Nürburgring Post-Race Notebook

Photo: Vincent Wouters

***The FIA World Endurance Championship’s first visit to the Nürburgring was considered a success by all involved, with a total weekend attendance of 62,000 spectators. It marked the largest crowd to see a WEC race this year, outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***FIA WEC CEO Geard Neveu all but confirmed Nürburgring’s return to the schedule next year, although he’s expressed a desire to shorten the 11-week gap between races. “For the last two years I’ve explained that this gap is too much,” Neveu told Sportscar365. “[My focus] is to find a solution and we will see if we’ve found one [when the calendar is released] at COTA.

***Porsche’s 1-2 sweep in LMP1 as well as GTE-Pro was the first of its kind for any manufacturer in WEC competition. While it was the second consecutive win for the 919 Hybrid, Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen’s class win ended a 10-month dry spell for the 911 RSR in series competition.

***An engine sensor issue was the culprit for the No. 18 Porsche facing three costly penalties for exceeding the allocated fuel consumption. While losing more than three minutes, the Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani-driven entry rallied to a second place finish.

***Three of the four Le Mans class-winning teams repeated last weekend, with Porsche Team (LMP1), KCMG (LMP2) and SMP Racing (GTE-Am) all scoring their first six-hour victories of the season.

***Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard’s victory on Sunday has propelled the Porsche trio to within 17 points of championship leaders Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler, who took their Audi R18 e-tron quattro to a third place finish.

***KCMG’s Richard Bradley and Matt Howson remain in control of the LMP2 title fight, 15 points ahead of the G-Drive Racing team of Gustavo Yacaman, Pipo Derani and Ricardo Gonzalez, who continued their podium streak alive on Sunday.

***Lietz has taken over the lead of the GT Drivers’ World Endurance Cup, as a result of he and Christensen’s win, although just a single point ahead of AF Corse’s Davide Rigon and James Calado. Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander, have slipped from first to third after their Ferrari struck early race electrical issues.

***SMP Racing’s Aleksey Basov, Andrea Bertolini and Victor Shaytar have extended their advantage in GTE-Am, now 27 points out front at the halfway mark of the championship.

***The 2016-spec Aston Martin Vantage V8 will likely run for the first time in next month’s Balance of Performance test at Ladoux, according to team principal John Gaw, who confirmed to Sportscar365 that the car is currently in build.

***Gaw said the biggest change from the current-generation Aston is the bodywork. “The aerodynamics are different, in order to get it into the new performance windows,” he told Sportscar365. “We had to go in all areas because we were probably the furthest away from the performance window. It won’t be radical but it will be nicer… It will [look] more aggressive.”

***Nürburgring marked the debut of a new fleet of Audi safety cars, including a specially adapted Audi R8 V10 +. The 610 horsepower super car will be driven by Thierry Veyrie for the remainder of the season.

***Next up for the WEC is the Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas on Sept. 17-19, marking the championship’s one-and-only trip to the U.S., as well as the first of four consecutive flyaway rounds before crowning the 2015 World Champions.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John