The Porsche 919 hybrid finished its third race on the podium in in China last time out. The sixth world championship race in Shanghai saw the driver’s Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas drive from pole position the third overall.
The sister car of Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard picked up a puncture early on and had to spend the rest of the race recovering to a sixth place finish. Prior to the incident mentioned the drivers in the #20 car managed to keep the 2 Toyotas honest.
Porsche have hit the ground running in their debut season in LMP1 this year. In the first race the 919 hybrid, driven by Bernhard, Hartley and Webber finished in third place. Also in the second race weekend of the season, the Porsche team shone. At Spa-Francorchamps, the #14 Porsche snapped up the car’s first pole position. In Motorsport classic, the 24 Hours of Le Mans the team lead up until 2 hours to go before curl reliability ended the race for both cars. The second podium of the year came for the team in the Japanese round at Fuji. This was followed by the third place in the 6 hours from Shanghai last week.
It’s amazing how Porsche have managed to find the pace so quickly with the 919 Hybrid in their first year in the WEC. However. The inexperienced team had, and still does, have a lot to learn with the newly designed car. It will be interesting to see how Porsche fairs in the remaining 2 races of the 2014 season and with their new car due for 2015.
Photo: Walter Schruff