Fanboost: more than just a gimmick?

Snorts of derision greeted the announcement that the FIA Formula E championship would be awarding a 5-second ‘power boost’ at every race to the three drivers who received the most fan votes on social media. ‘How could any racing series dictated by a popularity contest possibly hope be taken seriously?’ asked the sceptics. 

Even those prepared to accept the mid-race car swap – a corollary of the limitations of current technology – were apprehensive. Would unprecedented involvement from the fans in deciding the outcome instead achieve the opposite effect and detract from the winner’s achievement? Could the system be corrupted by teams with larger marketing budgets? Certainly, Fanboost would have a lot of burning questions to answer.

So how then did Fanboost go from being used as a stick to beat the series with to an established part of the furniture in such a short period of time? And was it a coincidence that Formula E’s inaugural champion – NEXTEV TCR’s Nelson Piquet Jr. – also won the most Fanboosts?

Modest beginnings

Fanboost didn’t exactly set the world alight at the inaugural race in Beijing. Although Lucas di Grassi won – thanks to the final corner altercation between Nico Prost and Nick Heidfeld – concerns over energy management meant he didn’t use his allotted boost. It was a similar story for Katherine Legge, who finished 15^th, while Bruno Senna didn’t get beyond the first lap after brushing the wall.

di Grassi won in Beijing, but didn't use his allotted Fanboost (FIA Formula E).

Having had no bearing on the outcome of the race in China, Fanboost usage was made compulsory for the second round in Putrajaya, where we saw the first fan-assisted overtake. Fittingly for such a pivotal moment in the series’ short history, it assisted Senna’s move on Prost for fourth, although the Brazilian would later crash out. Heidfeld was also awarded Fanboost – the German’s first of three on the trot – after a fan’s initiative to help recover the points lost at Beijing. The luckless Venturi driver was thwarted by a robust move from Franck Montagny – later banned for failing a random drugs test – but would recover to finish in the top ten at Punta del Este and Buenos Aires.  

Championship newcomers Jean-Eric Vergne and Salvador Duran were Fanboost winners in Uruguay, alongside Heidfeld. With a point to prove after being dropped by the Toro Rosso Formula One team, Vergne blitzed qualifying to take pole position, but showed his inexperience with energy management as he was forced to pit early. That handed Sebastien Buemi a lead he would hold to the finish, while Vergne retired from second with broken suspension. The Frenchman’s impressive showing helped convince fans to reward him with Fanboost at the next four races, peaking with a second at Long Beach.

Evolution

As the regular frontrunners began to establish themselves, voting trends gradually began to shift away from popular underdogs Legge and Duran to the genuine contenders, with Piquet, Vergne and Malaysia winner Sam Bird winning the Fanboost for round six at Long Beach.

Piquet was a hit with the fans in season one (FIA Formula E).

Piquet had gone firmly under the radar in pre-season, but marked himself out as one to watch with a strong race in Putrajaya – until Jarno Trulli’s untimely intervention broke his suspension – and two podiums on the bounce in South America. Following a fifth place in Miami, Piquet was brimming with confidence at the circuit where his father had won in Formula One 35 years before and leapt from third to the lead at turn one on the opening lap. From thereon he was never challenged, taking his first win of the season, although his dominance effectively rendered the Fanboost void.

The twisty confines of Monaco demonstrated a further, more strategic use of Fanboost. Once again Vergne came out on top in the social media ballot, but didn’t help his cause by qualifying deep in the field, leaving himself vulnerable to any first lap fracas – a common by-product of the principality’s very narrow streets. Sure enough, Daniel Abt was squeezed into the wall in turn two and rammed from behind by Senna, leaving the cars following behind nowhere to go. With broken suspension, Vergne did well just to make it back to the pits, but knowing his chances of completing the race with the usable energy remaining in his second car were next to naught, decided to change tact and used his Fanboost to set Fastest Lap.

This didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the field. At the following two rounds in Berlin and Moscow, first Piquet, then Buemi opted to use their Fanboosts to secure the two additional points on offer for Fastest Lap, rather than save them for an overtaking opportunity. With a just five points between the two championship contenders coming into the final race in London’s Battersea Park – another circuit where overtaking opportunities would be at a premium – both men would have Fanboost, setting up a fascinating duel for Fastest Lap. 

Buemi missed out on the title in London, but the Swiss was the
one smiling when he returned to Beijing (FIA Formula E).

Buemi held the initial advantage, before his time was bettered by Oliver Turvey – another Fanboost winner – and again by Bird. Piquet put in a lap just 0.057 slower than the Virgin driver with two laps to go, but with Buemi stuck behind Senna and powerless to improve, seventh was enough to deliver him the title by a single point.

Assessing impact

Of the 35 that competed in Formula E’s inaugural season, a total of 12 different drivers won Fanboost, two of whom – Turvey and Sakon Yamamoto – appeared only in London. Of those 12, Piquet enjoyed the greatest success with Fanboost, winning two of the six races he was eligible to use it, yet he would more than likely have won both regardless. Mercifully, Fanboost was not so overbearing that those without it could not compete – race-winners Antonio Felix da Costa, Prost and Jerome d’Ambrosio didn’t win a Fanboost between them all season, while all three of Buemi’s wins came without Fanboost assistance – but achieved what it originally set out to by involving the fans in a way no other series can offer, without damaging the integrity of the racing.

A minor facelift for Season Two sees more usable energy available in race-trim – up from 150kW to 170kW – and the introduction of in-race voting until six minutes in. Fanboost winners can now access an additional 100kJ of energy from the battery within a power window of 180kW to 200kW after changing over to their second cars, although with races set to be marginally elongated, its usage will require careful consideration.  

Much like the series that adopted it, perceptions of Fanboost have come a long way in the last 12 months. What could be next in Formula E’s little box of tricks?

Jota's misfortune sees Greaves take European Le Mans Series crown

On a difficult day for Jota Sport, second place proved to be enough for Jon Lancaster, Bjorn Wirdheim and Gary Hirsch to wrap up the 2015 European Le Mans Series for Greaves Motorsport as TDS by Thiriet took victory in a frantic final round at Estoril. Needing to win to keep their title hopes alive, Ludovic Badey and Pierre Thiriet – ably supported by new-signing Nicolas Lapierre – did everything that was required of them in changeable conditions, but knew from the start that their destiny was not in their own hands due to problems suffered at Paul Ricard.

Greaves celebrated second like never before at Estoril - it was
enough to give them the ELMS crown (Nick Dungan).

Starting tenth after Greaves' fastest qualifying time was deleted, Wirdheim had climbed to fifth by the end of lap one, taking full advantage of the slightly damp conditions which caused Tracy Krohn, Leo Roussell and James Winslow to all spin on cold tyres at the first corner. By the time Hirsch climbed aboard, he was third, which would soon become second when Jota’s Simon Dolan, running on slicks, fell victim to a heavy rain storm and floated off the road at Turn Two, losing a lap while he was recovered from the gravel.

Until that point, all looked to be going to plan for Jota. Local man Filipe Albuquerque earned the team an additional point for qualifying on pole and pulled out a half-minute lead over the chasing AF Racing BR01 of Victor Shaytar, who inherited second when Badey ran wide through the gravel at Turn Three. Despite struggling to fire up the Gibson when pulling away from the pits, Dolan was comfortably leading when the rain hit. Almost as swiftly as it came, the rain soon disappeared, but that was little consolation for the luckless Dolan, who now had an enormous mountain to climb.

Shaytar now led from Hirsch and Thiriet, with David Markozov in fourth and Dolan fifth. Thiriet was the first of the lead bunch to pit and switch back to slicks, which proved to be an inspired call, as the fresh rubber vaulted Lapierre into the lead while Greaves and Jota struggled on with intermediates that were on their last legs.

Harry Tincknell took over from Dolan for the final stint, but suffered an even longer delay restarting the car after the stop. With the red mist descending, the fired-up Brit stalked fourth-placed Nicolas Minassian and set the race’s fastest lap before gallantly pursuing Mikhail Aleshin, but the chase had taken the best from his tyres and could progress no further. With no more rain forthcoming, there would be no late surprises.

All went to plan for Jota at the start, but it wasn't to last (Nick Dungan).

None that would change the destiny of the championship, anyway. Despite having to serve a stop-go penalty when Hirsch was adjudged to have released his belts too early, Lancaster was able to resume with a comfortable gap over Aleshin and Tincknell and brought the car home to scenes of jubilation in the Greaves pit, eventually finishing two points ahead of TDS and four ahead of Jota.

Jota’s valiant fightback could only yield fourth place, leaving them to rue the 17 points lost for overrunning Albuquerque’s maximum drive time at Paul Ricard, while AF Racing brought their second car home fifth ahead of the Eurasia Motorsport Oreca 03R following oil pressure problems for Murphy Prototypes.

Elsewhere, a bold tyre gamble from Marc VDS payed dividends as the Belgian squad collected an emotional win in their final outing in GTE. Starting from the rear of the grid, Henry Hassid managed to evade the first corner chaos and moved into an early fourth place, remaining firmly in touch with the lead group headed by Rory Butcher’s JMW Ferrari until Andy Prialux took over at the first round of pitstops. As conditions deteriorated, Marc VDS kept Prialux out on slicks, which proved to be the right call as the track soon began to dry, leapfrogging the BMW Z4 – also in its final race before the M6 model is introduced next year – ahead of the wet-shod Beechdean Aston Martin of British GT champion Andrew Howard.

JMW had gone for a similar approach, but with the less experienced Rob Smith now at the wheel, Prialux was closing rapidly when a second shower hit, bringing both in. VDS took the opportunity to insert Jesse Krohn, who continued the pursuit of Smith until the Ferrari cried enough, transmission problems bringing James Calado to a grinding halt on his outlap.

Marc VDS made the best of the challenging conditions to take a farewell win (Nick Dungan).

JMW’s misfortune opened the door for Howard, Jonny Adam and Alex Macdowall to take a strong second place on their ELMS debuts, while Mike Wainwright, Phil Keen and Adam Carroll made their first podium visit since their victory at Silverstone in the Gulf Racing Porsche.  

Matt Griffin, Duncan Cameron and Aaron Scott were just too far back to influence proceedings in fourth, while a 20-second stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane couldn’t prevent Formula Racing’s Mikkel Mac, Johnny Laursen and Andrea Rizzoli wrapping up the title.

TDS enjoyed a double success at Estoril as Franck Perera, Eric Dermont and Dino Lunardi the GTC championship with a second place finish. The BMW enjoyed a terrific early battle for the lead with Salih Yoluc in the TF Sport Aston Martin – which had led in the early stages with Briton Euan Hankey – but served a stop-go for improving their times under yellow flags, eventually allowing Giorgio Roda, Marco Cioci and Ilya Melnikov through to win in their no. 63 AF Corse Ferrari.

With the championship already wrapped up by Charlie Robertson and Sir Chris Hoy at Paul Ricard, there wasn’t much to play for in LMP3, but Gaetan Paletou and Mike Simpson showed their pace at Paul Ricard was no flash in the pan with a first win of the season in the sister LNT Ginetta. Despite spinning on the warmup lap, the Graf Racing Ligier of Eric Troulliet, Thomas Accary and Britain’s Garry Findlay finished second on debut, with Robertson and Hoy completing the podium in third.

Butcher’s learning curve continues in Estoril

Rory Butcher is looking for further progress in Estoril after an impressive debut showing in the European Le Mans Series with JMW Motorsport at Paul Ricard. The British GT race-winner, who will share this weekend with Rob Smith and Ferrari factory driver James Calado, was delighted with a podium finish on his first outing in GTE, having worked his way past the struggling Porsches of Adam Carroll and Marco Mapelli in the closing stages, but knows he still has much to learn.

“I’d only done about eight laps in the car at Snetterton at the start of August and only received the news that I was going to be in the car about a week before the event, so it was quite exciting,” said the Silver-rated Scotsman, who had team-regular Jonny Cocker alongside to help bring him up to speed.

Butcher impressed on his debut at Paul Ricard (JWM Motorsport).

“It was my first time at Paul Ricard and I really enjoyed it, I really connected with the team and the car. JMW are a really professional squad and they prepare a very quick car, we just slogged it out all the way through the race and the team managed to put me in a position where I could secure a podium in that last stint. Credit to the engineers too because I only had 50 minutes to do on my stint so I knew I could push to that end, anything over that you’re going to be struggling with degradation and I could see the Porsches were struggling for tyre grip.

“It was a really nice feeling to prove that I could hold my own amongst that field, I really want to expand and do as much as I can to establish myself in Europe.”

Butcher recently added a tenth overall on his first start in the Blancpain Endurance Series, but found the step-up to GTE and multi-class racing an altogether different – and slightly addictive – proposition.  

“It was quite interesting,” he laughs. “The LMP2s were unbelievably quick cornering-wise and it could be a little bit frustrating in a straight line because coming onto the Mistral straight, they would initially pull away from you, but about 260 clicks you’d start to catch them back up and you would have to decide whether to pass them or back off and sit behind because they’re so much quicker through the corners. 

"Interesting," was British GT regilar Butcher's description of multi-class racing (JMW Motorsport)

"There would be moments when you would look in your mirrors and there would be nothing there, and you would arrive at the apex of turn nine and there’s an LMP2 up on the kerb shoving you wide! It’s just about managing that and being smart, knowing when to hold them behind you and when to let them by.

“I really enjoyed it, the car has more grip, mainly mechanical but also aero as well; it was nice to be able to carry more speed in towards the apex of the corners. It’s just a more thoroughbred racing car compared to the GT3 and it was quite refreshing not having ABS as well, I enjoyed going back to my roots which are all about having technique and feel for what the car is doing.”

JMW go into the season finale with a mathematical chance of the GTE championship, but with a 24-point deficit to make up, they will need to win with Formula Racing #60, Marc VDS #52, AF Corse #55 and Proton Competition #88 all failing to finish.

Mikkel Mac, Jonny Laursen and Andrea Rizzoli are overwhelming favourites following their Safety Car-assisted win in Paul Ricard, but will be mindful of the final-round heartbreak which befell season-long leaders Duncan Cameron and Matt Griffin last season, handing SMP racing the crown. In short, there is everything still to play for.

Tincknell: It’s all in our hands

Harry Tincknell is confident that the Jota Sport team will have enough in hand over the competition to seal the European Le Mans Series title at Estoril this weekend, despite the team’s setback at Paul Ricard.

In one fell swoop, Jota not only lost their hard-won victory to a post-race penalty applied for overrunning Filipe Albuquerque’s drive time, but gifted maximum points to their chief title rivals Greaves, who now go into the final round at Estoril just one point behind. 

This weekend is now-or-never time in Jota's ELMS title challenge (Jota Sport).

With TDS suffering brake problems at Paul Ricard, the French squad need a large slice of luck to fall their way at Estoril, effectively rendering the title battle a head-to-head showdown between the Jota and Greaves squads. But despite having won only once this season at the Red Bull Ring, the Jota-Gibson package has finished on the podium at every round, and it is this relentless consistency which Tincknell believes will give them the edge.

“The pole lap was probably one of the best I’ve ever done, we absolutely nailed the strategy in the race and I was just cruising around at the end thinking about what I was going to say on the podium, so it was obviously gutting to get the penalty; it was an honest mistake and definitely by leaving Filipe out it hindered us rather than helped us, but rules are rules,” he said.

“It’s a shame that we won’t go to Estoril with an 18 point lead, but we still go in there leading the championship, so it’s all in our hands and it’s a track that we know well. I think before we could finish fifth and win the championship whereas now we have to beat the other cars, but Estoril is a good track for us, we tested there at the start of the year and did well there last year, so there’s no reason why we can’t. It’s been a fantastic year for us, we’ve been on the podium every race, so we’ve just got to go and finish it off now, we’ve got one more race and we’ll see what happens.”

23-year-old Tincknell, who is also on Nissan’s factory roster and made his GT racing debut in the Blancpain Endurance Series at the Nurburgring, is open to the possibility of continuing with the team next year, but wants to end the season on a high if it does turn out to be their last together.

Albuquerque, Tincknell and Dolan hope to add to their
victory in Austria at the ELMS finale this weekend (Jota Sport).

“All of last year we were playing catch-up when we crashed out of the first race, whereas this year we’ve been really consistent, which has been massively important. I think along with Greaves and TDS we’ve been the stand-outs of the season, although the SMP cars have been getting stronger, so it will be interesting in the race.

“It’s been a fantastic championship and I’ve loved every second of it, I’m really enjoying driving with Jota and hopefully we can continue next season. We obviously won Le Mans last year which is the pinnacle of LMP2 racing and just missed out on the championship, so hopefully we can put that right this year – in two seasons to be a Le Mans winner and an ELMS champion would be absolutely awesome and it’s everything the team deserves. But we’ve just got to forget all that, it’s a one race shootout at Estoril, we’ve got to qualify well and get the race sorted.”

Lamborghini’s California Kid: Andrew Palmer

It’s easy to imagine that you’re talking with someone much older than his years when in the company of Andrew Palmer. Despite his relatively limited experience, having only made his car racing debut at the 2013 Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final at Vallelunga (incidentally, he won it), the Californian 21-year-old has quickly established himself as one of America’s brightest young talents, winning a race and finishing fifth overall in the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge before making the leap across the Atlantic as part of Lamborghini’s factory roster in the Blancpain Endurance Series for 2015, where he won first time out at Monza.

Palmer has impressed in his first season in Europe with Lamborghini (Xynamic).

Next up is this weekend’s Petit Le Mans, which could see Palmer complete a remarkable season by sealing the North American Endurance Cup, having won both the season opening Daytona 24 and Sebring 12 Hours – his first experience of driving a prototype – before adding a second at the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen in the no. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports LMPC he shares with Mike Guasch and Tom Kimber-Smith. Although the CORE Autosport machine shared by Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and James Gue enjoy a commanding 12 point advantage over Guasch and Kimber-Smith in the regular points after victory at COTA, they must overturn a three-point deficit to add the Endurance Cup, with a possible 15 points available over the 10 hours.

“We’ll try to close it out at Atlanta but it will be really tough, so we can only hope for the best and just keep doing what we’ve been doing the whole season,” Palmer said. “The US has been really good to me this season – the whole deal only came together at the last minute, about two weeks before Daytona happened, so to win both [Daytona and Sebring] was really awesome. We rode that high into Monza and after getting the win there I was just pinching myself, thinking ‘what’s going on? Why are we winning so much?’ That’s a good problem to have I guess!”

There isn’t much comparable between the Chevrolet V8-powered Oreca FLM09 and GT3-spec Lamborghini Huracan, but Palmer believes the experience of driving both – in addition to learning the European circuits for the first time – will ultimately prove beneficial to his development.

“At the end of the day, they all have a steering wheel, a gas pedal and four wheels on the road, so there are definitely transferrable skills from one car to the other,” he says. “I love the prototype but I also really love the Lambo; I’m still a student at university and that’s like the ultimate ice-breaker into a conversation, although I try not to mention it straight away! Of course all the cars over here are fantastic to drive, but somehow it doesn’t carry as much weight as saying ‘I race for Lamborghini’ because it’s such a recognisable brand.

Palmer believes GT cars are reaching prototype levels of development (Xynamic).

“I think we’re seeing more and more GT cars approaching prototype levels of development, whether it be the chassis, the aero components – this car has been in the wind tunnel for hours and hours at Dallara – so every car you drive teaches you something new. The level of technology that every type of class is using is stepping up, so it’s really helpful to run both classes. It’s cool to walk both worlds, not too Americans get to do that, so it’s fun to fly the Stars and Stripes over here.”

The ultimate dream however, remains the Le Mans 24 Hours, a race Palmer admits to having watched since childhood. With the Lamborghini not homologated for Le Mans, Palmer’s route to La Sarthe is as yet unclear, but he’s optimistic that 2016 will present an opportunity of some form.

“I think probably starting when I was ten, we always had it on in the house and the same with Daytona, so it was great to go to this big event I had been a fan of as a child and win," he says. "I would love to have the same feeling at Le Mans, but I’m not sure exactly what route we’re going to take to get there.

“There’s not a lot of Americans who get to have that opportunity, so even getting there would be a great accomplishment. I think 2017 is going to be a golden year in the United States for manufacturer involvement, so anything we do next year to position ourselves well for those opportunities we have to pursue.”

Teams respond to proposed Blancpain GT changes

Reaction among team owners was largely positive following Stephane Ratel’s raft of proposed changes for the 2016 Blancpain GT season, outlined in a press conference at the Nurburgring last weekend. 

In response to concerns that the better-funded teams were gaining an unfair advantage by refuelling more quickly and not having to change their brakes, Ratel announced a minimum pitstop time, sought to address the worrying decline in entries to the Blancpain Sprint Series with revised calendar of five races and an increased cash pot to be distributed among more teams than ever before, and launched an Intercontinental GT Challenge for 2016 - comprising Bathurst, COTA, Spa and Sepang - to give the teams much food for thought heading into the off-season.

JRM are looking to add more cars to the grid in 2015, such as the Always Evolving
entry, which qualified third at the Nurburgring (Always Evolving Performance).

JRM Partnership manager James Walters was wholly supportive of plans to reduce the Sprint Series calendar from seven to five rounds, with Grand Prix venues Hungaroring and Barcelona replacing the little-loved Nogaro and Moscow rounds.

“I’m quite happy that there’s been a reduction in the Sprint Series, ten rounds is good and the move to better circuits is definitely a big plus. For teams that are maybe just looking at Sprint it might look like a small calendar, but for us it’s better to focus on a couple less races and then have a better testing programme,” said Walters. “Especially coming from the side of the manufacturer, we want to attract more young drivers in regularly, so having less commitment on races means we can run more driver coaching programmes and get new prospects in, so I’m pretty happy with it.

“I also think it makes a lot of sense to standardise the classes in Sprint and Endurance. We’re looking at adding an Am car to the full season programme for next season and it was going to be a bit tricky before with the Cup, Pro-Am and Silver in Sprint, so the introduction of a Bronze-Bronze category will help.”

M-Sport team manager Matt Wilson similarly welcomed the alterations to the calendar, but cautioned that levelling the playing field will be no easy fix.

The Bentley Continental GT3 is by no means the lightest
car out there - which affects brake wear (Bentley Motors).

“I think it’s really positive, obviously the Sprint Series was suffering a little bit so losing the smaller circuits like Nogaro can only a good thing,” he said. “And the Intercontinental Cup which doesn’t have a full name looks really interesting; obviously we’ve done Bathurst before, we’re planning to go to Sepang and Spa we’ve done, so on the whole it’s very interesting, the calendar looks really strong.

“The BOP question is a really difficult one to answer; if you look at how close all the manufacturers were to each other at Spa, it was fantastic, but you’ve got some cars that take much less fuel than others and others that can run 150 kilos lighter which is going to be easier on it’s brakes. It’s an interesting preposition, but trying to balance them is probably an even bigger job than trying to balance them on track.”

SRO also announced that Pirelli would take on the tyre contract for the 2016 British GT championship, replacing long-serving suppliers Avon. Whilst Barwell Motorsport boss Mark Lemmer remains unconvinced that his team will extend themselves to a full Sprint campaign alongside prior commitments in the British GT and Endurance championships, he approved of SRO moving to a single tyre supplier across both series.

“We’re very happy in many respects because it reduces our testing costs,” said Lemmer. “The only thing that would change slightly is going from an extremely durable Avon tyre to a slightly more regular-life tyre means we would probably have to increase the number of tyres we use in British GT, which will increase the budgets slightly, but it makes sense on a lot of levels and should make life a lot more straight-forward.

Bartrum (pictured with Liam Griffin, left), was sorry
to see Avon go (Motorbase Performance).

Not everyone was entirely happy however. Motorbase Performance Team Principal David Bartrum was disappointed with the decision to split with Avon, but praised Ratel for listening to the team’s concerns.  

“It does make sense in a lot of ways because if you’re using Pirellis in Blancpain and Avon in British GT, you’re more likely to make a mistake and take a British GT tyre to a Blancpain round – but I’ve got a lot of time for Avon, they work really well with the teams and deserve great recognition for that. They’ve refined their business to a local championship in the UK and they did a good job with it, so it’s an absolute travesty that they won’t be there in future,” said Bartrum, who also runs a successful touring car team.

“I think the gulf has opened up in the teams within Pro, which he has identified, and Pro-Am a little bit as well. They’ve identified that some teams have got a lot more money to spend on their fuel rigs and on their brakes, which will keep the series alive,” he continued. 

“If you don’t let people like Ahmad [al-Harthy] and the Silver-Bronze guys get a result, or feel like they’re getting somewhere, then they’ll be driven away from the series and you’re left with a load of manufacturers, so it’s very important that they do make these changes and they keep it balanced and realistic - rather than futuristic and up in the sky somewhere!”

Osborne believes the move to a single tyre supplier
will mean a better deal for GT racing (Xynamic).

Drivers view: Joe Osborne, Triple Eight Race Engineering

“It works both ways, I’ve been in British GT for nine years so I’ve known Avon a long time and they’re top guys, but I think for the greater community of GT racing it’s better to have a uniform tyre, so teams can jump in and out of the series and know what setup to go for. The Pirelli is probably the better Pro tyre but the Avon is very good for gents, so there’s not all positives but when you look at the bigger picture it’s a better deal for GT racing.”

Von Ryan win in strategy masterclass as Nissan take the title

Von Ryan Racing played a strategic blinder to deliver Kevin Estre, Shane Van Gisbergen and Rob Bell their second win of the 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series season in the final round at the Nurburgring, as Alex Buncombe, Wolfgang Reip and Katsumasa Chiyo collected the Pro Cup title with a steely drive to third. 

The McLaren's cause was helped substantially when the Safety Car was sent out following a heavy shunt for Harold Primat's HTP Bentley just inside their pit window. Gambling that Estre would be able to make it to the end without exceeding his maximum driving time of 1hr 10 minutes, Von Ryan called van Gisbergen in at the first opportunity while the race leaders trailed behind the Safety Car, which had mistakenly waved Reip past. 

Estre takes the flag for Von Ryan's second win of 2015 (Olivier Beroud).

Amid the confusion, Estre was able to catch back up to the field, who with the exception of Maxime Soulet and Yelmer Buurman pitted en-mass on the following lap. Once the final round of stops had cycled through, Estre promptly found himself in a comfortable lead, which just as at Silverstone, the Frenchman would successfully manage to the finish. 

“The pace was good, but basically without the strategy we wouldn’t have won,” he admitted after starting a lowly 24th. “The team did a magic job behind the monitor, we had the opportunity to win and we took it.  

“You can’t do more than one hour ten minutes in a stint [without exceeding the maximum drive time] and we took a big risk there pitting, but the guys at Von Ryan did a good job to calculate this and knew exactly when we could pit. Everybody else had to do another lap, and during this lap I had to drive fast to catch up to the Safety Car, which is where we made the gap."

After a sterling final pitstop from the  M-Sport crew, the no. 7 Bentley of Steven Kane, Andy Meyrick and Guy Smith emerged from the pits in a net third, and set about chasing Buncombe, while Reip retreated to his hire car, too nervous to watch.

Third place yielded the 2015 Pro Cup title for Buncombe, Riep and Chiyo (Olivier Beroud).

Needing to win the race with RJN finishing third to snatch the title from their grasp, Kane pursued Buncombe relentlessly for lap after lap, and finally seized his chance when the Nissan was delayed lapping Oliver Bryant’s Ecurie Ecosse BMW. Kane stuck his nose down the inside into Turn Three, nudging Buncombe wide and allowing him to edge past around the outside of four, but any hopes of setting off after Estre were soon put on ice when the stewards ordered that he let the Nissan back past. 

A fired-up Kane - who also set the race's fastest lap - didn't take long to get back to second again with Buncombe's tyres now long past their best, but there were simply not enough laps to make any inroads on the McLaren.

“Guy and Andy gave me the car in a good position, but it was difficult to get past the Nissan because it was very quick on the straights," Kane said. "I thought I got past fairly with the first one but obviously I didn’t so I had to do it again, and it was a bit too late to catch up to Kevin. I just want to thank the team for giving us a great car all year and to Andy and Guy for driving well all year.”

For his part, Buncombe felt the move was fair, but in the end it was largely academic. Despite being baulked by Sascha Bottemanne  allowing Laurens Vanthoor to close right in, Buncombe was able to bring home third place and with it, the championship - mission accomplished.

“It was a tough stint, probably the hardest of my career I would say," he said. "As soon as I came out of the pits, just in front of Steven, I knew the Bentley was going to be fast, so I just tried to push as hard as I could in the first five to ten laps. We know our car is not the kindest on its rubber and that was the case again today, I was really struggling with the car towards the end of the stint, but we had a really fair fight."

Despite his best efforts, Kane ran out of laps to catch Estre (Olivier Beroud).

Vanthoor would have to make do with fourth, ahead of the charging second Bentley of Andy Soucek, who came back from a drive-through penalty for pitlane speeding to pass the pole-sitting Lamborghini of Giovanni Venturini and Christopher Mies in the Sainteloc Audi.

Eighth place was scant reward for a strong run by the Always Evolving Nissan crew, which had led throughout the first hour after a cracking start from Craig Dolby. With Adrian Zaugg inadvertently acting as a rear-gunner by holding up a train of eight cars, Dolby was able to pull out a commanding nine second advantage before the intervention of the Safety Car to retrieve Garry Kondakov from the gravel trap wiped out his lead. 

After the first stops, Sean Walkinshaw found himself shuffled back to fourth, but had battled his way past Robin Frijns and showed genuine race-winning pace before losing more ground in the final pitstops, a clash with Stephane Ortelli hardly helping their cause. Dolby was disappointed to miss out on a podium, but proud of his efforts all the same. 

“Definitely we should have been closer to the podium but there’s some races you win, some races you lose, that’s just motorsport," said the pragmatic Dolby. "It is what it is. I think the positives are a lot bigger than the negatives today and even though I’m a bit down right now, I think when I watch the race back tomorrow I’ll be proud of myself and proud of what we’ve done as a team. Today has been a big step forward and we've shown that we can fight for race wins if we can get all the little bits right. I've got to be happy with that."

Dolby (far left) charged into the lead on the first lap, but the
Always Evolving Nissan wouldn't stay there (Olivier Beroud).

Using the same strategy as Von Ryan, the Emil Frey Racing Jaguar took a popular maiden win in Pro-Am by just 0.3 seconds. Fredy Barth, Lorenz Frey and Gabriele Gardel were made to sweat however, as newly-crowned Pro-Am champion Duncan Cameron's reluctance to be lapped almost allowed Cedric Sbirrazzouli's sister no. 52 AF Corse Ferrari to snatch victory on the final lap. 

“It was four years of hard work, tears and joy sometimes, but more tears than joy, but I think now we have tears of joy,” said Barth.

“I don’t understand why he would decide to block me on those last three corners, I think the blue flags were waving and he just turned in on me, we could have lost the position so that was unfortunate, but in the end I could finish and this was the best result we can have,” said Gardel. “I was not going to make it easy to pass, especially in the last three corners - he would have to go over me to pass me!”

Having worked their way to the lead in Pro-Am at the half-way mark after strong stints from Michael Broniszewski and Alessandro Bonacini, Kessel Racing looked to be in the pound seat with Michael Lyons to come, but found themselves outmanoeuvred in the pits and had to work their way back from sixth to third. Early leader Maro Engel's Black Falcon Mercedes was similarly affected and finished seventh in class. 

GT racing debutant Harry Tincknell (right, with Al Buncombe) was punted
into the pitwall by Morgan Moulin-Traffort after a sudden loss of power
left the Ferrari with nowhere to go (Olivier Beroud).

“Driving-wise the first stint went really well, the car was good and I made up a fair bit of ground, so the Safety Car was a real shame - I’m not sure if it was quite necessary because we do have a Full-Course Yellow procedure," said the German. “We were able to still hold onto second with Oliver [Morley], but then I honestly I don’t know what happened. The other five cars came from nowhere; we went from second to seventh, the Ferrari was first to sixth and the Leonard car was third to eighth – it’s fair to say the Safety Car ruined our day today.”

Fifth in class was enough for Team Parker Racing's Ian Loggie and Julian Westwood to claim the Am Trophy ahead of the Attempto Racing Porsche. Anthony Pons and Fabien Barthez beat Karim Ojjeh and Olivier Grötz to take their first class win of the season in their Akka ASP Ferrari.