G-Drive Racing had a strong 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps weekend with a pole position, and LMP2 victory in the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). The TDS Racing run G-Drive Oreca led 118 of the 160 laps. The #31 Vaillante Rebellion was the closest rival, leading all but three of the rest, but a prolonged stop for a telemetry aerial repair threatened the team’s podium, dropping them to fifth but recovering to reclaim the runner-up position. Jota Sport-run #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing completed the podium and continue to lead the standings, followed by G-Drive Racing and the #31 Vaillante Rebellion. Strategies were a significant factor with both planning and capitalising on pit-stops under full course yellow contributing to successes.
In the GT classes, the Dunlop highlight was a 1-2 in the LM GTE Am class with the pole-sitting #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage taking a second win of the year and the Dempsey-Proton Porsche finishing in second, separated by 31 seconds after six hours of racing. The Aston Martin Racing squad continues to lead the championship, with the Dempsey-Proton team in third and Gulf Racing in fourth.
Both available tyre compounds, the medium and medium-plus, were used in both categories.
The performance in all classes featuring Dunlop tyres has seen marked improvements since last year’s visit to the Belgian track. The LMP2 class, featuring the 2017 generation Orecas, saw the fastest race lap of 2:05.950 set by Mathias Beche in the #13 Vaillante Rebellion, some 3.5 seconds faster than 2016, with the fastest qualifying lap some 5.8 seconds faster than last year in similar conditions. It was not just the new cars that saw improvements; the Aston Martins’ fastest race laps were 1.3 seconds faster in both Pro and Am classes. It was a Porsche on Dunlops however that set the fastest GTE Am lap of the race, with Matteo Cairoli in the #77 Dempsey Proton car lapping in 2:19.074.
David Meenan, Senior Engineer, Dunlop Motorsport
“This was the last chance for our teams to gather race information before the big double-point Le Mans 24 Hours. We had some great racing with rivalry very high, especially with the LMP2 class all opting for the same chassis and tyre packages so strategies are more critical than ever. As always, we are working closely with our teams to make sure that we can get the best performance and this weekend gave us another opportunity to maximise our knowledge of the new Oreca before the big day in June.”
The Le Mans 24 Hours is the next round of the FIA World Endurance championship with the race starting at 15.00 CEST on 17th June.
