Porsche claimed yet another FIA WEC win at the Nürburgring in the 2016 6 Hours of Nürburgring.
The #1 World Championship Porsche crew of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley claimed their first win of the 2016 FIA WEC season ahead of the Audis.
Webber, Hartley and Bernhard had a relatively smooth race despite having in the first few hours of the race some vibration problems with the car and a loss of rear grip in the tyres. However, the World Champions put those niggles aside to win in the Eiffel Mountains once again.
In second and third places respectively were the Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 cars of #7 (Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer) and #8 (Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Oliver Jarvis).
There was also a battle between the #7 and #8 Audis alongside the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb was a pulsating battle mid-race for second, third and fourth places as the Audi’s got the upper hand of the #2 Porsche to claim the final two podium positions.
The Audi did manage to lead at certain points of the six-hour endurance race, but the #1 Porsche showed its dominance as the Neuburg-Heinrichsheim-based team pocketed 33 points at the end of the six hours.
Meanwhile, the #2 Porsche was involved in a number of incidents during the fourth hour of the race, including a collision with the #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR to which the stewards gave the #2 919 Hybrid a drive-through penalty. They did manage to go through another incident with the underside of the 919 Hybrid being repaired to finish in fourth.
Craig Robertson / www.speedchills.com
In LMP2, the #36 Signatech Alpine Nissan of Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stéphane Richelmi won their class after the #26 G-Drive Racing Nissan retired just a few hours into the race while leading their class.
Completing the podium positions in the LMP2 class are the #43 RGR Sport by Morand’s Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzalez in second, while the #31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier Nissan of Ryan Dalziel, Felipe Luis Derani and Christopher Cumming completed the podium positions for LMP2 in third place.
GTE Pro saw an AF Corse one-two as the #51 AF Corse of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado were ahead of their team-mates in the #71 488 GTE of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird by over 29 seconds when they crossed the finish line.
Aston Martin Racing’s #95 V8 Vantage of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen finished the final podium positions for GTE Pro. Thiim and Sørensen led for the first four hours before losing the lead, two hours before the finish to the #51 AF Corse 488 GTO crew of Bruni and Calado.
In GTE Am, the #98 Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda won their class, ahead of the #78 KCMG 911 RSR in second. Completing the podium positions for GTE Am in third were the #83 AF Corse of Emanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Aguas.
The 2016 FIA WEC season heads to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for Round 5 at the inaugural 6 Hours of Mexico on 1-3 September 2016.
