WEC returns to action after Le Mans at Nurburgring

Weekend Racing Wrap

Posted on

| Written by

One week ahead of Formula One’s return to Germany the World Endurance Championship resumed at the Nurburgring following the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Meanwhile IMSA, V8 Supercars, NASCAR and Formula V8 3.5 were also in action last weekend.

World Endurance Championship

Race four of nine: Nurburgring

The number one Porsche of reigning champions Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley took their first win – and points – of the season, making best use of full course yellows and scraps between their rivals behind. Contact with a number of GT rivals cost the number two Porsche and championship leaders however – having to settle for fourth behind the Audi pair. The GT Pro class was won by Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado for Ferrari.

IMSA

Race 8 of 12: Lime Rock Park

With the Prototype class not competing at Lime Rock, PC was the top class – and championship leaders Alex Popow and Renger van der Zande took the win. In GT Le Mans Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin won for Corvette, giving them their 100th sports car racing victory and with Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia in second, their 60th one-two.

NASCAR

Race 20 of 36: Indianapolis

Kyle Busch led almost all the way in the Brickyard 400 and hung on to win despite a string of late-race caution periods including one red flag. Despite concerns over fuel economy the race distance was extended to ensure a green-flag finish.

Supercars

Races 16 and 17 of 29: Queensland Raceway



A pair of second places in the two Queensland races saw Jamie Whincup extend his championship lead. However what would have been his 100th series in the opening race slipped through his fingers in race one when team mate Shane Van Gisbergen passed him on the penultimate lap. Craig Lowndes was third – locking out the podium for Triple Eight.

Whincup was denied once more by a team mate in the second race as this time Lowndes beat him to the flag – equalling Mark Skaife’s record as the most successful Holden driver in history with an 80th victory for the team. Chaz Mostert completed the podium behind Whincup.

Formula V8 3.5

Races 9 and 10 of 18: Silverstone

Video not available yet.

Roy Nissany picked up his maiden win in the Formula V8 3.5 series in his second year of competition, and immediately followed it up with another as he swept the Silverstone races – with fastest laps in both. Matthieu Vaxiviere was on top in qualifying but poor starts limited him to second and seventh in the two races. Tom Dillmann scored a pair of fourth places with his championship lead over Nissany now 32 points.

Guest series: Euroformula Open

Races 7 and 8 of 16: Silverstone

Leonardo Pulcini extended his run of top-two finishes to seven out of seven with a dominant lights-to-flag victory on Saturday ahead of Colton Herta. However the pair came to blows in race two leaving Antoni Ptak to claim his first victory of the year despite strong late-race pressure from Ferdinand Habsburg who closed in as rain fell in the final laps. Pulcini retains a 36-point lead over Habsburg at the halfway point in the championship.

Also last weekend

Lewis Hamilton won a somewhat processional Hungarian Grand Prix ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

Having ended his victory drought at Silverstone Pierre Gasly followed it up with another win in the GP2 feature race. He headed another one-two for Prema head of Antonio Giovinazzi. The pair now occupy the same spots in the championship following Sergey Sirotkin’s sprint race victory ahead of Racing Engineering pair Jordan King and Norman Nato.

McLaren junior driver Nyck de Vries took his maiden pole in GP3 but was left stranded on the grid as the field started the warm-up lap, allowing Matt Parry to take his maiden win ahead of Antonio Fuoco and Jake Dennis. In race two it was Alexander Albon topping the podium – and now the championship – with Arjun Maini taking his maiden podium in second in just his second round in the series, just ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Over to you

Felix Rosenqvist tested at Mid-Ohio last week
What racing action did you watch last weekend? Let us know in the comments.

With the summer break looming this weekend offers your last chance to get a big racing fix for a few weeks. Formula One and its support series are in action once again next weekend as they travel to Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix.

In other open-wheel action IndyCar headd to Mid-Ohio, and the European F3 Series is at Spa. For tin-top fans the BTCC returns after a lengthy summer break with three races at Snetterton and NASCAR rolls on the Pocono Raceway. The World Rally Championship will also put on what is usually one of its most spectacular weekends of the year- the Rally of Finland.

Weekend Racing Wrap

Browse all Weekend Racing Wraps

6 comments on “WEC returns to action after Le Mans at Nurburgring”

  1. Love how you guys show all the other racing series, keep up the awesome work.

    1. You’re welcome, glad you like it! Just wish more of them raced in August while F1 is on break.

      1. Keith, I was wondering if in the future, are there plans to expand the site in any way? Not that I want you to, I love the site and recommend F1 Fanatic to any F1 fans (extremely rare meeting one). Just being curious.

  2. FlyingLobster27
    26th July 2016, 19:39

    Not stated in the article is the fact that the European F3 Championship is supporting the Spa 24 Hours next weekend. The race was founded around the same time as the one at Le Mans, but has had more hiatuses and changes of categories racing there – it spent the 70s through to the 90s as a touring car race, before becoming the blue riband event of the FIA GT Championship, now the (Blancpain) SRO GT Series.
    There is a free live stream on the series’ official site, and I, for one, will be tuning in at 4:30 CET on Saturday to watch 60+ GT3s roar into Eau Rouge!

    In other GT championships, last weekend saw Nismo’s YouTube channel broadcast a Super GT race for the first time this year, and apparently there is a deal in place for the rest of the season. This was my favourite championship last year, and I’m dreaming of being able to get to Motegi for the double-header season finale! The race at Sugo was very entertaining, worth getting up for, even if it ended 5 laps early with a red flag. Next round is at Fuji in two weekends’ time.

  3. Massively impressed by the dominance of Kyle Busch at the Brickyard. He’s looking in great form to successfully defend his NASCAR championship once the Chase begins.

  4. duncan idaho
    27th July 2016, 2:57

    V8s
    Whincup was chasing his 100th series win
    Lowndes hasn’t won 80 races in a Holden for his current “team” – he’s currently associated with (but not racing for) Redbull Racing. Most of his Holden wins would have been with HRT – which was the Holden factory racing team. He’s also won 25 races in a Ford.

Comments are closed.