Up until the fifth hour of the race, the drivers of car number 7 were expecting to have a chance of victory as well. Benoît Tréluyer (F), with a gap of just 19 seconds, was running in position two when a lapped GT driver spun the Audi into the gravel. Six laps were lost in reaching the pits and having the damage repaired. In the end, Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer were left with an unrepresentative sixth place.
“It’s hard to believe how much can go wrong in the course of a six-hour race,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “Our drivers delivered a tremendous performance and felt very comfortable in the Audi R18. We were fast in all sessions and in the race nobody drove any faster lap times than us either. The setbacks hit us hard because today a one-two would have been possible. In this light, second place is cold comfort.”
In the manufacturers’ classification, Audi, with three rounds remaining, continues to chase the front runners in second place. In the drivers’ classification, di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis improved by one position and are now lying second. The title decisions will be made in the last third of the season that will begin at the Fuji circuit in Japan in four weeks’ time.
Race results
1 Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (Porsche) 186 laps
2 Di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis (Audi R18) +23.641s
3 Conway/Kobayashi/Sarrazin (Toyota) +26.096s
4 Dumas/Jani/Lieb (Porsche) –1 lap
5 Buemi/Davidson/Nakajima (Toyota) –2 laps
6 Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (Audi R18) –6 laps
7 Imperatori/Kraihamer/Tuscher (Rebellion) –12 laps
8 Lapierre/Menezes/Richelmi (Alpine) –14 laps
9 Albuquerque/Gonzalez/Senna (Ligier-Nissan) –15 laps
10 Brundle/Rast/Rusinov (Oreca-Nissan) –15 laps