#24 BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8: Jesse Krohn, Philipp Eng, #25 BMW Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8: Connor De Phillippi, Nick Yelloly
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
BMW M Team RLL secured a magnificent 1-2 in a thrilling six-hour IMSA race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Grand Prix road course.
Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn combined to take top honours, with team-mates Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly close behind after fending off a strong challenge from the Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy.
Based just a few miles away in the suburbs of Indianapolis, former Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal’s team had managed only a pair of top-five finishes from the previous seven races this season. And its lone previous GTP triumph, achieved last year at Watkins Glen, had been inherited after the Penske Porsche of Jaminet and Tandy, which had taken the chequered flag, failed post-race scrutineering. But there was no doubting the veracity of its performance on Sunday.
All bar three of the 11 GTP cars in the field led at one stage or another, including – for the very first time – the Lamborghini SC63 of Romain Grosjean, Matteo Cairoli and Andrea Caldarelli, which remained in contention until suffering a broken suspension following contact with a GT car. Fortunes ebbed and flowed as the afternoon progressed, with first one manufacturer and then another seemingly poised to take control.
The race had begun on a track that was still slightly damp following rain earlier in the day. Sebastien Bourdais’ Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R was the early pacesetter after the Frenchman had secured his second pole of the season, although he was soon overhauled by Felipe Nasr’s Penske Porsche 963, which flew from seventh on the grid and was in the lead before even three laps were in the books.
#7 Team Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
A majority of the second hour was run behind the safety car due to huge puddles of standing water following a heavy rain shower. Thereafter the race was remarkably trouble-free, especially considering the fact that a massive field of 56 cars had taken the green flag.
The final restart came with 56 minutes remaining and the Acura ARX-06 of Louis Deletraz and Jordan Taylor was in the lead, followed by the pair of BMWs and Jaminet’s Porsche. After earlier being the first driver to venture onto slick tyres as the track dried following the rain storm, Eng soon found a way past team-mate De Phillippi.
He then swiftly moved onto Deletraz’s tail before taking him by surprise with an incisive pass under braking for Turn 13 – most definitely not one of the circuit’s primary overtaking places. De Phillippi followed him through and, while the gap to the pursuing Porsche never stretched to much more than a couple of seconds, the team-mates were able to control the pace and cement an emotional victory.
Steven Thomas and Mikkel Jensen were joined by Hunter McElrea to secure TDS Racing’s second successive LMP2 victory at Indianapolis, while the two GT classes were swept by Porsche 911 GT3-Rs.
In GTD Pro, Laurin Heinrich’s polewinning run for AO Racing was annulled after the car failed to meet the minimum ride height after qualifying, but that proved to be but a minor inconvenience, and the German combined with Michael Christensen to take an emphatic victory.
From a bumper crop of 22 GTD cars, meanwhile, Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer/Jan Heylen emerged as top dogs.
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Source: Autosport