The Porsche LMP Team took another big step in their mission of title defence in Mexico City today: At the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the Weissach-based team with the two Porsche 919 Hybrids achieved a dominant one-two victory in the 6 Hours of Mexico.
The championship leading Le Mans winners, Earl Bamber (NZ), Timo Bernhard (DE) and Brendon Hartley (NZ) came first ahead of their teammates Neel Jani (CH), André Lotterer (DE) and Nick Tandy (GB).
“The entire weekend was fantastic,” commented Bamber. “The team gave us a great car and made our life very easy. In the race it was a shame that our sister car had a penalty because some close racing would have been nice. I was the second driver in the car and my double stint was straight forward.”
Against all predictions, the weather stayed dry during the well received six-hour race and allowed straight racing with a pure result. The two Porsche 919 Hybrids lapped the competition provided by Toyota while Hartley set the fastest race lap.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing suffered disappointment in the fifth round. Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima in the #8 TS050 HYBRID earned the team’s fifth podium of the season with third place in Mexico City, but that did not mask the team’s frustration at not being able to challenge Porsche.
The #7 TS050 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López finished fourth, with both cars one lap behind the winning Porsche #2.
Porsche has now scored 198 points in the manufacturers’ world championship with Toyota on 141.5 points. In the drivers’ rankings, Bamber/Bernhard/Hartley (134 points) have extended their lead over the best placed Toyota trio to 41 points. Jani/Lotterer/Tandy now lie third in the championship (64 points). In less than two weeks time, on September 16, the WEC starts round six of nine at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas (USA).
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