FIA WEC: Porsche wins in Mexico on a way to title defence

Porsche LMP Team’s Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley scored their third consecutive victory in the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship by winnning the 6 hours of Mexico at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the fifth round of the season.

A trio in the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid started from pole and after 240 laps they triumphed ahead of #1 crew Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer and Nick Tandy, scoring second in a row 1-2 victory for Porsche. Both Toyota TS 050 Hybrids ended a race but one lap down behind Porsches, with #8 crew (Buemi/Davidson/Nakajima) in the third place.

Afer five races, Bernhard/Bamber/Hartley are in a dominant championship lead with 134 points on their accounts. Buemi/Davidson/Nakajima, who scored two wins at the start of the season, are still in the second place. In the manufacturers’ standings, Porsche leads Toyota 198:141.5.

LMP2 class winners in Mexico are Julien Canal, Nicolas Prost and Bruno Senna in the #31 Valliante Rebellion Oreca 07. It’s their first win of the season. GTE Pro class winners are Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage, also scoring their first win this year. In the GTE Am class, Dempsey-Proton Racing’s Christian Ried, Marvin Dienst and Matteo Cairoli clinched their second consecutive win in the #77 Porsche 911 RSR.

In less than two weeks time, on September 16, the championship will continue at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.