After locking out the front row in qualifying, the Porsche Team went 1-2 at the Six Hours of Nurburgring with No. 17 919 Hybrid driven by Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard claiming their maiden victory.
The win puts Webber, Hartley and Bernhard just 17 points behind Audi Sport Team Joest’s Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer.
The No. 18 919 Hybrid started on pole, but ran into trouble mid-race for over use of its fuel allowance which saw a total of 95s in stop-go penalties. However, a phenomenal performance by Romain Dumas put the team back in the fight for a podium before handing off to Neel Jani, who pushed by both Audi’s ensuring a runner-up finish.
Lotter, Fassler and Treluyer put the No. 7 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro on the final step of the podium, just ahead of their teammates in the No. 8.
The Toyota TS 040’s continued to struggle with overall pace, finishing fifth and sixth with Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima in the No. 1 besting the trio of Alexander Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway in the No. 2.
The 1-2 result pushed Porsche 33 points ahead of Audi in the manufacturer standings.
Pierre Kaffer and Simon Trummer led the ByKolles Racing CLM P1/01 to its most successful weekend thus far among LMP1 privateers, capturing the win over both Rebellion Racing machines.
After winning Le Mans, KCMG kept the momentum rolling with Nick Tandy, Matt Howson and Richard Bradley grabbing victory with their ORECA 05-Nissan in the LMP2 class.
Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal and Sam Bird finished second in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan.
Porsche saw equal success in the GTE-Pro class as the two Manthey Porsche 911 RSR’s put out a flawless performance en route to a 1-2 finish.
The No.91 driven by Michael Christensen and Richard Lentz paced the class for a majority of the race while their teammates Frederic Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet endured a tougher test.
After serving a drive-thru penalty for jumping the start, the duo found themselves in a fight with the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia driven by James Calado and Davide Rigon.
Makowiecki hit the back of the Ferrari at the mid-point of the race, causing a puncture to the AF Corese Ferrari. In the end, not even a drive-thru penalty to the Manthey Porsche for the incident could help propel the Ferrari 458 by the Porsche duo.
The GTE-Am class saw a thrilling battle with the No. 72 SMP Racing Ferrari grabbing the victory over the No. 98 Aston Martin and the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari. The Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR came home fourth.
Image: Porsche
