Another one-two race win for the Porsche 919 Hybrids in Texas

September 18, 2017 Tim Havermans 919, Andre Lotterer, Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber, LMP1, Neel Jani, Nick Tandy, Timo Bernhard

Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche LMP Team (2): Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley; Porsche LMP Team (1): Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer, Nick Tandy

The Porsche LMP Team after the race

Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: “Our fourth consecutive race win is the result of a hard fight as Toyota was a strong competitor. It was a difficult race in incredible heat. Thanks to Porsche, the LMP team at home and here at the race track as well as to our tremendous drivers. We have again moved closer to our target: to defend both championship titles.”Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: “After the pole position yesterday, the crew of the number 1 Porsche produced a superb race today. There is no doubt they deserved the race win. Congratulations to the team of the 919 Hybrid number 2, they made the next step towards the title win. Today we experienced a very, very close race with Toyota. Thanks to an errorless and perfect performance of drivers and team, faultlessly working cars and the right decisions at the right time, we managed the day despite the high temperatures. Our joint hot weather test with tyre partner Michelin in Barcelona paid off. For the entire weekend, we’ve had the better package. Now we are preparing for Fuji, where we expect another close battle with Toyota.”

Drivers Porsche 919 Hybrid car number 1:

Neel Jani (33, Switzerland): “I drove the start and had a good first stint with the tyres we used in qualifying. It was pretty lonely at the front and I could extend the lead to more than ten seconds. To manage the traffic when lapping other cars was not easy and the heat stressed the tyres. During my second stint, the safety car came out and our advantage melted away. I also could not maximise the potential of the new tyres I had. But later I could open up a gap again and had lots of fun. We obviously knew before the race that we would step back for our colleagues in the sister car.”André Lotterer (35, Germany): “It wasn’t an easy race today. We had made some changes to the car to adapt for the race. Unfortunately this led to heavy understeer. We then tried to make up for it by changing some settings. On my first stint, the second one of the race, I had a pretty good fight with José María López in the Toyota for second position. He kept boosting to keep ahead. This way he made room for the other Toyota that was leading that time. That was okay though. Shortly before the end of my second stint in the last two hours of the race, I was suddenly hit by Kamui Kobayashi. Luckily it happened very late in the corner when I was already accelerating, which in our case means I had four-wheel drive. I kept my foot on the throttle and the front wheels pulled me straight again. It was tough racing.“Nick Tandy (32, Great Britain): “I was the third driver in our car and my first stint was on used tyres and we didn’t know what to expect. But the pace stayed consistent and competitive so that we kept the lead. I have the feeling that my teammates had the more exciting stints and battles then I had. Congratulations to Porsche for a great result. On our side of the garage we once again did a perfect race. We were really fast and did everything right.”

FIA WEC Austin Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche LMP Team: Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard — Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche LMP Team: Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley

Drivers Porsche 919 Hybrid car number 2

Earl Bamber (27, New Zealand): “Our sister car number 1 had the edge on us today. They did a fantastic job with no mistakes and we also had a big challenge from Toyota. I’m sure they will be very strong in Fuji, so we have to keep working. Our car was good today, we had great stints and some battles to enjoy.”Timo Bernhard (36, Germany): “Another one-two is certainly great but it wasn’t easy today with lots of difficult situations in traffic. I was not happy with my opening stint. The car behaved differently than I’d expected causing me to lose ground. When I was in the car for the second time, I had some good fights with the two Toyotas and could overtake Mike Conway. Of course we are pleased about the maximum points for the drivers’ championship, but our sister car would definitely have deserved the race win.”Brendon Hartley (27, New Zealand): “The result is an awesome team effort. Both our cars were always close together and Toyota kept us honest for the entire race. It was interesting to see the different tyre strategies today. I was second and fifth in the car and had good, clean stints.”