Crews Porsche set a record — in qualifying at the track in Shanghai, they have managed the seventh time during the season to make a double. And not just in the seventh, and the seventh of the seven — ctoprotsentny result!
Interestingly, in the first two races of the season 2015 the team from Stuttgart was not able to convert success in the qualification to the victory at the finish of the race — the first places in the UK and Belgium got their rivals from Audi. However, since the daily marathon «24 hours of Le Mans» everything fell into place.
At the finish of the legendary race was the third fastest Porsche in the composition of the crew of Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Nico. And then came the turn of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley — in Germany, the US and Japan, they made a hat-trick, and thanks to the victory in China made it poker.
It all started with the qualification, where Porsche crew at number 17, left behind his comrades-in-arms of the crew number 18. The third and fourth place on the grid has traditionally got crews Audi, and the fifth and sixth — their rivals from Toyota. The list of crews who spoke in the category LMP1, ended.
The final result of the race was... exactly the same! On the first two places — two Porsche, two of them Audi, then the two Toyota. The order has not changed? So the race was boring? If!
Due to the heavy rains before the race start and the first four laps of the race, participants drove an amicable column behind the safety car. Home success is not everything — Marc Lieb (Porsche) and André Lotterer (Audi) collided, resulting in a first reaction to the end of the peloton.
After the first wave of pit stops at the head of the race were just two cars Audi. The leaders of the left who succeeded Lotterer Trelyuye Benoit and his rear attacks Porsche covered Lucas di Grassi. However, Lucas was not the best «slave», and passed forward like the Nile Yani and Timo Bernhard.
With the drying track Audi team decided to risk putting a fresh set of tires on their cars. At the same time the crew at number 8 acted as a guinea pig — they put the intermediate tires. In turn, their opponents in front of the Porsche left their cars on intermediate tires, which allowed crews №17 and №18 to become the leader of the race.
Later, the team the «four rings» once again took the risk before others moving their cars on slicks. That, and the fact that Porsche piloted at number 17 Romain Dumas could not keep his car and spun it enabled Audi №8 crew in less than two hours before the finish line to take second place.
However, Dumas attack allowed him to close the gap on rivals sped away were ahead, then during the final pit stop he managed to leave behind their abusers and at the finish line ahead of his Porsche Audi Lotterer, Trelyuye Faessler and four seconds.
The leaders of the race — Hartley Trio, Bernhard and Webber — without encountering any resistance from the crew Audi confidently brought the race to a fourth victory in a row, on the eve of the final stage of making them the main contenders for victory in the championship at the end of 2015.
Their early Porsche team won the title in the competition of manufacturers — later in «31 after winning in 1984 — taking it from the Toyota. The crews of the Japanese team for the umpteenth time this season, finished fifth and sixth places.
Porsche successes are really impressive. At the final stage WEC team in Bahrain is to regain the pole position, and Bernhard, Webber and Hartley transform poker penta-trick. It was then the season can be called perfect!
As for the offset LMP2, the struggle in which, for obvious reasons closely watching the Russian fans, the «6 o'clock Shanghai» ended for the crew of Roman Rusinov, Sam Byrd and Julien channel «silver» — they finished second followed by Oreca-Nissan Nelson Panchyatichi, Paul-Loup Shahen and Vincent Kapiyera.
In class GT Am Victor Shaitar Russians Alexey Basov and Italian Andrea Bertolini from SMP Racing finished third.
The next stage of World Cup racing endurance — «6 o'clock Bahrain» — 21 November.
