Hartley wins WEC Mexico, Stanaway takes out GTE-Pro

Autosport

Porsche drivers Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley made it two World Endurance Championship wins in two starts in Mexico City.

The reigning world champions followed up on their Nurburgring victory in July in a rain-interrupted race in which all six factory LMP1 cars suffered delays.

The #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid took the lead early in the second hour and remained ahead until early in the fourth hour when the car was given a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit entry line after aborting a pitstop.

That handed the advantage back to the pole-winning #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis that had led much of the opening hour.

The Audi was in the lead when the rain arrived, but Jarvis went off almost immediately after taking over the car when the front left wheel-bearing failed.

Bernhard survived a late scare when he nudged the wall in the stadium section when the rain returned in the closing stages, but the German hung on to take the flag with just over a minute in hand over the Audi of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler.

Hartley said: “I always said that it would be tight and whoever executed the race best would be on the top step – and that’s what happened.”

Lotterer led early on before falling behind team-mate di Grassi and then making an early first pitstop when he lost grip.

The #7 Audi then came back into contention when the rain arrived and Lotterer was given Michelin’s ungrooved intermediate tyres while the Porsches went onto full wets.

Lotterer was closing on the leading Porsche when a brake problem caused him to lock up and tag the wall late in the penultimate hour, the resulting pitstop for new tyres restricting Audi to second place.

Toyota claimed third with the TS050 HYBRID shared by Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin despite a drive-through for avoidable contact.

Championship leaders Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas finsihed fourth in the second Porsche on a day when they were rarely a match for their team-mates in the winning car.

The #5 Toyota driven by Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima went out in the second hour with a hybrid problem.

LMP2

The G-Drive Racing squad looked on course for its first LMP2 victory of the season until misfortune struck again in the closing stages.

Rene Rast, who shared the team’s ORECA-Nissan 05 car with Alex Brundle and Roman Rusinov, had a lead of just over 40s with 35 minutes of the race to go when front-right brake failure sent him off the track and then straight into the pits.

Eight minutes were lost to repairs, which dropped the Jota-run car to eighth in class at the chequered flag.

G-Drive’s problems turned the race into a straight fight between the RGR Sport Ligier-Nissan JSP2 and the championship-leading Signatech Alpine ORECA.

The Signatech car with Nicolas Lapierre at the wheel dropped behind Filipe Albuquerque in the RGR Ligier in the final hour, but a quick turnaround for the ORECA at the final pitstops halved a deficit of a dozen seconds.

Albuquerque was able hang on to claim a first victory together with Bruno Senna and Ricardo Gonzalez since the season opener at Silverstone in April.

GTE

Aston Martin Racing claimed victory in GTE Pro with with Richie Stanaway and Darren Turner.

The pair of Aston Vantage GTEs that had qualified one-two dominated until the rain came and then Turner was able to complete a nine-second victory in front of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado.

Patrick Long, Khaled Al Qubaisi and David Heinemeier Hansson claimed victory in GTE Am for the Proton Porsche team.

RESULTS – 230 LAPS:

POSCLASSDRIVERTEAMCARGAP
1LMP1T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.HartleyPorsche TeamPorsche6h00m43.702s
2LMP1M.Fassler, A.LottererAudi Sport Team JoestAudi1m01.442s
3LMP1S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.KobayashiToyota Gazoo RacingToyota1m09.709s
4LMP1R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.LiebPorsche TeamPorsche1m30.004s
5LMP1M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.ImperatoriRebellion RacingRebellion/AER12 Laps
6LMP2R.Gonzalez, B.Senna, F.AlbuquerqueRGR Sport by MorandLigier/Nissan20 Laps
7LMP2G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.RichelmiSignatech AlpineAlpine/Nissan20 Laps
8LMP2R.Dalziel, L.Derani, C.CummingExtreme Speed MotorsportsLigier/Nissan23 Laps
9LMP2N.Leventis, L.Williamson, J.KaneStrakka RacingGibson/Nissan23 Laps
10LMP2R.Gonzalez, B.Junqueira, L.DiazGreaves MotorsportGibson/Nissan23 Laps
11LMP2D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, N.PanciaticiBaxi DC Racing AlpineAlpine/Nissan24 Laps
12LMP2N.Minassian, M.MedianiSMP RacingBR Engineering/Nissan24 Laps
13LMP2R.Rusinov, R.Rast, A.BrundleG-Drive RacingORECA/Nissan25 Laps
14LMP2S.Sharp, E.Brown, J.van OverbeekExtreme Speed MotorsportsLigier/Nissan26 Laps
15GTE ProR.Stanaway, D.TurnerAston Martin RacingAston Martin28 Laps
16GTE ProG.Bruni, J.CaladoAF CorseFerrari28 Laps
17GTE ProN.Thiim, M.SorensenAston Martin RacingAston Martin28 Laps
18GTE ProD.Rigon, S.BirdAF CorseFerrari29 Laps
19GTE ProM.Franchitti, A.Priaulx, H.TincknellFord Chip Ganassi Team UKFord29 Laps
20GTE ProR.Lietz, M.ChristensenDempsey Racing – ProtonPorsche29 Laps
21LMP1S.Trummer, O.Webb, P.KafferByKOLLES Racing TeamCLM/AER31 Laps
22GTE AmK.Al Qubaisi, D.Hansson, P.LongAbu Dhabi-Proton RacingPorsche33 Laps
23GTE AmF.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.AguasAF CorseFerrari34 Laps
24GTE AmC.Ried, W.Henzler, J.CamathiasKCMGPorsche34 Laps
25GTE AmM.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.BarkerGulf Racing UKPorsche34 Laps
26GTE ProS.Mucke, O.PlaFord Chip Ganassi Team UKFord49 Laps
27LMP1L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.JarvisAudi Sport Team JoestAudi63 Laps
GTE AmP.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.LaudaAston Martin RacingAston MartinRetirement
GTE AmY.Yamagishi, P.Ragues, R.TaylorLarbre CompetitionChevroletRetirement
LMP2M.Rao, R.Bradley, P.ToledanoManorORECA/NissanRetirement
LMP1S.Buemi, K.NakajimaToyota Gazoo RacingToyotaRetirement
LMP2V.Petrov, V.Shaytar, K.LadyginSMP RacingBR Engineering/NissanRetirement

Hartley wins WEC Mexico, Stanaway takes out GTE-Pro

  • Autosport
    About The Author
    -

    1 × 1 =

    You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

    Related stories