2015 6 Hours of Silverstone

United Kingdom 2015 6 Hours of Silverstone
Event information
Round 1 of 8 in the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship
Date12 April 2015
LocationSilverstone
VenueSilverstone Circuit
Duration6 Hours
Results
Laps completed201
Distance (km)1184.091
Distance (miles)735.861
LMP1
Pole position
Time1:39.721
TeamGermany Porsche Team
DriversNew Zealand Brendon Hartley
Australia Mark Webber
Winners
TeamGermany Audi Sport Team Joest
DriversGermany André Lotterer
Switzerland Marcel Fässler
France Benoît Tréluyer
LMP2
Winners
TeamRussia G-Drive Racing
DriversUnited Kingdom Sam Bird
France Julien Canal
Russia Roman Rusinov
LMGTE Pro
Winners
TeamItaly AF Corse
DriversItaly Gianmaria Bruni
Finland Toni Vilander
LMGTE Am
Winners
TeamUnited Kingdom Aston Martin Racing
DriversCanada Paul Dalla Lana
Portugal Pedro Lamy
Austria Mathias Lauda

The 2015 6 Hours of Silverstone was a six-hour endurance sports car racing event held for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars at the Silverstone Circuit near Silverstone, Northamptonshire, England on 12 April 2015 before a crowd of 45,000 spectators. The event served as the opening round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship; it was fourth running of the event as part of the championship.

A Porsche 919 Hybrid of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber qualified in pole position by setting the fastest lap in class. They led for the opening 80 minutes until they suffered a terminal rear drivetrain failure, promoting their teammates Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas to first position. Thereafter, the trio battled an Audi R18 e-tron quattro shared by André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer for the lead throughout much of the event. Although the No. 7 tean took a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for a track limits transgression in the final 14 minutes, they finished first to achieve Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer's ninth overall career victory in a record-breaking distance of 201 laps. Lieb, Dumas and Jani finished second and a Toyota TS040 Hybrid driven by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson was third.

The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was won by the G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2 car shared by Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal and Sam Bird, which took the lead from the fast-starting KCMG Oreca 05 of Nick Tandy, Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley on lap six and held it for most of the race to win by one-lap over the sister crew of Gustavo Yacamán, Ricardo González and Pipo Derani which started from pole position. The AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GTE of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander passed their teammates James Calado and Davide Rigon following a battle during the race's fourth houro win the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class. The second-placed car was the Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSR shared by Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen. The Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda in an Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage GTE by 13.712 seconds over the AF Corse Ferrari team of Rui Águas, Emmanuel Collard and François Perrodo.

The final results gave Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer an early Drivers' Championship lead with 25 points, seven ahead of Lieb, Jani and Dumas and a further three in front of Buemi, Nakajima and Davidson. Their teammates Mike Conway, Stéphane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz were fourth on 12 points, and Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis were fifth with 10 points. Audi took the early lead of the Manufacturers' Championship with 35 points, seven points ahead of Toyota in second; the third-placed manufacturer Porsche had scored 19 points with seven rounds left in the season.