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Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Huelkenberg, Bamber, Tandy

Interim report

Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Huelkenberg, Bamber, Tandy
FIA World Endurance Championship, 24 Hours of Le Mans (LMP1) – after 21 hours, Interim report
One-two for the Porsche 919 Hybrids with three hours to go

Stuttgart. Three hours before the end of the 24-hour race Porsche has a one-two in Le Mans. In the morning the Porsche 919 Hybrids continued to do quadruple stints and the team also gained time over the competition by doing perfect pit stops. Car number 19 (Earl Bamber/Nico Hülkenberg/Nick Tandy) stayed in the lead. Car number 17 (Timo Bernhard/Brendon Hartley/Mark Webber) improved strongly to take second place, while car number 18 (Romain Dumas/Neel Jani/Marc Lieb) improved to fifth.

Car number 17 has been in the hands of Mark Webber since 05:47 hrs (end of lap 240). The Australian handed over his red prototype to Timo Bernhard after lap 294 at 09:12 hrs. Thanks to strong efforts by the drivers and a long pit stop for the number 7 Audi, the Porsche improved from fourth to second position.

The number 18 car held position in sixth and shortly before noon moved up to fifth. Romain Dumas started his quadruple stint at 04:23 hrs in the morning (after lap 214) and got out for Neel Jani after 266 laps at 07:25 hrs. When the car had completed 323 laps at 10:51 hrs, Marc Lieb took over again. He handed the car back to Romain Dumas after the car had completed 333 laps at 11:38 hrs.

The number 19 Porsche, which took the lead before midnight, kept in front of the pack. At 06:15 hrs and after 249 laps Earl Bamber handed over the leading car to Nico Hülkenberg. At the end of lap 276 the team made use of a long safety car period by taking the car inside the garage for a comprehensive service, including rear bodywork, a rear wing, tyres and a driver change in between two of the three safety cars that were guiding the field. At 08:05 hrs Nick Tandy re-joined the race in the leading car. At 11:11 hrs after 329 race laps were completed, Earl Bamber took over again.

Brendon Hartley (car number 17): “We did four stints on one set of Michelin tyres. I had no dramas at all. We were chasing down the Audi after the penalty had put us back a bit. We will keep attacking and want to get a podium.”

Mark Webber (car number 17): “I had no problems, the car ran very well with quadruple stints. There are still a few hours to go. I want to compliment car no 19. The crew is doing an excellent job.”

Romain Dumas (car number 18): “In my quadruple stint everything was fine. It is just unfortunate that we are not really involved in the battle for the lead. We will drive around, do our best – and wait.”

Neel Jani (car number 18): “Our crew of number 18 have overall had a rather difficult race, with two offs and some issues at night when it was cooler. But that’s racing, and we definitely want to finish and take away some World Championship points. Anyway, for our Porsche Team it looks great with a one-two and we want to bring that result home.”

Earl Bamber (car number 19): “My stint in which I led from darkness to daylight was really good. The car is running nicely. However, at nine this morning I realised that there was still the distance of a normal WEC 6-Hour race ahead of us. Not a single lap or corner is easy out there and the Audis are mega, mega fast.”

Nico Hülkenberg (car number 19): “In the morning I didn’t have that many laps in a row because all of a sudden, as things develop in endurance racing, it made sense to get the car in for a full service, including a driver change. It was another good period of the race. The car is still really good and I felt very comfortable.”

Nick Tandy (car number 19): “So far it has been fantastic. I especially enjoyed my night stint. Normally I don’t particularly enjoy night driving, because the visibility isn’t that good. But I got into a very nice rhythm and I think for the first time since I have been part of this project I really felt I was at one with the car and this special kind of control was an amazing feeling.”

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All reports on the previous season can be found in our archive.