Msanama: The trio of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard steered their Porsche 919 Hybrids to victory in the recently held Six Hours of Shanghai in China.
The race was the seventh and penultimate round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
The series now heads to the kingdom for the highly anticipated FIA WEC Six Hours of Bahrain race weekend, which will be hosted by Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir on November 20 and 21.
Webber, Hartley and Bernhard spearheaded a Porsche one-two while Audi claimed the final podium place in the overall classification, as well as amongst Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) teams.
The victorious trio completed 169 laps in six hours of work while taking the chequered flag 26.294 seconds ahead of Porsche teammates Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb.
The Audi Team Sport Joest threesome of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer were third 30.311secs behind the winners. Claiming fourth place in the other Audi R18 e-tron quattro were Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis. They were 50.906secs back.
Each of the top four had completed the race with the same number of total laps.
In fifth and sixth place were the two Toyota TS040 Hybrids. Alexander Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway finished ahead of their teammates Anthony Davidson, Sabastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.
Completing the classification in the LMP1 class were Rebellion Racing’s Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche in seventh and Team Bykolles’ Simon Trummer and Pierre Kaffer in eighth.
In the LMP2 class, the Signatech Alpine trio of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Tom Dillmann claimed first place in their Alpine A450b Nissan car. They had 154 laps to their name.
Runners-up were G-Drive Racing’s Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal and Sam Bird a lap behind in their Ligier JS P2 Nissan, while in third place in an Oreca 05 Nissan were KCMG’s Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley and Nick Tandy.
There was also plenty of action in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) categories.
Porsche Team Manthey clinched first place in the LMGTE Pro class. Behind the wheel of a Porsche 911 RSR were the tandem of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen. AF Corse’s Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander were second in their Ferrari 458 Italia, while the Porsche Team Manthey duo of Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki were third, also in a Porsche 911 RSR.
In the LMGTE Am category, Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard and Rui Aguas of AF Corse steered their Ferrari F458 Italia to a win. Finishing second was the Aston Martin Racing trio of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda, driving an Aston Martin Vantage V8 and finishing 41.745secs behind.
SMP Racing’s Viktor Shaytar, Andrea Bertolini and Aleksey Basov were third one lap back in their own Ferrari 458 Italia.
Popular American actor and former star of hit TV series Grey’s Anatomy, Patrick Dempsey, finished fourth with his teammates in the LMGTE Am category. Their Dempsey-Proton Racing trio included Patrick Long and Marco Seefried, and they were competing in a Porsche 911 RSR.
The upcoming FIA WEC Six Hours of Bahrain is the WEC’s lone stop in the entire Middle East. It is one of only a few day-to-night races in the championship, and it gives local fans a special taste of the spirit of the legendary 24 Heures du Mans.
Aside from the WEC, there will be plenty more to look forward to on the track, with the GP2 Series, GP3 Series, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East and the MRF Challenge all as part of a stellar support programme.
BIC is calling on all race fans not to miss out on this spectacular event and purchase their tickets as soon as possible.
Tickets can be bought at the BIC stand in Bahrain City Centre, online at www.bahraingp.com, or by calling the BIC Hotline on +973-17-450000. They cost just BD10 for the entire weekend, while those aged 15 and below can get in absolutely free.