Porsche no. 17 takes title in tense finale

Victory for Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas under the lights in Bahrain ensured that a fifth place for Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard was enough to seal the World Endurance Driver’s Championship, the perfect end to a memorable 2015 WEC season for Porsche.

There were scenes of jubilation in the Porsche garage at the finish (FIA WEC).

As we have become so accustomed to seeing over the second half of the season, the two 919 Hybrids sprinted away at the start, but this was not to be the straightforward cruise to the title that Weissach anticipated. After just half an hour, Bernhard was forced into the garage with throttle linkage problems, costing the no. 17 five laps and dropping them to the rear of the field. All of a sudden, everything looked to be falling Audi’s way, with the short-stinting no. 8 of Lucas di Grassi and no. 7 of Andre Lotterer using their fresh rubber to leapfrog ahead of Romain Dumas in the no. 18 Porsche.

Pushing as hard as they dared, Bernhard, Hartley and Webber methodically worked their way through the traffic, knowing that if the no. 7 Audi won, they would have to finish fourth to win the title – which would require them to catch and pass one of the Toyotas and rely on the assistance of their team-mates. Even with 5 hours and 20 minutes remaining it looked a tall order, but the drama wasn’t yet over.

Audi were counting on their no. 8 – now driven by Loic Duval – finishing ahead of the recovering no. 17 Porsche, but a braking problem on the left-front thwarted any chance of that. The eight laps lost while the Audi mechanics made repairs crucially moved no. 17 up one place to fifth, leaving the Porsche management team with a decision to make. Should they park the no. 18 and allow no. 17 through to take fourth, or let no. 18 off the leash in the knowledge that if they could prevent Audi no. 7 taking maximum points, it would allow no. 17 to take the title with a seventh place finish?

The 18 car prevailed in a tough battle with Audi to win in Bahrain (Adrenal Media)

Unsurprisingly, they went for the latter. Lieb inherited the lead when Lotterer pitted out of sequence under a Full-Course Yellow, before a fired-up Benoit Treluyer mounted a concerted charge. After swapping places several times in the space of a few laps, the Frenchman eventually managed to make the move stick, although a slight delay in traffic allowed Lieb to make the decisive move at the final corner. After retaking the wheel of the no. 7 R18 e-tron quattro, Lotterer then suffered a wheelnut problem, ending any lingering hopes of catching Jani.

With their team-mates now in front, the no. 17 crew just needed to make it to the end, but suffered a late scare when Webber was forced into the garage with a loss of hybrid power. Several nerve-jangling minutes passed before the wounded Porsche re-joined, their advantage over Oliver Jarvis in the similarly delayed no. 8 car slashed to just two laps, but despite their markedly reduced pace and a stuttering final pitstop, they weren’t to be denied. A three minute stop-go penalty given to the no. 8 for a tyre infringement inside the final ten minutes served only to rub salt into the wound.

Almost forgotten with the problems all around them, Toyota took a podium finish for the first time since the season-opener at Silverstone, with Mike Conway, Stephane Sarrazin and Alex Wurz – in his last race before retirement – edging team-mates Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima by just 1.1 seconds, a positive way to end a season to forget for the defending champions.

Nakajima narrowly missed out on a podium to team-mate Conway (Adrenal Media).

Rebellion triumphed in the privateer’s honours, the no. 13 of Alex Imperatori, Dominik Kraihamer and debutant Matheo Tuscher leading home the CLM of Pierre Kaffer and Simon Trummer in 11th overall.  

LMP2

The no. 26 G-Drive Ligier of Sam Bird, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal delivered a stylish victory to wrap up the LMP2 title. After their costly retirement at Fuji, KCMG always knew that the odds were stacked against them. The Hong Kong outfit needed to win, with disaster befalling the no. 26 crew in order to take the title, and made the best possible start, with Le Mans winner Nick Tandy bolting ahead of pole-sitter Tom Dillmann to lead the first stint.

However, the ultra-consistent G-Drive trio were never far away and led at various points in the race, before Bird – who will test for Toyota tomorrow – was able to catch and pass Tandy in the final stint. KCMG foes Pipo Derani, Gustavo Yacaman and Ricardo Gonzalez in the second G-Drive entry completed the podium once again, passing the Signatech-Alpine on the last lap. The Shanghai winners had at one point led in the hands of Nelson Panciatici before being punted into a spin by Nakajima, while AF Racing’s BR01, enjoying a quiet run to fifth on their World Endurance Championship debut.

GTE-Pro

Patrick Pilet and Fred Makowiecki dominated the GTE-Pro division to wrap up the manufacturers crown for Porsche. Despite the best efforts of Gianmaria Bruni on the Ferrari 458 Italia’s swansong, the French pair were never challenged after Pilet passed Toni Vilander in the opening stint, eventually pulling out a margin of 39 seconds. 

Pilet and Makowiecki completed a perfect day for Porsche (Adrenal Media).

Running the same BOP as they enjoyed at the start of the season, Aston Martin were far more competitive proposition and duly completed the podium with Darren Turner and Jonny Adam subbing for Stefan Mucke, on duty in the FIA GT World Cup at Macau. 

After the wheels literally fell off of Davide Rigon and James Calado’s challenge, the returning no. 95 Young Driver Aston of Nicki Thiim, Christoffer Nygaard and Marco Sorensen finished fourth, while fifth place was enough for Richard Leitz to take the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers in the no. 91 Porsche 911 RSR he shared with Michael Christiansen.

GTE-Am

Fifth place was enough for the no. 78 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini, Viktor Shaitar and Aleksey Basov to take the GTE-Am title, as the no. 98 Aston Martin of Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana took a third win of the season. After the Labre Competition Corvette faded, the no. 88 Proton Competition Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Marco Mapelli and Khaled al Qubaisi prevailed in an entertaining scrap for second with the identical Dempsey machine of Patrick Long, Marco Seefried and Christian Reid. Championship outsiders Emmanuel Collard, Francois Perrodo and Matteo Cressoni finished fourth in the no. 83 AF Corse Ferrari.