Wazzup Pilipinas!
Porsche Team followed up its Le Mans 24 Hours victory in June with a one-two finish after a dramatic race at the 2015 6 Hours of Nürburgring August 30. The N°18 Porsche 919 Hybrid overcame three Stop&Go penalties (of five, thirty and sixty seconds), for excessive fuel consumption, to steal second place from Audi Sport thanks, in part, to the tyre strategy that was adopted for Switzerland’s Neel Jani on Lap 143.
The weekend’s competition got off to a solid start for Porsche Team when it secured the first two places on the grid in Saturday’s qualifying, with the N°18 Porsche 919 Hybrid (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) claiming pole ahead of the N°17 sister car (Bernhard/Webber/Hartley). Audi Sport Team Joest, which had topped Friday’s two free practice sessions, had to settle for the third- and fourth-best qualifying times with the N°8 R18 e-tron quattro (Di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis) and the similar N°7 prototype (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer).
Sunday’s 6 Hours of Nürburgring started at the stroke of 1pm in sunny weather with the track temperature standing at 37°C. The cars of Michelin’s partners were fitted with ‘high temperature’ tyres.
After the rolling start, there were no changes to the order established in qualifying once the Porsche Team had cars succeeded in shrugging off the Audis’ early threats. The gap gradually widened until Timo Bernhard (N°17 Porsche) picked up damage to a front aerodynamic appendix. On Lap 24, the car pitted for its first refuelling halt which was brought forward to change the car’s nose. Audi Sport took advantage of the stop to appear in second place with its N°8 car. The N°7 R18 e-tron quattro, in the hands of Marcel Fässler, stopped at the same time but was nine seconds quicker out of the pits.