WEC – Audi once again played solo at the 6 Hours of Spa

Audi n’en espérait pas tant aux 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps. Avec l’arrivée de la version 2013 de la Toyota TS030 dans les Ardennes belges, le constructeur aux anneaux s’attendait à un duel plus serré qu’à Silverstone. Si la n°7 de Wurz-Stone-Nakajima was fighting at the front at the start of the race, Alex Wurz was not even able to take the wheel, the Japanese giving up following a problem with her energy recovery system. The German team could then concentrate on the fight between its three R18 e-tron quattros. If the No. 3 long tail of Gené-Di Grassi-Jarvis served as a life-size test for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the n°1 of Lotterer-Tréluyer-Fässler had a hard time facing the n°2 of Duval-McNish-Kristensen.

Despite a tire damaged by debris forcing André Lotterer to anticipate his pit stop in the second hour of the race, the R18 of the reigning world champions was quickly able to return to the front and beat the sister car with a one-minute lead. on the finish line. The No. 1 crew takes control of the Championship with a one point lead over the No. 2 drivers, thanks to the bonus point for pole. “Victory is beautiful but it was difficult to achieve.”, recognizes Benoît Tréluyer. “We lost a lot of time with the safety car (exit following the accident of Antonio Pizzonia's No. 03 ADR Delta Oreca 25-Nissan) and the puncture. But our efforts finally paid off. Our Audi R18 e-tron quattro was simply perfect. It’s a superb result for the whole team who have done a fantastic job. »

Loïc Duval also had a good race in the No. 18 R2 but the Frenchman admits that his car lacked pace against the No. 1, which nevertheless had a more complicated race. “Our race started well. I was able to take the lead and start to build a small lead. Everything happened when the track was clear. But then I had very heavy traffic that I had never experienced before in my career. The others took big risks but you are always more cautious when you are at the head of the race. We weren't as fast as #1 and we're going to have to analyze the data. It remains a great weekend for Audi. »

Discover the analysis of the 6 Hours of Spa carried out by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, n°1908, exceptionally available from tomorrow in digital version on all platforms, and from Tuesday on newsstands.