Gallery: great shots from the Six Hours of Silverstone

The World Endurance Championship got underway at Silverstone this weekend, with an estimated 50,000 fans present to witness the first race of this season’s nine-event calendar unfold.

There was drama throughout the race in all four categories, not least in the LMP1 class as Porsche’s lead 919 crashed out in spectacular fashion just two hours into the race.

Audi (and everyone else for that matter) thought they had stolen a march on their rivals as their #7 car took the overall win, with 194 laps under their belt. But it was later disqualified for a rule breach discovered during scrutineering.

Read on for the main headlines of the weekend’s endurance race, combined with some cracking pictures...

Images: Photo©AdrenalMedia.com

While the race on Sunday was bone dry, qualifying the day before was anything but. Snowfall – rare in the UK this far into Spring – forced an end to the final practice session on Saturday, while the qualifying session itself was made tricky by a wet track.

The weekend started promisingly, as Audi surprised everyone by locking out the front row ahead of the much-fancied Porsches. But the race was much more disappointing for the four rings. One car was forced to retire (for which an engineer had to be sent out on track to help recover the car), while the overall victory was snatched from them due to the #7 car’s skidblock was measured under the mandatory 20mm.

Things had been going swimmingly for Porsche as the #1 car established a lead of 46 seconds two hours into the race under the guidance of Mark Webber, but things quickly unravelled when Brendon Hartley got behind the wheel. The New Zealander attempted to overtake Gulf Racing’s 911 RSR, but ran out of track and took them both out of the race. Oops.

After Audi’s #7 LMP1 car was disqualified, Toyota were upgraded to second on the podium. It’s a great result for the team following last season’s struggles, although their lack of pace will be a concern. While the #6 team trio celebrated on the podium, the #5’s drivers were licking their wounds: a spectacular puncture shredded the back end of their car three-and-a-quarter hours into the race.

In the LMP2 class, #43’s Ricardo Gonzalez, Filipe Albuquerque and Bruno Senna claimed victory as the top three all finished closely, with 179 laps apiece. Extreme Speed Motorsport’s #31 finished second, while quickest-in-qualifying G-Drive Racing were slightly further adrift in third. While others hit problems, Manor’s #44 car was the only retirement in the category, stopping just shy of the five-hour mark.

Ford had been optimistic of a podium after beating Aston Martin by a considerable margin in the rain-hit qualifying session, but in the race they were a second off the pace of the two Vantages, leaving the new GTs in P4 and P5 come the chequered flag.

Ferrari meanwhile were in a class of their own, and although their #51 car needed to take a 3-minute stop-go penalty for an engine change, they still had enough pace to fight back and complete a one-two finish. Aside from pit-stops, the #71 car of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird never surrendered the lead.

A dry race gave Aston Martin the chance to show their true pace on race day, after the Dunlop tyres fell foul to a combination of cold and wet conditions they hadn’t previously tested in. While Darren Turner, Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim drove well enough for a podium in the GTE Pro bracket, the #97 car had a worse day: Fernando Rees earned a damaging 30-second penalty for going beyond track limits in the first stint, and the engine later failed while Richie Stanaway was at the wheel.

Porsche 911s make up half of the six-strong GTE Am field, but even so neither KCMG, Gulf Racing nor Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing were able to get on the podium. Had it not been for the 919’s win in the overall class, it would have been a very bad day for the German manufacturer...

While the Porsche’s toiled, Ferrari were completing a double-GT victory at Silverstone. Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Aguas completed 163 laps between them, comfortably ahead of AMR’s Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda in the #98 car.

Four hours previously, Porsche’s #1 LMP1 car ran into the 911 pictured above. It didn’t look quite as pristine after the accident...

Some 50,000 fans visited the opening race of the World Endurance Championship this year, virtually on par with last year’s official attendance of 54,000 people. Impressive, given the weather this year.

The next race takes place in Belgium in three weeks’ time, after which the countdown to Le Mans begins...