Nurburgring WEC: Porsche claims 1-2 finish on home turf
Porsche drivers Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber followed up on their Le Mans 24 Hours victory last month with another FIA World Endurance Championship win at the Nurburgring.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Bernhard and his teammates triumphed in a close-fought battle with the sister Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Nick Tandy during which the two cars were rarely separated by more than 10 seconds.
The two Porsches, racing in high-downforce configuration for the first time this season, swapped positions multiple times over the course of the six hours.
Lotterer appeared to have secured the victory over the final hour, pulling a 12s gap on Bernhard until the two cars made splash-and-dash fuel stops in the final 10 minutes.
Bernhard was stationery for 20s less in the championship-leading Porsche, which allowed it to take the victory in what was clearly an orchestrated move.
Toyota briefly took the fight to Porsche with the pole-winning #7 TS050 Hybrid, with Kamui Kobayashi leading to the first round of pitstops before handing over to Jose Maria Lopez.
The Argentinian driver was quickly passed by Hartley and then Jani, but remained in touch until the second fuel stops.
Lopez was unable to match the Porsches on his second stint on the tyres and dropped 20s before handing over the car to Mike Conway, with the #7 trio ending up more than a minute down at the flag.
Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima, winners of the opening two rounds of the WEC, finished a distant fourth after losing five laps right at the start of the race.
Fuel pump failure meant Buemi had to complete the formation lap on electric power before pitting for a replacement.
DC Racing adds to Le Mans triumph
Jackie Chan DC Racing trio Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent took their third LMP2 victory of the season in dominant fashion aboard their Jota Sport-run Oreca.
Jarvis battled with Bruno Senna in the best of the Rebellion Orecas, but the Le Mans-winning #38 car took control of the race in the second hour.
Senna, Julien Canal and Filipe Albuqueque ended up a lap down at the finish in the #31 Rebellion.
The Signatech Alpine team pipped the second Rebellion team to the final spot on the class podium.
Its #36 Alpine shared by Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Matt Rao sealed the spot ahead of the #13 Oreca of Mathias Beche, David Heinemeier Hansson and Pipo Derani during the final hour.
Ferrari beats Porsche for GTE win
James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi overcame early leaders Porsche to claim GTE Pro honours for Ferrari.
Calado established the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE in the lead during the fourth hour and went on to claim the victory by 50s.
Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz took second in their factory Porsche 911 RSR by just 8.7s from the sister car shared by Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre.
The best of the Aston Martins, the #95 car shared by Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen, took fourth, ahead of Ford's best finisher, the #67 of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx.
GTE Am honours went to the Dempsey-Proton Porsche driven by Matteo Cairoli, Christian Ried and Marvin Dienst, less than five seconds clear of the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488.
Race results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 204 laps |
2 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Neel Jani Nick Tandy |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1.606 |
3 | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'04.768 |
4 | 8 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 5 laps |
5 | 38 | Oliver Jarvis Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 13 laps |
6 | 31 | Bruno Senna Julien Canal Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 14 laps |
7 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Matt Rao |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 14 laps |
8 | 13 | Pipo Derani David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 14 laps |
9 | 37 | David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 15 laps |
10 | 26 | Roman Rusinov Pierre Thiriet Ben Hanley |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 16 laps |
11 | 25 | Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 16 laps |
12 | 28 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxivière |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 16 laps |
13 | 24 | Roberto Merhi Jonathan Hirschi Tor Graves |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 21 laps |
14 | 4 | Marco Bonanomi Oliver Webb Dominik Kraihamer |
ENSO CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 22 laps |
15 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 25 laps |
16 | 91 | Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 25 laps |
17 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 25 laps |
18 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 26 laps |
19 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 26 laps |
20 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 26 laps |
21 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam Daniel Serra |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 27 laps |
22 | 77 | Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 29 laps |
23 | 54 | Francesco Castellacci Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 29 laps |
24 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 30 laps |
25 | 71 | Toni Vilander Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 30 laps |
26 | 61 | Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 31 laps |
27 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Nick Foster Jr. |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 31 laps |
Ret | 34 | Nigel Moore Philip Hanson |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 92 laps |
Ret | 35 | Nelson Panciatici Pierre Ragues Andre Negrao |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 143 laps |
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