Motorsport: Neel Jani extends WRC lead
As before at the Nürburgring, Porsche took victory in the World Endurance Championship in Mexico City - unfortunately not with the car of Neel Jani, who nevertheless improved his title chances by finishing fourth. Marcel Fässler was also not satisfied with second place in the end. The good news in advance: Neel Jani is still on course for the championship with Porsche. But [...]
The good news first: Neel Jani is still on course for the championship with Porsche. But the 6-hour race in Mexico City could have gone better for Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and him. The trio, which started from second place 42 thousandths behind the pole setters from Audi, had the speed for victory. In the light rain shower after halftime, the tire strategy was not optimal, plus a hit by a lapped LMP2 car. Because race control called for a repair stop, Jani's car lost touch with the front runners.
As at the Nürburgring, the team-mates Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber thus won, while Jani's Porsche finished in fourth place. This resulted in twelve WRC points with which the Swiss and the two Germans extended their lead in the standings to 41 points. Because the number 8 Audi fell victim to an accident. New WRC runners-up are now ex-Sauber driver Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin, who finished third in the Toyota. Sébastien Buemi's car retired with a problem in the hybrid system.
Podium finishes for Marcel Fässler and Joel Camathias
Marcel Fässler was on the podium in second place with André Lotterer but was not entirely happy about this. Without an additional early tire stop, victory would have been feasible for the Audi duo because the inferior German showed a sensational recovery in the wet after having been the absolute fastest LMP1 driver in qualifying.
Porsche had double reason to celebrate because of its first class win in the GT amateurs, for which a Lucerne native is partly responsible in the form of race engineer Othmar Welti, who has been hired by Proton Racing since Le Mans. Joel Camathias finished third with his Porsche teammates. This time, the man from Ticino was allowed to keep the trophies for the redeeming podium finish after the 911 RSR from Team KCMG was retroactively disqualified at the Nürburgring for having 1 mm too little ground clearance.
www.porsche.de/motorsport
Photos: Archive
