Photo Credit: FIA-ACO
The Porsche sports car program is certainly on a hot streak and this does not solely apply to just one division and one circuit. After winning three straight grand touring events in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, the Weissach-based brand went 1-2 in not only GT Sunday, but also in the headline LMP-1 division as they dominated the proceedings at the Six Hours of the Nurburgring FIA World Endurance Championship event in Germany.
After claiming their first overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 1998 this past June, Team Porsche’s pair of Porsche 919 Hybrids rode the momentum into the famed 3.199 mile circuit. After sweeping the entire front row on Saturday, the No. 17 entry of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard, and Brendon Hartley took control from the drop of the green flag on Sunday. Despite the event being slowed by four full course cautions, the squad managed to lap the entire field just after the midway point of the six-hour timed distance and cruised home to claim their first victory of the 2015 FIA WEC campaign and the second straight for Porsche.
Behind the pacesetter, the battle for runner-up honors was much more of a contested fight. The No. 18 Porsche of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, and Mark Lieb certainly made their task to complete the 1-2 result a difficult one. Showing the same pace as their sister car, pit road miscues would cost them dearly in the early going. Suffering from a mechanical glitch with their pit road speed limiter, the entry was penalized by the FIA WEC officials three times for breaking the maximum speed allowed on the pit lane. The errors put the team behind the pair of Audi Sport Team Joest R18 Quattros, but the gap was limited by the full course cautions, and allowed Porsche to stay within range of second place.
While Porsche showed a consistently faster pace on Sunday compared to Audi, they also showed an ability to conserve their Michelin tires better, allowing them to save time on pit road. This is possible since FIA-ACO rules require that a car must be fueled before the tires can be changed. Each of the Porsches were able to make at least one fuel only stop during the event, while in comparison the Audis were forced to take tires each time they were in the pit box.
Although the No. 18 machine was making ground, the Audis fought them hard during the final two hours with the order from second through fourth changing hands multiple times. Eventually, a faster final pit stop would put the second Porsche 919 ahead of both Audis for good, securing the top two finish. The No. 7 Audi, driven by Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler, and Benoit Treluyer would complete the overall podium, with the sister No. 8 machine of Loic Duval, Lucas Di Grassi, and Oliver Jarvis settling for fourth.
While Porsche and Audi held the top four places, the other team in the LMP-1 mix Toyota never made a serious challenge and placed fifth and sixth respectively. In addition to Toyota, the three non-hybrid LMP-1s also suffered through multiple problems throughout the race and finished well down the final order.
In LMP-2, KC Motosport Group’s (KCMG) Oreca 05-Nissan coupe ran away from the field for the second straight FIA WEC event, leading the race from start to finish. Richard Bradley and Matt Howson were joined on the top step of the podium by Porsche GT regular Nick Tandy, who won his fourth consecutive sports car race when added to his three United SportsCar wins with Porsche North America.
Behind the winners, regular small prototype front runners G-Drive Racing claimed the other places on the podium, with the Ligier-Nissan coupe driven by Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal, and Sam Bird crossing the finish line one lap ahead of the Russian’s team second car. After winning the FIA WEC season opener in Silverstone, England, G-Drive has placed at least one car on the podium in every event since, but has not claimed a race win.
As mentioned above, Porsche’s success in their home race Sunday was not limited to LMP-1. In GTE-Pro, Porsche Team Manthey also went 1-2 with their pair of 911 RSRs. Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen earned the win over teammates Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki by one lap at the checkered flag. The final margin was influenced by a late drive through penalty assessed upon the latter of the two entries, for avoidable contact involving the third place finishing AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado and Davide Rigon. Interestingly, although the incident occurred during the third hour of the race, the penalty was not issued until during the final thirty minutes of the distance. However, as mentioned it did not ultimately influence the final order of finish.
Finally in GTE-Amateur, SMP Racing like KCMG and Team Porsche claimed their second straight FIA WEC race win. The victory for the No. 72 Ferrari 458 of Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaytar, and Aleksey Basov once again came at the expense of a late error by the Aston Martin Racing squad of Mathias Lauda, Paul Dalla Lana, and Pedro Lamy.
During the final hour with Lauda at the wheel, the No. 98 Vantage V8 suddenly came to a halt on the course, costing them the lead. While Lauda was able to reset the electronic system on the vehicle to restart and eventually finish second, the malady allowed SMP to take advantage, much like they were able to at Le Mans, when a late crash eliminated the AMR entry in the final 90 minutes.
As was the case in GTE-Pro, AF Corse would finish off the podium in GTE-Am, as Rui Aguas, Emmanuel Collard, and Francois Perrodo came home in third, despite a late race scare after late contact with another car. After finishing second at Le Mans, actor Patrick Dempsey’s Porsche 911 RSR would place fourth Sunday in Germany with co-drivers Patrick Long and Marco Seefried.
