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Edition

Australia

Petit Le Mans: WTR Cadillac snatches win on final lap

Renger van der Zande’s Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R passed Action Express Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque with two corners to go to win Petit Le Mans, as the latter's car died of fuel starvation.

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi, P: Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor, Ryan Hunter-Reay celebrate in victory lane

#10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi, P: Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor, Ryan Hunter-Reay celebrate in victory lane

Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Prototype

The final stops for several Prototype teams looked too far from the end to make it without a splash-and-dash, and so it proved.

ESM Nissan’s Pipo Derani vaulted into the lead on the penultimate stop, and even survived a stall after his final stop to retain the lead, but he was having to back-pedal on fuel and fell victim to Albuquerque in the closing stages before stopping for a splash and dash.

Van Der Zande, however, had stopped later than his rivals and kept the pressure on Albuquerque who gambled on staying out but had his Cadillac cough three corners from the end.

Thus Van Der Zande, who co-drove with Jordan Taylor and Ryan Hunter-Reay, dived past to snatch WTR’s first win of the season.

Such was Albuquerque’s fuel issues that the two Mazda RT24-Ps of Oliver Jarvis/Tristan Nunez/Lucas Di Grassi and Jonathan Bomarito/Spencer Pigot/Marino Franchitti swept past to claim a double podium – Mazda Team Joest’s best result of the year.

Following Helio Castroneves’ drive-through penalty for passng under yellow, Ricky Taylor salvaged fifth for Acura Team Penske, ahead of Derani.

CORE autosport’s Colin Braun was another to have to make a late splash-and-dash, thereby losing out on the championship to the other AXR team of Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran, who shared with Gabby Chaves.

GT Le Mans

Remarkably, Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen became class champions despite never winning a race, despite finishing two laps down in the #3 corvette they shared with Marcel Fassler.

Ryan Briscoe/Richard Westbrook looked to be in the pound seats in second behind the Porsche 911 RSR of Nick Tandy, but Briscoe was passed out of the pits by the #4 Corvette of Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Fassler and later fell behind the two BMW M8s and could only salvage fifth.

Tandy, Frederic Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet not only showed exceptional pace to deservedly take the class win, Tandy also showed an amazing ability to feather-foot on fuel despite stopping earlier than his competitors before the final stint and still win by 11sec over the #4 Corvette.

GT Daytona

Daniel Serra, Cooper MacNeil and Gunnar Jeannette won their class in the WeatherTech Scuderia Corsa Ferrari 488 despite intense pressure from the Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX of Alvaro Parente, Katherine Legge and Trent Hindman, who needed to win to have a real chance of GTD championship.

What put the kaibosh on that plan was a typically perfect drive by Bryan Sellers, along with Madison Snow and Corey Lewis in the Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan which came into this finale six points ahead of Legge and finished third to secure the title.

Robert Renauer had helped Patrick Long and Christina Nielsen take the lead, but got a drive-through penalty for punting the lead Ferrari, resulting in fourth place, with a late pass on Townsend Bell’s Scuderia Corsa Ferrari.

The Land Motorsport Audi R8 was sixth despite two punctures, otherwise it would likely have won, given the pace of Christopher Mies, Daniel Morad, Sheldon van der Linde throughout.

Race results:

Pos. Class Num Driver Chassis Laps Gap
1 P 10 United States Jordan Taylor 
United States Ryan Hunter-Reay 
Netherlands Renger van der Zande 
Cadillac DPi 443 -
2 P 77 Brazil Lucas di Grassi 
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis 
United States Tristan Nunez 
Mazda DPi 443 5.306
3 P 55 United States Spencer Pigot 
United States Jonathan Bomarito 
United Kingdom Marino Franchitti 
Mazda DPi 443 7.605
4 P 5 Brazil Christian Fittipaldi 
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque 
France Tristan Vautier 
Cadillac DPi 443 9.458
5 P 7 Brazil Helio Castroneves 
United States Graham Rahal 
United States Ricky Taylor 
Acura DPi 443 30.450
6 P 22 Germany Timo Bernhard 
Brazil Pipo Derani 
United States Johannes van Overbeek 
Nissan DPi 443 45.065
7 P 54 France Romain Dumas 
United States Jon Bennett 
United States Colin Braun 
ORECA LMP2 443 56.543
8 P 31 United States Eric Curran 
Colombia Gabby Chaves 
Brazil Felipe Nasr 
Cadillac DPi 442 1 Lap
9 P 85 Switzerland Simon Trummer 
United States Robert Alon 
Canada Devlin DeFrancesco 
ORECA LMP2 441 2 Laps
10 P 99 Canada Mikhail Goikhberg 
United States Chris Miller 
South Africa Stephen Simpson 
ORECA LMP2 435 8 Laps
11 P 2 United States Scott Sharp 
United Kingdom Ryan Dalziel 
France Norman Nato 
Nissan DPi 433 10 Laps
12 GTLM 911 United Kingdom Nick Tandy 
France Patrick Pilet 
France Frédéric Makowiecki 
Porsche 911 RSR 419 24 Laps
13 GTLM 4 Switzerland Marcel Fassler 
United Kingdom Oliver Gavin 
United States Tommy Milner 
Corvette C7.R 419 24 Laps
14 GTLM 24 United States John Edwards 
Finland Jesse Krohn 
Australia Chaz Mostert 
BMW M8 GTE 419 24 Laps
15 GTLM 25 United States Bill Auberlen 
United States Connor de Phillippi 
United Kingdom Alexander Sims 
BMW M8 GTE 419 24 Laps
16 GTLM 67 Australia Ryan Briscoe 
New Zealand Scott Dixon 
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook 
Ford GT 419 24 Laps
17 GTLM 912 New Zealand Earl Bamber 
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor 
France Mathieu Jaminet 
Porsche 911 RSR 419 24 Laps
18 GTLM 66 France Sébastien Bourdais 
United States Joey Hand 
Germany Dirk Muller 
Ford GT 418 25 Laps
19 GTLM 3 Denmark Jan Magnussen 
Switzerland Marcel Fassler 
Spain Antonio Garcia 
Corvette C7.R 417 26 Laps
20 GTLM 62 Finland Toni Vilander 
Italy Andrea Bertolini 
Spain Miguel Molina 
Ferrari 488 GTE 416 27 Laps
21 GTD 63 Brazil Daniel Serra 
United States Cooper MacNeil 
United States Gunnar Jeannette 
Ferrari 488 GT3 407 36 Laps
22 GTD 86 Portugal Alvaro Parente 
United Kingdom Katherine Legge 
United States Trent Hindman 
Acura NSX GT3 407 36 Laps
23 GTD 48 United States Corey Lewis 
United States Bryan Sellers 
United States Madison Snow 
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 406 37 Laps
24 GTD 58 United States Patrick Long 
Denmark Christina Nielsen 
Germany Robert Renauer 
Porsche 911 GT3 R 406 37 Laps
25 GTD 64 Italy Matteo Cressoni 
United States Townsend Bell 
United States Frankie Montecalvo 
Ferrari 488 GT3 406 37 Laps
26 GTD 29 Canada Daniel Morad 
Germany Christopher Mies 
South Africa Sheldon Van Der Linde 
Audi R8 LMS GT3 406 37 Laps
27 GTD 71 Germany Maximilian Buhk 
JC Perez 
Felipe Fraga 
Mercedes-AMG GT3 406 37 Laps
28 GTD 33 Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen 
United States Ben Keating 
Germany Luca Stolz 
Mercedes-AMG GT3 405 38 Laps
29 GTD 44 United States Andy Lally 
United States Andrew Davis 
United States John Potter 
Audi R8 LMS GT3 405 38 Laps
30 GTD 15 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson 
United Kingdom Jack Hawksworth 
United States Sean Rayhall 
Lexus RC F GT3 399 44 Laps
31 P 52 Mexico Jose Gutierrez 
Colombia Sebastian Saavedra 
United States Will Owen 
ORECA LMP2 367 76 Laps
32 P 6 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya 
France Simon Pagenaud 
United States Dane Cameron 
Acura DPi 310 133 Laps
33 GTD 14 Canada Kyle Marcelli 
Austria Dominik Baumann 
Switzerland Philipp Frommenwiler 
Lexus RC F GT3 226 217 Laps
34 P 38 United States James French 
United States Nicholas Boulle 
Kyle Masson 
ORECA LMP2 204 239 Laps
35 GTD 93 United States Justin Marks 
United States Lawson Aschenbach 
Germany Mario Farnbacher 
Acura NSX GT3 186 257 Laps
36 GTD 73 Germany Wolf Henzler 
United States Tim Pappas 
United States Spencer Pumpelly 
Porsche 911 GT3 R 122 321 Laps
37 GTD 96 United States Don Yount 
Finland Markus Palttala 
United States Dillon Machavern 
BMW M6 GT3 68 375 Laps

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Edition

Australia