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Fuji WEC: Webber, Hartley and Bernhard win after Porsche orders

Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard claimed a third World Endurance Championship victory in a row after Porsche invoked team orders in the final minutes of the Fuji 6 Hours

Race leader Neel Jani, who was partnered by Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb, slowed in the #18 919 Hybrid to give up a 30-second lead and allow the Porsche line-up with the best chance of taking the drivers' title to take the win.

Bernhard crossed the line 14s to the fore to take a win that means he and his team-mates move into a one-point championship lead over Audi trio Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer.

The Audi drivers also benefited from team orders at the end of a race held in mixed conditions to claim third position ahead of their team-mates in the sister car.

Loic Duval was brought into the pits four minutes to go for an unscheduled pitstop, which dropped the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro to fourth in the final classification.

Webber said: "It was #18's day today and they deserved the win, but it was decided to flip the position around at the end, so we owe them one in the future."

The #18 Porsche held an advantage over the winning car from the moment Webber went off at Turn 3 on the first green flag lap.

The former Formula 1 driver also suffered hybrid issues in his opening stint, but made up ground in the second hour before Lieb found himself with a lead of 50s after he jumped in the car during a full-course yellow period.

Porsche maintained its hold on the top step of the WEC podium despite a strong challenge from Audi in the wettest phase of a race that started behind the safety car.

Fassler quickly moved the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro past the two Porsches that had blocked out the front row when the race went green after 16 laps.

The Swiss was then able to hang onto the lead for much of his second stint before Dumas moved past early in the third hour.

Lotterer briefly got the Audi back up to second ahead of Hartley on intermediate tyres before a gamble on an early switch to slicks failed to pay off.

Toyota picked up fifth and sixth positions, Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson coming home ahead of the sister car of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway.

G-DRIVE WINS LMP2 AFTER KCMG CLASH

G-Drive Racing came out on top in LMP2 for the second race running, in controversial circumstances.

Sam Bird, Julien Canal and Roman Rusinov claimed victory after a clash with the rival KCMG ORECA-Nissan 05 in the final hour.

Rusinov was fighting back at KCMG driver Richard Bradley after losing the class lead when he made contact with the back of the ORECA as he attempted to pass.

Bradley, who shared the KCMG entry with Nick Tandy and Matt Howson, was forced to pit and then tangled with the second G-Drive Ligier of Gustavo Yacaman as he tried to take third place and crashed out of the race.

Second place in class went to the Signatech Alpine ORECA-Nissan 03R driven by Paul-Loup Chatin, Nelson Panciatici and Vincent Capillaire.

Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni triumphed in the GTE Pro class for the AF Corse Ferrari squad after running one set of wet tyres for three and a half hours.

The best of the Manthey Porsches of Patrick Pilet and Frederic Makowiecki overhauled the second AF car of James Calado and Davide Rigon to claim the runner-up spot in class right at the end.

Racing actor Patrick Dempsey took his first WEC class victory in GTE Am with the Proton Porsche team.

The 911 RSR he shared with Patrick Long and Marco Seefried claimed honours by 17s from the Aston Martin Vantage GTE driven by Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda.

RESULTS:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 LMP1 T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley Porsche Team Porsche 216 6h00m25.737s
2 LMP1 R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb Porsche Team Porsche 216 14.306s
3 LMP1 M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 215 1 Lap
4 LMP1 L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis Audi Sport Team Joest Audi 214 2 Laps
5 LMP1 A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima Toyota Racing Toyota 214 2 Laps
6 LMP1 A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway Toyota Racing Toyota 203 13 Laps
7 LMP1 N.Prost, M.Beche Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 203 13 Laps
8 LMP1 S.Trummer, P.Kaffer Team ByKolles CLM/AER 199 17 Laps
9 LMP2 R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 198 18 Laps
10 LMP2 N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, V.Capillaire Signatech Alpine Alpine/Nissan 198 18 Laps
11 LMP2 G.Yacaman, P.Derani, R.Gonzalez G-Drive Racing Ligier/Nissan 197 19 Laps
12 LMP2 S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.H.Hansson Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 194 22 Laps
13 GTE Pro G.Bruni, T.Vilander AF Corse Ferrari 193 23 Laps
14 LMP2 P.Ragues, O.Webb, C.Cumming Team SARD Morand Morgan/SARD 193 23 Laps
15 GTE Pro P.Pilet, F.Makowiecki Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 192 24 Laps
16 GTE Pro D.Rigon, J.Calado AF Corse Ferrari 192 24 Laps
17 GTE Pro R.Lietz, M.Christensen Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 192 24 Laps
18 LMP2 N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane Strakka Racing Gibson/Nissan 192 24 Laps
19 GTE Pro C.Nygaard, M.Sorensen Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 191 25 Laps
20 GTE Pro D.Turner, J.Adam Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 190 26 Laps
21 GTE Pro A.MacDowall, F.Rees, S.Mucke Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 190 26 Laps
22 GTE Am P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried Dempsey Racing - Proton Porsche 187 29 Laps
23 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 187 29 Laps
24 GTE Am F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas AF Corse Ferrari 186 30 Laps
25 LMP2 E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier/HPD 186 30 Laps
26 GTE Am G.Roda, P.Ruberti, N.Sylvest Larbre Competition Chevrolet 185 31 Laps
27 GTE Am C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, E.Bamber Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Porsche 185 31 Laps
28 GTE Am V.Shaytar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov SMP Racing Ferrari 185 31 Laps
29 GTE Am F.Castellacci, L.Griffin, S.Hall Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 184 32 Laps
30 LMP1 A.Imperatori, D.Kraihamer, D.Abt Rebellion Racing Rebellion/AER 164 52 Laps
- LMP2 M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Tandy KCMG ORECA/Nissan 192 Retirement

LEADING DRIVERS' STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points
1 Brendon Hartley 129
1 Timo Bernhard 129
1 Mark Webber 129
2 Andre Lotterer 128
2 Marcel Fassler 128
2 Benoit Treluyer 128
3 Neel Jani 95.5
3 Marc Lieb 95.5
3 Romain Dumas 95.5
4 Lucas di Grassi 79
4 Oliver Jarvis 79
4 Loic Duval 79
5 Nick Tandy 66
6 Anthony Davidson 59
6 Sebastien Buemi 59
7 Earl Bamber 58
8 Nico Hulkenberg 58
9 Kazuki Nakajima 55
10 Alexander Wurz 54
10 Stephane Sarrazin 54
10 Mike Conway 54
11 Sam Bird 26.5
11 Roman Rusinov 26.5
11 Julien Canal 26.5


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