Allan McNish saw his FIA World Endurance Championship lead reduced when the Scotsman placed second in the São Paulo Six Hours today (SUN) as Audi claimed a dominant one-two result.
Dumfries-born McNish plus co-drivers Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval brought their hybrid-diesel Audi R18 e-tron quattro home three-laps behind the winning “sister” Audi of Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Tréluyer (F).
A loose wheel and two resulting pit stop infringements dashed any hopes of a third WEC race win for the McNish/Kristensen/Duval Audi.
The Anglo-Danish-French “combo” now have a 22-point lead at the midway stage of the eight-race WEC having scored two wins (Silverstone and Le Mans) and two seconds (Spa and Brazil).
“I made a good start and was pulling away from the ‘sister’ Audi but the race then turned on its head for us,” commented McNish who finished third in the corresponding race last year.
“Tom was delayed by a slow car during a full course caution which allowed the ‘sister’ Audi to leapfrog us then Loïc had a wheel problem before incurring two pit-stop penalties which effectively put us out of contention.
“After that we were on a recovery drive to score as many points as possible towards the championship.”
Competing for the first time since winning the Le Mans 24 Hours for a third time 10 weeks ago, McNish started from second position on the 28-car grid but grabbed the lead at the green light.
However co-driver Kristensen was delayed by a slower car exiting the pits as he tried to catch the “train” of cars after taking over from the Scotsman with almost 90mins gone during a near one-hour Safety Car period dropping the McNish/Kristensen/Duval Audi to second place.
Duval lay 30secs off the lead Audi shortly after mid-distance but had reduced the deficit before a wheel, misaligned at a pit-stop moments earlier, came off resulting in the Frenchman having to complete almost an entire lap on three wheels costing almost two laps before pitting.
McNish, who drove the final 40mins of the race, added: “Congratulations must go to Audi. Twelve months ago in the corresponding race we [Audi] had a difficult race but the team’s hard work paid off this time around in terms of the speed and consistency the R18 e-tron quattro has now.”
The R18 of defending WEC champions Fässler/Lotterer/ Tréluyer had started today’s Six Hour race staged on the 2.676-mile Autódromo de Interlagos from pole-position in front of a crowd of almost 40,000. They remain second in this year’s standings, their “pole” and victory bringing them eight-points closer to the championship leaders.
The fifth round of the series is staged at the Circuit Of The Americas in Austin, Texas, on 22 September.
Source : Allan McNish