The Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard Porsche has taken its second victory on the bounce after overcoming a one-minute penalty in Round 5 of the World Endurance Championship at the Circuit of the Americas.
Porsche’s #18 car driven by Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb had seemed set for victory before it was wheeled into the garage from the lead with an apparent electrical issue with just over 30 minutes remaining in the six-hour race.
With Hartley aboard, the #17 Porsche took the lead before being summoned for a splash and dash with 25 minutes remaining.
Hartley took the chequered flag in a bitter-sweet result for the Weissach outfit.
The demise of the #18 Porsche was a free-kick for Audi which saw its #7 R18 e-tron quattro of championship leaders Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer finish second, just over one minute behind.
It means the #7 crew’s lead in the driver’s championship has been reduced by seven points to 10 over the #17 Porsche.
The #8 Audi of Loic Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis overcame difficulty to claim third position.
Toyota had a mixed bag with its #1 TS040 led home by Kazuki Nakajima in fourth place.
The #17 919 Hybrid had seized control for two-thirds of the six-hour race but its smooth run then encountered a couple of hiccups.
Webber had blasted past polesitter Jani for the lead going into the first corner after the start.
The #17 Porsche saw a sizeable advantage eroded away at the halfway mark when Webber overshot his pit stall.
The error cost Webber 25s with the gap reduced to seven seconds.
“All going super well except for my last pit stop. In this very wide pit lane I overshot our garage. No excuse,” Webber admitted.
In his second stint Webber managed to build upon Hartley’s sizzling second hour stint.
However it then turned sour for the #17 when it was handed a one minute penalty for a pit stop infringement with just over two hours remaining.
Bernhard served the penalty and rejoined in second place, more than a minute behind the sister Porsche which in turn was called in for a routine pit stop.
The #18 had seemingly been en route to a certain victory before the electrical problem surfaced.
It rejoined the race with just under one minute remaining and was classified in sixth place of the LMP1 runners, 12th overall.
With less than three hours remaining the #8 Audi was handed a one-minute penalty for a pit stop infringement.
“It was for dropping a tyre. It was unbelievable because the guys were fantastic and rarely make a mistake,” Jarvis said.
A remorseful Mike Conway rued a mistake which saw him collect the fence in the #2 Toyota TS040 Hybrid which ended the run in the machine he shared with Alex Wurz and Stephane Sarrazin after 89 laps.
In LMP2 the #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier Nissan driven by Sam Bird took victory from Nicholas Lapierre’s KCMG Oreca Nissan.
Porsche were also victorious in GTE Pro with Michael Christensen leading a 1-2 for the Zuffenhausen maker with Patrick Pilet second in the sister Team Manthey 911 RSR.
While in GTE Am, Victor Shaytar took the win in the SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia from Le Mans 24 Hour winner Earl Bamber’s Porsche 911 RSR.
Full results 6 Hours of the Circuit of Americas results
Pos | N° | Cat | Driver | Car | Laps | Total Time | Gap | Best time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 17 | LMP1 | Timo BERNHARD, Mark WEBBER, Brendon HARTLEY | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 185 | 6:00’12.228 | 1’47.412 | |
2 | 7 | LMP1 | Marcel FÄSSLER, André LOTTERER, Benoît TRÉLUYER | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | 185 | 6:01’19.068 | 1’06.840 | 1’47.540 |
3 | 8 | LMP1 | Lucas DI GRASSI, Loïc DUVAL, Oliver JARVIS | Audi R18 e-tron quattro | 184 | 6:00’12.996 | 1 Laps | 1’47.925 |
4 | 1 | LMP1 | Anthony DAVIDSON, Sébastien BUEMI, Kazuki NAKAJIMA | Toyota TS 040 – Hybrid | 183 | 6:01’58.463 | 2 Laps | 1’49.455 |
5 | 26 | LMP2 | Roman RUSINOV, Julien CANAL, Sam BIRD | Ligier JS P2 – Nissan | 170 | 6:00’17.618 | 15 Laps | 1’57.252 |
6 | 47 | LMP2 | Matthew HOWSON, Richard BRADLEY, Nicolas LAPIERRE | Oreca 05 – Nissan | 170 | 6:01’38.783 | 15 Laps | 1’56.735 |
7 | 28 | LMP2 | Gustavo YACAMAN, Luis Felipe DERANI, Ricardo GONZALEZ | Ligier JS P2 – Nissan | 169 | 6:00’47.979 | 16 Laps | 1’57.747 |
8 | 4 | LMP1 | Simon TRUMMER, Pierre KAFFER, | CLM P1/01 – AER | 169 | 6:01’07.092 | 16 Laps | 1’55.560 |
9 | 30 | LMP2 | Scott SHARP, Ryan DALZIEL, David HEINEMEIER HANSSON | Ligier JS P2 – HPD | 169 | 6:01’08.906 | 16 Laps | 1’57.572 |
10 | 43 | LMP2 | Pierre RAGUES, Oliver WEBB, Archie HAMILTON | Morgan Evo – SARD | 169 | 6:01’08.984 | 16 Laps | 1’58.387 |
11 | 36 | LMP2 | Nelson PANCIATICI, Paul Loup CHATIN, Vincent CAPILLAIRE | Alpine A450b – Nissan | 169 | 6:01’09.746 | 16 Laps | 1’56.996 |
12 | 18 | LMP1 | Romain DUMAS, Neel JANI, Marc LIEB | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 168 | 6:01’27.000 | 17 Laps | 1’47.446 |
13 | 42 | LMP2 | Nick LEVENTIS, Danny WATTS, Jonny KANE | Gibson 015S – Nissan | 166 | 6:01’28.275 | 19 Laps | 1’57.702 |
14 | 91 | LMGTE Pro | Richard LIETZ, Michael CHRISTENSEN, | Porsche 911 RSR | 162 | 6:01’45.918 | 23 Laps | 2’05.867 |
15 | 92 | LMGTE Pro | Patrick PILET, Frédéric MAKOWIECKI, | Porsche 911 RSR | 162 | 6:01’53.686 | 23 Laps | 2’05.931 |
16 | 71 | LMGTE Pro | Davide RIGON, James CALADO, | Ferrari F458 Italia | 162 | 6:02’10.303 | 23 Laps | 2’06.361 |
17 | 99 | LMGTE Pro | Alex MACDOWALL, Fernando REES, Richie STANAWAY | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 161 | 6:02’03.409 | 24 Laps | 2’06.327 |
18 | 95 | LMGTE Pro | Christoffer NYGAARD, Marco SØRENSEN, | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 160 | 6:00’15.506 | 25 Laps | 2’06.460 |
19 | 97 | LMGTE Pro | Darren TURNER, Jonathan ADAM, | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 160 | 6:00’18.294 | 25 Laps | 2’06.693 |
20 | 51 | LMGTE Pro | Gianmaria BRUNI, Toni VILANDER, | Ferrari F458 Italia | 160 | 6:00’25.189 | 25 Laps | 2’06.090 |
21 | 72 | LMGTE Am | Victor SHAYTAR, Andrea BERTOLINI, Aleksey BASOV | Ferrari F458 Italia | 159 | 6:01’36.793 | 26 Laps | 2’07.170 |
22 | 88 | LMGTE Am | Christian RIED, Khaled AL QUBAISI, Earl BAMBER | Porsche 911 RSR | 159 | 6:02’17.647 | 26 Laps | 2’06.227 |
23 | 83 | LMGTE Am | François PERRODO, Emmanuel COLLARD, Rui AGUAS | Ferrari F458 Italia | 158 | 6:00’13.166 | 27 Laps | 2’07.337 |
24 | 77 | LMGTE Am | Patrick DEMPSEY, Patrick LONG, Marco SEEFRIED | Porsche 911 RSR | 158 | 6:00’18.101 | 27 Laps | 2’06.674 |
25 | 98 | LMGTE Am | Paul DALLA LANA, Pedro LAMY, Mathias LAUDA | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 158 | 6:01’50.904 | 27 Laps | 2’07.314 |
26 | 96 | LMGTE Am | Francesco CASTELLACCI, Benny SIMONSEN, Stuart HALL | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 158 | 6:01’51.192 | 27 Laps | 2’08.127 |
27 | 50 | LMGTE Am | Gianluca RODA, Paolo RUBERTI, Kristian POULSEN | Chevrolet Corvette C7 | 157 | 6:00’21.296 | 28 Laps | 2’07.750 |
28 | 13 | LMP1 | Alexandre IMPERATORI, Dominik KRAIHAMER, Daniel ABT | Rebellion R-One – AER | 147 | 6:00’48.174 | 38 Laps | 1’54.512 |
29 | 12 | LMP1 | Nicolas PROST, Mathias BECHE, Nick HEIDFELD | Rebellion R-One – AER | 147 | 6:01’18.922 | 38 Laps | 1’54.036 |
30 | 2 | LMP1 | Alexander WURZ, Stéphane SARRAZIN, Mike CONWAY | Toyota TS 040 – Hybrid | 89 | 2:56’41.805 | 96 Laps | 1’50.182 |
31 | 31 | LMP2 | Ed BROWN, Johannes VAN OVERBEEK, Jonathon FOGARTY | Ligier JS P2 – HPD | 54 | 1:53’42.600 | 131 Laps | 1’59.819 |
Driver’s points after 5 of 8 rounds
|
VIDEO: Porsche Race Wrap