Race updates from the WEC Six Hours of Mexico
Rain arrives:
Rain has arrived at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with the race-contending Audi crashing out of contention in the Six Hours of Mexico presented by AT&T.
Oliver Jarvis lost control of his No. 8 Audi R18 in Turn 12, just moments after pitting for what appeared to be slick-intermediate tires.
The spin sent Jarvis hard into the barriers with heavy right-side damage but the Englishman managed to limp the car back to the pits, and into the garage for repairs.
It came as a bitter blow to Audi's hopes, and handing Porsche a 1-2 in the race, headed by the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, who took on wet tires in the most recent stop.
The No. 6 Toyota of Stephane Sarrazin has been elevated to third, as a result of the Audi's misfortunes.
The No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 Nissan of Rene Rast leads LMP2, while GTE-Pro is still under the command of Aston Martin Racing.
Rui Aguas is out front in GTE-Am in his No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
Hour 3:
Brendon Hartley is leading the Six Hours of Mexico presented by AT&T at the halfway point, but Loic Duval is only seven seconds behind the No. 8 Audi.
It comes as the track has been declared wet, with adverse weather conditions expected to affect the FIA World Endurance Championship's first visit to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
The leading pair of Hartley and Duval are at the wheels of the two most competitive cars so far, but the entire LMP1 class has seen some close racing so far.
So far the only major issue had by any of the top teams was a hybrid problem for the No. 5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, which retired in the third hour.
The RGR Sport Ligier JS P2 Nissan, which started from LMP2 pole, dropped to third after contact with the G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 Nissan.
Stephane Richelmi currently leads the class in the No. 36 Signatech Alpine A460 Nissan.
Aston Martin Racing has dominated the GTE-Pro class thus far, with the pair of Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTEs running 1-2 for the first three hours. Nicki Thiim currently leads the category.
David Heinemeier Hansson is the GTE-Am leader. His Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR inherited the lead from the Gulf Racing car during the first round of pit stops.
The field came out of a short Full Course Yellow just before the three-hour mark, called to remove debris from the track.
Hour 1:
The No. 8 Audi R18 leads the FIA WEC Six Hours of Mexico, with one hour complete, and under a Full Course Yellow.
Lucas di Grassi holds a 12-second lead over the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber, who took over second after an early pit stop for the No. 7 Audi of Andre Lotterer at the 42-minute mark.
A FCY, for a crash by the No. 37 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR01 Nissan of Victor Shaytar, eight minutes later, saw the majority of cars take advantage of the slowed pace and pit for service.
While Audi has held the edge so far, the No. 5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Kazuki Nakajima runs in third, ahead of the No. 2 Porsche of Neel Jani in fourth.
A spin by Mike Conway, while under FCY, has dropped the No. 6 Toyota to sixth.
The No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 Nissan of Roman Rusinov leads LMP2, with the Russian squad getting out ahead of the class pole-sitting No. 43 RGR Sport Ligier JS P2 Nissan, which dominated early in the hands of Bruno Senna.
Marco Sorensen is out front in GTE-Pro in the No. 95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE, with the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche of Khaled al Quabasi leading GTE-Am.