LMP1 race FIA World Endurance Championship in Bahrain, Round 9 (Final), Sakhir
With two podium finishes at the last round in Bahrain, the Porsche LMP Team bid a fond farewell to the FIA World Endurance Championship. Drivers Earl Bamber (NZ), Timo Bernhard (DE) and Brendon Hartley (NZ), who were crowned world champions two weeks ago, finished second in what was an incident filled and highly emotional 2017 finale. This year’s Le Mans winners dropped behind after an early incident but impressively fought back. The sister car, shared by Neel Jani (CH), André Lotterer (DE) and Nick Tandy (GB) started from pole position but also suffered a set-back after a collision and a subsequent penalty. Lotterer clocked the fastest race lap and finished in third position after six hours of racing. Toyota won the night race.
With this race, that was green flagged by Matthias Müller, Chairman of the Executive Board of Volkswagen AG, one of the most successful chapters of Porsche’s motorsport history comes to an end. From 2015 to date, the Porsche LMP Team took three consecutive Le Mans outright victories plus three successive manufacturers’ world championship titles while Porsche 919 Hybrid drivers won the drivers’ world championship title on three occasions. Since the 919’s debut in 2014, the tally from 34 races is 17 wins with seven of them being one-two victories. Furthermore 20 pole positions and 13 fastest race laps were achieved.
Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG: “No other Porsche team has ever managed three Le Mans outright victories in a row but this squad achieved it. I thank them very much for this. I’m extremely proud of every single team member. They have mastered a mammoth task with hard work, consistency and the right approach. To me this represents the Porsche spirit that our brand stands for spanning almost 70 years. Now the team of Fritz Enzinger and Andreas Seidl face its new challenge: to enter Formula E for season number six at the end of 2019.”
Michael Steiner, Board Member for Research and Development at Porsche AG: “An era comes to an end with the last race entry of the Porsche 919 Hybrid. We have often shown in our company’s history that inventiveness, experience and courage can make a highly complex and successful race car. The 919 achieved almost everything possible in its four years and demonstrated the predominance of hybrid power. The combination from a highly efficient combustion engine and a powerful electric drive reached a new level with the 919 Hybrid. We consequently follow this path with our road sports cars.”
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