Audi Sport managed to pull off their second straight victory at Circuit of the Americas Saturday in FIA World Endurance Championship racing. The No. 2 Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer managed to hold off their teammates, Loic Duval., Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi in the No. 1 Audi for the win.
The race began with the No. 8 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi taking a near 30-second lead after qualifying first. The two Porsche 919s followed in tow, with the Audis following behind. The R18s wouldn’t find their way around the Porsches until 45 minutes after the green flag had flown, but thanks to a double stint from Lotterer and Duval, the Audis found their way around the No. 7 Toyota of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway as well.
Porsche had its chances at winning robbed from them when rain fell hard just past the 90-minute mark. The No. 20 919 of Timo Bernhard, Marc Webber and Andrew Hartley aquaplaned and nearly took out Nicolas Lapierre in the No. 8 Toyota. Many other teams also spun and ended up in the gravel after sticking with slicks during the rain period, which brought out a red flag.
After the restart, Porsche thrived in the wet and the No. 14 919 managed to pull out a 30-second lead on the Audis. However as the track dried, the No. 2 R18 managed to reel the Porsche back in and lead the final laps of the race. Drivers of the No. 14 Porsche, Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb, tried to hold off Audi’s second entry, but were ultimately passed by both the No. 2 Audi and Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota, moving Porsche off the podium.
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