Audi secures one-two in wild Austin WEC race

Audi has executed a great escape to claim a one-two during a rollercoaster 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas WEC race at Austin, Texas.

In a repeat of the podium result at the previous WEC round, the Le Mans 24 Hour race back in June, the #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro diesel driven by Marcel Fassler took victory.

The #1 Audi of Tom Kristensen was second, 53s in arrears, with the pole-sitting #8 Toyota 040 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi claiming third.

The #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid had paced the field for almost half the race however Marc Lieb was hit with apparent engine problems with 30 minutes remaining to eventually fall back and finish fourth.

Mark Webber, who started and finished in the #20 Porsche he shared with Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley, was fifth.

“In the beginning it was a good battle with the Audi, but they have clearly been more comfortable in traffic and could easily pick various different lines,” said Webber.

“Temporarily I also did not have the full boost, but we were able to fix this while I was running. We have definitely learnt a lot in the high temperatures of the early part of the race and also later in the stints.”

Alex Wurz brought the #7 Toyota home in sixth place ahead of the #12 Rebellion Racing LMP1 which took honours in the LMP1-L class while the LMP2 class was taken by the Chinese KCMG ORECA-Nissan 03R entry.

Audi, on the back foot in practice and qualifying, remained calm during a rain storm to engineer a masterful comeback.

As Toyota and Porsche tripped up in the rain Audi came out of the adverse weather holding the trump card.

A deluge lashed the circuit 90 minutes into the race which prompted the red flag to stop proceedings after several cars speared off at the Turn 12 gravel trap.

Of those stranded were the race leading #8 Toyota of Nicolas Lapierre and the #20 Porsche of Bernhard.

Approaching the halfway mark Benoit Treluyer, sharing he #2 with Fassler and Andre Lotterer, led in an Audi one-two.

However Neel Jani in the #14 Porsche took control which the 919 held until the remaining 30 minutes when Lieb, who was in the for the final stint, pitted.

In the early running Buemi had broken clear to a big lead in the #8 Toyota as pitched battles raged behind the leaders between the #1 Audi at the hands of Loic Duval and the #2 Audi of Lotterer.

After coming under attack from the #7 Toyota of Wurz, Webber fell back to sixth after just 30 mins in the #20 Porsche.

Buemi had then recovered from a spin while holding a 38.8s lead 45 mins into the race, letting Wurz close the gap by 13s.

In the LM GTE AM class Pedro Lamy led the Aston Martin to class victory while Gianmaria Bruni in the Ferrari 458 Italia won the LM GTE PRO category.

The next round of the WEC is the 6 hours of Fuji on October 12, the fifth of eight rounds.

See below for full results