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Fernando Alonso has McLaren's blessing to race for Toyota at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2018 if approached, RACER understands.

The Spaniard has already been confirmed as racing for United Autosports in the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January, with Alonso seeing his sportscar debut as the perfect opportunity to prepare for a future Le Mans attempt as part of his goal of winning motorsport's famed Triple Crown. It is understood the double F1 world champion underwent a seat fitting at Toyota's factory ahead of a possible first test in Bahrain.

The final round of the WEC season takes place in Bahrain on the weekend of November 16-18, with a test being held at the Sakhir circuit on November 19.

Following Porsche's announcement that it will withdraw from the World Endurance Championship at the end of the season, Toyota's participation was in doubt for a spell but the Japanese manufacturer is expected to commit to the 2018/19 "Super Season", which leaves it as the only factory LMP1 outfit on the grid next year at this stage.

[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Provizionalna lista učesnika finala sezone u Sakiru

 

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PRUETT: Farewell to Porsche's 919 Hybrid
Friday, 17 November 2017
Marshal Pruett / Images by Porsche Motorsport



 
Porsche's 919 Hybrid, an instant classic from the moment it took the fight to Audi and Toyota in 2014, will fire up for the final time in World Endurance Championship competition on Saturday.

Endurance racing's most interesting engine – scratch that – motor racing's most interesting engine, a turbocharged V4 with dual hybrid systems, will fall silent after six hours of racing in Bahrain, and for those of you who share my love for the spirit of innovation, bidding farewell to Porsche's all-conquering 919 will be a sorrowful event.

The accolades are easy to compile for the German prototype: the 919 has amassed an LMP1 triple-double with three straight overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, three consecutive Drivers' titles and, as of today, two Manufacturers' championships on the trot.

Depending on how the Bahrain race plays out, Porsche could close the 919 program with its third Manufacturers' honors – a clean sweep of every major award Le Mans and the WEC has to offer since 2015.

The 919 project extended Mark Webber's career after Formula 1, made F1 star Nico Hulkenberg a Le Mans winner on his first try, took Brendon Hartley from the doldrums of racing a Daytona Prototype with Scott Mayer in 2013 to a place where he used the success earned with Porsche to land an F1 drive with Toro Rosso, and even Marc Lieb, one of the brand's GT aces, was able to adapt to the warp-speed power and grip to add his name to the legends who've won the world's greatest endurance race.



But those opportunities would not have been possible without the raging creativity and technology contained within the best-of-its-generation 919 Hybrid.

Upon its decision to enter to the LMP1 class, Porsche took the R18 turbodiesel concept that sister VAG brand Audi had used to such great effect, singled out its two greatest weaknesses as the primary areas to explore, and birthed a chassis that only new-car reliability woes kept from dominating its debut season.

The Audi's powerful but stupendously heavy diesel motor served as the inspiration to create a miniscule 2.0-liter V4. The feather-light motor, with its impossibly short architecture, nestled itself against the 919's carbon fiber tub to such a degree that it's easy to miss. And thanks to the lack of weight and size, fitting a thermal-based hybrid system that takes its charge from the turbocharger exhaust was added without any cost the car's handling performance.



During the same creation period for the 919, Toyota's TS030 and TS040 held value with its slippery aerodynamics that clearly inspired the aft section of the Porsche, but little else was highlighted for consideration in its design offices.

Combined with the most powerful axle-driven hybrid system in the class, the 919 set a new standard for exploding off corners when maximum megajoules and more than 1000 combined horsepower was deployed. Deft on its four Michelins, the Porsche was remarkable in fast, sweeping corners as its balance and optimized weight distribution carved through esses in breathtaking fashion. Introduced with F1-style interlinked suspension, the 919 controlled body roll and also featured supple ride control that allowed the car to settle under braking and acceleration in an instant.

An engineering marvel, created with hundreds of millions of VAG dollars for our sustained amusement, the 919 Hybrid brought the brand its 17th, 18th, and 19th victories at La Sarthe. The program's mechanics, engineers, drivers, and all the rest have or will find work elsewhere within the company, or at new racing teams. Their personal legacies will continue. Sadly, the most amazing prototype from the LMP1-Hybrid era will not.

[/13/Ален Шмит/]

Klasifikacija posle zadnje trke 2017. sezone u Sakiru

 

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Derani claims Fuji 4H Asian Le Mans pole
Saturday, 02 December 2017
Asian Le Mans Series



 
Qualifying for the 4 Hours of Fuji, second round of the 2017/18 Asian Le Mans Series, was was held in bitterly cold conditions at Fuji Speedway, with temperatures in the low 40s. Getting warmth into the Michelin tires was critical for these separate 15-minute qualifying sessions for Prototypes and GT cars.

Prototypes

In LMP2 the battle for pole position was fierce, and pole position ultimately came down to one final flying lap.

The recently awarded FIA World Endurance Championship Rookie of the Year, Thomas Laurent, led the way in the Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport ORECA 05 Nissan for most of the session. However, a sensational last-minute flying lap from Pipo Derani in the BBT Ligier JSP2 (pictured above) saw the Brazilian claim pole position by just 0.16 from Laurent. It was BBT's first LMP2 pole position.



"I think first of all I would like to give a big thank you to my team – it is only our second race together so it goes without saying that the guys have been doing a phenomenal job," said Derani (above). "Working with a brand-new car you have to learn everything. The guys did a very nice job and gave me a perfect car today. The whole weekend we have been tweaking the car little by little, getting towards a very good platform. I am really happy I was able to put this lap in at the end and get their first pole because they really deserve it.

"To be honest, I am really glad I am not here with the open top like some guys were last year! I was telling my teammate, 'Man I don't know how they did it last year,' because it really is so cold. Obviously with the closed car it is not too bad. The tires and the brakes were the real problem – getting them warm when you first start is a challenge, but the tire heater helps and after a few laps it's not too bad.

"We tried a different strategy in qualifying today – it was obviously really cold and we ran used tires to get the car warmed up and I think it paid off. We had very little time to warm up the tires and put the lap together. When I went out I think I had maybe three or four laps, with two of them affected by traffic so in the end it came down to the final one. I think we had a little bit more in the pocket, to be honest, but when it comes down to the last lap you don't want to push too much and risk a mistake.

"I think for the race it is going to be a lot better here for us than it was in Zhuhai, mainly because it is not our first time in the car. We are all starting to understand the car a little bit better. I think we have a better car here than we did in Zhuhai so fingers crossed we can do a great race and keep out of trouble. I think that is going to be very important when we see how close the cars are."

In third place was LMP2 debutant Jazeman Jaafar in the second Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport. Fourth on the grid will be Marco Asmer, also making his debut in prototype racing in the Eurasia Motorsport Ligier.

In LMP3 it was another dominant performance for Josh Burdon in the KCMG Ligier JSP3. He claimed pole position in the LMP3 class by a full second from the Taiwan Beer GH Motorsport Ligier JSP3 driven by Ye Hong Li.

In third place, just 0.023s behind, was the reigning Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup champions, WIN Motorsport with Richard Bradley behind the wheel. After qualifying, however, WIN Motorsport was promoted into second place after a pit infringement saw Taiwan Beer GH Motorsport have its times disallowed.



GT

It was a close fight for pole position in the GT class qualifying session. As was the case at the opening round of the series in Zhuhai back in October, it came down to a battle between the FIST Team AAI Ferrari and BMW sister cars.

This time it was the BMW leading the way. Jesse Krohn pitted with two minutes to go while holding the lead, leaving his teammate Marco Cioci out on track to chase down his time. Cioci pushed hard but missed out, leaving Krohn's time unbeaten and seeing the BMW M6 GT3 claim pole position.

"For sure this track is a lot better for us than at Zhuhai," said Krohn. "You can see by our ultimate pace – we were able to get pole here, whereas in Zhuhai we were second. The long sweeping corners work well for our car and the heavy braking zones. It was a great team effort to get the car in the right condition after an unlucky start to the weekend where we had some gearbox issues and missed the first practice. This meant we had no new tire running before qualifying so in that sense it is a really good job from the team.

"It seems to be between us teammates once again! First and foremost, we work together, but of course we want to beat one another so it is good, tough and fair competition!

"It was tough after we didn't get any new tire running to know how the tires would react. It was a surprise to me how long it took to get the tires, especially the fronts working. I am glad this year that we have tire heaters, it would have been a really tough job without them. I think it is going to take some getting used to in the race, but it is manageable."

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Jackie Chan DC Racing scores P2 and P3 wins at Fuji 4H
Monday, 04 December 2017
Asian Le Mans Series



 
In an eventful second round of the 2017/18 Asian Le Mans Series, the No. 8 Jackie Chan DC Racing x Jota Sport ORECA 05 Nissan (Stephane Richelmi/Harrison Newey/Thomas Laurent) claimed victory in the 4 Hours of Fuji after chasing down and passing the No. 37 BBT Ligier JS P2 (Anthony Xu Liu/Pipo Derani/Davide Rizzo) in the final hour. In third place was its sister car, the No. 7 Jackie Chan DC Racing x Jota Sport ORECA 05 Nissan (David Cheng/Jazeman Jaafar).

The LMP3 class became a battle of attrition, with a number of problems hitting the teams during the race. For the No. 6 Jackie Chan DC Racing x Jota Sport Ligier JS P3 it was a strong and consistent performance from both Patrick Byrne and Guy Cosmo, along with incredibly quick laps from Cosmo in particular.

The No. 66 Audi Sport Customer Racing Asia by TSRT (Massimiliano Wiser/Peng Liu/Weian Chen), was quick off the line, strongly leading the GT class for his stint, however it was once again the FIST Team AAI pair that ultimately fought for the lead in the later half of the race. After looking strong all weekend it was the No. 90 Ferrari 488 GT3 (Lam Yu/Ollie Millroy/Marco Cioci) that beat the No. 91 BMW M6 GT3 (Junsan Chen/Chaz Mostert/Jesse Krohn) to claim victory in the GT category.

After bitterly cold conditions for qualifying, the race ran in warm, sunny weather at Fuji Speedway. The race got off to an exciting start with the two Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport LMP2s and the BBT entry fighting hard for the leading positions positions. In LMP3 it was the No. 1 WIN Motorsport Ligier (Philippe Descombes/William Lok/Richard Bradley) that got the best start and was up to fourth from the fourth row of the grid into Turn 1.

There was a very close tussle off the start line between the No. 8 BBT Ligier JS P2 entry of Anthony Xu Liu, and the two Jackie Chan DC Racing x Jota ORECA 05 Nissans with the No. 8 ORECA with Stephane Richelmi behind the wheel taking the lead.

A spin on Lap 1 for the BBT Ligier after slight contact with the No. 7 ORECA of David Cheng saw Liu drop to the back of the field. While the car looked to be OK it meant there was a big battle ahead for the BBT team to recover the lost ground – a fired-up Anthony Xu Liu though set about the task immediately.

Out in front Richelmi had his head down and was setting some cracking times, opening a lead of 14 seconds after just six laps. Behind him, the sister car was being pressured by the No. 4 ARC Bratislava entry being driven by Rik Breukers.

In a very impressive performance, by the end of lap 2 the No. 66 TRST Audi R8 LMS was up to eighth place overall. Massimiliano Wiser was driving exceptionally well, holding the No. 6 Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport Ligier JS P3 behind him. He held this position well into the first hour of the race.

Xu Liu pushed hard and worked his way back to the tail of the David Cheng car and the pair were locked in a tight battle. Liu just managed to get by and set about chasing the ARC Bratislava Ligier in second place.

Meanwhile in LMP3, after their fantastic start WIN Motorsport had been passed by the class pole-winning No. 18 KCMG Ligier (Josh Burdon/Louis Prette/Neric Wei). In the GT class the Team AAI entries were locked in a fierce battle with the Ferrari out in front and the BMW behind.

There was early trouble for the Japanese No. 99 TKS Ginetta LMP3 entry with Asian Le Mans Sprint Cup runner up Shinyo Sano behind the wheel. An 10-minute pit stop ended with the car being pulled into the garage to replace a broken electrical connector on the steering wheel. That impacted heavily on the team's ability to be competitive for the rest of the race.

After the half-hour mark, Rik Breukers in the ARC Bratislava Ligier passed David Cheng in the No. 7 Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport entry.

At the one hour mark terminal trouble hit the No. 1 WIN Motorsport Ligier JS P3, the car pitting only to be pushed into the garage with what would prove to be a major engine problem. Retirement was then inevitable, a disappointing end to what had been an excellent start to the race from the Hong Kong based team.

BBT pitted after their first stint with Brazilian ace Derani climbing aboard. Pole winner Derani able to set blindingly quick times almost immediately but with a 56 second gap to close down the leading No. 8 Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport with Richelmi behind the wheel, it would require speed and consistency. In the early stages of his charge back, Derani was able to close the gap by 2 to 3 seconds a lap, setting quicker and quicker fastest laps for the race as he went.

Ahead of its first pit stop, the TRST team in the Audi R8 LMS had pulled out over a minute gap back to its GT rivals in Team AAI. The TKS Ginetta meanwhile was having more problems, returning to the garage for more work – this time the team was dealing with suspected clutch problems.

The leading No. 8 Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport saw Harrison Newey installed to continue their battle with the hard charging Derani. After the massive double stint from Derani, he held the lead and the gap between the two had increased to 20 seconds after both cars had stopped.

Drama hit just before the halfway point of the race with the leading car in LMP3, the No. 18 KCMG Ligier JS P3 stopping on the track with a suspected broken driveshaft. The car pushed behind the barriers into retirement, a bitterly disappointing end for the KCMG team who had looked set to build on their championship lead earned with a win at Round 1 at Zhuhai.

For their next routine stops, the two leaders pitted at the same time. For BBT it was the end of an 87-lap stint for Derani, replaced by Davide Rizzo in the No. 37 Ligier and in the Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport it was FIA WEC Rookie of the year Thomas Laurent replacing Harrison Newey. They returned to the grid with BBT leading by 23 seconds.

The battle for the class victory in LMP3 was heating up with side by side racing between two Ligier JS P3s – the No. 11 Taiwan Beer GH Motorsport with Hanss Lin and the No. 6 Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport now with Guy Cosmo behind the wheel. After a storming drive, it was Guy that came out on top and started to pull out a gap.

Out in front the see-saw battle between the No. 8 and the No. 37 continued, this time with Laurent reeling in the BBT car that was out in front. Laurent able to close the gap, taking the lead in commanding fashion as the pair went either side of the TRST Audi.

With 45 minutes to go, the No. 11 (Hanss Lin/Shaun Thong/Ye Hong Li) received a drive-through penalty for a pit lane infringement, meaning Cosmo extended his lead in the LMP3 class, a disjointed day getting much, much worse less than half an hour later as the No. 11 ground to a halt out on the circuit, mechanical woes ending the day for another car that looked set to score a podium finish.

That left the way clear for Cosmo to bring home the No. 6 Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport Ligier to claim victory from the No. 65 Viper Niza Racing entry (James Winslow/Douglas Khoo/Dominic Ang).



"This was a great event for us. It is a big adventure for us to come here from the United States!" declared Cosmo. "We have always wanted to race in Asia and learn new circuits, and experience new cultures so this has been great for us. But I guess we show up at a disadvantage not knowing these circuits. We unfortunately missed all of P2 during to an issue so we were really behind on track time, and learning the circuit and tuning the car, so we didn’t have the outright pace. But come race time, Patrick [Byrne] did what Patrick always does and regardless of how things had gone before, when the green flag drops, this kid goes! It is a pleasure to work with him, coach him, and see him flourish when the pressure is on!

"To get into a car that has no damage, and still in great condition, I just got in and did the best I could making sure I could manage the tires as we were double stinting. As it turned out everyone around us started having issues so the gap got larger, and then we had an exhaust issue and I was concerned for over an hour that the engine might let go, and as the sun was setting it got really hard to see! But it was great and it all fell our way."

And in a crazy turn of events, after struggling with issues all weekend, it was the Japanese team, TKS with its No. 99 Ginetta LMP3 that claimed the final podium position at their home track



In GT it was again the Team AAI pair fighting neck and neck for first and second in class. Leading the way was the BMW M6 with Jesse Krohn behind the wheel; however this was all to change when the No. 91 received a two-second stop-and-go penalty for a violation of mandatory pit stop time. This then left the No. 90 Ferrari 488 GT3 in clear air to claim victory for Team AAI in the GT class. In third place was the No. 66 TRST Audi R8 LMS, the Audi trio putting in a spirited display for the whole race.

In LMP2 Laurent pulled out a lead over the BBT of Rizzo to claim the No. 8 Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport Liger JS P2's second victory in Asian Le Mans Series this season. BBT came home second with the No. 7 Jackie Chan DC Racing x JOTA Sport Liger JS P2 coming home in third place.

"It was of course our target to pass the Ligier in front of us as quick as possible, and with a good start I was able to pass him around the outside," related Richelmi. "I didn't see what happened behind but for sure I was able to open a gap. With fresh air it is quiet easy – especially with no traffic – so I was able to open quiet a gap. I was a bit concerned about tire degradation, but it went really well and maybe I could have pushed a bit more to build a bigger gap for my teammates."

Behind the leading trio there were other dramas, the No. 4 ARC Bratislava and No. 33 Eurasia (Yoshi Mori/Marco Asmer/Scott Andrews) Ligier JS P2 Nissans had tussled over 4th place for much of the race, but there was disaster for the Eurasia effort in the dying minutes, the car pitting into retirement with a suspected broken crankshaft. ARC Bratislava would claim 4th.

The No. 25 Algarve Pro Racing Ligier of Dean Koutsoumidis/Ate Dirk de Jong ran steadily throughout with its two LMP2 rookie drivers, who brought the car home in eighth place overall to a win in the Bronze Cup.

Click here for full results.

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