The reigning world champions Timo Bernhard (DE), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AU) won the thrilling six-hour race in Mexico City. By winning the fifth of nine rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), with the 919 Hybrid Porsche further extended its lead in the manufacturers’ standings. The trio of Romain Dumas (FR), Neel Jani (CH) and Marc Lieb (DE) came fourth in the race on Saturday and extended their lead in the drivers’ world championship. The fastest race lap on the 4.304 kilometre Formula One track was achieved by Brendon Hartley in 1:25.880 minutes on lap 114.
“What a race, I’m very happy about this race win,” commented Hartley. “It was a good start, I was able to overtake Marc in turn one for P3. You could see the Audis were struggling a bit. I was unlucky with traffic, and so Di Grassi was able to make a gap of ten seconds. But then I was able to get in front of Lotterer, and it was a good battle. Later I took the lead. The stop-and-go penalty threw me back to third for a while, but the car was feeling mega and the boys did fantastic pit stops.”
Toyota GAZOO Racing’s Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi in the #6 TS050 HYBRID overcame a difficult start to the event, which saw them miss Thursday practice due to an accident, to finish third. That result elevates them to second in the drivers’ World Championship.
Only one TS050 HYBRID finished the race, with the #5 car of Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima forced to retire due to an electrical issue on the powertrain when challenging for a podium finish.
In total this is the 11th victory for the innovative Porsche 919 Hybrid prototype since its 2014 debut. In the current season the 919 has won four races, including the Le Mans 24 Hours. For Bernhard/Hartley/Webber it is their sixth WEC success. Porsche now leads the manufacturers’ standings with 201 points ahead of Audi (158) and Toyota (112). Dumas/Jani/Lieb lead the drivers’ standings by 41 points.
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