Rain, fog, red flag – Porsche 919 Hybrids finish third and fourth at the FIA WEC Fuji

October 16, 2017 Tim Havermans 919, Andre Lotterer, Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber, FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), LMP1, Neel Jani, Nick Tandy, Timo Bernhard

How the race went for car number 2:

Earl Bamber performs his first WEC start in the 919 Hybrid. When the safety car disappears at the end of lap 5, Bamber stays in the lead. Before the second safety car period begins at the end of lap 28 because of fog, he has built up a gap of over 12 seconds to the number 8 Toyota (Sébastien Buemi). When the race is red flagged after 39 laps, he is the only LMP1 that hasn’t yet refuelled. At 12:50 hrs the race is restarted and Bamber needs to immediately pit. After 40 laps, Timo Bernhard takes over with fresh rain tyres. He is now fourth behind the two Toyotas and Neel Jani. Bernhard gets lapped by the number 8 Toyota on lap 56 with the latest safety car period coming moments later. After 63 laps, Bernhard hands over to Brendon Hartley who continues with fresh rain tyres behind the safety car in P4 of the LMP1 category. End of lap 65 the safety car releases the field, end of lap 79 it comes back on track and later again after laps 88 and 111 leaving Hartley powerless to unlap himself. When the race is ultimately red flagged after 114 laps, he is in the pits for refuelling.

FIA WEC Fuji Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche LMP Team - Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley — FIA WEC Fuji Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche LMP Team – Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley

The Porsche LMP Team after the race

Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: “Heavy rain, thick fog, a start behind the safety car, two red flags and numerous safety car periods and yellow zones: Given these adverse conditions, we can be glad that nothing serious happened today. In the end it was a lucky one-two race win for Toyota. But we were close and in Shanghai we will do everything to do the next step in order to defend our championship titles.”

Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: “Congratulations to Toyota for winning in Fuji. The pendulum today swung back and forth several times. Before the first red flag, we were gambling. If it would have been the end of the race, we would have won it with our number 2 car. But with the timing of the ultimate red flag we were unlucky. If the race had continued, we would have seen a battle for victory between the number 7 Toyota and our number 1 car. We generally had difficulties getting the tyres to work at the re-starts causing us to drop back a few times. However, it is important that we take home some more points for both championship classifications. It was a very difficult weekend for our drivers and the entire team but everyone stayed focused which I thank them for.”

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