2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
KCMG, unchallenged since the early hours of the race, were victorious in the LMP2 class, while Jota Sport was able to take second place from G-Drive Racing in the final hours. Corvette Racing held their five lap lead in LMGTE Pro, earning Gavin his fifth class victory, while AF Corse completed the class podium with the No. 71 ahead of No. 51. Following the loss of the No. 98 Aston Martin in the final hour, actor Patrick Dempsey's team moved into second place behind the winning SMP Ferrari, while Scuderia Corsa, in their first appearance at Le Mans, finished third. There were 28 outright lead changes during the race; four cars reached the front of the field. The No. 19 Porsche led seven times for a total of 243 laps, more than any other car.


2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Post-race
The top three finishers in all four categories appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. Hülkenberg revealed that Porsche's objective was to have one car featured on the podium and was astonished over the team's first and second-place results. He said that he was proud and delighted at his team's achievement: "We had a flawless race with a great pace and we didn't make any mistake. The last lap was a bit weird because it was drizzling and people got nervous in the garage.


2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Post-race
After the finish line, it is amazing to see thousands and thousands of people cheering up." Bamber stated that the win was "beyond my dreams" and hoped to return to the event in future years with Porsche. Tandy described his success as "surreal": "I can’t think of two better people to share the car with. We haven’t put a wheel wrong all race and we’ve just won the biggest race in the world."


2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Post-race
Webber did not believe that his one-minute stop and go penalty prevented him from winning the event, saying he was not fast enough but praised the race victors on their success. Hartley stated it felt special to stand on the Le Mans podium and felt it would be a day that would be looked back in New Zealand motor racing history. Bernhard said that while the overall victory was his dream, he was proud of the Porsche team, and felt it was motor racing at the highest quality. Hülkenberg's success attracted praise from fellow Formula One drivers.


2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Post-race
During the Thursday pre-race press conference at the Austrian Grand Prix held one week later, Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo thought Hülkenberg's victory made it more possible for Formula One participants to compete in other forms of motor racing and believed that they would receive praise for taking part in such events. Four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel said that the driver made the victory "look easy" and it was a positive in improving the reputation of Formula One drivers.


2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Post-race
The result meant Lotterer, Tréluyer and Fässler remained the leaders of the Drivers' Championship with 80 points, 20 ahead of second-placed Tandy, who in turn, was a further two in front of his co-drivers Bamber and Hülkenberg in third. Dumas, Jani and Lieb's performance saw them fall from second to fourth place and Bernhard, Hartley and Webber's second-place result allowed them to move into fifth on 53 points. Porsche were the new leaders in the Manufacturers' Championship with 140 points; Audi were 16 points behind their nearest rivals and Toyota maintained third place on 71 points with five races left in the season.


2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Race result
The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 276 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.


2015 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The 2015 ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring was the 43rd running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It took place over 14–17 May 2015.


2015 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The #28 Audi Sport Team WRT won the race on an Audi R8 LMS.


2015 24 Hours of Spa
The 2015 Total Spa 24 Hours was the 67th running of the Spa 24 Hours. It was also the fourth round of the 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series season and was held on 25 and 26 July at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.


2015 24 Hours of Spa
The race was won by BMW Sports Trophy Team Marc VDS and drivers Nick Catsburg, Lucas Luhr and Markus Palttala. The trio's No. 46 BMW Z4 GT3 finished a lap clear of Audi Sport Team WRT and their No. 2 Audi R8 LMS ultra, driven by Nico Müller, Stéphane Ortelli and Frank Stippler. Completing the podium in third place was the No. 5 Audi Sport Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS ultra of Christian Mamerow, Christopher Mies and Nicki Thiim, two laps down on the winners.


2015 24 Hours of Spa
In the race's other classes, the No. 47 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of Gianmaria Bruni, Pasin Lathouras, Stéphane Lemeret and Alessandro Pier Guidi were the winners of the Pro-Am Cup in fourth place overall, while the Cup for amateur drivers was won by the No. 24 Audi R8 LMS ultra of Team Parker Racing, driven by Ian Loggie, Callum MacLeod, Benny Simonsen and Julian Westwood.


2015 24H Series
The 2015 24H Series powered by Hankook was the first season of the 24H Series with drivers battling for championship points and titles. It also marked the first season with official FIA International Series’ status. Dutch agency Creventic, the organiser and promoter of the series, organises 24-hour and 12-hour races since 2006, but the first year with multiple races was 2008 and therefore 2008 is officially the first season of the 24H Series, so this is the eighth season of the series. The races were contested with GT3-spec cars, GT4-spec cars, sports cars, touring cars and 24H-Specials, like silhouette cars.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Scoring system
Each driver's and team's lowest-scoring round was dropped from their total.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Drivers' Championships (Top 10), A6
Bold – PoleItalics – Fastest Lap(parentheses) - Round dropped from total


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Drivers' Championships (Top 10), A5/D2
Creventic decided after the season ended to split the diesel-powered cars from the gasoline-powered cars creating the D2 class. Although they are separate classes, if for example the highest classified D2 class entry finishes one position in front of the highest classified A5 class entry, the A5 class entry will not receive points for 1st position.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Drivers' Championships (Top 10), A3T
At the 12H Zandvoort there were only three A3T class entries. They were put in the A5 class due to the low amount of entries and therefore the A3T class was a class within the A5 class itself. The position in the A5 class decided the number of points awarded, not the position in the A3T class.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Drivers' Championships (Top 10), CUP1
At the last two rounds of the season the CUP1 class entries were put in the A5 class due to a low amount of entries and therefore the CUP1 class was a class within the A5 class itself. The position in the A5 class decided the number of points awarded, not the position in the CUP1 class.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Drivers' Championships (Top 10), A2/D1
Creventic decided after the season ended to split the diesel-powered cars from the gasoline-powered cars creating the D1 class. Although they are separate classes, if for example the highest classified D1 class entry finishes one position in front of the highest classified A2 class entry, the A2 class entry will not receive points for 1st position. This applies to all rounds of the season with the exception of the 24H Barcelona.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Teams' Championships (Top 5), A5/D2
Creventic decided after the season ended to split the diesel-powered cars from the gasoline-powered cars creating the D2 class. Although they are separate classes, if for example the highest classified D2 class entry finishes one position in front of the highest classified A5 class entry, the A5 class entry will not receive points for 1st position.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Teams' Championships (Top 5), A3T
At the 12H Zandvoort there were only three A3T class entries. They were put in the A5 class due to the low amount of entries and therefore the A3T class was a class within the A5 class itself. The position in the A5 class decided the number of points awarded, not the position in the A3T class.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Teams' Championships (Top 5), CUP1
At the last two rounds of the season the CUP1 class entries were put in the A5 class due to a low amount of entries and therefore the CUP1 class was a class within the A5 class itself. The position in the A5 class decided the number of points awarded, not the position in the CUP1 class.


2015 24H Series, Results and standings, Teams' Championships (Top 5), A2/D1
Creventic decided after the season ended to split the diesel-powered cars from the gasoline-powered cars creating the D1 class. Although they are separate classes, if for example the highest classified D1 class entry finishes one position in front of the highest classified A2 class entry, the A2 class entry will not receive points for 1st position. This applies to all rounds of the season with the exception of the 24H Barcelona.


2015 3. divisjon
The 2015 season of the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest association football league for men in Norway.


2015 3. divisjon
Between 22 and 26 games (depending on group size) are played in 12 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws. Twelve group winners are promoted to the 2. divisjon.


2015 4 Hours of Silverstone
The 4 Hours of Silverstone was an endurance motor race held at the Silverstone Circuit near Silverstone, England on 10–11 April 2015, and served as the opening round of the 2015 European Le Mans Series, and the first race under the series' new four-hour format. The event shared the weekend at Silverstone with the FIA World Endurance Championship's six-hour event.


2015 4 Nations Cup
The 2015 4 Nations Cup was a women's ice hockey tournament held in Kovland, Njurunda, and Sundsvall, Sweden. It was the 20th edition of the 4 Nations Cup.


2015 5-hour Energy 301
The 2015 5-hour Energy 301 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on July 19, 2015 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire. Contested over 301 laps on the 1.058 mile (1.703 km) speedway, it was the 19th race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Kyle Busch won the race, his third of the season. Brad Keselowski finished second while Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. rounded out the top five.


2015 5-hour Energy 301
Carl Edwards won the pole for the race and led 19 laps on his way to a seventh-place finish. Brad Keselowski led a race high of 100 laps on his way to a runner-up finish. The race had nine lead changes among seven different drivers, as well as seven caution flag periods for 34 laps.


2015 5-hour Energy 301
This was the 32nd career victory for Kyle Busch, his third of the 2015 season, second consecutive race win, second at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and seventh at the track for Joe Gibbs Racing. This win moved Busch up to 33rd in the points standings, 58 behind David Gilliland for the 30th place Chase cutoff and 487 behind points leader Kevin Harvick. Despite being the winning manufacturer, Toyota left Loudon trailing Chevrolet by 84 points in the manufacture standings.


2015 5-hour Energy 301
The 5-hour Energy 301 was carried by NBC Sports on the cable/satellite NBCSN network for the American television audience. The radio broadcast for the race was carried by the Performance Racing Network on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Report, Background
New Hampshire Motor Speedway is a 1.058-mile (1.703 km) oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since the early 1990s, as well as an IndyCar weekend and the oldest motorcycle race in North America, the Loudon Classic. Nicknamed "The Magic Mile", the speedway is often converted into a 1.6-mile (2.6 km) road course, which includes much of the oval.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Report, Background
The track was originally the site of Bryar Motorsports Park before being purchased and redeveloped by Bob Bahre. The track is currently one of eight major NASCAR tracks owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Report, Background
Kevin Harvick entered New Hampshire with a 68-point lead over Jimmie Johnson and Joey Logano. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. entered 76 back and Martin Truex, Jr. entered 96 back.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Report, Background
The 2015 5-hour Energy 301 marked the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race after the passing of Formula One driver Jules Bianchi on 18 July 2015, who had crashed at the Japanese Grand Prix and remained in a coma for the preceding nine months. Several drivers and team owners paid tribute to Bianchi, many of them in form of messages written on helmets and cars. A minute of silence was held before the race start on Sunday in commemoration of the Frenchman. The drivers and members of the Bianchi family (parents and siblings) linked in a chain arm in arm, with their helmets surrounding Jules' in the middle.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Report, Background, Entry list
The entry list for the 5-hour Energy 301 was released on Monday, July 13 at 11:42 a.m. Eastern time. Forty-four cars were entered for the race. All 44 were entered for the previous week's Quaker State 400. The driver changes for this week's race included Eddie MacDonald in the No. 32 Go FAS Racing Ford, Derek White attempted to make his first career Sprint Cup Series start in the No. 33 Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet, Reed Sorenson in the No. 62 Premium Motorsports Chevrolet and Timmy Hill in the No. 98 Premium Motorsports Ford.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, First practice
Kyle Larson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 28.486 and a speed of 133.708 mph (215.182 km/h).


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Qualifying
Carl Edwards won the pole with a time of 28.179 and a speed of 135.164 mph (217.525 km/h). "I’ve struggled at this racetrack so this is big for me," Edwards said. "We need to get another win." "We hope we’ll keep this speed on race day," said Connecticut native Joey Logano after qualifying second. "We all know how special Loudon is to me, to try to make something happen here, so it’s nice to know we’ve got a fast racecar. It’s good in race trim, as well. We weren’t very good in qualifying trim in practice. We changed a lot of things and lit it up a little bit" "It's not been a good day for us," said three-time New Hampshire winner Jeff Gordon after qualifying 23rd. "We've been struggling. It's disappointing we didn't qualify better."


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Practice (post-qualifying), Second practice
Kevin Harvick was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 28.834 and a speed of 132.094 mph (212.585 km/h). In the closing minutes of the session, Clint Bowyer collided with Jeff Gordon just as Gordon was backing out of his garage stall. “You can’t see out of the pit stall,” Bowyer told Motorsport.com. “He just came out and I was a comin’. That poor ol’ boy that was backing him out, I bet he feels like (crap). But you know, it’s a wonder it don’t happen more often.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Practice (post-qualifying), Second practice
To be honest with you, I was pulling out of my stall, I went to come back out and the guy never moved. I was like, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa.’ But it’s so tight in here. You hate to see that, but damn, especially with the 24 (laughs) and everything we have going on. It didn’t seem to hurt our car too bad. It hurt his bad — it hit in a bad spot. But that’s why we have guys that back us up.”


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Practice (post-qualifying), Second practice
“Hopefully all this hard work and stuff we’re going through will pay off tomorrow," said Gordon, who will start 23rd. "We’ve got a pit cart over there that kind of blocks what you can see of the back of my car backing out there.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Practice (post-qualifying), Second practice
The guy that backs me out looked over, guess he was just starting to back me out; and I crept out there and he cleared me, but the No. 15 (Bowyer), probably couldn’t really see me because of that pit cart and I don’t know if he kind of glanced away or what, but when he looked back, I was just right there and couldn’t go anywhere. Its kind of a combination of, I guess, both of us could take fault in that.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Practice (post-qualifying), Second practice
But our team did an amazing job of fixing quite a bit of damage (to the right rear). I love seeing my crew chief (Alan Gustafson) get in there and get dirty, but not for that reason. And, that practice went a little bit better than the other one. So, we’re gaining on it. I don’t want to say it can’t get worse, but I know it can. So, I’m not going to say that. But hopefully this will all pay off for us tomorrow.”


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Practice (post-qualifying), Final practice
Carl Edwards was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 28.614 and a speed of 133.110 mph (214.220 km/h).


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, First half, Start
The race was scheduled to start at 1:45 p.m., but the threat of inclement weather prompted NASCAR to move the start up to 1:35. It started at 1:38 when Carl Edwards led the field to the green flag. By lap 20, teammate Kyle Busch ran him down, passed him going into turn 3 to take the lead. Debris in turn 1 brought out the first caution of the race on lap 22. Most of the field ninth on back opted to pit under the caution.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, First half, Start
The race restarted on lap 27. By lap 64, Brad Keselowski ran down the leader to within half a second. He went underneath Kyle Busch going into turn 1 to take the lead on lap 68. Carl Edwards was the first of the eight drivers that didn't pit under the first caution to hit pit road at lap 77. He was followed by Jamie McMurray on lap 78 and David Ragan on lap 79. Matt Kenseth hit pit road on lap 81. Kurt Busch pitted from fourth on lap 82. Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the pit cycle. Matt Kenseth was tagged for speeding on pit road and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, First half, Second quarter
The cars that pitted under the first caution started pitting on lap 87. Brad Keselowski surrendered the lead to pit on lap 88 and handed the lead to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. He pitted the next lap and handed the lead to teammate Jeff Gordon. He pitted on lap 91 and handed the lead to A. J. Allmendinger. Debris in turn 1 brought out the second caution of the race on lap 96. The debris was the right-front tire on the No. 7 of Alex Bowman catching fire as he was exiting his pit stall.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, First half, Second quarter
Allmendinger, low on fuel, was forced to pit from the lead under caution and the lead cycled back to Keselowski. Justin Allgaier was tagged for removing equipment out of the pit box. Sam Hornish, Jr. was tagged for too many members of his pit crew being over the wall. Kyle Larson was tagged for speeding on pit road. All restarted the race from the tail end of the field.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, First half, Second quarter
The race restarted on lap 108. Debris on the front stretch brought out the third caution of the race on lap 117. Carl Edwards was the only driver in the top ten that opted to pit under the caution.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, Second half, Halfway
The race restarted on lap 122. Ryan Blaney was running ninth when he made an unscheduled stop for a loose right-rear tire on lap 130. Adding insult to injury, he was tagged for speeding entering pit road and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty. Kurt Busch started a wave of green flag stops pitting from fifth on lap 171. Kevin Harvick pitted from second on lap 176. Brad Keselowski pitted from the lead on lap 179 and handed it to teammate Joey Logano.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, Second half, Halfway
Jimmie Johnson was tagged for speeding on pit road and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty. Debris in turn 2 brought out the fourth caution of the race on lap 189. J. J. Yeley's car blew up in smoke. Logano pitted from the lead and it cycled back to teammate Brad Keselowski.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, Second half, Halfway
The race restarted on lap 194. Keselowski lost the lead to Kevin Harvick rounding turns 1 and 2 and took the lead on lap 195. Paul Menard was running eleventh when he made contact with Kasey Kahne. He missed pit road the first time around on lap 199 and spun out trying to get onto pit road the next lap. This brought out the fifth caution of the race on lap 200.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, Second half, Halfway
The race restarted on lap 204. Clint Bowyer made contact with the turn 2 wall and cut down his right-rear tire with 93 laps to go. Justin Allgaier also had what appeared to be a right-front tire rub with 90 laps to go. Eventually, NASCAR called him to pit road with 88 laps to go. It turns out the smoke was engine related. Oil in turn 2 brought out the sixth caution of the race with 50 laps to go. That oil was from Yeley. Kyle Busch opted not to pit under the caution and assumed the lead.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, Second half, Fourth quarter
The race restarted with 44 laps to go. Kyle Busch jumped to a two-second lead over Brad Keselowski. With five laps to go, Keselowski cut the lead to half a second. He bobbled exiting turn 4 with two to go and Kyle Busch drove off to his third win of the season after Alex Bowman brought out the seventh caution of the race on the final lap.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, Post-race, Driver comments
"We've got to keep doing our deal," said Busch. "Every week it keeps getting better and better." “We had a really fast car and led a lot of laps,” Keselowski said. “I’m really proud of the team for bringing me two fast cars these past two weekends. It’s a joy to drive cars that fast.” “It was hot out there. It was fun,” Dale Earnhardt, Jr. explained. “The car didn't really drive that great. We tried to get it better during the race. We had some engine issues. I saw some stuff with the gauges that were way off. We were getting beat down the straightaway all day, even by the Hendrick stuff. Guys will go back and see what's wrong.”


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Race, Post-race, Heat and humidity
Following the race, Michael Annett and Matt DiBenedetto were transported to the infield care center after showing signs of heat exhaustion and in need of fluids. A. J. Allmendinger was also treated for strep throat. "Everyone is working real hard inside the cars," said Dale Earnhardt Jr. "This is a track where you got to drive real hard every lap. The corners don't work for you to where you can kind of settle into a pace. Just good thing they didn't call any red flags - we would have had some heat strokes out there."


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Media, Television
NBC Sports covered the race. Rick Allen, Jeff Burton – the all-time wins leader at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with four victories – and Steve Letarte had the call in the booth for the race. Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast handled pit road for the television side.


2015 5-hour Energy 301, Media, Radio
PRN had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Doug Rice, Mark Garrow and Wendy Venturini called the race from the booth when the field was racing down the front stretch. Rob Albright called the race from a billboard outside turn 2 when the field was racing through turns 1 & 2. Pat Patterson called the race from atop the turn 4 stands when the field was racing through turns 3 & 4. Brad Gillie, Brett McMillan, Jim Noble and Steve Richards worked pit road for the radio side.


2015 6 Hours of Bahrain
The 2015 6 Hours of Bahrain was an endurance sports car racing event held on the Grand Prix Circuit of the Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain on 19–21 November 2015, and served as the eighth and last race of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Porsche's Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani won the race driving the No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid car.


2015 6 Hours of Bahrain, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2015 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas
The 2015 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Circuit of the Americas, Austin, US, on 17–19 September 2015, and served as the fifth round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Porsche's Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber won the race driving the No. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid car.


2015 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2015 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas, Qualifying, Qualifying result
– Only one driver of the No. 36 Signatech Alpine set a lap time.


2015 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas, Qualifying, Qualifying result
– The No. 47 KCMG had its qualifying lap time deleted due to driving the car in the opposite direction of the track, but was allowed to start from the rear of the LMP grid.


2015 6 Hours of Fuji
The 2015 6 Hours of Fuji was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Fuji Speedway, Oyama, Japan on 9–11 October 2015, and served as the sixth race of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Porsche's Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber won the race driving the No. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid car.


2015 6 Hours of Fuji, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2015 6 Hours of Fuji, Qualifying, Qualifying result
– The No. 50 Larbre Competition had its qualifying lap time deleted due to non-conformity of the car's fuel cell ventilation valve, but was allowed to start from the rear of the grid.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The 2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring was a six hour endurance sports car racing event held for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars at the Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany on 28–30 August 2015. Nürburgring served as the fourth round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, and it marked the inaugural running of the event as part of the championship. A total of 62,000 people attended the race weekend.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The No. 18 Porsche of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani qualified in pole position by recording the fastest lap in qualifying and maintained the lead until it was issued with multiple penalties relating to excessive fuel consumption at its first pit stop and the consequence of this allowed the sister Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber to move to the front of the field.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The car kept the lead through the following sequence of pit stops and Webber drove the Porsche across the start/finish line at the end of the race to claim his, Bernhard and Hartley's first outright victories in the World Endurance Championship. Jani and later Lieb fended off the advances from the two rival Audis to secure second and the podium was completed by the No. 7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the No. 47 KCMG Oreca 05 of Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley and Nick Tandy . The car held the lead in the class for the majority of the race to secure its second consecutive victory of the season and was followed by the No. 26 G-Drive Racing car of Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal and Sam Bird.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring
Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen in the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Tourer Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) class with the sister car driven by Patrick Pilet and Frédéric Makowiecki taking second despite the duo serving two penalties during the course of the race. The podium in the category was completed by the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GTE of Davide Rigon and James Calado.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The Le Mans Grand Tourer Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was led for the final half an hour by the No. 72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Viktor Shaytar, Aleskey Bakov and Andrea Bertolini who held it to clinch the class victory, ahead of the No. 98 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The result of the race reduced Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer's Drivers' Championship by three points to the outright race winners Bernhard, Hartley and Webber who moved up three places to lie in second. Lieb, Dumas and Jani moved from fourth to third while Tandy dropped to fourth after finishing seventh in the overall classification. Earl Bamber and the absent Nico Hülkenberg rounded out the top five. Porsche increased its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship on 184 points, thirty-three ahead of Audi and a further 62 in front of Toyota with four rounds left in the season.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entry list
Thirty-one cars were officially entered for the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, with the bulk of the entries in Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). Three manufacturers, Porsche, Toyota and Audi Sport Team Joest, were represented in LMP1 by two cars each. Rebellion Racing and Team ByKolles were the two representatives of the privateer field. Three weeks prior, Nissan announced their decision to delay their return to the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) so they could address energy recovery system faults with their two GT-R LM Nismos and resume their testing programme in the United States.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entry list
LMP2 consisted of eight cars with 24 drivers. Starting at the Nürburgring, Strakka Racing switched from running a Dome S103 to a Gibson 015S for the rest of the season. This was so the team could use the Dome S103 for testing and developing in preparation for a planned entry to LMP1 in 2017. OAK Racing pulled their No. 35 Ligier JS P2 Nissan from the entry list for unspecified reasons. Zoël Amberg was withdrawn on medical grounds which were believed to be related from an crash he suffered at the Monaco GP2 Series round three months prior. Amberg's place in the No. 43 Team SARD Morand Morgan was taken by the International GT Open driver Archie Hamilton. After driving the No. 19 Porsche 919 Hybrid at Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans, Nick Tandy returned to KCMG for the first time since the season-opening round at Silverstone.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entry list
The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field consisted of three manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche), while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants were six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, Larbre Compétition, Dempsey-Racing Proton, Porsche Team Manthley, and SMP Racing. British GT racer Jonathan Adam made his first appearance in the season in the No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE and he was paired with regular drivers Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entry list
Le Mans outright winner and United SportsCar Championship competitor Earl Bamber returned to the World Endurance Championship to drive the No. 88 Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, replacing Klaus Bachler, who had an ADAC GT Masters commitment at the Sachsenring. After fracturing two vertebrae in a heavy accident at Le Mans, Roald Goethe, the co-driver of the No. 96 Aston Martin, was declared fit to compete at the Nürburgring.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
The 6 Hours of Nürburgring was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2015 schedule in an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Doha on 3 December 2014. It was the fourth of eight scheduled endurance sports car races of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, and the inaugural running of the race as part of the championship. It was held on 30 August 2015 at the Nürburgring GP-Strecke circuit in Nürburg, Germany following two days of practice and qualifying. The race was the first world sports car championship round to be held at the circuit since the 1991 430 km of Nürburgring, and took place on a modified version of the sixteen-turn 5.148-kilometre (3.199 mi) layout which lacked the Veedol chicane.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
Before the race Audi Sport Team Joest drivers André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler led the Drivers' Championship with 80 points, twenty ahead of nearest rival Tandy in second place, and a further two in front of Bamber and the non-competing Nico Hülkenberg. Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani were fourth on 57 points and Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley followed in fifth position on 53 points. Porsche led the Manufacturers' Championship with 140 points, sixteen points ahead of their rival Audi in second place.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
The third-placed manufacturer Toyota had scored 71 points and Nissan rounded out the top four but had yet to accumulate any points. Audi dominated the season's opening two rounds and Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The trio of Lieb, Dumas and Jani secured two consecutive second-place finishes and their teammates Bernhard, Webber and Hartley placed second at Le Mans.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
After Le Mans, the FIA Endurance Committee altered the balance of performance in the GTE categories, reducing the size of the air restrictor on the air intake of the Aston Martin Vantage engines by 0.5 millimetres (0.020 in) and lowering the weight of the Porsche 911 RSRs in LMGTE Pro by 10 kilograms (22 lb) and 15 kilograms (33 lb) was removed from the LMGTE Am version of the car.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
Similarly, the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R in both GTE classes had its fuel capacity increased by 5 litres (1.1 imp gal; 1.3 US gal) and were mandated to install a larger refuelling restrictor. The Ferrari 458 Italia GTEs in LMGTE Am had a weight increase of 15 kilograms (33 lb). In the LMP1 Equivalence of Technology alterations, the Porsche 919 Hybrid and Toyota TS040 Hybrids had their petrol energy lowered by 2.2% and their maximum petrol fuel load by 1.6%.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
In contrast, the diesel energy of the Audi R18 e-tron quattros was increased by 0.44% and its maximum diesel flow was increased by 0.63%. The LMP1 fuel capacity of petrol-powered engines was lowered from 68.3 litres (15.0 imp gal; 18.0 US gal) to 67.4 litres (14.8 imp gal; 17.8 US gal). Similarly, Audi's diesel-powered engine had its fuel capacity reduced from 54.2 litres (11.9 imp gal; 14.3 US gal) to 53.7 litres (11.8 imp gal; 14.2 US gal).


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
Three practice sessions—two on Friday and a third on Saturday—were held before the Sunday race. The Friday afternoon and early evening sessions lasted 90 minutes; the third, one-hour session was held on Saturday morning. The first practice session began on a damp track after some rain had fallen shortly before it started and this made drivers wary on their first attempts. Lap times lowered when the rain let up. The No. 7


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
Audi of Lotterer led the session in its latter half with the fastest lap time at 1 minute and 39.201 seconds, 0.076 seconds faster than any other car on the track. His closest challenger was Jani in the No. 18 Porsche and Loïc Duval's No. 8 Audi followed in third place. Bernhard was fourth in the other Porsche and the quickest Toyota came fifth after a lap from Stéphane Sarrazin.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
LMP2 was led by Gustavo Yacamán's No. 28 G-Drive Racing car with a lap of 1 minute and 46.631 seconds set late in practice and was a second clear from teammate Sam Bird. Gianmaria Bruni's No. 51 Ferrari was quickest in LMGTE Pro while the No. 83 car of Rui Águas helped the team to the top of the time sheets in LMGTE Am. While the session passed relatively peacefully, several cars slid off on the slippery tarmac and the session was stopped when Simon Trummer spun the No. 4 ByKolles CLM P1/01 into the final turn's gravel trap.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
The track was dry for the second practice session which had Tréluyer record the fastest time of the day late at 1 minute and 37.862 seconds despite going into the turn one gravel trap. Webber finished with the second-quickest time; his teammate Jani was third and Duval placed fourth. Toyota were still off the pace with their fastest lap coming from driver Mike Conway who was three seconds adrift in fifth position. Lucas di Grassi removed the rear wing of the No. 8 Audi in an impact with the final turn tyre wall after hitting the inside kerb.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
Bird was the early pace setter in LMP2 and later improved on his fastest time to finish at the top of the time sheets with a lap of 1 minute and 46.299 that put him almost a second and a half clear of teammate Pipo Derani. LMGTE Pro was led by Richie Stanaway's No. 99 Aston Martin and the SMP Racing Ferrari of Viktor Shaytar was fastest in LMGTE Am with a benchmark lap.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
The third (and final) practice session started with Dumas being the early pace setter and later improved on his effort. His co-driver Lieb then went faster with a lap of 1 minute and 36.036 seconds and remained at the top of the time sheets until the end of the session. His teammate Webber followed six-tenths of a second behind in second and the quickest Audi was the No. 8 car of di Grassi in third. Fässler was fourth-fastest despite spinning at slow speed at turn two and Sébastien Buemi rounded out the top five.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
Dumas made contact with the left-rear section of François Perrodo's car at turn two which led to a punctured tyre; both drivers were forced to the pit lane for repairs. Derani was the early pace setter in LMP2 but Jonny Kane set the fastest class time of the weekend so far at 1 minute and 45.270 seconds, and Tandy was almost one-tenth of a second behind in second. Aston Martin and Porsche battled for the fastest time in LMGTE Pro until Bruni topped the time sheets and Bamber set an early benchmark which put him fastest in LMGTE Am. Paul Dalla Lana locked his tyres and his tyre failed but was recovered for transportation back to the pit lane.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Saturday's afternoon qualification session was divided into two groups lasting 20 minutes each. Cars in LMGTE Pro and AM were sent out first and, after a five-minute interval, LMP1 and LMP2 vehicles drove onto the track. All cars were required to be driven by two participants for one timed lap each, with the starting order determined by the competitors' fastest average times. The fastest qualifier was awarded one point towards the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Lieb and Bernhard immediately put the two Porsches with their lap times in the low one minute and 36 second range and the Audis of Oliver Jarvis and Fässler followed in the next two positions. Webber was delayed by slower traffic on his opening lap but recovered to improve the No. 17 car's average lap time to put it on top. Shortly after, Dumas improved to maintain Porsche's 100% pole position record and took the No. 18 car's second consecutive pole position of 2015 with a two-lap average time of 1 minute and 36.473 seconds.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
They were joined on the grid's front row by the sister No. 17 car as Webber and Bernhard's combined lap times were 0.069 seconds behind Lieb and Dumas. The two Audis were third and fourth (the No. 8 car driven by di Grassi and Jarvis in front of the No. 7 vehicle of Lotterer and Fässler). Lotterer was slightly delayed by slower traffic on his fastest timed lap. Toyota was slightly closer towards the pace in qualifying and filled the third row of the grid.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Anthony Davidson and Buemi were nominated to qualify the No. 1 Toyota and had no issues. In contrast, Alexander Wurz in the sister Toyota made an error and went into the gravel trap leaving the final turn. Sarrazin had new tyres installed on his car but was delayed by two slower cars and lost time as a consequence. The two Rebellion Racing cars and the No. 4 ByKolles CLM/01 rounded out the LMP1 qualifiers.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
In LMP2, Tandy and Matthew Howson took the fastest two-lap average time of 1 minute and 46.505 seconds late in the session. The duo were then three-tenths of a second faster than the  No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca of Julien Canal and Bird with Nelson Panciatici and Vincent Capillaire putting the No. 26 Signatech Alpine car in third. The second G-Drive Racing car was fourth and the Team SARD Morand entry rounded out the top five. Ricardo González spun leaving the Dunlop hairpin but did not make contact with the barriers and was able to continue.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Toni Vilander and Bruni, competing in the No. 71 Ferrari, were the fastest LMGTE Pro drivers with a two-lap average time of 1 minute and 54.275 seconds, and took AF Corse first pole position since the 2014 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas. They qualified 0.055 seconds in front of the sister Ferrari driven by James Calado and Davide Rigon. The Danish pairing of Marco Sørensen and Christoffer Nygaard in the No. 95 Aston Martin took third and the two Porsche GTEs rounded out the top five. The Russian duo of Victor Shaytar and Alexei Basov took the pole position in LMGTE Am, half a second faster than the second-placed qualifier, the No. 98 Aston Martin. Dalla Lana stopped on track in the closing seconds of qualifying due to a throttle problem but was able to restart.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying, Qualifying results
Pole position winners in each class are denoted in bold.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Weather conditions at the start were dry and sunny. The air temperature was between 28 and 30.2 °C (82.4 and 86.4 °F) and the track temperature ranged from 27 to 39 °C (81 to 102 °F). 62,000 people attended the race weekend. The race started at 13:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00). On the second formation lap, the No. 13 Rebellion R-One of Alexandre Imperatori was forced to enter the pit lane for an engine problem which necessitated repairs by team mechanics. Jani maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first corner with teammate Bernhard following in second.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Shaytar made a poor getaway and fell to third in LMGTE Am behind the two Porsches of Bamber and Patrick Long. Upfront, Jani opened up his advantage to three seconds by the start of the third lap, while Frédéric Makowiecki moved in front of Sørensen for third in LMGTE Pro. Stanaway made slight contact with teammate Mücke while passing him for sixth and the latter then fell behind Long. Makowiecki was later adjudged by the stewards to have jumped the start and they handed him a drive-through penalty after eight minutes, promoting his teammate Michael Christensen into third in class. The first change of position in LMP2 came fifteen minutes in when Derani overtook Panciatici around the outside for third.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Bruni slowed with an electrical fault and then stopped on track at the Dunlop hairpin which led to the activation of the full course yellow procedure and his teammate Calado took over the lead of LMGTE Pro. Racing resumed five minutes later after Bruni's car was extracted from the circuit by a recovery truck but he managed to restart. Both Audis of Duval and Fässler sought to close up to Jani but their challenge was halted when they negotiated their way through slower traffic.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Calado had a problem with his vehicle, allowing Christensen to the front of LMGTE Pro and Stanaway moved into second. After a few laps, Duval and Fässler drew close to Bernhard, while Kane moved past Oliver Webb for fifth in LMP2 and began putting pressure on Panciatici for fourth in class. Makowiecki started to regain positions by overtaking Mücke for fifth in LMGTE Pro and Emmanuel Collard lost third to Pedro Lamy. Collard then fell to fourth when Paolo Ruberti moved in front of him.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
The first round of pit stops for driver changes began after 44 minutes when Bernhard and Fässler drove into the pit lane as both had slow punctures. At the start of the 23rd lap in LMGTE Am, Lamy gained another place when he overtook Shaytar around the outside at the first corner for second after minor contact between the two cars.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
After the pit stops, Lieb kept the lead and Fässler moved to second after Webber relieved Bernhard and the No. 18 Porsche's front nose was replaced. The SARD Morgan of Webb got ahead of the Signatech Alpine and Strakka Gibson for fourth in LMP2 and Kane passed the Alpine for fifth in class. Nick Heidfeld had a sudden loss in power in his No. 12 Rebellion R-One due to debris becoming lodged in the master switch which shut down the car and activated the fire extinguisher on the start/finish straight.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Heidfeld was able to restart the vehicle and returned to the pit lane for a change of fire extinguisher. Kane made an driving error and ploughed into the gravel trap at the final corner and fell to seventh in LMP2. Pantciatici initially capitalised on Kane's error but a power fault with his car allowed Ryan Dalziel into a race-high of fifth in class.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
The GTE field made their pit stops for fuel, tyres and driver changes early in the second hour which had Richard Lietz retain the lead in LMGTE Pro with Rigon benefiting from fast work by his pit crew to move him to second in class. Bamber retook the LMGTE Am lead and Dalla Lana took over second place in the category. Webber drew close to Fässler and battled him for second. This ended when Webber passed Fässler around the inside at turn four as the duo drove towards the next complex of corners.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Tandy maintained a twenty-second advantage at the front of LMP2 and his fast speed allowed him to pass the ByKolles car for seventh overall. Webber began to pull clear from Fässler and was soon less than forty seconds behind teammate Lieb. However, the stewards handed Lieb a five-second stop-and-go penalty for excess fuel consumption at his pit stop because of a faulty sensor. Lieb took the pit stop five minutes later and emerged narrowly ahead of Webber in the sister No. 17 Porsche.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
This meant Lieb drove defensively heading out of the pit lane and forced Webber off the circuit at the second turn. Patrick Dempsey lost third to Perrordo in LMGTE Am and Dalla Lana and Khaled-Al Qubaisi ran closely behind each other until the latter fell back due to possibly being cautioned about track limits. The second round of pit stops for all LMP cars followed soon after with Tandy being replaced by Howson and Webber being relieved by Hartley.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
After the pit stops, Hartley had driven quickly to take over first place and the No. 26 car of Roman Rusinov held a nine-second advantage over Howson as a result of a faster stop. A second full course yellow was necessitated when Al-Qubaisi went into the gravel trap at the Dunlop hairpin and deposited gravel on the track which was cleared by course marshals.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Most of the GTE field made their pit stops slightly earlier than planned under the full course yellow. Once racing resumed, Dumas was catching Hartley but was twice penalised with a half a minute stop-and-go penalty and a one-minute infringement that he was mandated to serve on consecutive laps. Howson caught Rusinov and moved his way past him driving towards the first corner. After serving both his penalties, Dumas was two laps behind Hartley and was narrowly in front of the two Toyotas.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
By this point, Lauda was now leading LMGTE Am while Agias moved into second and Christian Ried was running third. Agias went off the track and fell behind Marco Seefried. Fourth-placed Andrea Bertolini lunged at Seefried at the first turn but ran deep at the corner's exit but overtook him soon after. Ried then lost fourth to Kristan Poulsen when the two Audis lapped them and Al-Quabisi spun at turn ten after sustaining heavy frontal damage.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Race organisers activated the full course yellow procedure for the third time when Pierre Kaffer's rear wing on his ByKolles CLM/01 detached itself on the start/finish straight and landed on the racing line. Just as the full course yellow was necessitated, Makowiecki and Calado made contact leaving the Dunlop hairpin which led to the Ferrari's rear bodywork rubbing against its left-rear tyre.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
As the race entered the final three hours, Yacaman moved in front of teammate Rusinov for second in LMP2, and Rigon was forced into the pit lane for a replacement tyre after his left-rear was punctured from the bodywork rubbing against it. Paul-Loup Chatin and Danny Watts were engaged in a battle for fifth place in LMP2 which ended in Watts's favour when he passed Chatin heading towards the first corner.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Another round of pit stops followed after three hours and twenty-eight minutes which had several changes of driver and three of the four class leaders keeping their positions except for Long who had one of his doors replaced because of a window fault design. González was heavily delayed by slower traffic and glanced the Larbre Compétition Corvette. This enabled Canal to take advantage of the situation and take over second in LMP2. Jani caught Jarvis and overtook him on the start/finish straight.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Capillaire spun after going too fast heading into the Veedol chicane and the full course yellow was shown for the fourth time so marshals could clean the track. The leading Porsche and two Audis used the opportunity to make their pit stops while the No. 42 Strakka Racing car of Nick Leventis was pushed into its garage after its rear was damaged by an Aston Martin.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Dalla Lana went off the circuit on his 129th lap and was put under pressure from Bertolini who slipstreamed onto the back of a faster LMP2 car on the start/finish straight to pass Dalla Lana at the first corner for the lead in LMGTE Am. Jani drew up to the rear of Tréluyer who was delayed by a Porsche GTE through the final turn and defended heading towards the first turn which allowed di Grassi to get involved in the duel for second-place.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Six minutes later, Jani went to the inside of Tréluyer driving into the first corner but ran deep. Tréluyer kept the place by driving alongside Jani going into the next turn. Di Grassi benefited from this and took third place from Jani at the Dunlop hairpin. Jani responded by lining up an overtaking attempt on di Grassi but was unable to reclaim third. Instead, di Grassi passed Tréluyer for second. The final round of pit stops for fuel and driver changes started four minutes later when Webber got aboard the No. 17 Porsche and Lieb took over Jani's sister car.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
A slow pit stop by di Grassi dropped him to fourth while Lieb lapped quickly and moved in front of Lotterer for second. Lotterer opted not to defend from the faster di Grassi who passed him for third and set about trying to close up to Lieb. The focus upfront was on di Grassi who got the gap from Lieb down to 4.2 seconds and the latter responded by increasing his advantage to five seconds but then hit the No. 36 Singatech Alpine and sustained minor front-right bodywork damage.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Pilet in the No. 92 Porsche was issued a drive-through penalty after the stewards deemed co-driver Makowiecki responsible for causing the collision with Calado. Pilet kept second place after taking his penalty as he built up a large enough gap to remain ahead of Rigon. Unhindered in the final hours of the race Webber took the chequered flag for the No. 17 Porsche to claim his, Bernhard and Hartley's maiden triumph in the World Endurance Championship, a lap ahead of Lieb's No. 18 Porsche.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Lotterer in the lead Audi followed in third after di Grassi let him through in the final five minutes. Toyota, unable to match the pace of Audi and Porsche, were three laps behind for a fifth-place finish with the No. 1 car and the No. 2 entry was a further lap adrift in sixth. Tandy maintained his advantage to take KCMG's second consecutive LMP2 win of 2015, followed by the two G-Drive Racing cars of Bird and Derani.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
The first three positions in LMGTE Pro were unchanged in the final hour and Lietz led home teammate Pilet for a Porsche one-two finish with the podium completed by Rigon's No. 71 Ferrari. In LMGTE Am, Shaytar moved past Dalla Lana in the last half an hour to clinch the No. 72 car's first victory of the season and Agias was third despite spinning in the final ten minutes.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race, Post-race
The result of the race meant Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer were still in the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 95 points but their advantage had been reduced by three as the maiden victory of Bernhard, Hartley and Webber meant the thee drivers were seventeen points behind, having moved up three positions to lie in second. Lieb, Dumas and Jani's strong result allowed the trio to move into third and Tandy fell to fourth as a result of him finishing seventh overall. Bamber and the non-competing Hülkenberg rounded out the top five. Porsche increased their advantage at the top of the Manufacturers' Championship on 184 points; Audi were thirty-three points behind their nearest rivals and Toyota remained in third place with four races left in the season.


2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race, Race results
The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 142 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.


2015 6 Hours of Shanghai
The 2015 6 Hours of Shanghai was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China on 30 October–1 November 2015, and served as the seventh race of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Porsche's Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber won the race driving the No. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid car.


2015 6 Hours of Shanghai, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone
The 2015 6 Hours of Silverstone was a six hour endurance sports car racing event held for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars at the Silverstone Circuit near Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England on 12 April 2015 before a crowd of 45,000 spectators. The event served as the opening round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship; it was fourth running of the event as part of the championship.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone
A Porsche 919 Hybrid of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber qualified in pole position by setting the fastest lap in class. They led for the opening 80 minutes until they suffered a terminal rear drivetrain failure, promoting their teammates Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas to first position. Thereafter, the trio battled an Audi R18 e-tron quattro shared by André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer for the lead throughout much of the event.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone
Although the No. 7 tean took a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for a track limits transgression in the final 14 minutes, they finished first to achieve Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer's ninth overall career victory in a record-breaking distance of 201 laps. Lieb, Dumas and Jani finished second and a Toyota TS040 Hybrid driven by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson was third.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2 car shared by Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal and Sam Bird, which took the lead from the fast-starting KCMG Oreca 05 of Nick Tandy, Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley on lap six and held it for most of the race to win by one-lap over the sister crew of Gustavo Yacamán, Ricardo González and Pipo Derani which started from pole position.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone
The AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GTE of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander passed their teammates James Calado and Davide Rigon following a battle during the race's fourth houro win the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class. The second-placed car was Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen's Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSR. The Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda in an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE by 13.712 seconds over the AF Corse Ferrari team of Rui Águas, Emmanuel Collard and François Perrodo.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone
The final results gave Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer an early Drivers' Championship lead with 25 points, seven ahead of Lieb, Jani and Dumas and a further three in front of Buemi, Nakajima and Davidson. Their teammates Mike Conway, Stéphane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz were fourth on 12 points, and Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis were fifth with 10 points. Audi took the early lead of the Manufacturers' Championship with 35 points, seven points ahead of Toyota in second; the third-placed manufacturer Porsche had scored 19 points with seven rounds left in the season.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entry list
A total of 29 cars were officially entered for the 6 Hours of Silverstone with most of the entries in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) classes. The 2014 race winners, Toyota, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers, Porsche, Toyota and Audi Sport Team Joest, were represented in LMP1 by two cars each. Team ByKolles were the sole LMP1 privateer team partaking in the race. Nissan were scheduled to debut two GT-R LM Nismos at the circuit but decided to forego the first two rounds after issues with the car during testing.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entry list
The team decided to focus on making its debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Similarly, Rebellion Racing signed a contract to run Advanced Engine Research V6 twin-turbocharged engines instead of Toyota V8s they had used since 2012. This prompted the team to withdraw from the first two races so they and chassis developer Oreca could modify the R-Ones to accommodate the new engine. After the retirement of nine-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, Audi internally promoted Oliver Jarvis to the squad. ByKolles's Simon Trummer was stranded in Switzerland due to a French air traffic control strike, and Christian Klien was contacted on the day of the first practice session to take his place.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entry list
LMP2 consisted of 8 cars with 27 drivers in 4 different types of chassis. Defending LMP2 champions SMP Racing and driver Sergey Zlobin opted not to return, instead focusing on the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) to develop their new BR01 chassis. 2013 class champions OAK Racing returned to the World Endurance Championship (WEC) under their own banner for team owner and driver Jacques Nicolet. Their G-Drive Racing team, which won four races in 2014, expanded to two-cars for 2015. All three entries used the Ligier JS P2-Nissan. KCMG also remained in the WEC for 2015, replacing their Oreca 03R with the newer 05 car. Strakka Racing, who had filed a full-season entry in 2014 but failed to race after development delays with their Strakka-Dome S103 car, returned for 2015 with an unchanged programme.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entry list
Defending ELMS champions Signatech, who previously participated in 2012, had backing from Alpine with their Oreca-based A450 chassis with Nissan power. Morand Racing also shifted from the ELMS, partnering with the Japanese firm SARD in a joint effort. The team initially entered two improved Morgan LMP2 cars with Judd engines but problems with a sale to data encryption company Kairos meant the team missed the event.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entry list
Extreme Speed Motorsports (ESM) was the series' sole North American-representative, moving from the United SportsCar Championship to the WEC, with their two HPD ARX-03bs after a pre-season testing issue forced them to discard the newer 04 chassis. One of their drivers Johannes van Overbeek injured his rib due to a coughing fit the week before and was replaced by 2009 Le Mans co-winner David Brabham.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entry list
The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field consisted of three manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche), while Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) included six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, Larbre Compétition, Dempsey-Racing Proton, Porsche Team Manthley, and SMP Racing. Three-time LMGTE champions AF Corse's Ferraris had a near identical line-up, and Porsche Team Manthey also kept the drivers for its two cars largely unchanged. Aston Martin Racing expanded their effort to three cars for 2015 after partner Young Driver's entry, which won the LMGTE Am category in 2014, moved to the Pro class.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entry list
They again fielded two cars in the LMGTE Am class. AF Corse also remained in the category, downgrading from a two-cars to one. Porsche added a second car for Manthey Racing. 2012 LMGTE Am Teams' champions Larbre Compétition returned to the series for the first time in two years, campaigning the first customer Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Preview
A FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Doha on 3 December 2014 confirmed the 6 Hours of Silverstone as part of the FIA WEC's 2015 schedule. It was the first of eight endurance sports car races of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, and the fourth running of the event as part of the championship. It was held on 12 April 2015 at the 3.661 mi (5.892 km) 18-turn Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England, following two days of practice and qualifying. Since the 2013 edition, the overall winners have been presented with the RAC Tourist Trophy.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Preview
Audi's head of motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich said the manufacturer was ready for the upcoming season, and noted the closeness of the competition while setting Audi the objective to win at Silverstone for the third time in the WEC: "At the Prologue at Le Castellet, we met with our opponents for the first time in the 2015 season and were able to see everyone is thoroughly prepared – even though nobody put their cards on the table there."


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Preview
Romain Dumas, one of three drivers of the No. 18 Porsche 919 Hybrid, expected more of a battle with his rivals than in 2014. His co-driver Marc Lieb said there was "a score to settle" after retiring early from the 2014 edition. Defending series champions Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson along with their co-driver Kazuki Nakajima revealed their aim of repeating their victory at Silverstone, but Buemi noted the unpredictability of the conditions at the track.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Preview
Going into the race, the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, and the organiser of the series, Automobile Club de l'Ouest, altered the balance of performance in the LMGTE classes for the first time in the season to try to create parity. 10 kg (22 lb) of ballast was added to the LMGTE Pro class Ferrari 458 Italia and the Aston Martin V8 Vantage to reduce their handing abilities. The weight of the Porsche 911 RSR was lowered by 10 kg (22 lb) to increase its performance. The Aston Martin V8 Vantage also received an decrease in performance with the reduction of its air restrictor by 0.3 mm (0.012 in). No changes were made to the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
Three practice sessions—two on Friday and a third on Saturday—were held before the Sunday race. The Friday afternoon and early evening sessions lasted 90 minutes; the third, one-hour session was held on Saturday morning. The first session was held in sunny weather and most of the best efforts from the drivers came in its opening minutes. Lucas di Grassi set the fastest lap in the No. 8 Audi at 1 minute, 42.291 seconds, 0.144 seconds faster than Mark Webber's No. 17 Porsche. André Lotterer in Audi's No. 7 vehicle was third, and Neel Jani was fourth in the sister Porsche.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
The fastest Toyota was fifth after a lap from Alexander Wurz. Gustavo Yacamán led LMP2 in G-Drive Racing's No. 28 Ligier JS P2-Nissan car with a lap of 1 minute, 50.213 seconds, 0.053 seconds quicker than teammate Sam Bird. The No. 95 Aston Martin V8 Vantage driven by Nicki Thiim was quickest early on in LMGTE Pro. Klaus Bachler in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR led in LMGTE Am.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
Jarvis in the Audi No. 8 car led the second session early on before teammate Benoît Tréluyer's sister No. 7 entry ended as the fastest driver with a best time of the day at 1 minute, 41.526 seconds. Jarvis's lap was 0.298 seconds slower putting the No. 8 car second overall. Brendon Hartley was the best of the Porsches in third and his teammate Dumas was fourth. The two Toyotas of Stéphane Sarrazin and Nakajima were fifth and sixth.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
The pair of G-Drive Racing Ligiers were again fastest in LMP2 with Pipo Derani going quickest of the day with a 1 minute, 48.676 seconds lap, and Bird being six-tenths of a second slower. The two Porsche Team Manthey cars of Richard Lietz (No. 91) and Frédéric Makowiecki (No. 92) led LMGTE Pro. Pedro Lamy's No. 98 Aston Martin recorded the fastest lap in LMGTE Am.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
The third (and final) practice session was held in damp weather. Buemi and Wurz's Toyotas were the early pace setters until Marcel Fässler's No. 7 Audi went faster as some cars went off the slippery track and into Copse corner's gravel trap. A dry line began to appear after 25 minutes. The fastest overall leaders laps fell by five seconds as Lotterer improved on co-driver Fässler's time. Nelson Panciatici necessitated the showing of localised full course yellow flags when he spun and beached the No. 36 Signatech Alpine in the gravel trap at Stowe corner with 12 minutes to go.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
After practice restarted, Lotterer set the fastest overall lap at 1 minute, 52.094 seconds in the final minutes. Nakajima was the fastest of the two Toyotas in second, and Porsches teammates Lieb and Timo Bernhard were third and fourth. Derani set a late lap of 2 minutes, 5.786 seconds to go fastest in LMP2, followed by Matthew Howson's No. 47 KCMG Oreca 05. Makowiecki put the No. 92 Porsche atop of LMGTE Pro, as the fastest LMGTE Am lap came from Emmanuel Collard's AF Corse No. 83 Ferrari 458 Italia.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
Saturday's afternoon qualifying session was divided into two 20 minute groups. Cars in LMGTE Pro and AM were sent out first before LMP1 and LMP2 entries. All cars were required to have two drivers set one timed lap each and their fastest average lap times set the starting order. The fastest team and drivers earned one point towards their respective championships. Webber in the No. 17 Porsche set a benchmark 1 minute, 39.908 seconds lap, which his co-driver Hartley improved on in clear air, with a 1 minute, 39.634 seconds time.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
The team claimed pole position with a two-lap average of 1 minute, 39.721 seconds. They were joined on the grid's front row by their teammates Jani and Dumas who were 0.619 seconds slower. Dumas attributed the No. 18 car's slower pace to him making an error on his first lap and being delayed by slower traffic on his next try. Di Grassi and Jarvis put the No. 8 Audi 0.012 seconds behind the slower Porsche in third.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
The fastest Toyota was the No. 1 car of Davidson and Nakajima in fourth after Nakajima lost time in slower traffic in the final third of the lap. Lotterer and Fässler's No. 7 Audi took fifth and Sarrazin and Mike Conway's No. 2 Toyota qualified sixth. The LMP1 manufacturer field was close together as the first six were separated by almost two seconds. The crew of the No. 4 ByKolles Racing car were more than ten seconds slower than the manufacturer field and completed the LMP1 field.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
In LMP2, G-Drive Racing swept the front row of the class grid as Derani and Ricardo González in the No. 28 car took pole position by going faster than Roman Rusinov's and Olivier Pla 2014 pole lap with a two-lap average lap of 1 minute, 48.021 seconds, 0.062 seconds ahead of the sister No. 26 car of Rusinov and Bird. Howson and Nick Tandy in the No. 47 KCMG car was 1.3 seconds slower in third. Signatech Alpine's No. 36 vehicle came fourth in the hands of Paul-Loup Chatin and Vincent Capillaire.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
The No. 30 ESM car of Ryan Dalziel and David Heinemeier Hansson in fifth were 3+1⁄2 seconds slower than the new generation of class vehicles. Thiim and Marco Sørensen, competing in the No. 97 Aston Martin, were the fastest LMGTE Pro qualifiers. They had the only two-lap average time under 2 minutes, at 1 minute, 59.970 seconds, although Sørensen made some minor errors on his lap.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
Richie Stanaway and Fernando Rees in the No. 99 car were 0.206 seconds slower in second, while Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke gave Aston Martin first to third in class in the team's No. 95 car. Lietz and Michael Christensen sharing the No. 91 Porsche took fourth and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander qualified fifth.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
In LMGTE Am, Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana completed a sweep of GTE pole positions for Aston Martin with a two-lap class average of 2 minutes, 1.998 seconds, 0.937 seconds faster than Larbre Compétition's No. 50 Corvette of Paolo Ruberti and Kristian Poulsen in second. The No. 88 Abu Dhabi Racing Proton Porsche driven by Khaled al Qubaisi and Bachler qualified third in class. The duo held second until the No. 50 Larbre Compétition Corvette went faster.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying, Qualifying results
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
The weather at the start were dry and sunny with the air temperature between 12.7 and 15.3 °C (54.9 and 59.5 °F); the track temperature ranged from 10.5 to 15.5 °C (50.9 to 59.9 °F). When the race began before a crowd of 45,000 spectators at 12:00 British Summer Time (UTC+01:00), Webber retained the lead into the first corner as his teammate Dumas came under attack from di Grassi into Aintree turn. Elsewhere, Tandy made a fast getaway in the KCMG Oreca to claim the lead of LMP2 from the pair of G-Drive Ligiers.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
On lap three, Di Grassi again tried to overtake Dumas but put himself on the outside of Loop corner, forcing him to slow and give Buemi an opportunity to pass him for third. The No. 4 ByKolles Racing CLM P1/01 of Vitantonio Liuzzi sustained damage to its floor after reported contact by Dalziel's No. 30 ESM, necessitating half an hour of repairs to the car in the garage. After going wide, Wurz lost fifth to Tréluyer as Bird retook the LMP2 lead from Tandy at Brooklands corner on the sixth lap. The overall leaders encountered slower traffic twelve minutes in; di Grassi was caught out by this and fell to fifth behind Tréluyer and Wurz by running wide.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Derani passed Tandy on the run to Village corner for second in LMP2. Tréluyer put Buemi under pressure for third overall, and di Grassi retook fifth from Wurz. Later, Bachler took over the lead of LMGTE Am, and Tréluyer lost fourth to his teammate di Grassi leaving Copse corner. Overtakes occurred in LMGTE Pro as Porsche teammates Lietz and Patrick Pilet got by Stanaway, and Bruni moved past the latter at Stowe corner.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Forty-one minutes in the first full course yellow was necessitated by Chatin's No. 36 Signatech Alpine car's incorrectly fitted left-rear wheel coming loose into Corse turn, causing him to veer into the outside tyre barrier with the left-rear of his vehicle. Chatin was unhurt and boarded an ambulance without aid. Several drivers in the top categories made their first pit stops for fuel and tyres under the full course yellow while others remained on the circuit. Racing resumed in the 46th minute with Webber leading teammate Dumas.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Race control noticed no repairs to the wall at Copse corner had been done. The second full course yellow was activated early in the second hour to allow this to happen. This caused the trio of LMGTE Pro Aston Martins to lose time making their pit stops between the green flag and the full course yellow.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Immediately after the restart, Buemi could not use his hybrid boost system because there was no charge in the capacitor. Buemi was caught off guard as Tréluyer overtook him on the outside at Becketts turn and then by di Grassi at Vale corner to fall to fifth overall. Davide Rigon in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari took the LMGTE Pro lead because it was on an alternative strategy. Tandy lost third in LMP2 to Dalziel after a slow in-lap.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
An hour and 20 minutes in (lap 44) Webber drove the No. 17 Porsche into the pit lane to retire the car with a rear drivetrain issue. This gave Lieb the outright lead as he relieved Dumas in the No. 18 Porsche and the Audis of di Grassi and Tréluyer gained second and third. The Audis duelled over second in slower traffic when Tréluyer passed di Grassi on the inside into Abbey corner.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Their fast pace, however, put them onto the run-off area, but they rejoined into Farm curve without losing a plethora of time. Di Grassi was lapping Christian Ried's No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche when the two connected at Becketts corner. Di Grassi returned to the pit lane and repairs to the No. 8 vehicle's rear-left deck took two minutes. The car rejoined a lap down in sixth with Loïc Duval aboard.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
As the second round of pit stops for fuel and driver changes began, Tréluyer drew closer to Lieb and used his being delayed by Danny Watts' No. 42 Strakka Racing Dome to momentarily take the lead on the outside into Becketts turn before Lieb retook it due to his car's higher straight-line speed on the Wellington Straight into Stowe corner. The two made their pit stops afterwards as Fässler took over the No. 7 Audi and Jani entered the No. 18 Porsche.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Wurz gained the overall lead after an earlier pit stop during the full course yellow allowed him to lead by 40 seconds. Later, Tandy's No. 47 KCMG car went into the garage after a stone punctured a hole in its radiator and created water pressure issues. Jani lost second to Fässler at Village corner; Jani responded by reclaiming the position on the Wellington Straight. The two repeated the same manoeuvres over the following three laps until Fässler slowed slightly. In the meantime, Makowiecki's No. 92 Porsche gained the LMGTE Pro lead when Rigon made the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari's second pit stop and James Calado relieved him.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Davidson was closing by one second per lap on the duelling Jani and Fässler. Duval got the No. 8 Audi back onto the lead lap when he and Jani negotiated their way past a LMGTE Am Ferrari. During the third phase of pit stops, Conway's No. 2 Toyota was lapping Gianluca Roda's No. 50 Larbre Compétition Corvette at Becketts corner when he was unseen by Roda. Conway mounted the kerb in avoidance hitting a thin plastic bollard that lodged itself in the front of the Toyota's splitter affecting its turn-in handing.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Conway's teammate Davidson overtook him for second soon after and took the lead when Jani's No. 18 Porsche entered the pit lane for fuel and tyres; Dumas relieved him. Dumas emerged just ahead of the No. 7 Audi which now had Lotterer aboard. Dumas forced Lieb wide onto the outside line at Village corner for third and kept the position on the Hangar Straight. Lotterer's newer tyres allowed him to close on Conway, and he passed him on the inside at Vale corner for second. Conway later ran wide at Abbey turn because of his worn tyres and lost fourth to Dumas.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Rusinov had an anxious moment in the No. 26 G-Drive Ligier when the No. 97 Aston Martin blocked him under braking for the end of the Wellington Staight and spun at Brooklands turn. He recovered without losing the LMP2 class lead to teammate González as he held a one-minute lead. Lotterer was quicker than race leader Davidson through slower traffic and attempted to pass him on the inside at Brooklands corner, but Davidson blocked him on the Wellington Straight. The following lap, Lotterer tried again into Village turn and was successful this time round and subsequently pulled away.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Bruni's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari took the lead of LMGTE Pro in the fifth minute of the third hour after Pilet's No. 92 Porsche picked up a right-front puncture from going off the circuit. The car entered the garage for four minutes and fell to sixth in class with Makowiecki aboard. Dumas returned to the overall lead during the next pit stop cycle before Lotterer retook it by double stinting his tyres and only stopping for fuel. Lieb now drove the No. 18 Porsche when he went off the racing line onto some astroturf leaving Stowe corner but regained control of the car without losing too much time. Conway turned to the inside at Vale corner to pass Lieb for third three minutes later.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Duval's No. 8 Audi was forced into the pit lane after running onto grass. The team took 6+1⁄2 minutes and four laps to clean debris at the front of the car and Jarvis overtook it. Rigon caught his teammate Vilander and tried unsuccessfully to pass him on the outside at Village corner for the LMGTE Pro lead. A few minutes later, Rigon tried again, passed Vilander and pulled away. Jarvis in the No. 8 Audi saw some space to pass Poulsen's No. 50 Larbre Compétition Corvette at Becketts turn, but Poulsen turned to block Jarvis and the two collided.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Poulsen continued after marshal assistance to extricate him from the gravel trap. Meanwhile, Jani relieved Dumas, and Fässler took over from Lotterer at their pit stops. The two LMGTE Pro AF Corse Ferraris started again to duel for the class lead. Bruni tried to overtake Calado at Brooklands corner but was unable to pass because Calado blocked him. On the next lap, Bruni tried again and was successful in passing Calado at the same corner.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
In the final hour, Jani moved the No. 18 Porsche into second and closed on Fässler's No. 7 Audi. Jani moved past Fässler on the Wellington Straight due to the Porsche's straightline speed advantage, but the latter came back to reclaim the lead. It momentarily returned to Jani until it was retaken by Fässler entering Copse corner as the Porsche struggled to stay with Audi in the turns. Jani re-took the lead and kept it for two minutes before making his last pit stop for left-hand side tyres and no fuel.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
The final retiree came with 40 minutes to go when Klien went off at Village corner and damaged the radiator and had stiff handling because of aerodynamic deficiencies. Buemi made the No. 1 Toyota's final pit stop for fuel from second overall and came out behind Jani who opened up a four second gap over the car. Drama came with 18 minutes left when race control deemed Fässler to have transgressed track limits while passing slower cars on the outside tarmac run-off area at the exit of Club corner, imposing a 10-second stop-and-go penalty that he took with 15 minutes to go and then took up fuel.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Fässler kept the lead after his race engineer Leena Gade encouraged him to push hard. In the meantime Jani lowered the gap to 12 seconds, and steadily reduced it over the next 14 minutes by pushing hard with his lap times in the 1 minute, 42 second range. However, Fässler maintained the overall lead and crossed the start/finish line in a new race distance record of 201 laps to win by 4.610 seconds for his, Lotterer and Tréluyer's ninth outright career victory. Buemi got the No. 1 Toyota onto the final step of the overall podium in third.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Bird maintained No. 26 G-Drive Oreca's lead to win in LMP2 by one lap over the sister No. 28 car. The third-placed No. 30 ESM car failed its post-race technical inspection. Its front and rear underfloor skid planks were deemed to be under the minimum thickness of 20 mm (2.0 cm), and the No. 42 Strakka Racing entry was given third in LMP2. The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Rigon and Vilander was unchallenged in the final hour of the race and won in LMGTE Pro.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
The No. 91 Porsche of Christensen and Lietz took second; Bruni and Calado's No. 71 AF Corse car took third. In LMGTE Am, Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Lamy took their third successive win at Silverstone in the No. 98 Aston Martin and were 13.712 seconds ahead of Rui Águas, Emmanuel Collard and François Perrodo's No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
The top three finishers of all four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and at a later press conference. Lotterer acknowledged Audi were under pressure to perform from the first lap and spoke of their desire to carry momentum into Spa-Francorchamps. Fässler was sad to incur a stop-and-go penalty and said he felt it would have been fairer had the team been given time to think about the situation. Nevertheless, he was pleased with the duel he had with Jani. Tréluyer also expressed his frustration over the penalty as he discussed the situation with his co-drivers.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
He noted several cars had gone off the circuit throughout the race, but said he was happy with the victory, which he called "a well-deserved reward for all the effort the team have put in over the winter." Jani said he enjoyed driving in the race and was trusting of Fässler to battle him without contact, "For sure it was a great sportscar race and all three manufacturers are all very close. We have to push because it is a six-our sprint race." Davidson said he felt Toyota had to double stint their tyres to stay in contention for the victory but hoped to get into a position where they had an advantage on circuits with higher levels of tyre wear than Silverstone.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
Journalists reviewing the race agreed that the battle between Fässler's No. 7 Audi and Jani's No. 18 Porsche for the win was its highlight. Jack Philipps of Motor Sport wrote that it was like "Mini Cooper against Ford Falcon", and called it, "Utterly scintillating and, when the second Audi joined the battle to unlap itself, even more spectacular". The Guardian's Giles Richards commented that the momentum Audi were anxious to maintain would be tested at Spa and the 24 Hours of Le Mans since the gap between the three manufacturers was marginal.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
"Audi have once again made their point that you underestimate them at your peril, but the team who use the hashtag #welcomechallenges have found their offer accepted with a powerful and determined threat this year and one that bodes well for a cracking season." Writing for NBC Sports, Luke Smith said, "At the start of what looks poised to be the WEC’s biggest season to date, Silverstone played host to an incredible feast of racing on Sunday as the LMP1 titans all laid claim to their title bid." David Hobbs of AOL considered Lotterer to be Audi's best driver at Silverstone as he was instrumental in helping the team take what the journalist called "a famous victory".


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
As this was the first race of the season, Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer took the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven points ahead of Lieb, Jani and Dumas in second. The trio were a further three points ahead of Buemi, Davidson and Nakajima in third. Their teammates Wurz, Sarrazin and Conway were fourth with 12 points, with Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis fifth with 10 points. Audi took the early lead in the Manufacturers' Championship with 35 points, seven points ahead of Toyota in second; the third-placed manufacturer Porsche had scored 19 points with seven rounds left in the season.


2015 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Race results
The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 141 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The 2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, formally the WEC 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps, was a six hour endurance sports car racing event held for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars on 2 May at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium. Spa-Francorchamps hosted the second race of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship with 54,000 people attending the race weekend.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The No. 17 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, and Mark Webber qualified in pole position and maintained the lead until it was issued with a stop-and-go penalty, allowing Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani to take over the lead. Audi's No. 7 car of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer took over the lead when Jani made a scheduled pit stop. Lotterer and Lieb battled for the position until the former made a pit stop that had Tréluyer assume his driving duties.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
He overtook Lieb to move to the front of the race where he remained for the rest of the event to win after Audi elected to keep him on track. Lieb, Dumas and Jani finished second and Bernhard, Hartley and Webber was third. Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer covered a record-breaking track distance of 765.967 miles (1,232.704 km) over 176 laps.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the No. 38 Jota Sport of Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Mitch Evans. The car was penalised for jumping the start, but Evans took the class lead after passing co-pole sitter Julien Canal in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing entry and held it for most of the race to earn his first category win in the World Endurance Championship; while it was Dolan and Tincknell's second in the sport.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The No. 99 Aston Martin Racing car of Fernando Rees, Richie Stanaway and Alex MacDowall took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class, their first in the World Endurance Championship. Porsche Team Manthley's cars finished second and third after Gianmaria Bruni was penalised for a pit stop infringement, and Darren Turner in the No. 97 Aston Martin entered the pit lane. The Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda, ahead of AF Corse's No. 83 Ferrari of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The result meant Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer extended their Drivers' Championship advantage over Lieb, Dumas and Jani to be 14 points ahead of the three drivers. Alexander Wurz, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin moved from fourth to third with their Toyota teammates Anthony Davidson and Sébastien Buemi dropping to fourth position. Bernhard's, Hartley's and Webber's third-place finish meant they moved into fifth place. Audi moved further ahead of Porsche in the Manufacturers' Championship while Toyota dropped to third position with six races left in the season.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Entrants
Thirty-four cars were officially entered for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, with the bulk of the entries in Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). The 2014 race winners, Toyota, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers were represented in LMP1, including a trio of cars entered by Audi Sport Team Joest and Porsche, while Toyota elected to bring only two vehicles.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Entrants
René Rast, Marco Bonanomi and Filipe Albuquerque made their first appearances in the 2015 championship driving the No. 9 Audi, while Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy in Porsche's No. 19 car all entered the LMP1 category for the first time in their careers. As in Silverstone, Rebellion Racing chose not to take part in the event, leaving Team ByKolles as the sole LMP1 privateer team. Christian Klien returned to compete for Team ByKolles having originally intended to race for the team only at Silverstone.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Entrants
LMP2 consisted of ten cars with 30 drivers. With Tandy driving for Porsche, KCMG employed Toyota's test and reserve driver Nicolas Lapierre to fill his position for the Spa-Francorchamps race and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. GP2 Series driver Mitch Evans made his first appearance in sports car racing alongside European Le Mans Series competitor Simon Dolan, and Nissan factory driver Harry Tincknell for Jota Sport.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Entrants
Despite a failed buyout of the team by Kairos, a data encryption company, Team SARD Morand confirmed their commitment to the World Endurance Championship and opted to bring one car which was driven by Oliver Webb, Pierre Ragues and Zoël Amberg. Johannes van Overbeek returned to co-drive for Extreme Speed Motorsports after missing the season's opening round because of a rib injury.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Entrants
The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field consisted of three manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche), while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants were six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, Larbre Compétition, Dempsey-Racing Proton, Porsche Team Manthley, and SMP Racing. The No. 91 Porsche 911 was vacated after regular driver Michael Christensen missed the Spa race because of a United SportsCar Championship commitment, while Richard Lietz moved to the team's No. 92 entry and the car was driven by Sven Müller and Kévin Estre.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Entrants
Nicki Thiim was unable to attend the event because he was taking part in the ADAC GT Masters Championship, so the No. 95 Aston Martin was driven as a two-driver operation by Marco Sørensen and Christoffer Nygaard. The team's No. 97 entry became a three-person driver team when McLaren factory driver Robert Bell made his first start of the year alongside Stefan Mücke and Darren Turner. Ferrari's factory team AF Corse entered a second car in LMGTE Am which was driven by Duncan Cameron, Alex Mortimer and Matt Griffin.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Preview
The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2015 schedule in an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Doha on 3 December 2014. It was the second of eight scheduled endurance sports car races of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, and the fourth running of the event as part of the championship. It was held on 2 May 2015 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Stavelot, Belgium following two days of practice and qualifying.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Preview
The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is a race track that is 7.004 kilometres (4.352 mi) long and has twenty corners. Endurance racing events were first held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in 1924 with the Spa 24 Hours. Thirty-nine years later, the track began holding 500 km (310 mi) World Sportscar Championship races which later expanded to 1,000 km (620 mi). It was cancelled after the 1975 running because of modern safety concerns. It was resurrected in 1982 on the reconfigured Spa-Francorchamps track layout and remained on the calendar until 1990. Spa-Francorchamps again began holding endurance sports car races from 1999, and the 6 Hour event was made part of the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012. The race is considered by many as a final preparation event for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Preview
Before the race Audi Sport Team Joest drivers André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer led the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven ahead of their nearest rivals Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani in second, and a further three in front of third-placed Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. Their teammates Alexander Wurz, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin were fourth on 12 points, and Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis stood in fifth place on ten points. Audi led the Manufacturers' Championship with 35 points, seven ahead of rival Toyota in second; the third-placed manufacturer Porsche had scored 19 points. Audi had won the preceding 6 Hours of Silverstone with Lieb, Dumas and Jani finishing in second place, while Davidson, Buemi and Nakajima came in third position.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Background, Preview
Some teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. Audi installed low-downforce setups on its No. 7 and 8 cars while their third entry used a version observed at the Silverstone race. The design was optimised to omit downforce, thereby reducing drag, for better preparation for competing on high-speed tracks. This was done by modifying the car's side pods and openings on the inside surface of its fenders. New cooling techniques were achieved by creating new suspension solutions to restrict spring displacement which also reduced underside turbulent airflow. Porsche chose to use high downforce configurations on all three of their 919 Hybrid cars as they did previously at Silverstone. The ByKolles CLM P1/01 was further developed and had a new front nose equipped after it completed a shakedown test on 24 April.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Practice
Three practice sessions—two on Thursday and a third on Friday—were held before the Saturday race. The Thursday afternoon and evening sessions lasted 90 minutes; the third, one-hour session was held on Friday afternoon. The first session was held in heavy rain. Lieb's No. 18 Porsche was fastest with a time of 2:16.616, ahead of Davidson in the No. 1 Toyota in second. Brendon Hartley and Hülkenberg in Porsche's two other cars were third and fourth;  Rast's No. 9 Audi rounded out the top five. LMP2 was led by Jonny Kane's No. 42 Strakka Racing Nissan with a lap of 2:32.672; he battled with Tincknell for the quickest class time. Estre's Porsche was the quickest in LMGTE Pro while Klaus Bachler helped the German company to be the fastest in LMGTE Am.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Practice
The session was disrupted when Nakajima drove into the back-end of Jarvis's car heading into Les Combes corner. Nakajima was unable to see Jarvis because of heavy spray reducing visibility on the Kemmel straight. Nakajima complained of severe back pain and was transported to Verviers hospital where a check-up found he had fractured vertebra. He was deemed unfit to take part in the race. Toyota's test and reserve driver Kamui Kobayashi was in Japan and unavailable, so the No. 1 car ran as a two-driver operation for the remainder of the event weekend. It missed the second practice session because it required monocoque rebuilding. The No. 8 Audi also missed the second practice session because it was undergoing rear-end repairs.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Practice
Heavy rain continued to affect the track in the second practice session. Conditions deteriorated as the session advanced, and several cars elected not to improve their quickest times to avoid driving off the track after going through standing water. Conditions allowed the fastest LMP2 and LMGTE vehicles to reach the top five quickest overall times. Bamber recorded the fastest time at 2:25.495, nearly half a second faster than Bernhard in the sister Porsche in second. Lotterer was third-fastest and had the fastest time early in the session. Evans achieved the only time under the 2:34.500 mark in LMP2 with a lap of 2:34.370. Lietz led LMGTE Pro with No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Águas the fastest driver in LMGTE Am.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Practice
The final practice was held on a dry race track which allowed for faster lap times. Lotterer set the quickest time of the weekend so far at 1:57.368 recorded in the session's final minute, and was 0.011 seconds faster than the second-fastest car of Hülkenberg. Jani was a further five-tenths of a second behind in third place, and was narrowly faster than teammate Hartley in fourth. Sam Bird was the fastest LMP2 driver in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing car with a time of 2:08.415, four-tenths ahead of Matthew Howson's KCMG Oreca.


2015 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Practice
Toni Vilander recorded the quickest LMGTE Pro time ahead of Fernando Rees in the No. 97 Aston Martin, while Pedro Lamy, driving the British marque's No. 98 car, was the fastest driver in LMGTE Am. A brief full course yellow flag was displayed when Bachler's back-end collided with the Pouhon corner tyre barrier, while Turner avoided going into the Les Combes wall and was temporarily beached in the turn's gravel trap. Both drivers returned to the track and continued.