In dreadful conditions across the weekend Audi won a rain soaked 6 Hours of the Circuit of the Americas. It was a race where all three major LMP1 teams enjoyed time in the spotlight, but the experience of Audi was shining when it mattered most.
The #8 Toyota TS040 started the race on pole, with the two Porsche 919s behind. Sebastien Buemi was in the lead Toyota and built up a strong lead early. Then, about 100 minutes into the race, chaos ensued after a massive downpour saw cars sliding everywhere except on the racing line.
Race organisers had little choice but to bring a halt to proceedings and the race was red flagged for around 45 minutes. Heavy rain had been experienced during practice and qualifying sessions prior to race day as well. So the teams at least had some idea of how the track would react in the wet.
Although, the rain during the race was torrential and both Toyotas ended up off track losing a lap to the field while they recovered. The #20 Porsche 919 also lost time after an unwanted excursion.
After the restart it became a race between the two Audis and the #14 Porsche, which was leading during the latter stages of the race until a loss of power saw the car drop to fourth. From there a one-two victory was Audi’s for the taking and they didn’t falter.
2014 6 hours of COTA (top six)
- #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer) – 157 laps
- #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro (Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen) – +53,016s
- #8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid (Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi) – +1:03,945m
- #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) – +1 lap
- #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Bernhard/Hartley/Webber) – +2 laps
- #7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid (Wurz/Sarrazin/Conway) – +2 laps