Porsche Looking to Continue Winning Streak after Le Mans Success

The Nürburgring makes its debut in the FIA World Endurance Championship this weekend, being the first round back after the summer break. Last time out Porsche took an incredible win at the legendary Le Mans circuit, ending the seventeen-year gap since they last won the prestigious race. The race was won by one-off race car number 19, driven by Nico Hulkenberg, Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber with car number 17, piloted by Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley, following them for Porsche’s first one-two since its return. Coming back to race at the Nürburgring, Porsche are looking to keep their winning streak going as Audi come back as strong of a force as ever.

Currently, Porsche lead the manufacturer’s championship with 140 points to Audi’s 124, with Toyota having a torrid season after their championship win last year with only 71 points. However, in the driver’s standings it is the drivers of Audi number 7 that have the lead. Porsche have consistently taken pole position but are yet to convert it into the race win. Porsche say that, coming into this round of the championship, they are concentrating on gaining championship points. Audi are not a team to be forgotten, though, and have already been showing their hand this weekend, topping both of the time sheets (by a minimal margin) in both practice sessions yesterday. Toyota trailed a distance three seconds behind the close-fighting Porsche and Audi cars, continuing to show that the championship winning speed they had last year is lacking. After their abysmal performance at Le Mans Nissan have not returned to the sport for the forth round of the championship. Whether they will return or not before the end of the year is still unknown, but is has come out in the news recently that Max Chilton, one of their LMP1 drivers, is in talks with Formula One’s new team Haas for a seat next year.

The LMP2 championship is lead by KCMG with 78 points. G-Drive Racing is only four points behind them with car 28 (driven by Gustavo Yacaman, Luis Felipe Derani, and Ricardo Gonzalez). With the form they have shown thus far in practice, the lead could be under threat coming into the second half of the season. The top three cars in the LMP2 championship appear to be in a class of their own, with forth-placed Extreme Speed Motorsports with just over half of the points G-Drive’s car 26 has (38 and 64 points respectively). Last year saw most of the LMP2 cars with open cockpits, as were the regulations, but this year most of the teams have opted for a closed cockpit, with only three LMP2 cars running the open cockpit specification. The regulations changed at the end of last year for the 2015 season, only a few months after the freak accident that ended up taking Jules Bianchi’s life. It could be because of the incident that occurred over during the Japanese Grand Prix, 2014, that most teams have elected for the closed cockpit but this is not a known fact.

AF Corse leads the LMGTE Pro series, with only two points separating them. They gifted the team a one-two in class at Le Mans, a race that gifts double points, and extended their lead over third-placed Porsche Team Manthey (car 91). With only seven cars in the LMGTE Pro class the field is always quite a close one. During the practice sessions yesterday just over a second separated the field in both sessions. The same case was seen in the LMGTE Am class. SMP Racing led the championship race after a win in class at Le Mans. It seems that the double points given at the esteemed race has helped out many of the teams in the title contentions. For example, Porsche LMP1 car number 19 is second in standings having only raced at two races thanks to the Le Mans win. Of all the classes LMGTE Am has the most evenly spread field for the title, with just under a race win separating the leaders and second-placed AF Corse car 83.

With so many classes during the race there is a lot to be watching for when the race gets underway on Sunday. The biggest question is who will take pole in LMP1. Porsche have yet to not qualify on pole but Audi are looking strong to challenge for it today. Further down the field the title battles in class are close, and depending on how many points are gained this weekend could show a shuffling in that order. Qualifying takes place later today, with two sessions of twenty minutes. First LMGTE Pro and Am will qualify and then LMP1 and 2 take to the track for the final session of they day. Will Porsche top the timesheets again or will Audi manage to keep the home advantage? All will be revealed at 1:00pm, when qualifying starts, bringing us closer to the start of the first six hours of the Nürburgring.

(image from www.fiawec.com)

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