Porsche Team dominated the 2015 6 Hours of Nurburgring, with their two 919 Hybrids completing the race in first and second.
Whilst it was the #18 team of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb that led from the start, they soon encountered problems when it was discovered there was an issue with the car’s fuel flow, allowing it to consume much more than necessary. Along with a total of 1:35 in penalties, a further 3 minutes were lost over three extra pit stops.
This handed the overall and LMP1 lead to the sister #17 driven by Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley, which would continue to score its first win since Porsche’s return to the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2014.
Audi completed a planned late switch-around with a couple of laps remaining, with the #7 car of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer passing the #8, driven by Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis. This allows the Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps winners to finish third, ahead of their team-mates.
In seventh overall, and behind the two Toyota Racing entries, were LMP2 Le Mans-winners KCMG. Matt Howson and Richard Bradley were rejoined by Nick Tandy in order to take another important victory. They finished ahead of the two G-Drive Racing Ligiers.
LMGTE Pro saw another Porsche 1-2, as Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen piloted the #91 911 RSR to victory over team-mates Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki.
Finally, SMP Racing scored their second successive win in LMGTE Am, thanks to strong drives from Victor Shaytar, Andrea Bertolini and Aleksey Basov. In second place was the #98 Aston Martin Racing entry of Mathias Lauda, Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy.
More reports to follow
