Germany's Timo Bernhard, Whanganui's Earl Bamber, and Palmerston North's Brendon Hartley won the 6 Hours of Nürburgring at the weekend.
Germany's Timo Bernhard, Whanganui's Earl Bamber, and Palmerston North's Brendon Hartley won the 6 Hours of Nürburgring at the weekend.
Ex-pat Whanganui driver Earl Bamber and his Porsche LMP1 team mates Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard made it two victories in a row after taking out the fourth round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship in Nürburgring on Sunday.
At the 6 Hours of Nürburgring, it was the KiwiHartley and German Bernhard's third consecutive victory on the 5.1km circuit, with Bamber having joined their team this year as replacement for retiring Australian Mark Webber.
Bamber and his team followed up their stunning comeback win at the Le Mans 24 hour race in June by holding off their sister Porsche 919 Hybrid team of Neel Jani, Nick Tandy and André Lotterer - with the two Porsche's rarely more than 4-5 seconds apart.
This was Hartley's and Bernhard's 10th WEC victory and Bamber's third, adding Nürburgring to his two Le Mans wins.
He was in the leading car when during the fourth hour, Bamber had to take avoiding action after Thailand's Tor Graves spun out his CEFC Manor TRS Racing LMP2 car right in front of the Kiwi at a chicane.
It allowed England's Nick Tandy, Bamber's team mate in the 2015 Le Mans win, to pass him and put the other Porsche in front once again, as they would lead for large portions of the race.
However, Bamber's team persevered as they were able to regain the lead at the final pit stop by both crews, and hold it to the finish.
The pole-sitting Toyota TS050 Hybrid crew of Kamui Kobayashi, José Maria Lopez and Mike Conway took third place, while their Toyota Gazoo Racing team mates Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi were fourth after an enforced change of fuel pump on the first lap.
The victory moved Bamber's team to 108 season points, 30 points clear of second placed Toyota Gazoo at the top of the driver's championship after the last European round.
