Porsche’s reigning WEC champions Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley took their first win of the season in the 6 Hours of Nurburgring.
It was the first victory for the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid since Shanghai last year, the trio came home 53.7 seconds ahead of the #8 Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval.
Audi claimed a double podium with the sister R18 e-tron quattro, #7 of Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler taking third, just 0.6s behind.
The #1 Porsche took the lead at the end of the first hour as Bernhard was able to stretch his opening stint two laps longer than Fassler.
Hartley suffered a slow puncture after he took over from Bernhard until the second Full Course Yellow of the race which came in the third hour to allow marshals to clear debris.
The caution period meant the #2 Porsche of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani was able to pit and rejoined with 10 seconds over the #1 car, which had to stop under green-flag conditions together with both Audis.
However, after an incident with a GTE Porsche at the end of the penultimate hour the points-leading car was out of victory contention. Lieb earned the #2 crew a drive-through penalty after hitting Khaled Al-Qubaisi in the #88 Porsche at turn 6.
Lieb did manage to get the car back to the pits to hand over to Neel Jani, who served the drive-through but then suffered bodywork damage in a fierce battle for third with Lotterer in the #7 Audi.
That incident resulted in another unscheduled pit stop to repair the left-rear bodywork. Jani finally brought the #2 car home in fourth place, 1m37s behind the winning #1 car.
Toyota lacked race pace but were also hindered by other problems. The #5 TS050 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima having a coming together with a back marker resulting in an unscheduled pit stop for a new nose, whilst the #6 car of Stephane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi lost five minutes to an engine issue.
Seventh overall was #13 Rebellion R-One of Alexandre Imperatori, Matheo Tuscher and Dominik Kraihamer.
Both the #12 Rebellion and the #4 ByKolles CLM suffered engine problems. In the case of the #4 car, this was terminal, resulting in retirement having led in class for some time.
It was victory once again for the #36 Signature Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi in the LMP2 class. This win coming off the back of their recent Le Mans 24 Hours victory.
The #26 G-Drive Oreca of Rene Rast, Roman Rusinov and Alex Brundle dominated the race before encountering a terminal gearbox problem in the third hour.
Temporarily the problem handed the advantage to the #42 Strakka Gibson but the crew were unable to capitalise.
The Signatech crew took a lead they would maintain to the chequered flag but did come under pressure from the #43 RGR Sport Ligier of Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzalez in the latter stages of the race.
Despite a late excursion, the Mexican-entered car finished 16s behind, while the final place on the podium went to the #31 ESM Ligier of Pipo Derani, Chris Cumming and Ryan Dalziel, who held off Jonny Kane in the Strakka to finish just 0.071s ahead.
Manor lost the chance of a potential podium due to a brake disc failure in the final hour for the #45 car of Matt Howson, Richard Bradley and Roberto Merhi.
It was a one – two for Ferrari as Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado scored their first GTE Pro win of the year in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari with Sam Bird and Davide Rigon finishing second in the #71 car.
Until the fourth hour, the race had been dominated by #95 Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorenson.
Bruni took the lead after the Aston crew suffered after an unfortunately timed caution period. This also saw the #66 Ford go past but Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke would have to serve a late drive-through penalty for a driver loosening his seatbelts too early in a pit stop, this ensured third for Thiim and Sorenson.
After having to replace a door in the first hour, the sister Aston Martin #97 of Darren Turner and Richie Stanaway dropped away from the lead fight.
The Ford #67 driven by Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx suffered a refueling fire as the drivers attempted to swap over in the second hour.
Aston Martin took the honours in GTE Am with the #98 Vantage V8 of Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana, with the #83 AF Corse F458 Italia of Perrodo, Collard and Aguas in second and the #50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 of Yamagishi, Ragues and Ruberti third.
Race results
1 1 Porsche Team BERNHARD / WEBBER / HARTLEY Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 H M 194 6:01:16.183 6 4 1:40.609 183.8
2 8 Audi Sport Team Joest DI GRASSI / DUVAL / JARVIS Audi R18 LMP1 H M 194 6:02:09.970 53.787 53.787 6 4 1:40.779 183.5
3 7 Audi Sport Team Joest FÄSSLER / LOTTERER Audi R18 LMP1 H M 194 6:02:10.666 54.483 0.696 6 5 1:40.325 184.3
4 2 Porsche Team DUMAS / JANI / LIEB Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 H M 194 6:02:53.507 1:37.324 42.841 8 4 1:40.844 183.4
5 5 Toyota Gazoo Racing DAVIDSON / BUEMI / NAKAJIMA Toyota TS050 – Hybrid LMP1 H M 193 6:02:12.111 1 Laps 1 Laps 6 5 1:41.277 182.6
6 6 Toyota Gazoo Racing SARRAZIN / CONWAY / KOBAYASHI Toyota TS050 – Hybrid LMP1 H M 190 6:02:11.041 4 Laps 3 Laps 7 5 1:41.472 182.2
7 13 Rebellion Racing TUSCHER / KRAIHAMER / IMPERATORI Rebellion R-One – AER LMP1 D 178 6:01:27.849 16 Laps 12 Laps 7 134 1:47.335 172.3
8 36 Signatech Alpine MENEZES / LAPIERRE / RICHELMI Alpine A460 – Nissan LMP2 D 178 6:02:04.105 16 Laps 36.256 6 3 1:50.852 166.8
9 43 RGR Sport by Morand GONZALEZ / ALBUQUERQUE / SENNA LIGIER JS P2 – Nissan LMP2 D 178 6:02:20.583 16 Laps 16.478 7 125 1:51.124 166.4
10 31 Extreme Speed Motorsports DALZIEL / DERANI / CUMMING LIGIER JS P2 – Nissan LMP2 M 176 6:01:51.645 18 Laps 2 Laps 7 131 1:51.277 166.2
11 42 Strakka Racing LEVENTIS / KANE / WILLIAMSON Gibson 015S – Nissan LMP2 D 176 6:01:51.716 18 Laps 0.071 7 5 1:51.005 166.6
12 44 Manor GRAVES / PIZZONIA / HOWSON Oreca 05 – Nissan LMP2 D 176 6:02:09.481 18 Laps 17.765 7 108 1:51.016 166.6
13 37 SMP Racing PETROV / LADYGIN / SHAITAR BR01 – Nissan LMP2 D 175 6:01:26.267 19 Laps 1 Laps 7 57 1:52.459 164.4
14 35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine CHENG / TUNG / PANCIATICI Alpine A460 – Nissan LMP2 D 175 6:01:55.109 19 Laps 28.842 7 78 1:51.938 165.2
15 27 SMP Racing MINASSIAN / MEDIANI BR01 – Nissan LMP2 D 175 6:02:32.755 19 Laps 37.646 6 4 1:51.872 165.3
16 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports SHARP / BROWN / VAN OVERBEEK LIGIER JS P2 – Nissan LMP2 M 172 6:01:37.069 22 Laps 3 Laps 6 151 1:52.473 164.4
17 12 Rebellion Racing PROST / HEIDFELD / BECHE Rebellion R-One – AER LMP1 D 171 6:01:41.647 23 Laps 1 Laps 10 4 1:47.925 171.4
18 51 AF Corse BRUNI / CALADO Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE Pro M 170 6:02:26.320 24 Laps 1 Laps 5 149 1:57.728 157.1
19 71 AF Corse RIGON / BIRD Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE Pro M 170 6:02:56.050 24 Laps 29.730 5 149 1:57.936 156.8
20 95 Aston Martin Racing THIIM / SØRENSEN Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE Pro D 170 6:03:13.714 24 Laps 17.664 5 3 1:57.293 157.7
21 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK MÜCKE / PLA Ford GT LMGTE Pro M 169 6:01:36.583 25 Laps 1 Laps 6 147 1:57.890 156.9
22 97 Aston Martin Racing STANAWAY / TURNER Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE Pro D 169 6:02:20.586 25 Laps 44.003 5 3 1:58.068 156.6
23 77 Dempsey – Proton Racing LIETZ / CHRISTENSEN Porsche 911 RSR (2016) LMGTE Pro M 169 6:02:47.886 25 Laps 27.300 6 149 1:58.307 156.3
24 98 Aston Martin Racing DALLA LANA / LAMY / LAUDA Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE Am D 166 6:02:03.608 28 Laps 3 Laps 5 3 1:59.894 154.2
25 83 AF Corse PERRODO / COLLARD / AGUAS Ferrari F458 Italia LMGTE Am M 166 6:03:05.809 28 Laps 1:02.201 6 124 1:59.658 154.6
26 50 Larbre Competition YAMAGISHI / RAGUES / RUBERTI Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 LMGTE Am M 165 6:01:25.033 29 Laps 1 Laps 5 139 1:59.203 155.1
27 88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing AL QUBAISI / HEINEMEIER HANSSON / LONG Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE Am M 164 6:01:38.864 30 Laps 1 Laps 5 143 1:59.408 154.9
28 86 Gulf Racing WAINWRIGHT / CARROLL / BARKER Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE Am M 164 6:02:55.362 30 Laps 1:16.498 5 123 2:00.073 154.0
29 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK FRANCHITTI / PRIAULX / TINCKNELL Ford GT LMGTE Pro M 155 6:03:04.876 39 Laps 9 Laps 6 133 1:57.297 157.7
Not classified
45 Manor RAO / BRADLEY / MERHI Oreca 05 – Nissan LMP2 D 149 5:03:58.056 6 4 1:51.381 166.0
4 Bykolles Racing Team TRUMMER / WEBB / KAFFER CLM P1/01 – AER LMP1 D 98 3:12:07.342 3 6 1:47.806 171.5
26 G-Drive Racing RUSINOV / RAST / BRUNDLE Oreca 05 – Nissan LMP2 D 74 2:26:40.040 3 4 1:49.864 168.3
Excluded
78 KCMG RIED / HENZLER / CAMATHIAS Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE Am M 166 6:02:32.787 5 3 1:59.893 154.2 by Melissa Warren
