2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Testing and practice
Ford and Ferrari entrants led the LMGTE Pro field with three Ford cars leading the class until overtaken by the Risi Ferrari of Toni Vilander and later the No. 51 AF Corse car of Gianmaria Bruni. Townsend Bell of Scuderia Corsa led the LMGTE Am category for much of the session until Rob Bell gave Le Mans rookies Clearwater Racing the fastest lap of the class in the final fifteen minutes.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Six hours of qualifying sessions were available to all the entrants, but pole position for the race was decided by Jani in the first ten minutes of the opening session. His 3-minute, 19.733-second lap time kept him at the top of the field as rain affected the two qualifying sessions the following day. The position was the second consecutive at Le Mans for both Jani and Porsche, while the sister car was nearly half a second behind in the second position. Sarrazin was a further half-second behind for third, followed by the other Toyota of Davidson.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Audi struggled to get their cars on track at the start of the first session. Both R18s suffered mechanical ailments, eventually setting lap times three seconds slower than the pole position Porsche to hold onto fifth and sixth positions. Their best lap came from di Grassi. Kraihamer was the fastest privateer in the No. 13 Rebellion. The ByKolles entry did not appear during the session while repairs were made following a fire in the practice session.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
René Rast of G-Drive Racing led the LMP2 category with a three-minute and 36.605-second lap time set in the final fifteen minutes of the session, after the lead in the category had been swapped between the G-Drive entry and the two Alpines over the course of the two-hour session. Nelson Panciatici in DC Racing's Alpine held on for second in the class while Signatech's Lapierre was third. Jin had an accident near Tertre Rouge, heavily damaging his car, and ending Eurasia Motorsport's night.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The LMGTE Pro category qualifying was swept by the new cars making their debuts at Le Mans. Ford's new GT in the hands of Dirk Müller set a lap time of three minutes and 51.185 seconds, three-tenths of a second ahead of its American sister car the No. 69 Ford of Ryan Briscoe. Ferrari's new 488 driven by Bruni was third in the class for AF Corse, a further tenth of a second behind the two Ford cars.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The British pair of Fords driven by Olivier Pla and Harry Tincknell were in fourth and fifth places, followed by two further Ferraris, with Makowiecki's No. 92 Porsche almost four seconds off the class pole position time as the first vehicle with previous experience at Le Mans. Risi Competizione's Ferrari brought out the only red flag of the session as Giancarlo Fisichella became stuck in the gravel trap at the Porsche Curves after a spin. In LMGTE Am Rob Bell's 3-minute, 56.827-second lap in the Clearwater Racing Ferrari beat out Pedro Lamy in the No. 98 Aston Martin; two AF Corse Ferrari cars driven by Matt Griffin and Emmanuel Collard followed in third and fourth positions.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The following day the second qualifying session opened with a dry track but threatening skies. Several LMP2 and LMGTE teams were able to improve their qualifying times in the opening half an hour of the session before rainfall started. The biggest improvement in the beginning of the session was the Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche in LMGTE Am, taking third place in the class, while the ByKolles CLM-AER of Kaffer went out in the wet to set first lap times of qualifying and take its place at the back of the LMP1 field.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Pegasus Racing led the few improved times in the LMP2 category to earn the fifteenth position. Porsche No. 1 was the fastest in the session, but its lap time was over three seconds off the provisional pole position. The second session ended without the track drying again and no times were improved in any category. All four Aston Martins chose not to set lap times in the session as they changed their engines.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
The third qualifying session began an hour later under a light rain that changed to a deluge within ten minutes, prompting race officials to stop qualifying for nearly an hour as several cars aquaplaned. When the rain tapered off and qualifying resumed, many teams chose not to participate or set a large number of lap times as no improvements could be made to qualifying lap times.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying
Following qualifying the ACO altered the balance of performance in the LMGTE Pro category, adding 10 kg (22 lb) of ballast and lowering turbocharger boost pressure in the Ford GT and adding 25 kg (55 lb) of ballast to the Ferrari 488s to lower their performance. Similarly, Aston Martin and Corvette received an increase in performance by allowing a larger air restrictor on the air intake of their engines. Porsche had no performance changes.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Qualifying, Qualifying results
Provisional pole positions in each class are denoted in bold. The fastest time set by each entry is denoted with a gray background. Times for Qualifying 3 are not included as many teams did not set a lap time, and no team made an improvement on their time.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Warm-up
The cars took to the circuit on Saturday morning for a 45-minute warm-up session. The No. 7 Audi driven by André Lotterer set the fastest time with a lap of 3 minutes, 25.886 seconds. Kobayashi and Lieb were second and third for Toyota and Porsche. Duval was fourth-fastest and had the fastest lap until the session's quickest three drivers recorded their times. The fastest LMP2 lap was set by Rast with a time of 3 minutes, 40.724 seconds.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Warm-up
Müller, driving the No. 68 Ford GT, was the quickest driver in the LMGTE Pro category, with the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche of Patrick Long the fastest of all the LMGTE Am drivers. Paul-Loup Chatin went off the track leaving the Porsche Curves and lightly damaged the right-hand side of his No. 23 Panis-Barthez car in a collision with the turn's barriers. This triggered the deployment of red flags to allow his vehicle to be removed to a safe area. David Cheng went through standing water turning right heading into Indianapolis corner and slid sideways. He attempted to regain control of his car but heavily damaged his vehicle's right-hand side. The session was ended prematurely because of the limited time available.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Daytime
The weather at the start of the race were wet. The air temperature throughout the race ranged from 12.2 to 20.4 °C (54.0 to 68.7 °F) and the track temperature between 13 and 32 °C (55 and 90 °F). 263,500 people attended the event. The French tricolour was waved at 15:00 Central European Summer Time (CEST) by actor Brad Pitt to start the race. Heavy rain fell on the circuit in the hour before the event started, forcing the race organisers to start it behind the safety car for the first time in history.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Daytime
During the reconnaissance lap, the Ford No. 66 GT was pushed into the garage after it lost gearbox pressure making it difficult to change gears. The safety car remained on the track for 53 minutes after which the cars were allowed to overtake when the track begun to dry. Jani maintained his pole position advantage heading into the first corner. Mike Conway's No. 6 Toyota tried unsuccessfully to pass Bernhard heading into Mulsanne corner, allowing Lotterer to attack him entering the Dunlop Bridge. The Audis passed the No. 5 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi for fourth and fifth. Conway overtook Bernhard on the way into the first Mulsanne Chicane for second and took the lead from Jani at the eighth lap's conclusion.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Daytime
Duval passed Bernhard for third place while Lotterer began a sequence of pit stops to change to dry compound tyres soon after. After the pit stops, Lotterer moved to the front of the race with Hartley in second and Duval third after both Toyotas had slow stops. Lotterer extended his advantage to seven seconds before entering the pit lane for an unscheduled stop. He was pushed into his garage for a change of turbocharger and repairs to his car's rear hydraulics system, promoting Hartley to the lead.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Daytime
Duval retook first by passing Hartley on the pit lane straight but lost the position to him at Mulsanne corner when a short rain shower fell. The LMP2 lead was taken by Roberto Merhi's No. 44 Manor at the start of the hour after he switched to the intermediate tyres during the first lap of competitive racing. In LMGTE Pro, Makowiecki's No. 92 Porsche was 13.8 seconds ahead of Richard Westbrook's No. 69 Ford. Westbrook eroded Makowiecki's advantage by going two seconds per lap faster than him.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Daytime
He took the class lead on the approach to Mulsanne Corner before the second hour was over. The battle for the outright lead continued to be a multi-car duel between representatives of the three manufacturers as they were separated by less than three seconds. This fluctuated due to the various levels of traffic.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Daytime
Webber's No. 1 Porsche and Kobayashi's No. 6 Toyota exchanged the lead through the following pit stop cycle and the next three hours as the Toyotas were on track longer. This meant they ran a lap more at full speed in their attempt at making one less stop later in the race. The lead of LMGTE Pro was left to Vilander's Risi Ferrari after Briscoe relieved Westbrook in the No. 69 Ford.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Daytime
Vilander pulled away from Briscoe, whose performance faded in the early phase of his first stint, and he was caught by Joey Hand's sister No. 68 car which was on average 1.6 seconds faster. Hand moved out of Briscoe's slipstream and overtook him on the Mulsanne Straight for second in class. Hand caught the Vilander's category-leading vehicle and the two battled for several minutes until Hand overhauled Vilander and Briscoe followed soon after.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Daytime
In LMP2 Matthew Rao took over from Merhi in the class leading No. 44 Manor, but he was under pressure from Ryo Hirakawa's No. 46 TDS Racing car in second and Will Stevens' third-placed No. 26 G-Drive entry with the trio close by one other. Four hours and fifty minutes into the race, Rao spun at the Dunlop Chicane. This promoted Hirakawa into the lead of LMP2 while Rao fell to fourth.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
During the sixth hour of the race Kobayashi in the No. 6 Toyota was better able to mount a challenge to Webber and later Bernhard's No. 1 Porsche. Kobayashi lowered the No. 1 Porsche's advantage to 13.7 seconds after setting a new fastest lap of the race at 3 minutes, 21.445 seconds and consistently lapped in this range and strategically scythed his way through slower traffic. Matteo Malucelli returned the No. 82 Ferrari back to the front of LMGTE Pro after passing the two class leading Fords of Dixon and Stefan Mücke.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Malucelli was later demoted from the top of LMGTE Pro to third when Sébastien Bourdais and later Dixon got ahead of him. Kobayashi and later Sarrazin took the overall lead from Bernhard after a local slow zone procedure was activated for trackside officials to recover Taittinger's No. 28 Pegasus Morgan. Tattiner misjudged the braking point for the right-hand Mulsanne Corner and was beached in the gravel trap. Bernhard lost forty seconds to Kobayashi because he lost sight on the approach to the slow zone due to the diminishing sunlight.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
He flat-spotted his tyres but stopped the No. 1 car from clouting the wall. LMGTE Am had been led by Porsche from the start. The No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton car and the No. 78 KCMG entry exchanged the class lead until Lamy's No. 98 Aston Martin broke up the monopoly midway through the seventh hour when he overtook Christian Ried for second and began to draw closer to Long.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
As night fell on the circuit, the battle for the overall victory was left to both Toyotas and Porsches because Duval's No. 8 Audi dropped off the pace in fifth. Jani lapped more than a second faster than his teammate Bernhard and overtook him for second on the 120th lap. This came as the Audis were instructed by race control to enter their garages for repairs to their number lighting systems. Repairs to both Audis took less than six minutes each, and the team's drivers rejoined in the same positions they were in earlier.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Tsugio Matsuda's No. 47 KCMG car suffered an apparent power failure and pulled off to the side of the circuit on the straight linking the Mulsanne and Indianapolis turns. That allowed Roman Rusinov's No. 26 G-Drive Oreca back into third in LMP2 after the team recovered from a drive-through penalty and a subsequent puncture. For 20 minutes the safety cars were dispatched to slow the race for a second time as two near simultaneous incidents involving GTE cars occurred.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
The first had Paul Dalla Lana's No. 98 Aston Martin hit the barrier beside the track on his way to the Porsche Curves. He spun across the track and beached the car facing oncoming traffic. Then Perrodo's No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari went straight into the gravel trap at Mulsanne Corner after he could not steer right. In the meantime, Hartley's No. 1 Porsche was forced out of contention for the victory when it went to the garage for two and a half hours to rectify water pump and engine temperature problems, losing 39 laps and falling to 53rd.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
In LMP2 the safety cars had split the field, leaving Pierre Thiriet's No. 46 TDS Racing vehicle two minutes and 48 seconds ahead of Lapierre's second-place No. 36 Signatech Alpine car as it made a pit stop. It did not, however, have much effect on the GTE classes as the gaps at the front of their respective fields was narrow. When racing resumed Jani's No. 2 Porsche was able to attack Conway's No. 6 Toyota leaving Tertre Rouge turn and pass him for the lead into the first Mulsanne Chicane.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Jani held the position until he made a pit stop and was relieved by Dumas. Bradley ran wide into the entrance of the Porsche Curves due to a power steering failure that sent the No. 47 KCMG car deep into the gravel trap. The car was abandoned since it could not be restarted. Not long after Estre's No. 91 Porsche begun leaking oil on the run to the Porsche Curves as the car's engine failed. Pizzitola's No. 25 Algarve Pro entry was caught out by Estre's oil and slid sideways into the gravel.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
That caused the third deployment of the safety cars as marshals worked for 28 minutes to dry the spilled oil by scattering an oil-neutralising compound across the track. As the safety cars were recalled Dumas put pressure on Buemi's No. 5 Toyota and overtook him on the Mulsanne Straight for second. Soon after passing Kraihamer's No. 13 Rebellion for fifth Fässler's No. 7 Audi developed a hybrid system issue that forced its return to the pit lane.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
The LMGTE Am lead changed midway through the twelfth hour from Khalid Al-Qubaisi's No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche to Bell's No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari. Not long after Stevens' No. 26 G-Drive Oreca served a one-minute stop-and-go penalty for speeding in a slow zone. He fell a further minute and a half behind Hirakawa's No. 46 TDS Racing car but stayed in third place in LMP2. Several LMGTE cars took the opportunity to change brake discs at this point in the morning, including the LMGTE Pro leading Risi Ferrari of Fisichella.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Halfway through the 13th hour, Kobayashi relinquished the No. 6 Toyota's hold on first to Lieb's No. 2 Porsche for five laps when he made an unscheduled pit stop to repair minor left-hand side bodywork damage. Lieb could not establish a healthy advantage as a local slow zone procedure was needed for the No. 13 Rebellion of Tuscher who retired just before the entrance to the second Mulsanne Chicane with a fuel injector failure that shut down the R-One's engine.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Night
Just after the slow zone was lifted, Lieb ran over some gravel that was strewn on the track and picked up a slow puncture. He was forced into the pit lane for a replacement wheel and fuel. Davidson's No. 5 Toyota inherited second. He started closing up to his teammate Kobayashi before Lieb retook the lead through the following pit stop cycle.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
A series of incidents in LMGTE Pro and LMP2 during the first hours of the morning prompted localised slow zone procedures and later the fourth deployment of the safety cars. Simon Dolan's No. 38 G-Drive car was hit by Dalla Lana's No. 98 Aston Martin that he lapped in the braking zone for the Ford Chicanes. Dolan was sent scuttling across the kerbing and heavily into the tyre barrier alongside the track. Later, Milner inflicted extensive damage to his No. 64 Corvette.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
He crashed into the end of the right-hand side tyre barrier at the entry to the Dunlop Chicane after losing control of its rear on the kerbs through driver error under braking. Soon after, Panciatici's fourth-placed No. 35 Baxi DC Alpine LMP2 ran straight across the gravel trap at the first Mulsanne Chicane and into the concrete wall. The final incident happened when Thiriet hit the inside barrier beside the circuit and removed the front bodywork from the No. 46 TDS Racing entry. He then ran over several trackside bollards on his way to beaching in the gravel trap.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
The safety car separated the LMP1 field as Conway's and Buemi's Toyotas made pit stops. After racing resumed they slipstreamed one another in slower traffic on the Mulsanne Straight and Buemi overtook Conway around the outside for second. Conway and Buemi retook first and second when Jani's No. 2 Porsche made a pit stop from the lead by the close of the 17th hour and emerged close behind the pair.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
The outright leaders settled down as the 18th hour approached. The two Toyotas opened up a significant lead over Jani's No. 2 Porsche, who could not match their pace after his race-long speed advantage had been nullified at that point. Müller's No. 68 Ford fell back from the battle for the lead of LMGTE Pro with the No. 82 Risi Ferrari of Malucelli on the 245th lap. Müller was penalised with a drive-through penalty for having the engine running during his refuelling pit stop. He responded by going a second per lap faster than Malucelli.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
It lowered his lead in LMGTE Pro to seven seconds going into the next pit stop phase. Hand later relieved Müller in the No. 68 Ford and got the car back to the front of LMGTE Pro by overtaking Malucelli on the first part of the Mulsanne Straight. He began to pull clear with 41⁄2 remaining. Lieb's No. 2 Porsche returned to the outright lead, but he ceded it to Davidson's faster No. 5 Toyota entering Mulsanne corner.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
The sister No. 6 Toyota had an anxious moment when Kobayashi lost control of the car into Karting corner and came to a rest in the gravel trap. He returned to third without needing external aid but lost 20 seconds to teammate Davidson. The pressure put on Ford by Ferrari in LMGTE Pro eased when Vilander lost control of the rear of the No. 82 car leaving the Porsche Curves but retained second in class despite getting temporarily beached in the gravel trap.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
Kobayashi bowed out of the battle for the outright victory when he entered the garage to fix the No. 6 Toyota's floor, which was damaged during the night when it hit a slower car and have a precautionary cooling system check done so it could get to the end of the race. Although repairs to the car lost it three laps to Davidson's sister No. 5 Toyota it retained its hold on third as the No. 8 Audi was ten laps behind in fourth. Davidson and later Nakajima matched Jani's pace.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
He could not get a consistent rate of lap times or get closer to the front of the pack. This was after Porsche changed its strategy to match the one employed by Toyota throughout the event, which had the No. 2 car stay on track for 14 laps at a time. Fuel mileage was also a concern for the LMGTE Pro leaders as Briscoe's No. 69 Ford stopped one lap later than all other cars in the class. That drew him closer to Vilander's No. 82 Risi Ferrari as Hand's sister No. 68 Ford was responding to his pace.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Morning and early afternoon
During the 22nd hour Mathias Lauda's No. 98 Aston Martin pulled off behind the left-hand concrete wall on the approach to the Porsche Curves with a terminal gearbox problem. Soon after that Tattinger's No. 28 Morgan Pegasus repeated its earlier excursion into the right-hand side gravel trap at Mulsanne Corner and retired a few minutes later with a right-rear tyre fire.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
With six minutes remaining Nakajima's No. 5 Toyota was ahead of Jani's No. 2 Porsche by 70 seconds and looked set to claim the manufacturer's first overall Le Mans victory. But Nakajima slowed to less than 200 km/h (120 mph) on the Mulsanne Straight due to a failure of the connector line linking the turbocharger and the intercooler, reducing power and causing a sudden loss of control over the turbocharger. Nakajima slowed even more two minutes later, and stopped the No. 5 Toyota after the start/finish line as the car's power gave out entirely.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
Jani overcame the gap and overtook Nakajima seconds later to take the chequered flag for the No. 2 Porsche and the marque's 18th overall victory at Le Mans. It was Jani and Lieb's first Le Mans victory and Dumas' second after triumphing in 2010. The sister No. 6 Toyota of Sarrazin, Conway and Kobayashi finished three laps behind in second, while the No. 8 Audi of Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis took third to maintain Audi's record of getting one car on the podium since debuting in 1999.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
The No. 36 Signatech Alpine of Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi led the final 196 laps to take the victory in LMP2. The second-placed No. 26 G-Drive Oreca of Rusinov, Rast and Stevens finished on the same lap as the Alpine. It gave Lapierre his second successive category win and Menezes and Richelmi's first. The all-Russian SMP Racing BR01 of Vitaly Petrov, Kirill Ladygin and Viktor Shaytar, which came four laps behind in third, completed the class podium.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
On the day of the 50th anniversary of their first overall 24 Hours of Le Mans victory in 1966, Ford won the LMGTE Pro class with the No. 68 American entry of Hand, Bourdais and Müller. Risi Competizione's No. 82 Ferrari were provisionally one minute adrift in second position with Fisichella, Vilander and Malucelli after they and the category winning Ford had led all but 26 laps of the race. Ford CGR USA's sister No. 69 car of Briscoe, Dixon and Westbrook was third.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
After the race the No. 68 Ford was penalised a total of 70 seconds towards its total race time for being deemed to have sped in a slow zone and for having faulty wheel speed sensors. Risi's No. 82 Ferrari had twenty seconds added to its total time and fined €5,000 for ignoring multiple black flags with an orange disc that were deployed to instruct the team to rectify a faulty leader light board after Ford CGR filed a protest over the technical problem in the final hour of the event.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Race, Finish
The result of the penalties reduced the No. 68 Ford's margin of victory over the No. 82 Risi Ferrari to 10.2 seconds. American also led LMGTE Am with the Scuderia Corsa's No. 62 Ferrari of Bell, Jeff Segal, and Bill Sweedler edging out the fellow No. 83 Ferrari of AF Corse, driven by Emmanuel Collard, Rui Águas. Perrodo. Al Qubaisi, Long, and David Heinemeier Hansson were third in class for Abu Dhabi-Proton. There were 28 outright lead changes during the race; four cars reached the front of the field. The No. 6 Toyota led thirteen times for 173 laps, more than any other car. The No. 2 Porsche led twelve times for a total of 51 laps.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
The top three finishers in all four categories appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and at their own separate press conferences. Lieb said of the No. 2 Porsche's outright victory, "The last quadruple stint I did was really on the edge. Even the first three stints were quite difficult with overtaking in the traffic and taking risks. In the last one I then also had to save fuel, and especially the front tyres that began to lose performance. I gave everything I had—and now I think I have to digest what all has happened today."


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Kobayashi said Toyota was unhappy to finish in second place, "Unfortunately our second position was not what we wanted. We are here to win so I am not really happy." His co-driver Conway spoke of his mixed feelings over the result, "I have mixed feelings. Second is okay but we are all gutted for car #5. They drove a great race ... It's okay to get one car on the podium but we wanted more."


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Third-placed di Grassi described Audi's race as "horrible" and said the improved competition from Porsche and Toyota would require his team to improve for the rest of the season. "To finish on the podium is a nice reward, but this race [performance] is not Audi, with how many times we went into the garage, how many repairs we had to do, and how much time we spent stopped. We have to improve a lot. We have to beat the others on the track."


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
The mechanical failure of the No. 5 Toyota in the closing minutes overshadowed the event. Toyota team principal Hughes de Chaunac was visibly distraught and tearful over the manufacturer being denied a first Le Mans win. He said, "You cannot accept that three minutes before the flag and just in front of you. You cannot believe it, we are just dreaming, it is so hard to accept it." Jarvis, Jani, Webber, and the head of Audi Motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich expressed their reaction to Toyota.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Following the completion of an initial investigation into the failure five days later, Toyota denied any connection to similar engine problems the cars had at the preceding 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps held the month before. The No. 5 car was not classified in the final result because it completed the last lap in 11 minutes, 53.815 seconds and it scored no championship points. After discussion over the final lap, the ACO announced a new series of rule changes in December 2016 to deal with cars in the final minutes. The standards by which a car is classified have been changed.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
Instead of the mandatory six minutes for the final lap of the race, penalties will be awarded for any lap over six minutes on a gradual scale. Failure to complete the last lap of the race in under fifteen minutes will now lead to a car no longer being classified. Under the 2017 rules, there would have been a ten-lap penalty for the No. 5 car.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race
The result increased Lieb, Jani and Dumas' advantage over the new second-placed trio of Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis in the Drivers' Championship to 39 points. Kobayashi, Conway and Sarrazin's second place finish advance the trio to third position in the standings. Lotterer, Fassler and Treulyer moved to fourth place and Kraihamer, Imperatori and Tuscher's non-finish dropped them to fifth. In the Manufacturers' Championship, Porsche extended their lead over Audi to 38 points and Toyota fell to third position with six races left in the season.


2016 24 Hours of Le Mans, Post-race, Race results
The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 268 laps. Class winners are denoted with bold.


2016 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The 2016 ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring was the 44th running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. It took place over 26–29 May 2016.


2016 24 Hours of Nürburgring
The #4 AMG-Team Black Falcon won the race on a Mercedes-AMG GT3.


2016 24 Hours of Spa
The 2016 Total Spa 24 Hours was the 68th running of the Spa 24 Hours. It was also the fourth round of the 2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and was held on 30 and 31 July at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.


2016 24 Hours of Spa
The race was won by ROWE Racing and drivers Philipp Eng, Maxime Martin and Alexander Sims. The trio's No. 99 BMW M6 GT3 finished just shy of two minutes clear of AKKA ASP and their No. 88 Mercedes-AMG GT3, driven by Felix Rosenqvist, Tristan Vautier and Renger van der Zande. Completing the podium in third place was the No. 28 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS of Nico Müller, René Rast and Laurens Vanthoor, five seconds behind second place.


2016 24H Series
The 2016 24H Series powered by Hankook is the second season of the 24H Series with drivers battling for championship points and titles and the ninth season since Creventic, the organiser and promoter of the series, organises multiple races a year. The races are contested with GT3-spec cars, GT4-spec cars, sports cars, touring cars and 24H-Specials, like silhouette cars. The 24H Silverstone and the 24H Epilog Brno are part of both the 24H Series and the Touring Car Endurance Series, with only touring cars eligible for racing in the English round.


2016 3. divisjon
The 2016 season of the 3. divisjon, the fourth highest association football league for men in Norway.


2016 3. divisjon
Between 22 and 26 games (depending on group size) were played in 12 groups, with 3 points given for wins and 1 for draws. No group winners were promoted to the 2. divisjon; instead the number of teams in the 3. divisjon was harshly reduced to make it a new tier of regional groups. Up to 9 teams from groups of 12 were relegated, making the 2017 4. divisjon the new highest tier of locally constituted groups.


2016 4 Nations Cup
The 2016 4 Nations Cup was a women's ice hockey tournament held in Järvenpää, Kerava, and Vierumäki, Finland. It was the 21st edition of the 4 Nations Cup.


2016 6 Hours of Bahrain
The 2016 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 17–19 November 2016, and served as the ninth and last race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship. The race was won by the #8 Audi R18 of Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis, run by Audi Sport Team Joest.


2016 6 Hours of Bahrain, Qualifying, Qualifying result
– The No. 26 G-Drive Racing all laptimes deleted because of both its front brakes cooling ducts were not fitted with mesh.


2016 6 Hours of Bahrain, Race, Race result
The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of the overall winning car's race distance) was 141 laps. Class winners in bold.


2016 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas
The 2016 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Circuit of the Americas, Austin, USA, on 15–17 September 2016, and served as the sixth round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship season. Porsche's Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber won the race driving the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid car.


2016 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas, Qualifying, Qualifying result
– Only one driver of the No. 26 G-Drive Racing set a lap time.


2016 6 Hours of Fuji
The 2016 6 Hours of Fuji was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Fuji Speedway, Oyama, Japan on 14–16 October 2016, and served as the seventh race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship. Toyota's Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi won the race driving the No. 6 Toyota Gazoo Racing car.


2016 6 Hours of Mexico
The 2016 WEC 6 Hours of Mexico was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico on 1–3 September 2016. The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez round served as the fifth race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship. The race was won by the No. 1 Porsche entered by Porsche Motorsport.


2016 6 Hours of Mexico, Qualifying, Qualifying result
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.


2016 6 Hours of Mexico, Qualifying, Qualifying result
– No. 98 Aston Martin Racing was excluded from qualifying as the ride car's height was 55mm lower.


2016 6 Hours of Mexico, Race, Race result
The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of the overall winning car's race distance) was 161 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The 2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring (formally the WEC 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 24 July 2016. The Nürburgring round served as the fourth race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the second running of the event as part of the championship. A total of 58,000 people spectated the event.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The No. 7 Audi driven by André Lotterer and Marcel Fässler won the pole position by posting the fastest lap in qualifying and Fässler maintained the car's advantage throughout the race's early phase withstanding pressure from Timo Bernhard's No. 1 Porsche. Brendon Hartley took over the lead when both Audi cars had slow pit stops and held it until Marc Lieb in the sister Porsche moved past him, but later lost his advantage because he made a pit stop for dive plane repairs after damaging it while lapping a slower car.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring
Mark Webber held the first position until Neel Jani in the sister No. 2 Porsche drew closer to him and passed him. However Jani was handed a drive-through penalty, giving the lead back to Webber. Bernhard later relieved Webber of his driving duties and held the lead for the remainder of the race to secure the victory. Audi's No. 8 car of Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis finished second and their teammates Lotterer and Fässler took third.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the Signatech Alpine of Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stéphane Richelmi with Ricardo González, Filipe Albuquerque and Bruno Senna in RGR Sport's No. 36 in second. Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) class with Sam Bird and Davide Rigon in the sister No. 71 car second.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring
Bruni took the class lead from Nicki Thiim in the No. 95 Aston Martin Racing car in the race's late period and held on to take his and Calado's first win of the season. The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana after they led the final 48 laps of the race to secure their second victory of the season, ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse of François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring
The result meant Lieb, Jani and Romain Dumas maintained their Drivers' Championship lead with 106 points, 33 ahead of second-place finishers Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis, and a further three in front of Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi. Lotterer and Fässler remained in fourth place and Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher rounded out the top five. Porsche remained in the lead of the Manufacturers' Championship but their advantage over Audi was reduced by two points and Toyota maintained third position with five races left in the season.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entrants
33 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). The 2015 race winners, Porsche, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers, Porsche, Toyota and Audi Sport Team Joest, were represented in LMP1 by two cars each. Rebellion Racing and ByKolles Racing were the two representatives of the LMP1 privateer teams. Audi driver Benoît Tréluyer was forced to miss the race because of a spinal column injury he sustained after falling off his mountain bike in a training exercise.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entrants
Audi chose not to employ a replacement which meant the team's No. 7 car would be driven by his co-drivers Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer as a two-person entry. It was the first World Endurance Championship race Tréluyer missed since he joined the series in 2012. Mathias Beche returned to the sport full-time in the 2016 season, replacing Nelson Piquet Jr. who participated in the year's first three races in Rebellion Racing's No. 12 car.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entrants
LMP2 consisted of 11 cars with 33 drivers in six different types of chassis. Following the departure of Nathanaël Berthon before the start of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Alex Brundle was signed by G-Drive to drive the team's No. 26 Oreca 05 alongside regular drivers Roman Rusinov and René Rast for the remainder of the season.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entrants
Renault Sport Trophy competitor Lewis Williamson made his début appearance in the World Endurance Championship with Strakka Racing in its No. 42 Gibson 015S alongside Nick Leventis and Jonny Kane, replacing Danny Watts who remained part of the team for the rest of the year. Will Stevens was replaced by Antônio Pizzonia in Manor's No. 44 Oreca 05 and partnered regular co-driver Tor Graves. James Jakes was replaced by Manor with Matthew Howson who was selected because of his experience driving the team's car.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entrants
The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field consisted of four manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ford, Ferrari and Porsche), while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants consisted of six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, KCMG, Larbre Compétition, Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing and Gulf Racing. Aston Martin Racing made changes to the driver line-ups in their No. 95 and No. 97 cars. Darren Turner was moved to the No. 97 car alongside Richie Stanaway, while Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen remained in the team's No. 95 vehicle as a two-person crew.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Entrants
The change was made to give Aston Martin an increased chance of winning the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers. Jonathan Adam and Fernando Rees remained under contract with Aston Martin but were not slated to take part in any other races in the year; Adam concentrated on sharing a TF Sport car with Derek Johnson in the British GT Championship. Paolo Ruberti returned to compete in the No. 50 Larbre Compétition car after missing the 24 Hours of Le Mans due to injury.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
The 6 Hours of Nürburgring was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2016 schedule in December 2015 in a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris. It was the fourth of nine scheduled endurance sports car rounds of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and the second running of the event as part of the championship. The race was held on 24 July at the Nürburgring GP-Strecke circuit with two preceding days of practice and qualifying. The Nürburgring GP-Strecke track layout, last modified in 2002, is 5.148 kilometres (3.199 mi) long and is composed of sixteen corners. The 2016 running of the event saw the first usage of the tighter Veedol Chicane in the World Endurance Championship as was previously used in Formula One.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
Before the race Porsche drivers Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas led the Drivers' Championship with 94 points, 39 ahead of their nearest rivals Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis who were a further one in front of third-placed Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin. Lotterer, Fassler and Treulyer were fourth with 35 points and Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher rounded out the top five on 30 points.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
Porsche were leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 127 points, 38 ahead of their nearest rival Audi in second while the third-placed manufacturer Toyota had accumulated 79 points. Porsche had so far dominated the championship, with Audi securing the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps victory. Kobayashi, Conway and Sarrazin had finished second twice, and Kraihmer, Imperatori and Tuscher had secured third-place finishes on two consecutive occasions.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
Several teams made modifications to their cars in preparation for the event. Porsche introduced a third (and final) aerodynamic configuration that produced a large amount of downforce and less drag. It was tested and evaluated in a four-day test session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Most of the car's modifications were covered by its bodywork, giving it a new front-end appearance. Because of the track's short and tight layout, Toyota elected to début an ultra-high downforce specification along with updates to the car's front and rear bodywork developed at the team's wind tunnel at their motor sport headquarters in Cologne.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Background, Preview
In the Balance of Performance adjustments, the Porsche 911 RSR's weight was decreased by 15 kilograms (33 lb) and its engine power was lowered due to the vehicle's air restrictor being reduced in size by two millimetres (0.079 in). The Aston Martin Vantage GTE was equipped with the larger diameter restrictor it ran with at Spa-Francorchamps.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
Three practice sessions—two on Friday and a third on Saturday—were held before the Sunday race. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions lasted 90 minutes; the third, one-hour session was held on Saturday morning. Lap times were not comparable to the previous year's because of the usage of the slower Veedol Chicane. Lieb's No. 2 Porsche led the 90-minute period with a fastest lap time at 1 minute and 41.703 seconds, nearly a twentieth of a second faster than teammate Brendon Hartley in the first Porsche.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
LMP2 was led by Brundle in the No. 26 Manor vehicle with a lap of 1 minute and 50.748 seconds which was recorded late in the session. James Calado in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari was quickest in LMGTE Pro while Pedro Lamy helped Aston Martin Racing to be fastest in LMGTE Am. The session was disrupted when the rear-left suspension on Nicolas Lapierre's No. 36 Signatech Alpine failed and went off into the exit of the turn one gravel trap which prompted the deployment of the full course yellow flag. A red flag was later shown as the race control system continued to show the latter as in operation.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
In the second practice session, which took place in mild weather conditions and was later affected by rain on portions of the track, Mark Webber in the No. 1 Porsche set the fastest lap time of the day at 1 minute and 40.997 seconds twenty minutes in. He finished 0.014 seconds faster than the second-placed Fässler, who, in turn, was 0.125 seconds quicker than his teammate Loïc Duval in third. Dumas' car suffered a front-left brake disc failure, causing him to drive into the turn one barriers and damage the front-end of his car.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
This rendered him unable to take any further part in practice and triggered a full course yellow. Stéphane Richelmi's No. 36 Signatech Alpine led LMP2 early on but Rast ended it as the fastest driver in the class with a time of 1 minute and 48.965 seconds, more than a second faster than Brundle's Strakka car. LMGTE Pro was led by Stanaway in the No. 97 Aston Martin while Rui Águas' No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari was fastest in LMGTE Am. Lamy and David Cheng were summoned by the stewards to race control after the two made contact.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
The third (and final) practice session was delayed three times for 45 minutes from its original start time because foggy weather conditions prevented the medical helicopter from flying. It was initially held on a damp track and some drizzle fell towards the session's end. Cars were equipped with intermediate tyres to start the session before switching to dry slick tyres when the track dried up. Webber set the fastest timed lap at 1 minute and 41.002 seconds with twenty minutes of practice left, and was almost three-tenths of a second faster than Anthony Davidson in Toyota's No. 5 car.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Practice
Duval spun the No. 8 Audi at the second turn late in the session. Rast was the fastest LMP2 driver with a lap of 1 minute and 50.260 seconds in the session's final minute, and was nearly seven-tenths of a second quicker than Graves in Manor's No. 44 car. Gianmaria Bruni recorded the quickest time in LMGTE Pro, driving the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari, while David Heinemeier Hansson in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche was the fastest driver in LMGTE Am, despite spinning in the session's closing minutes.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Friday's afternoon qualification session was divided into two groups that lasted 25 minutes each. Cars in LMGTE Pro and AM were sent out first. 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 and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest average times. The fastest qualifier was awarded one point which went towards the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Light rain fell before qualifying started causing teams to use intermediate tyres on their cars until a dry line emerged on the track and vehicles were equipped with dry-compound tyres. Rain later returned to the track which prevented anyone from improving on their fastest lap times. The session was marked by a battle between Audi and Porsche.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Lotterer in the No. 8 Audi was fastest on the car's first timed lap and remained quickest with an average time of 1 minute and 39.444 seconds to clinch the team's second pole position of the season. The car was joined on the grid's front row by the sister Audi of di Grassi, Jarvis and Duval. Jarvis had his fastest time revoked after spinning at the NGK chicane late in qualifying because he had violated track limits.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Porsche's No. 1 vehicle took third with Webber and Timo Bernhard behind the wheel; Webber was unable to improve on his lap time as he misjudged his braking point and went across the NGK chicane, while Bernard was delayed by LMP2 vehicles on both his laps. They were ahead of the team's second entry, driven by Lieb and Jani, and both Toyota cars took fifth and sixth. Lieb had no hybrid boost on his first lap, and braked early for the chicane on his following attempt.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Davidson attributed his car's position to having one timed lap and being delayed by traffic, while Sébastien Buemi stated this was due to Toyota focusing on the race, compromising their qualifying performance. Sarrazin was unable to push hard because of the damp track. The two Rebellion cars rounded out the LMP1 qualifiers in seventh and ninth; they were separated by the No. 4 ByKolles Racing car of Simon Trummer, Oliver Webb and Pierre Kaffer.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
In LMP2 the No. 26 G-Drive Oreca of Rast and Rusinov took the fastest time at 1 minute and 48,985 seconds, securing the team's fourth consecutive class pole position of the season. The car was 0.743 seconds in front of the second-placed qualifier, the No. 36 Signatech Alpine, driven by Gustavo Menezes and Richelmi. Williamson, in his first World Endurance Championship qualifying session, recorded a time of 1 minute and 49.924 with Kane setting a one-minute and 49.600 seconds circuit for an average lap total of 1 minute and 49.762 seconds.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Thiim and Sørensen, competing in the No. 97 Aston Martin, were the fastest LMGTE Pro qualifiers with a late two-lap average of two minutes and 1.712 seconds which was recorded when the track was at its driest. The No. 66 Ford GT of Stefan Mücke and Olivier Pla was 0.247 seconds off the place and had the class pole until the No. 97 Aston Martin's laps. Stanaway and Turner in the second Aston Martin qualified third in class, ahead of the fourth-placed Bruni and Calado in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying
Bruni had slick dry tyres fitted to his car and went off the track at the Mercedes Arena exit which caused his pit crew to install intermediate tyres. Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing's No. 88 Porsche driven by Patrick Long and Khaled Al Qubaisi took the LMGTE Am pole position with an average time of two minutes and 6.011 seconds in the first qualifying session's closing minutes. The duo were nearly two-tenths of a second ahead of Wolf Henzler's No. 88 KCMG Porsche with Paul Dalla Lana in the No. 97 Aston Martin third.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying, Post-qualifying
Trummer and Ed Brown failed to complete the minimum qualifying times in qualifying but were allowed to take part in the race although they were prohibited from being the starting driver for their respective entries, the No. 4 ByKolles car and the No. 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P2 Nissan.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Qualifying, Qualifying results
Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Weather conditions at the start were sunny and dry. The air temperature was between 20–24 °C (68–75 °F) and the track temperature ranged from 24.5–32 °C (76.1–89.6 °F); weather forecasts predicted conditions would remain consistent with a 20% chance of rain. 58,000 people attended the race. The race started at 13:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) with the three-time Olympic gold medallist skier Maria Höfl-Riesch having the honour of waving the green flag. The No. 7


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Audi maintained its pole position advantage heading into the first turn, with Bernard in Porsche's first car overtaking Audi's No. 8 vehicle around the outside for second place at the second corner. Mücke in the No. 66 Ford GT moved into the LMGTE Pro lead at turn one and Aston Martin's No. 95 car fell to third with the team's No. 97 car moving into second in class while Abu Dhabi-Proton's No. 88 Porsche maintained the LMGTE Am lead. Mücke lost the LMGTE Pro lead at the beginning of lap two when he made an error, allowing both Aston Martin cars to overtake him. The stewards investigated the start but elected to take no further action.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Fässler extended his lead to 1.5 seconds over Jarvis while both Toyota cars were lapping one second slower than the leader's place, and the No. 4 ByKolles car moved in front of Rebellion Racing's No. 13 vehicle. Bernard lost control of his car while lapping one of the Ford GT entrants, allowing Jarvis to close up to him. Bernard attempted to pass Fässler around the outside at turn one for first position but the latter defended his line and narrowly avoided going wide off the track.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
It allowed Jarvis and Jani to again close the gap and made it a four-car battle for first place while lapping slower traffic. Bruni battled Mücke for third in LMGTE Pro and had Harry Tincknell in the second Ford close behind him. Bernard caught Fässler, who was held up by one of the Aston Martin cars in the final turn, and temporarily claimed the lead in the first corner before running wide. Bernhard avoided hitting the KCMG car, allowing the No. 7 Audi to retake the position at the turn's exit.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Jani attempted to move in front by going around the inside of Jarvis, but after driving back onto the racing line heading into the first turn, locked his tyres. This caused Jani to drive straight, and Mücke's front-end made contact with the Porsche's left-rear corner, causing him to spin onto the run-off area.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
In the battle for first Fässler held off another challenge from Bernhard, while Jani rejoined the track in fourth place narrowly ahead of Nakajima in the No. 5 Toyota. The contest for second in LMGTE Pro continued with the top four cars running closely together without any action until Tincknell overtook Bruni around the inside for fourth position at the first corner. The stewards elected not to take any action over the collision between Jani and Mücke at turn one, and Filipe Albuquerque overtook Nicolas Minassian for fifth position in LMP2.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
The first round of lead car pit stops for car adjustments and driver changes commenced after 50 minutes when both Audi cars made pit stops. After the pit stops, Hartley took over the No. 1 Porsche and gained the lead because both Audi entries were delayed by slower cars. Fuel went onto the hot exhaust of the second-placed No. 66 Ford GT in LMGTE Pro which did not have its breather cap closed, causing a flash fire. Andy Priaulx, who had taken over from Tincknell, exited the car and course officials and the team's crew members were required to extinguish the flames. The fire damaged the car's turbocharger, causing Priaulx to run at a reduced pace.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Lieb reported his car had a vibration while Hartley was warned about track limits. The No. 95 Aston Martin continued to lead LMGTE Pro but the team's No. 98 car required a door change after losing one of its wing mirrors, dropping it to sixth. Joël Camathias in KCMG's Porsche was now running at the front of LMGTE Am ahead of the second-placed No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Jarvis closed to eight-tenths of a second behind Hartley until the latter responded by going half a second quicker but later reported his car was loose under braking when entering the track's corners. Hartley lost time through traffic and Jarvis overtook him for the lead at the NGK chicane. Hartley was caught by Lotterer who passed him for second at the first turn. Porsche identified a loss in tyre pressure in Hartley's car and chose to pit him, and Webber climbed aboard the No. 1 car.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Lieb made a pit stop from the lead, handing first and second positions to both Toyota cars. Buemi held it for the next few laps until their stops and ceded it to Webber. Pierre Ragues became the LMGTE Am leader after moving in front of François Perrodo and the KCMG Porsche. The first full course yellow was necessitated when Perrodo spun his car into the NGK chicane gravel trap. Marshals cleaned the track at the ninth and twelfth turns.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
During the full course yellow, Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing's No. 88 car caught fire but the flames were extinguished and it was able to rejoin the event. The race resumed nine minutes later with Webber leading at the restart. Christian Ried overtook Yutaka Yamagishi for the LMGTE Am lead in the first corner before Mathias Lauda claimed the position on the following lap. Brundle drove slowly with a gearbox problem and made a pit stop from the LMP2 lead before being pushed into his garage to retire.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
The overall leaders made pit stops after two hours and 30 minutes which saw the deployment of the second full course yellow when one of the Toyota's dive planes was located in the sixth corner. Racing resumed four minutes later with Jani leading the field, ahead of teammate Bernhard and di Grassi. Jani held a ten-second lead over Bernhard as the race entered its halfway mark and the chance of rain decreased significantly. Webb stopped his car at the outside of the eleventh turn with smoke billowing from his car and retired, prompting the third full course yellow. During the full course yellow, several cars elected to make pit stops for fuel and driver changes.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Racing resumed seven minutes later with Lieb maintaining the No. 2 Porsche's advantage over teammate Hartley. Thiim was overtaken by Bruni for the LMGTE Pro lead, while Hartley reduced the time deficit to teammate Lieb to eleven seconds. The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari was issued with a 20-second time penalty after it was observed speeding in the pit lane during the full course yellow. Toyota's No. 6 car was pushed into the garage to repair a loose engine component.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Sam Bird, driving the No. 71 AF Corse car, went into the turn five gravel trap but recovered to remain in third place in LMGTE Pro. Pizzonia in Manor's No. 44 vehicle passed Leventis's No. 42 Strakka Racing car for third place in LMP2; the latter fell to fifth after he was overtaken by Derani. A fourth full course yellow was triggered when Lieb attempted to lap Kahled Al-Qubaisi in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing car but hit him, sending the latter into the turn six gravel trap. Most of the LMP1 and LMP2 runners made pit stops during the full course yellow. Lieb's front-left dive plane was damaged and required repairs, Audi's No. 7 car had its front bodywork changed and the track was cleaned by marshals.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
The race resumed thirteen minutes later with the No. 1 Porsche driven by Webber leading teammate Jani and Duval. Jani closed the gap to teammate Webber over the next ten minutes. Webber was then instructed by Porsche to allow Jani to move ahead of him because of Jani's faster pace. Jani overtook Webber for the lead at the first corner shortly afterwards. Shortly after, Jani was issued a drive-through penalty for his collision with the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing car and served it four minutes later.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
He was able to catch Duval and attempted to pass him around the outside but the French driver defended his position at the first turn. The two drivers continued to battle, allowing Lotterer to reduce the time distance. Lotterer attempted to overtake Jani around the outside but Jani defended his position, causing Lotterer to run wide and the two made minor contact. Lotterer reduced his speed but caught back up to Jani while moving through slower cars.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Jani was overtaken by Lotterer at the NGK chicane but the duo drove alongside each other in the final turn and Jani reclaimed second position at turn one. Jani's car was hit at its rear-end by a BR01 car at the chicane. Lotterer moved into second by passing Jani in the Mercedes Arena section.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
The fifth (and final) full course yellow was shown to allow marshals to remove the debris from Jani's car. All cars elected to make pit stops during the full course yellow. Bernhard relieved Webber of his driving duties in the No. 1 Porsche and remained the leader at the restart six minutes later. The No. 2 Porsche was shown a black and orange flag, requiring it to make a pit stop for repairs to its left-rear corner, and reemerged in fourth position. Second-placed LMP2 driver Bruno Senna went into gravel and grass but rejoined without any significant damage.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
Throughout the remainder of the event, Bernhard kept the overall lead and took the first victory of the season for the No. 1 Porsche, and its first since the 2015 6 Hours of Shanghai. The No. 8 Audi finished in second, ahead of the team's No. 7 car in third. The No. 36 Signatech Alpine car of Menzes, Lapierre, and Richelmi secured the victory in LMP2, and their third consecutive victory of the year, 16 seconds ahead of second-placed No. 43 RGR Sport car.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race
AF Corse's No. 51 Ferrari in LMGTE Pro clinched its first victory of the season, the first of Calado's career and the 13th for Bruni, followed 47 seconds later by teammates Bird and Rigon in second place by teammates. Upon taking the lead from KCMG and holding it for the last 48 laps, Lamy, Lauda and Dalla Lana clinched Aston Martin's second victory in LMGTE Am, ahead of Perrodo, Collard and Agias in the No. 83 AF Corse car. KCMG's No. 78 Porsche initially finished second but was disqualified when it was discovered that the car's minimum ride height was not compliant with the regulations.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race, Post-race
The top three finishers of each category appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. Bernhard said the victory was "especially sweet" because Porsche's success was "hard fought" and it helped reduce the effect of his teammates poor form in the season's first three races. Hartley stated his satisfaction at finishing as the winner and was pleased with his second stint because the circuit came to his car balance wise.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race, Post-race
Webber spoke of his happiness for Porsche winning their home event, saying "It was an exceptional performance against strong competition", and was content with Porsche's performance. Di Grassi stated: "We can be happy with our second place. We made no mistakes and constantly drove at the limit. When you’re on the front row you’d obviously like to win. But today we were lacking the necessary fortune." Duval said Audi executed "a good performance" in defence but that Porsche were "simply fortunate" in winning the race.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race, Post-race
Jarvis spoke of his feeling the No. 8 Audi's second place was like "a little victory" and after the team's performance at Le Mans it was to be "an interesting season." Fässler said his team was "pleased" to finish in third but planned to perform more strongly in the next race and Lotterer stated Audi worked well as a team and was looking forward to the 6 Hours of Mexico.


2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring, Race, Post-race
The result meant Lieb, Jani and Dumas maintained their lead in the Drivers' Championship with 106 points, 33 ahead of second-place finishers Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis and a further four in front of Kobayashi, Conway and Sarrazin. Third-place finishers Fässler and Lotterer maintained fourth place on 51 points, and the seventh-place drivers Kraihamer, Imperatori and Tuscher remained in fifth position on 36 points. Porsche remained in the lead of the Manufacturers' Championship on 164 points, 35 in front of their nearest rival Audi in second, and a further 32 ahead of Toyota with five races left in the season.


2016 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 136 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.


2016 6 Hours of Shanghai
The 2016 6 Hours of Shanghai was an endurance sports car racing event held at the Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China on 4—6 November 2016, and served as the eighth race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship. Porsche's Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber won the race driving the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid car.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone
The 2016 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 in Northamptonshire, England on 15–17 April 2016. Silverstone served as the opening round of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the fifth running of the event as part of the championship. A total of 52,000 people attended the race weekend.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone
Audi's No. 7 car of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer won the pole position and maintained their advantage on the race's first lap. Lotterer initially pulled away from the field but lost the lead to Mark Webber in Porsche's No. 1 car who remained in the position. Co -driver Brendon Hartley remained in first until he retired following heavy contact with Michael Wainwright in the No. 86 Gulf Racing car.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone
This handed the lead to Neel Jani in the sister No. 2 car, but it switched again to Tréluyer when Jani's co-driver Marc Lieb was delayed by a slower vehicle. Although he was challenged by Lieb after being blocked by slower cars Tréluyer pulled away from him and the No. 7 Audi maintained its advantage over the No. 2 Porsche for the majority of the remainder of the event to finish the race first. However the No. 7


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone
Audi was disqualified when scrutineers discovered that its front skid block was worn out by more than the regulations allowed for, handing the victory to Lieb, Jani and Romain Dumas. Toyota No. 5 drivers Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi finished in second and Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher came in third to secure Rebellion Racing's first podium in the series since 2013.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the No. 43 RGR Sport by Morand car of Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo González. Senna took the lead in the event's closing stages and earned him and Albuquerque their first World Endurance Championship class victories and González's fourth.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone
Sam Bird and Davide Rigon in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari were unchallenged throughout the race and took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class ahead of their teammates Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado in the sister Ferrari who served a three-minute stop-and-go penalty for an engine change after qualifying.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone
The Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was led throughout the final stages by François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas who won their first race of the season in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari with a one-lap advantage over the second-placed No. 98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone
The result meant Lieb, Jani and Dumas became the leaders of the Drivers' Championship with 25 points, seven ahead of their nearest rivals Sarrazin, Conway and Kobayashi, and a further three in front of Kraihamer, Imperatori and Piquet. Their teammates Nico Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Nelson Piquet Jr. were fourth on 12 points with Senna, Albuquerque and González rounding out the top five with ten points. Toyota claimed the Manufacturers' Championship lead with 33 points, eight ahead of their rival Porsche in second; the third-placed manufacturer Audi had scored one point with eight races left in the season.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entrants
Thirty-three cars were officially entered for the 6 Hours of Silverstone with the bulk of the entries in Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) and Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2). The 2015 race winners, Audi Sport Team Joest, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers, Porsche, Toyota and Audi Sport Team Joest, were represented in LMP1 by two cars each. Rebellion Racing and ByKolles Racing were the two representatives of the LMP1 privateer teams.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entrants
Super Formula and Super GT driver James Rossiter returned to sports car racing in the No. 4 Rebellion Racing entry, replacing Pierre Kaffer who had other motor racing commitments for the season's first two races. 2014–15 Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr. took over from Mathias Beche and joined fellow racers Nick Heidfeld and Nico Prost in Rebellion Racing's No. 12 car for the season's first three rounds. LMP2 consisted of 11 cars with 32 drivers in five different types of chassis.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entrants
Manor made its début in the series at Silverstone with a two-car entry, fielding Will Stevens, James Jakes and Tor Graves in its first vehicle, along with Matt Rao, Richard Bradley and Roberto Merhi in the team's second entry. David Markozov was scheduled to take part at Silverstone in the No. 27 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 car but was unable to participate because of family problems.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entrants
The Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) field consisted of four manufacturers (Aston Martin, Ford, Ferrari and Porsche), while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) entrants were six teams: Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse, KCMG, Larbre Compétition, Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing and Gulf Racing. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing entered the series, fielding two full-time Ford GT vehicles driven by Andy Priaulx, Marino Franchitti, Harry Tincknell in its No. 67 entry and Olivier Pla, Stefan Mücke and Billy Johnson behind the wheel of the No. 66 car.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Entrants
Patrick Long was committed to participating in the Pirelli World Challenge event on the Streets of Long Beach and was replaced by Klaus Bachler in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, joining the team's regular drivers David Heinemeier Hansson and Khaled Al Qubaisi. Gulf Racing made their first appearance in the series with 2008–09 A1 Grand Prix driver Adam Carroll, Porsche Supercup podium finisher Ben Barker and the team's co-founder Michael Wainwright.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Preview
The 6 Hours of Silverstone was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship's 2016 schedule in December 2015 at a meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris. It was the first of nine scheduled endurance sports car rounds of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and the fifth running of the event as part of the championship. The race was held on 17 April 2016 at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England with two preceding days of practice and qualifying. The Silverstone Circuit is a race track that is 5.891 kilometres (3.660 mi) long and is composed of 18 corners in varying degrees of sharpness, ranging from gentle sweeping turns to one sharp hairpin.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Preview
Heading into the new season, co-defending World Endurance champion Mark Webber stated Porsche's performance advantage over their two main rivals could possibly disappear at Silverstone but felt the team could successfully retain the drivers' and manufacturers' titles. He said his team's expectations were ambitious. Although Webber was aware of the tight opposition he was confident that Porsche could fight well: "We have a very stable concept, let’s say, so it’s very well known for us. We of course want to aim for another win at Le Mans and win the championships, so the goals are very, very high."


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Background, Preview
Audi No. 8 co-driver Lucas di Grassi believed that Toyota's new chassis, the TS050 Hybrid, would allow its drivers to run at the front of the field after they experienced a difficult 2015 season: "I expect them to make a big step, because they have changed the engine and the hybrid system. They are a good team, they won the championship in 2014. They will be strong."


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
Three practice sessions—two on Friday and a third on Saturday—were scheduled to run before the Sunday race. The Friday morning and afternoon sessions lasted 90 minutes; the third, one-hour session was held on Saturday morning. The first session was held on a wet track from earlier morning rain and lap times reduced as the 90-minute period progressed due to the track drying out. No incidents were reported.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
Timo Bernhard in the No. 1 Porsche led the practice session in its final minutes with a lap time of 1 minute and 42.182 seconds, eight-tenths of a second faster than Marc Lieb in the sister entry. René Rast in G-Drive Racing's No. 26 Oreca 05 Nissan led LMP2 with a fastest lap of 1 minute and 51.617 seconds set in the session's final 15 minutes. The No. 51 AF Corse car driven by Gianmaria Bruni was fastest in LMGTE Pro while Rui Águas in the sister team's No. 83 entry helped the Italian marque to be the fastest vehicle in LMGTE Am.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
In the second practice session, which took place in dry weather conditions for most of the 90-minute period and became wet when rain fell in the closing stages which prevented any drivers from improving on their fastest times, Brendon Hartley in Porsche's No. 1 car set an early lap time of 1 minute and 39.655 seconds which remained the fastest time for the remainder of the session. He was 1.6 seconds quicker than Romain Dumas in the team's No. 2 entry, who in turn, was two-tenths of a second faster than Loïc Duval in the No. 8 Audi.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
A LMGTE car impacted Dumas, causing him to spin into the turn seven gravel trap, and sustained damage to his car's right-rear tyre, causing the deployment of a full course yellow flag. He was extracted from the gravel trap and drove back to the pit lane for car repairs. Jonny Kane in the No. 36 Signatech Alpine was the fastest driver in LMP2 with a 1-minute and 49.632 seconds set lap in the session's closing minutes, nearly one-tenth of a second in front of Jakes. LMGTE Pro was led by James Calado in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, while Carroll's Gulf Racing car was fastest in LMGTE Am, despite driving off the track in the session's closing minutes.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
The third (and final) practice session started with a morning sleet shower and Anthony Davidson in Toyota's No. 5 entry drove off the circuit at Luffield turn. Davidson later aquaplaned backwards off the track and into the Chapel corner gravel trap. The session was stopped to allow the stricken Toyota to be extracted from the gravel trap and it was able to return to the pit lane with assistance from a recovery crane, allowing on-track action to recommence. Sleet later turned to snow necessitating track officials to stop the session for the second time.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Practice
Driver adviser Yannick Dalmas was asked to assess the track's condition during the stoppage and gave feedback that prompted the session's premature end with half an hour remaining. Eleven cars took to the track but nobody recorded a timed lap. Tincknell completed the most out-laps of any driver in the session with three.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
Saturday's late afternoon qualification session was divided into two groups lasting 25 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 and the starting order was determined by the competitor's fastest average times. The fastest qualifier was awarded one point which went towards the Drivers' and Manufacturers' Championships. The session started on a wet track but dried out as it progressed.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
André Lotterer and Marcel Fässler in the No. 7 Audi clinched the vehicle's first pole position of the season, and the team's first since the 2013 6 Hours of Fuji, with an average lap time of 1 minute and 53.204 seconds. Manor's No. 44 car made contact with Fässler at the end of the session but both vehicles sustained no apparent damage. It also ended Porsche's streak of 11 consecutive pole positions, extending back to the 2014 6 Hours of Shanghai.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
They were joined on the grid's front row by the team's No. 8 sister entry. Di Grassi recorded the fastest qualifying timed lap late in the session but went off the track heading into Vale corner while attempting to go faster. He went into the turn's gravel trap, preventing him from achieving the pole position. The two Porsche cars were third and fourth (the No. 1 vehicle in front of the No. 2 entry). Hartley was delayed by slower traffic on his final timed lap and believed he could have improved on his time.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
Toyota's entrants had unsuitable car control settings and a different vehicle set-up, restricting to them to qualifying on the grid's third row (their No. 5 car ahead of the No. 6 entry). Oliver Webb and Rossiter in the ByKolles Racing CLM P1/01 and the two Rebellion Racing cars rounded out the LMP1 field; Rebellion elected not to record any lap times.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
In LMP2, Rast used intermediate tyres before making a pit stop for full wet tyres and recorded a lap time of 2 minutes and 7.374 seconds which gave him and co-driver Roman Rusinov a pole-setting two-lap average time of two minutes and 8.479 seconds. The two drivers were 1.1 seconds faster than the second-place class qualifier, the No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P2 of Pipo Derani and Chris Cumming. Derani set the category's fastest individual lap which was 0.059 second's faster than Rast.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
The No. 43 RGR Sport team qualified in third with both SMP Racing cars rounding out the top five LMP2 qualifiers. Sam Bird and Davide Rigon, competing in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari, were the fastest LMGTE Pro drivers with a two-lap average time of 2 minutes and 12.440 seconds. They qualified 1.3 seconds in front of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen in Dempsey-Proton Racing's No. 77 Porsche. Mücke and Pla in Ford Chip Ganassi Racing's No. 66 car took third despite Pla going into the Stowe corner gravel trap late in the session.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying
Their sister No. 67 GT and the KCMG Porsche rounded out the top five class qualifiers. Calado recorded a time of 2 minutes and 11.589 seconds, and, after Bruni got into the car, he was unable to record a lap time and returned to a pit lane with an engine bay technical issue and started from the back of the overall field. Bachler and Khaled Al Qubaisi took the pole position in LMGTE Am, their first in the series, 2.297 seconds ahead of the second-place qualifier, KCMG's No. 78 car. Paolo Ruberti in Larbre Competition's No. 50 Chevrolet Corvette C7.R held the class pole position in the early part of the session but the team fell to third following the handover to co-driver Yutaka Yamagishi.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Qualifying, Qualifying results
Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Weather conditions at the start of the event were dry and sunny. The air temperature throughout the race was between 8.4 to 11.5 °C (47.1 to 52.7 °F) with a track temperature ranging from 6.6 to 14.5 °C (43.9 to 58.1 °F); although conditions were expected to remain consistent throughout the race,  the possibility of a late rain shower was forecast. 52,000 people attended the race weekend. The race began at 12:00 British Summer Time (UTC+01:00) with actor Patrick Dempsey having the honour of waving the green flag. Lotterer maintained his pole position advantage going into the first corner.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Jarvis behind him held second place, but came under pressure from Webber. Derani immediately attacked Rusinov and moved to the lead of LMP2 after overtaking him under braking at Brooklands corner. Sébastien Buemi overtook Toyota teammate Mike Conway to move into fifth place but the latter retook the position three minutes later. Webber set the race's fastest lap so far, at one minute and 30.309 seconds, to run one second behind Jarvis. Jarvis was delayed by a slower car and Webber passed him for second. Jarvis then fended off a challenge from Dumas for third. Lotterer used the battle to increase his advantage to five seconds while Stevens and Vitaly Petrov impacted each other while battling for fifth in LMP2.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Buemi moved back ahead of Conway in the battle for fifth, while Lotterer was impeded by an LMP2 and LMGTE car at Becketts corner and Webber was delayed by the two vehicles at Stowe corner. Jarvis came across the two slower cars at Copse corner and narrowly held off an overtaking manoeuvre from Dumas. The Audi moved across the track at Becketts corner upon coming across more slower traffic. Webber caught Lotterer and after closing up to him through Club corner. While lapping Rossiter, Webber moved to the front of the race heading into Abbey corner.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Webber began to pull away from Lotterer. Jarvis was delayed by Rossiter, allowing Dumas to attack but went into grass on the Wellington straight. After making contact Bruno Senna overtook Rusinov driving into Maggots corner for second place in LMP2. The first round of pit stops began after 37 minutes with Derani making a pit stop, promoting Senna into the LMP2 lead. Jarvis was the first of the overall leaders to make a pit stop for fuel and tyres and was followed by teammate Lotterer one minute later. Dumas and both Toyota cars made stops with Jani taking over from Dumas and Kamui Kobayashi switched positions with Conway. Webber stopped one lap later and Hartley climbed aboard the No. 1 Porsche.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
After the pit stops Hartley remained the leader in the No. 1 Porsche while Jarvis moved in front of Lotterer because the latter had a longer pit stop. Cumming lost control of the No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier driving into Club corner after encountering a LMGTE Ferrari, went across grass, and spun at the turn's center, allowing Rusinov to move into the lead of LMP2 and Ricardo González took over second.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
The LMGTE field began making pit stops after 52 minutes when Darren Turner drove the No. 95 Aston Martin into his pit box while Fernando Rees in the sister No. 97 car was issued with a stop-and-go penalty for exceeding track limits. Both Ford cars moved into second and third in LMGTE Pro when the No. 77 Porsche had only fuel placed inside it. Turner overtook Priaulx for fourth place in LMGTE Pro while Christensen moved ahead of Mücke for second position in the category at Stowe corner.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Merhi went wide at Copse corner, which allowed Nelson Panciatici to take advantage, and he overtook Merhi for fifth in LMP2. Kane passed González to move into second in the category. Panciatici heavily out-braked Cumming to claim fourth place while Piquet lost control of his car in an attempt to overtake the defensive Rossiter who kept eighth position.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
While coming across the Piquet and Rossiter battle Lotterer moved in front of teammate Jarvis to claim second place. Rusinov entered the pit lane from the LMP2 lead for left-rear bodywork repairs and Rast was handed the No. 26 Oreca. Piquet was able to pass Rossiter for eighth position overall while Turner moved ahead of the other Ford car to run in third in LMGTE Pro. The second round of pit stops began one minute later when Jarvis entered the pit lane and the remainder of the LMP1 field followed in response for driver changes.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Benoît Tréluyer pushed hard and lost control of his car's back-end at Vale corner, allowing Jani to move into second position. Christensen's right-front tyre was punctured at Becketts corner and he made a pit stop for a replacement wheel which promoted Turner to second in the class. After changing drivers in the No. 42 Strakka Racing Gibson, Danny Watts overtook González at Brooklands corner for second position in LMP2. Hartley went to the outside of Wainwright driving through Farm Curve and his car's right-front quarter made contact with Wainwright's left-rear section.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Hartley went over the bonnet of the No. 86 Porsche but avoided flipping over; both cars went off the track, skidding across the gravel trap, and into the barriers at the end of the Complex. Both Hartley and Wainwright retired and a full course yellow flag was necessitated to allow the cars to be extracted from the track.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
The incident allowed Jani to move into the lead but di Grassi stopped at Farm Curve with a motor generator unit problem shortly afterwards. His team's mechanics were allowed to tend to the Audi after travelling via a course car, extending the full course yellow as it was tended to. Di Grassi's race ended prematurely and a mechanic used a fire extinguisher to extinguish smoke bellowing from his car. The race resumed after 23 minutes with Tréluyer attacking Lieb.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Upon being delayed by the No. 13 Rebellion Racing car, Tréluyer overtook Lieb to move into the lead on the approach to Maggots corner and pulled away on the Hangar straight. Rast stopped at the entrance of Maggots corner with a fuel pump pressure failure, causing him to lose the LMP2 lead to Watts and rejoined in third place in class. Rast recovered and passed Senna for second in LMP2 by using the grass at Stowe corner. Tréluyer was blocked by slower traffic allowing Lieb to close up to him on the Wellington straight. Lieb could not overtake because he was delayed by a pack of LMP2 cars. Meanwhile, Rast closed up to Watts and overtook him to retake the LMP2 lead. Tréluyer and Lieb ran closely between each other before the former pulled away from Lieb.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Another round of green flag pit stops commenced after three hours and eight minutes with Tréluyer being the first of the leaders to stop with both Toyota cars following two minutes later. The safety car was deployed when Nakajima's right-front tyre failed on the Wellington straight following contact with a LMGTE car and debris from his Toyota was littered on the track. Nakajima pulled over to the side of the circuit at Brooklands corner and stopped. Marshals were required to remove on-track debris.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
The safety car drove into the pit lane 12 minutes later and racing resumed with Tréluyer remaining in first and Lieb second. Nakajima's car was transported back into his garage for repairs. Dumas turned into Franchitti's Ford and half-spun into the grass at Club corner, losing more than ten seconds to Tréluyer. Dumas was then forced wide onto the Woodcote corner run-off area by Rao and Rees overtook Franchitti for fifth in LMGTE Pro.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
After serving an earlier three-minute stop-and-go penalty for changing the car's engine Calado was running third in LMGTE Pro while Buemi drove the No. 5 Toyota back onto the circuit after his car was repaired. Tréluyer made a pit stop for fuel and tyres with Fässler taking over the No. 7 car. Fässler was followed by Lieb making a pit stop from the lead and handed his driving duties over to Jani. Fässler thus retook the lead with a nine-second advantage.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Fässler extended his lead to 13 seconds when Jani was delayed by a Porsche LMGTE car at Brooklands corner. Jani was able to reduce the time deficit to ten seconds before Fässler made a pit stop for new tyres by recording the fastest lap of the race in response, at one minute and 30.303 seconds. Jani made his pit stop for new tyres with over a minute lead with Fässler retaking the first position. After five minutes Jani's front-right tyre was punctured, necessitating an unscheduled pit stop to change the wheel, and for extra fuel.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Fässler made his final scheduled pit stop for fuel to reach the end of the race and remained in the lead with a seven-second lead over Jani. Bachler suffered a front-right suspension issue on his car. Smoke bellowed out of the back of Richie Stanaway's Aston Martin heading into Copse corner and the car retired. Joël Camathias took over the LMGTE Am lead but slowed with a car problem and returned slowly to the pit lane, allowing the No. 83 AF Corse into first place.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Pantanici lost sixth place in LMP2 to Merhi at the loop and Rast moved into third in category at Copse corner. The final stops began when Bruni made a stop, followed by Filipe Albuquerque who gained the LMP2 lead from co-driver Senna earlier on. Both Jani and Kobayashi stopped for fuel, enabling the pair to reach the end of the race.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
Nicolas Lapierre sustained a puncture on his car in the final lap, allowing Strakka Racing to inherit fourth place. Unhindered in the final 35 minutes Fässler was the first driver to finish the race, 47 seconds ahead of Jani in second place, and Kobayashi followed in third position in the No. 6 Toyota. Albuquerque maintained his advantage to take the victory in LMP2, earning him and Senna their first World Endurance Championship class victories and González's fourth.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race
They were followed by the No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorspors Ligier of Ryan Dalziel, Derani and Cumming 32 seconds later, with Rusinov, Nathanaël Berthon and Rast's No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca completing the class podium with all three cars on the same lap as each other. The No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari of Bird and Rigon were unchallenged throughout the race and clinched their first victory of the season, in front of teammates Bruni and Calado, with Turner, Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen in the No. 95 Aston Martin rounding out the LMGTE Pro podium positions. In LMGTE Am, François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Agias led the final half hour to secure their team's first win of the year in the category with a one-lap advantage over Aston Martin's No. 95 entry of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
The top three drivers of each racing class appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and in a later press conference. Lotterer was delighted over his team's performance, saying at this early stage of the season, Audi were "amazed" they were able to finish as the winners, but felt they were lucky because of Hartley's crash. Fässler said it had been "a riveting race" and the slower traffic made it more unpredictable. Tréluyer described the win as "the best way to open a season as you can imagine."


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
Jani felt he would have had a possibility to challenge for the victory had he not been delayed by his late-race puncture. Dumas was satisfied with his early race battle with Jarvis and revealed that Porsche's target was to remain with their rivals. Sarrazin stated although his team still need improvements they were already closer than they had been the previous season and they were motivated to battle at the front of the field.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
Conway said the team's result was "a cool way to start the year" but had not been easy because Toyota still needed to work on their car's pace to get closer to their opposition. Kobayashi said his first race in LMP1 was "a positive start" and was excited about the No. 6 car's development.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
Hartley was reprimanded by the stewards because he was deemed responsible for causing the crash between himself and Wainwright. He said that he felt "very upset for the team" but praised his car and Webber for his first (and only) stint. Hartley revealed that he did not feel pressure because of his large advantage upfront but did not apportion blame for the accident, calling it "a shocking moment and it is a true shame." Wainwright apportioned blame on Hartley for causing the incident, saying he was not aware the latter was near him until the crash occurred.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
He spoke of his feeling that Hartley was attempting to pass him and move across the track to rejoin onto the racing line for the next turn. His co-driver Carroll observed the incident and stated Hartley had not left enough space as was seen on television. He said it was "a very unfortunate accident and one that definitely could have been avoided. Definitely not our fault." All three of Audi's No. 8 car drivers were disappointed over their retirement from a hybrid system failure but Jarvis was optimistic for the next race.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
Shortly after the race, the No. 7 Audi was disqualified when scrutineers discovered that the car's front skid block had been worn out by more than the permitted amount of 5 millimetres (0.20 in). The team offered an explanation to the stewards about the issue but it was rejected. Audi announced early on 18 April that they would appeal the decision, meaning the race result would remain provisional until the appeal was settled. Three days later, the team chose to drop their appeal following analysis of the problem that revealed the car was subjected to unexpected vertical movements.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
The head of Audi Sport, Wolfgang Ullrich, said the decision was made in the best interests of the championship and hoped the season's remaining races would be as "similarly thrilling as the season opener." The No. 7 Audi's disqualification meant Lieb, Jani and Dumas took their first victory of the season with Sarrazin, Conway and Kobayashi promoted to second, and Rebellion Racing's No. 13 car of Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher inherited third, the team's first podium in the series since the 2013 6 Hours of Fuji.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Post-race
As this was the first race of the season, Lieb, Jani and Dumas became the leaders of the Drivers' Championship with 25 points each, seven points ahead of their nearest rivals Sarrazin, Conway and Kobayashi, and a further three in front of Kraihamer, Imperatori and Tuscher. Heidfeld, Prost and Piquet were fourth on twelve points, with Senna, Albuquerque and González rounding out the top five with ten points. Toyota were leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 33 points, eight ahead of their rival Porsche in second; the third-placed manufacturer Audi had scored one point with eight races left in the season.


2016 6 Hours of Silverstone, Race, Race result
The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 136 laps. Class winners are denoted in bold.


2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The 2016 WEC 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 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium on 5–7 May 2016. Spa-Francorchamps served as the second race of the 2016 FIA World Endurance Championship, and was the fifth running of the event as part of the championship. A total of 56,000 people attended the race.


2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The No. 1 Porsche of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley started from pole position and held the race's overall lead until the No. 5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima gained it after the first pit stop phase after electing not to change tyres. He held it until smoke billowed from his engine, causing him to return to his garage for repairs.


2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
Audi's No. 8 car of Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and Loïc Duval inherited the lead which they maintained for the remainder of the race to secure the team's first victory of the season. Porsche's first car, driven by the eventual Drivers' Champions, Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and  Marc Lieb finished second, and the No. 13 Rebellion Racing car of Dominik Kraihamer, Alexandre Imperatori and Mathéo Tuscher came in third. It was Jarvis's and di Grassi's first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship.


2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the Signatech Alpine driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi. Lapierre took the lead in the closing stages of the race after passing No. 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports driver Pipo Derani which earned Menezes and Richelmi their first LMP2 class victories in the World Endurance Championship.


2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
Sam Bird and Davide Rigon in the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari took the victory in the Le Mans Grand Tourer Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) class with a one-lap advantage over second-placed No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team drivers Andy Priaulx, Marino Franchitti and Harry Tincknell.


2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The Le Mans Grand Tourer Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was led for most of the final hour by the No. 98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda and held it to clinch victory in the class, ahead of the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Águas.


2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The result meant Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas maintained their Drivers' Championship lead with 43 points, 15 ahead of third-place finishers Kraihamer, Imperatori and Tuscher, and a further point in front of race winners Duval, di Grassi and Jarvis. Nick Heidfeld, Nico Prost and Nelson Piquet Jr. retained fourth place and Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin rounded out the top five. Porsche increased its lead in the Manufacturers' Championship on 56 points, 13 in front of their nearest rival Toyota in second, and a further two ahead of Audi with seven races left in the season.


2016 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Entrants
34 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 2015 race winners, Audi Team Joest Racing, returned to defend their title. Three manufacturers were represented in LMP1, including a pair of cars entered by Porsche, Toyota and Audi who all elected not to included a third car at this year's race. Rebellion Racing and ByKolles Racing were the two representatives of the LMP1 privateer teams.