Audi won the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 2015 at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. The #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Audi Sport Team Joest covered 176 laps over 6 hours, a race distance of 1,233 km. The winning crew: Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer. The margin to second place was 13.4 s, close enough to keep the result open late. The quickest manufacturer over one lap was Porsche — but the win went to Audi. Pace and result do not always match.
How the Lead Was Won
Across the race we counted 2 lead changes among 3 different cars in the LMP1 class. At the closest point, first and second were only 8.7 s apart. For 5 of 5 measured hours the gap stayed under 30 seconds.
That is a real head-to-head fight, not a comfortable lead.
Figure 1 shows how that gap moved over the distance.
Manufacturer Pace
We rank pace by the average of each manufacturer’s fastest lap. That measures real speed over the distance instead of one lucky lap. The order at the top: Porsche (213.6 km/h), Audi (212.6 km/h), Toyota (210.3 km/h).
Between the fastest and the slowest manufacturer in the LMP1 class lie 18.3 km/h. That is a wide spread. At this track, the concept differences show clearly.
Figure 2 sets the pace order side by side.
Reliability by Class
3 of 34 cars did not make the finish — an overall retirement rate of 9%. The heaviest toll fell on LMGTE Am with 25%, while LMGTE Pro came through best at 0%.
Over this distance, reliability is a result in itself. A car that stops scores nothing, no matter how fast it was.
Figure 3 compares the classes directly.
Efficiency Over the Distance
Our efficiency score multiplies average lap speed by laps completed and compares that to the class average. It rewards cars that were fast and stayed out of trouble. A value of 1.000 is exactly class average.
The top score goes to #7 Audi with 1.123. That is the winning car — speed and durability came from the same package.
Figure 4 ranks the cars by that score.
The Closing Phase
In the final hour, 79% of the field held position within ±1 place (n = 34). Most of the order was set, but a few fights ran to the end. The biggest single move came from #26 Ligier, 7 places back.
Figure 5 shows how settled the finish really was.
Fastest Lap and Class Gaps
The fastest single lap of the race belongs to #17 Porsche (Porsche Team): 1:57.972 at 213.7 km/h. Crew: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley.
Between LMP1 and LMP2 sits a pace gap of 11.2 s per lap. That number decides how much traffic the leaders have to work through.
Class winners — LMP1: #7 Audi (Audi Sport Team Joest), LMP2: #38 Gibson (Jota Sport), LMGTE Pro: #99 Aston Martin (Aston Martin Racing V8), LMGTE Am: #98 Aston Martin (Aston Martin Racing).
Putting the Race in Context
The winner averaged 204.8 km/h across 1,233 km. On a 7.004 km lap, that is the pace the whole strategy had to sustain.
We calculate the same metrics for every race in the archive: pace order, reliability by class, lead changes, winning margin, closing stability and efficiency. That makes this race directly comparable with every other round of the 2015 season — and with the seasons before it.
All figures are derived from the full classification of every race hour and are recalculated with each build.
