Porsche Penske Motorsport secured a brilliant third-place finish at the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of São Paulo with the #5 car.
Lining up second for the Brazilian race, a valiant fight from Julien Andlauer and Michael Christensen against the mighty pace of the Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac pair saw them battle until the very end.
After dropping to third around the two-hour mark, the #5 duo bounced back, slashing a 39-second gap to finish just 1.3 seconds behind the #38 car in second.
It was a brilliant result for the #6 car too, with Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor narrowly missing the podium in fourth.
“It’s a very good result for the team, for the championships, it’s very, very good,” said Urs Kuratle, Director Motorsport LMDh.
“Cadillac was not to beat today, but the others we had in the pocket, so that’s a very good job from the team, from the drivers. The whole weekend, all the 963 ran perfectly and it was a good weekend.”
The #99 Proton Competition entry, shared by Neel Jani, Nico Pino and Nicolás Varrone, made it three Porsche cars in the points after finishing 10th.
In the LMGT3 class, it was a hard-fought race for both the #85 Iron Dames crew and the #92 Manthey 1st Phorm team.
The #85 trio of Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Célia Martin were fourth for their best result of the season so far, with Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera sixth in the #92 entry.
Story of the race
The #5 car lined up in second for Sunday’s race, having been boosted one place by a penalty for the #38 Cadillac, while the #6 started in seventh.
Andlauer was first at the wheel of the #5, holding firm off the line despite a challenge from the second Cadillac before a bold move for the lead up the inside of the double right-hand Turns 6 and 7.
Behind, the #6 car, initially driven by Vanthoor, dropped one place to run eighth but avoided any trouble.
Andlauer was a second clear by lap four, while the #6 car went on to gain a place after the #15 BMW was forced to enter the pits with an issue early on. Vanthoor made up another spot soon after, getting past the other BMW for sixth place.
The first pitstops took place around the one hour mark, with both cars stopping for right-hand side tyres.
After 70 minutes, the #5 car led by over nine seconds, before the Cadillac pair mounted a charge and began to cut the gap. Within 20 minutes, the gap was down to under one second, with the #12 also closing in.
Despite Andlauer’s best defence, the #38 made it past at Turn 2 on Lap 79. Its sister car then pitted for the undercut and when Andlauer stopped again for Christensen to take the wheel, the #12 took second place.
The #6 car also stopped for a driver change, with Estre taking over and the car running in fourth, crucially still on the lead lap.
The #5 car was 15 seconds off the lead at the halfway mark, and pitted at the end of Lap 126 to run 10 seconds behind the #38 in second and ahead of the #6 car in fourth.
The #6 was unfortunately hindered by a five-second penalty for a pit-stop procedure, which dropped it behind the #20 BMW, albeit temporarily.
Vanthoor was back at the wheel heading into the closing two hours, with Andlauer returning to the #5 car in third.
He was 10 seconds behind the #38 in the fight for P2, with the leading #12 1m02s clear. But he picked up the pace, and began to edge closer to the second-place Cadillac, cutting the gap to 7.5s over the following 15 minutes.
Heading into the final hour, the #5 car continued to run in third ahead of the #6 car, with both cars stopping for fresh right-hand tyres.
The gap from the #5 to the #38 car in second was eight seconds after the last stop, and Andlauer chipped away to run as close as 0.7s away at times.
Despite his best attempts, he was unable to catch the Cadillac, and crossed the line in third just 1.326s behind it. The #6 car was in fourth, 55s behind the sister car.
Speaking after the race, Andlauer said: “It’s been a tough race, we were pushing really hard together with Michael to get this podium. It was not easy to go and challenge the Cadillac, but in the end it was really close.
“I have to say that we didn’t really have the pace to overtake, but we tried to maximise the traffic and get closer and at the end we were just missing a little bit, only two or three seconds off the Caddy - the #12 was way too fast.
“I think we optimised the weekend and overall I’m really happy with the work that everyone put on the table. Michael did a fantastic job all week as well as every crew member. At the end, it’s my first podium with Porsche Penske Motorsport, so I’m very happy!”
Customer racing
The #99 Proton Competition car lined up in 13th for Sunday’s race, having narrowly missed out on the Hyperpole session on Saturday.
Pino was first at the wheel, holding his position off the line before gaining two places after two cars ahead suffered issues.
From there, the car consistently ran close to the top 10. It had a close call with the #51 Ferrari in the final hour and was forced to run wide.
However, the trio avoided any serious damage and went on to claim the final point in 10th place.
LMGT3
After their best qualifying performance of the season so far, the Iron Dames trio lined up seventh for the race.
With Martin in the car first, she dropped two places in the opening stages but quickly made one back up by passing the #61 Mercedes.
Heading into hour two carrying brilliant pace, Martin soon made up more places to run in fourth.
The brief Full Course Yellow around the halfway mark played brilliantly into the Iron Dames’ hands, and they took full advantage of the restart to make up another place and run third in the LMGT3 class.
Making even more ground, the #85 Porsche 911 GT3 R was running second when Michelle Gatting took over for her stint, though another car took the position while they went in for their service.
Exiting third, the crew were running close to second and were very close to the #78 Lexus before they were handed a drive-through penalty for breaching FCY procedures, which dropped them to sixth.
But with steely determination, they made it back to second, with a fierce battle with the #81 TF Sport Corvette ensuing.
Gatting put up a brilliant defence but lost out after a tight battle downhill at Turns 1 and 2, before the #10 Aston Martin also made it past at Turn 6 in the closing stages.
They went on to finish fourth - the team’s best result this season, having held a previous best of eighth.
The Manthey 1st Phorm car started in 13th, with Hardwick first to drive.
A tough opening lap saw the #92 lose two places, stopping for its first stop after 54 minutes.
They had made up a place before a spin at Turn 11 dropped the car back to 15th, though good pace meant they were quickly able to move back up to 12th.
Continuing their progress, the crew ran a clean race for the remainder of the six hours to finish in sixth.
The World Endurance Championship returns for its sixth round of eight with the Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on September 7.
