Silverstone Sat/Sun 11/12 April 2015
After an extremely warm and sunny week, guess what, the weather turned and a burst of heavy rain at 8.30 to 9.00am saw the WEC cars hour long practice session start on a very wet track which, by the end of the hour, had started to dry out considerably. Watching from the grandstand at Becketts (which is officially THE coldest place on earth....) the standout car was the No.7 Audi driven by Marcel Fassler/Benoit Treluyer/Andre Lotterer. Visibly far quicker than any other LMP1 the Audi seemed glued to the track and was hugely impressive to see.
Next action on circuit came the first race of the day with the opening round of the F3 Euroseries. An excellent entry of 35 cars which is no doubt bolstered by the disintegration of national F3 series in both Britain and Germany. The race was ruined though as a spectacle by the bane of motor racing these days......the safety car! A quite baffling decision to start the race behind the safety car (on a rapidly drying track) saw chaos at Club corner even before the green flag was waved to start the race proper.It took two more safety car periods before category veteran Felix Rosenqvist took an easy victory.
Thankfully the second F3 race later in the afternoon was a more calmer affair which was won by F3 debutant and reigning BRDC F4 champion, George Russell. Fellow Brit Jake Dennis saw his race end on the last corner of the last lap as his Dallara was attacked at Club and left stranded with his rear left suspension and wheel pointing at a 45degree angle!
The main race action on Saturday saw a 4 hour race for the European Le Mans Series. 31 cars started which is an impressive number for a series that was canned mid-season in 2012 and resurrected for 2013. LMP2 cars are the series main category with a new LMP3 division created for this season. 5 Ginetta-Nissans started the race and look very impressive if not particularly fast as they mixed it with GT cars at the beginning of the race. This was a very entertaining race and a 3 way battle for the lead came to a bruising conclusion in the last half hour. The Greaves Racing Gibson-Nissan of Gary Hirsch/Bjorn Wirdheim/Jon Lancaster eventually winning but only after contact with Lancaster at the wheeel with the French TDS Racing Oreca of Tristan Gommendy at Aintree corner. Lancaster also pulled a wince inducing move on a lapped Aston Martin at Copse towards the end too so he may have to curb his single-seater tendencies as the season progresses!
It was up early again on Sunday morning with the 6 hour WEC opener the highlight of the day to look forward to. The strength of the wind had increased on Sunday and it was in an even colder Becketts stand that I witnessed the 3rd F3 race of the weekend. Monegasque Charles Leclerc winning this one. Three different winners over the weekend in what looks to be a very competitive championship. Quite how 35 cars will get on around the narrow streets of Pau in May remains to be seen.....
At 12.00pm sharp 29 cars started the WEC race with an all Porsche front row turning into a Porsche 1-2 for the first hour.The Webber/Hartley/Bernhard pole-sitting car retired in the second hour though with a gearbox problem. In some respects this was the turning point of the race as for the remainder of the race the lead ebbed and flowed between the lead Toyota, Audi & remaining Porsche. Into the final hour it was the Fassler/Treluyer/Lotterer Audi that emerged with the lead and despite a late splash and dash + a stop-go penalty for exceeding track limits it held on to win by 4.6 seconds from the Lieb/Jani/Dumas Porsche with the Davidson/Buemi/Nakajima Toyota 10 seconds behind in 3rd.
As always I thoroughly enjoy seeing the superb LMP1 cars and really enjoyed the weekend. A large crowd was present on Sunday which appeared to be what I would call a proper crowd with lots of Le Mans caps and badges worn on coats! Not many changes to report at Silverstone, a pedestrian lap of the GP circuit is still quite an undertaking and I ventured to the Village corner section of the circuit for the first time in many years. Becketts stand is the best overall viewing spot but wish that it contained heated seats!
Weekend admission was £40 (£10 overpriced in my opinion) and shock horror I didn't buy a programme.....The image above is from a free race guide given out at the gate. Lots of things are changing in my life and not buying a programme is a big thing for me,it's a bit like an alcoholic staying sober for a week! Next time I go racing I may need my fix of a glossy new programme but with the internet providing so much information for race meetings these days is there still a need for the printed programme?
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