kemmel straight one lap later. Di Grassi slowed with technical problems and limped into his garage for an engine control unit and front-left nose change. Toyota's No. 1 car was pushed into its garage with mechanical problems; it rejoined the circuit for a few laps until a throttle problem emerged, causing the car to run at a reduced pace. Lotterer retook the lead after the No. 18 Porsche driver switch took longer than expected. Rast passed Conway around the outside for fourth at the Bus Stop chicane. Vilander challenged Lietz for second in LMGTE Pro until Vilander was issued a track limit abuse penalty. Lotterer and Lieb battled each other for first place. Lotterer drove defensively after passing slower traffic going into Les Combes corner to keep the position.[56] Lieb ran wide off the track at the Stavelot corner exit while lapping a slower car.[57]

Benoît Tréluyer (pictured in 2013) took the victory for the No. 7 Audi team.

Tréluyer took over from Lotterer during a pit stop and Lieb regained the lead.[57] Tréluyer caught Lieb and passed him around the outside at La Source corner, holding the lead until Lieb reclaimed it by employing his car's hybrid boost system to overtake him on the Kemmel straight.[46] Tréluyer managed to take over the first position when he got ahead of Lieb around the outside of Pif Paf corner, despite the two making earlier contact at Pouhon corner.[57][58] Lieb made a pit stop for new tyres and Jani climbed aboard the No. 18 car. Bruni passed Bell to move into second in LMGTE Pro. Smoke bellowed from the left exhaust of Bird's car, and he drove to his garage for diagnosis.[57] Bruni reduced the time deficit to Alex MacDowall and passed him by using the Bus Stop chicane kerbs to claim the LMGTE Pro lead.[46][57] Tréluyer was under eight seconds in front of Lieb as the final hour began. Lapierre moved ahead of Paul-Loup Chatin to take over fourth place in LMP2, while Jani reduced the time deficit to two seconds in arrears of Tréluyer on lap 154. He passed him with hybrid boost assistance on the Kemmel straight on the following lap. Audi elected to keep Tréluyer on track when Lieb made a pit stop for fuel. He remained there until lap 164 when he stopped for fuel but not tyres. Jarvis went straight into Stavelot corner's barriers in the event's closing two minutes.[59]

Tréluyer maintained the lead for the rest of the race winning after completing 176 laps at a track record-breaking distance of 765.967 miles (1,232.704 km).[58] Jani finished second, 13.424 seconds adrift of the No. 7 Audi, and Bernhard completed the podium positions by finishing third, albeit one lap behind.[60] It was Audi's second consecutive overall series' victory of the season.[49] Unchallenged in the closing stages,[59] Jota Sport were victorious in LMP2, one lap ahead of the second-place G-Drive Racing car of Gustavo Yacamán, Ricardo González and Pipo Derani, and third-position finishers Webb, Ragues and Amberg of Team SARD Morand.[60] It was Evans's first LMP2 victory in the World Endurance Championship, while it was Tincknell and Dolan's second in the series.[61]

Bruni was issued with a one-minute, stop-and-go penalty because his mechanics did not check one of his tyres at his final scheduled pit stop. Rees took over the class lead which he maintained to clinch victory in LMGTE Pro.[55][59] Turner held third, but made a pit stop, allowing Lietz and Muller to finish in second and third places in the category.[59] This was Rees's, Stanaway's and MacDowall's first class victories in the World Endurance Championship.[62] Aston Martin finished as the winners in LMGTE Am, ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard, and Agias with SMP Racing's No. 72 entry of Viktor Shaitar. Aleksey Basov and Andrea Bertolini completed the class podium positions.[63] Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda's and Lamy's win was their second consecutive in LMGTE Am.[62]

Race result

The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 123 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.[63]

Final race classification

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps	Time/Retired
					Engine
1	LMP1	7	Audi Sport Team Joest	André Lotterer Marcel Fässler Benoît Tréluyer	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	M	176	06:01:08.896
					Audi TDI 4.0 L Turbo Diesel V6
2	LMP1	18	Porsche Team	Marc Lieb Romain Dumas Neel Jani	Porsche 919 Hybrid	M	176	+13.424
					Porsche 2.0 L Turbo V4
3	LMP1	17	Porsche Team	Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Mark Webber	Porsche 919 Hybrid	M	175	+1 Lap
					Porsche 2.0 L Turbo V4
4	LMP1	9	Audi Sport Team Joest	Marco Bonanomi Filipe Albuquerque René Rast	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	M	174	+2 Laps
					Audi TDI 4.0 L Turbo Diesel V6
5	LMP1	2	Toyota Racing	Alexander Wurz Stéphane Sarrazin Mike Conway	Toyota TS040 Hybrid	M	173	+3 Laps
					Toyota 3.7 L V8
6	LMP1	19	Porsche Team	Nico Hülkenberg Earl Bamber Nick Tandy	Porsche 919 Hybrid	M	173	+3 Laps
					Porsche 2.0 L Turbo V4
7	LMP1	8	Audi Sport Team Joest	Loïc Duval Lucas di Grassi Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	M	168	+8 Laps
					Audi TDI 4.0 L Turbo Diesel V6
8	LMP1	1	Toyota Racing	Anthony Davidson Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS040 Hybrid	M	162	+14 Laps
					Toyota 3.7 L V8
9	LMP2	38	Jota Sport	Simon Dolan Harry Tincknell Mitch Evans	Gibson 015S	D	161	+15 Laps
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
10	LMP2	28	G-Drive Racing	Gustavo Yacamán Ricardo González Pipo Derani	Ligier JS P2	D	160	+16 Laps
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
11	LMP2	43	Team SARD Morand	Oliver Webb Pierre Ragues Zoël Amberg	Morgan LMP2 Evo	D	159	+17 Laps
					SARD 3.6 L V8
12	LMP2	47	KCMG	Matthew Howson Richard Bradley Nicholas Lapierre	Oreca 05	D	159	+17 Laps
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
13	LMP2	36	Signatech Alpine	Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Vincent Capillaire	Alpine A450b	D	159	+17 Laps
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
14	LMP2	42	Strakka Racing	Nick Leventis Jonny Kane Danny Watts	Strakka Dome S103	M	156	+20 Laps
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
15	LMP2	35	OAK Racing	Jacques Nicolet Jean-Marc Merlin Erik Maris	Ligier JS P2	D	152	+24 Laps
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
16	LMGTE Pro	99	Aston Martin Racing V8	Fernando Rees Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	M	151	+25 Laps
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
17	LMGTE Pro	92	Porsche Team Manthey	Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR	M	151	+25 Laps
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
18	LMGTE Pro	91	Porsche Team Manthey	Kévin Estre Sven Müller	Porsche 911 RSR	M	151	+25 Laps
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
19	LMGTE Pro	51	AF Corse	Gianmaria Bruni Toni Vilander	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M	151	+25 Laps
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
20	LMGTE Pro	97	Aston Martin Racing	Darren Turner Stefan Mücke Rob Bell	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	M	150	+26 Laps
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
21	LMGTE Pro	95	Aston Martin Racing	Christoffer Nygaard Marco Sørensen	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	M	150	+26 Laps
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
22	LMGTE Pro	71	AF Corse	Davide Rigon James Calado	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M	150	+26 Laps
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
23	LMP2	31	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek Jon Fogarty	Ligier JS P2	D	149	+27 Laps
					Honda HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6
24	LMGTE Am	98	Aston Martin Racing	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	M	148	+28 Laps
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
25	LMGTE Am	83	AF Corse	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Águas	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M	148	+28 Laps
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
26	LMGTE Am	72	SMP Racing	Viktor Shaitar Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M	147	+29 Laps
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
27	LMGTE Am	88	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Christian Ried Klaus Bachler Khaled Al Qubaisi	Porsche 911 RSR	M	146	+30 Laps
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
28	LMGTE Am	77	Dempsey Racing-Proton	Patrick Dempsey Patrick Long Marco Seefried	Porsche 911 RSR	M	145	+31 Laps
					Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6
29	LMGTE Am	96	Aston Martin Racing	Roald Goethe Stuart Hall Francesco Castellacci	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE	M	138	+38 Laps
					Aston Martin 4.5 L V8
30	LMP2	30	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel David Heinemeier Hansson	Ligier JS P2	D	134	+42 Laps
					Honda HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6
31	LMP2	26	G-Drive Racing	Roman Rusinov Julien Canal Sam Bird	Ligier JS P2	D	124	+52 Laps
					Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8
DNF	LMGTE Am	55	AF Corse	Duncan Cameron Alex Mortimer Matt Griffin	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M	128	Retired
					Ferrari 4.5 L V8
DNF	LMGTE Am	50	Larbre Compétition	Gianluca Roda Paolo Ruberti Kristian Poulsen	Chevrolet Corvette C7.R	M	61	Accident damage
					Chevrolet 5.5 L V8
DNF	LMP1	4	Team ByKolles	Simon Trummer Vitantonio Liuzzi Christian Klien	CLM P1/01	M	46	Technical
					AER P60 Turbo V6

World Endurance Drivers' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Driver Points 1 André Lotterer Marcel Fässler Benoît Tréluyer 50 2 Marc Lieb Romain Dumas Neel Jani 36 3 1 Alexander Wurz Mike Conway Stéphane Sarrazin 22 4 1 Anthony Davidson Sébastien Buemi 19 5 6 Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Mark Webber 17

World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship standings[16] Pos. +/– Constructor Points 1 Audi 70 2 1 Porsche 53 3 1 Toyota 47

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for the Drivers' Championship standings.