FIA WEC: Porsche Aces 6 Hours of COTA as Audi Wins Double Podium

Porsche extended its supremacy in the FIA World Endurance Championship on Saturday at the 6 Hours of COTA. The #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid took chequered flag after six hours of racing, a minute before its rivals Audi. The #91 Porsche 911 RSR went ahead to win in LMGTE-Pro class while the #88 Porsche 911 RSR took P2 in the LMGTE-Am class.

The team of Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard had no problem leading the field comfortably in the first half. The speed of the #17 Porsche was unmatchable on the field at that time. When the second half started, darkness had engulfed the circuit and a couple of mistakes occurred nearly changing the order of the field.

First was the leading Porsche that was handed a 60-second stop-and-go penalty for infringing pit regulations. This was after a mechanic touched the car when Webber was taking over. The #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid assumed the lead with the team of Marc Lieb, Neel Jani and Romain Dumas eyeing for an easy win. Unfortunately the car suffered a technical problem, they finished fifth eventually.

Despite using different pit strategies, the Audis were unable to match the Porsches’ speed. The #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro finished second leading the #8 sister car of Lucas Di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and Loïc Duval. Toyota took fourth with the #1 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid, the #2 car crashed while trying to overtake an Aston Martin.

The ByKolles claimed another win in the LMP1 private teams with their CLM P1/01, the Rebellion cars faced challenges with technical issues. The #26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan of Sam Bird, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal took the win in LMP2 class.

In LMGTE-Pro class, Porsche Team Manthey aced once again taking a 1-2 podium victory. The #91 Porsche 911 RSR of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen crossed the finish line first ahead of the #92 sister car. The #71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of James Calado and Davide Rigon took third in this class.

Meanwhile in LMGTE-AM class, the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 of Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaytar and Aleksey Basov claimed P1 leading the #88 Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche and the #88 AF Corse Ferrari 458.

The next round of FIA WEC will head over to Japan on October 11 for the 6 Hours of Fuji. Porsche still leads the standings with 220 points away from Audi and Toyota with 184 and 101 points respectively.