6 Hours of The Circuit of The Americas: Audi, ORECA and Aston Martin claim victory

Tom Kristensen, Loïc Duval and Allan McNish took their third victory of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship season in Austin, Texas today, winning the 6 Hours of the Circuit of The Americas by 23 seconds over Toyota Racing and extending their championship lead.  The No.8 TS030 Hybrid of Anthony Davidson, Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Buemi challenged the Audis throughout, and finished a lap ahead of the No.1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.  The No.12 Rebellion Racing, unchallenged in the LMP1 Privateer category, finished in fourth place overall.

The No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 03 Nissan took its second consecutive victory in the LMP2 category in the hands of Mike Conway-Roman Rusinov-John Martin.  The second place finish for the No.49 Pecom Racing entry has rewarded them the lead in the FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 teams, while the No.32 Lotus Praga T128 of Holzer-Kraihamer-Charouz claimed its first podium finish of the season.

Fred Makowiecki and Bruno Senna were dominant in the No.99 Aston Martin Vantage V8 in LMGTE Pro, despite being put under pressure throughout by the Ferraris.  The Frenchman took his first win of the FIA WEC season and Senna his second after the 6 Hours of Silverstone.  The two AF Corse Ferraris finished second and third in class, the No.51 and 71 respectively.

A late-race challenge for the lead by Jamie Campbell-Walter rewarded the No.96 Aston Martin Vantage V8 with its second win of the year, the Briton sharing the cockpit once again with Stuart Hall.  In second place was the Danish-piloted No.95 entry of Nicki Thiim, Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard who traded places with the British duo throughout and who finished just 1.5 seconds behind. The No.76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche of Raymond Narac and Jean-Karl Vernay were third in class.

Full race report and official classifications to follow.

Fiona Miller