2012 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps
The 2012 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was a six-hour automobile endurance race for two or three driver teams in Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium on 5 May 2012 before 31,000 people. It was the second round of eight in the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship, featuring the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro), and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) classes. Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish shared the pole position in a hybrid Audi R18 e-tron quattro after McNish was fastest overall in qualifying. Kristensen led the first two laps before being passed on the third by the sister team of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer. The trio led the race until they were passed by a non-hybrid Audi R18 ultra shared by Romain Dumas, Loïc Duval and Marc Gené, which they maintained for the final 96 laps to win outright and move Dumas and Duval to the lead of the World Endurance Drivers' Championship and keep Audi atop the LMP1 Manufacturers' World Championship. Fässler, Lotterer, and Tréluyer finished 46.801 seconds behind in second place, and the second Audi R18 ultra, driven by Marco Bonanomi and Oliver Jarvis, finished one lap behind in third place. The LMP2 category was won by Jota's Zytek Z11SN-Nissan car of Simon Dolan and Sam Hancock, who took the lead in the final three laps from the ADR-Delta team of Tor Graves, Robbie Kerr and John Martin, who made a late race pit stop for fuel and finished 6.378 seconds behind the Jota entry to take the lead of the Endurance Trophy For LMP2 Teams. Brendon Hartley, Warren Hughes and Jody Firth were third in class in a Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03-Nissan car. Porsche won the LMGTE Pro category with a Porsche 997 GT3-RSR shared by Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz, holding off a late race challenge from an AF Corse-fielded Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 of Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella by 0.628 seconds to tie AF Corse on points in the Endurance Trophy For LMGTE Pro Teams. IMSA Performance Matmut's Porsche of Nicolas Armindo, Raymond Narac and Anthony Pons led all but four laps in LMGTE Am, while Team Felbermayr-Proton's Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda and Paolo Ruberti finished second to extend their lead in the Endurance Trophy For LMGTE Am Teams. Background The 2012 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps was confirmed as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship season at the FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in New Delhi on 7 December 2011. It was the second of eight scheduled rounds of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship and the race's debut appearance in the series. The event was held at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium on 5 May 2012. Before the race, Audi Sport Team Joest drivers Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen