Porsche 911 RSR secures second place in an incident-filled finale

The last race of the FIA World Endurance Championship was held in the Brazilian city of São Paolo on the Autodromo José Carlos Pace circuit. About 55,000 fans were witness of an exciting race that started in dry and sunny conditions. With the three lakes around the track one should never count out the possibility of rainfall. But in the end the rain never fell, nevertheless the spectators had a show where the Aston Martins, the Ferrari’s and the Porsche 911 RSR were in intense GTE Pro competition from start to finish.

At the chequered flag it was the Aston Martin of Darren Turner and Stefan Mückle who claimed their second GTE Pro victory of the season. The Briton and the German started from pole and despite various incidents including the accident with the number 51 Ferrari AF Corse after which Turner was pushed off the track. Because of strategic pit stops during yellow flag periods they regained their 1^st position in the GTE Pro field.

With 26 minutes to go a dramatic accident occurred with the Porsche 919 Hybrid of Mark Webber resulting in a safety car situation. This yellow flag period helped the Aston Martins enormously as they didn’t have to make a final pit stop for a splash and dash refueling.

Finishing second in the GTE Pro was Fred Makowiecki and Patrick Pilet of the number 92 Porsche 911 RSR. They ran a strong race and challenged the Aston Martin of Turner and Mückle. At the finish line they were only 7.5 seconds behind the winning car after 6 hours of though racing. Third on the podium were the drivers from the number 71 Ferrari AF Corse.

The number 91 Porsche 911 RSR of Jörg Bergmeister and Richard Lietz was involved in a clash with only 1 hour to go. The clash resulted in one of the Aston Martins running into the wall at turn 2. After the shunt the Aston Martin was able to return to the pits for some repair work. The Porsche 919 RSR was given a drive through penalty for causing the collision.

With the 6 hours of São Paulo comes the end of a massive competitive season of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The 2015 season will start in the weekend of 27-28 March with the official prologue at the French circuit of Paul Ricard.

RESULTS – 249 LAPS: