Porsche has concluded the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in Bahrain by taking the sixth consecutive race win and the second title this year. For Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, fifth place in the six-hour race was enough to win the Drivers’ World Championship.
Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, and Marc Lieb took their long-awaited first race win this season with the second Porsche 919 Hybrid.
Bernhard/Hartley/Webber had started with a 13-point lead ahead of the best placed Audi trio. Given the great season Porsche had had so far with the Le Mans victory and the early win of the Manufacturers’ title, it looked possible to win the Drivers’ title in Bahrain.
But half an hour into the race the number 17 car had to come into the pits for a long repair stop. After that, the trio had to go flat out to catch up from the very back of the pack, and eventually they finished fifth. It was the sister car that took the lead and the crucial points away from the Audi.
Speaking after the race, Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1 said: “This was no race for the nervous. Because of the issues we had with car number 17, we found ourselves in new situations all the time. You cannot imagine better team-work after the number 18 crew had handed the number 17 crew the title by winning the race.
"The one hundred per cent qualifying result over the season, winning all the races since Le Mans, is an amazing success. Thanks to Porsche, thanks to the Weissach team and the crew here at the track. I’m terribly proud of the team, which has grown together. It is the greatest pleasure to work with them.”
Andreas Seidl, Team Principaladded: “What a race! Congratulations firstly to Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber for their well deserved world championship title. We experienced a very difficult race today. But again we were able to show that we can cope with it. After a perfect season this is the icing on the cake. Thanks to the team here and at home and to all our technical partners and sponsors, who have supported us right from the beginning of this programme and who deserve a big share of this success. From tomorrow on the new season starts.”
Porsche’s success in the WEC continued in the GT class for production-based cars, in which Porsche competes with the Porsche 911 RSR, the competition version of the iconic 911. On Saturday at the six-hour race in Bahrain, the Porsche 911 RSR driven by Frenchmen Frédéric Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet not only scored the fourth GTE-Pro class win of the season – Porsche also netted three championship titles with the 470 hp winning racer from Weissach.
With this victory at the Bahrain International Circuit, Porsche overtook Ferarri in the manufacturers’ classification. The Porsche Manthey squad secured the team championship, and Porsche works driver Richard Lietz convincingly defended his title in the FIA World Endurance Cup for Drivers. Fifth place in the race with his teammate Michael Christensen from Denmark was enough for the Austrian to secure this honour. With this, Porsche continues on its winning path after also scoring three GT titles at this season’s North American Tudor United SportsCar Championship.
The success on the Grand Prix circuit in the desert, a racetrack known to put extreme stresses on the tyres, was also a race for strategists. The tactic of not going all-out in qualifying to clinch pole position but instead to concentrate on preparing for the race and save a fresh set of tyres also worked perfectly at this season finale. Patrick Pilet took up the race from the fifth grid spot and immediately put the GT-class frontrunners under pressure.
Third place after one lap, second after two – and after eleven laps he had taken the lead. Putting in a strong drive and clocking consistently fast lap times, the champion of the Tudor United SportsCar Championship and his teammate Frédéric Makowiecki fended off repeated attacks from their rivals over the rest of the race. At the flag, the duo held a comfortable lead of almost 40 seconds.
In the sister 911 RSR fielded by the Porsche Manthey team, start driver Michael Christensen and his teammate Richard Lietz, who have notched up victories this season at the Nürburgring, in Austin and Shanghai, initially took things a little cautiously. In the first half of the race they kept out of any trouble, with the plan of catching the leading group at nightfall. But right to the end they held back from taking unnecessary risks, and were satisfied with fifth place, which secured Porsche all three GT championship titles.
