April - June
Porsche 919 Hybrid finishes fourth in SpaSports Car World Championship WEC, round 2, Spa-Francorchamps/Belgium, Race, LMP1:
Stuttgart. Following the podium finish at the season’s opener in Silverstone, the new
The race day for the sister car no. 20 of Timo Bernhard (Germany), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand) and Mark Webber (Australia) was even less lucky. They had started fifth, improved immediately to third but then were hampered by technical problems and dropped back to the end of the field.
Nevertheless, the newly formed
Fritz Enzinger, Vice President LMP1: “It was our main target to finish the race with both
Alexander Hitzinger, Technical Director LMP1: “In car no. 14 we’ve had a false alarm which has switched off the hybrid system. Romain then had to do a time consuming reactivation procedure. We are very conservative when it comes to safety of our hybrid systems, so such a thing can happen and there is some homework to do. The
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal LMP1: “The weekend had many positive moments, for example our qualifying performance and lap times in the race. But at the same time it has shown what is still missing here and there. Nevertheless: In the race we were on the same level as the competition. Overall we have learnt a lot. The team has once again done a great job. This was another important next step towards Le Mans.”
Drivers
Romain Dumas: “I am happy to have done my very first race stint in the
Neel Jani: “I knew it would be important for me to defend P1 in the first corner after the start, I was really committed through La Source and then I had to take a bit of a risk in Eau Rouge as well. I gave everything in the first stint and that was how I managed to get a good lead. The second set of tyres somehow was less comfortable but I could stay in the lead. I think in Silverstone we were okay in qualifying but nowhere in the race. Here we were very good in qualifying and could lead the race for a long time. Looks like good progress.“
Marc Lieb: “I have had a rather quiet stint but nevertheless it wasn’t easy. I couldn’t really follow the pace of the car in front of me. However, an important lesson learnt today was how to manage a set of tyres to make it last for two stints.“
Drivers
Timo Bernhard: “Right at the start I got squeezed a bit in the pack but I could overtake an Audi and a Toyota on lap one to improve from fifth to third. Then suddenly the car felt strange and I pitted straight away. This was after nine laps. We fixed it and I did a 50 lap double stint with one set of tyres which wasn’t easy. Unfortunately later we had more problems with our car.”
Brendon Hartley: “The first few laps from Timo were really good but then we have had a couple of technical issues today. I think the team has managed the repairs very well as the car never spent too much time in the garage.”
Mark Webber: “Despite the problems we had with our car we never gave up fighting and got the most out of it. The car runs well now but we could not exploit its full potential. The team works really hard and we are learning very quickly. Our speed is encouraging. We now have to solve the teething problems which are normal for such a new project. We knew we would be better here than in Silverstone. There we weren’t competitive. But here we were.”
The
With two different energy recovery systems the
Sports prototypes and GT vehicles contest the sports car World Endurance Championship WEC in four classes: LMP1 (eg.
Race result, 6 hrs of Spa:
1. Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi (GB/F/CH), Toyota TS040 Hybrid, 171 laps
2. Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen (BRA/F/DK), Audi R18 e-tron quattro, - 1:13.926 min
3. Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima (A/F/J), Toyota TS040 Hybrid, - 1:20.861 min
4. Dumas/Jani/Lieb (F/CH/D),
5. Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer (CH/D/F), Audi R18 e-tron quattro, 1 lap behind
6. Bonanomi/Albuquerque (I/POR), Audi R18 e-tron quattro, 2 laps behind
7. Prost/Heidfeld/Beche (F/D/CH), Rebellion R-One-Toyota, 10 laps behind
23. Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (D/NZ/AUS),
FIA World Endurance Championship after 2 of 8 rounds, drivers:
1. Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi (GB/F/CH), Toyota, 50
2. Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima (A/F/J), Toyota, 34
3. Di Grassi/Duval/Kristensen (BRA/F/DK), Audi, 18
4. Prost/Heidfeld/Beche (F/D/CH), Rebellion, 18
5. Bernhard/Hartley/Webber (D/NZ/AUS),
6. Canal/Pla/Rusinov (F/F/RUS), G-Drive, 14
7. Dumas/Jani/Lieb (F/CH/D),
8. Lotterer/Tréluyer/Fässler (D/F/CH), Audi, 10
Manufacturers:
1. Toyota, 84
2.
3. Audi, 28
The Sports Car World Endurance Championship WEC
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03.05.2014