New Porsche 911 RSR Wins at Silverstone 2019

The new Porsche 911 RSR (2019 model year) has secured a double victory at its race debut. At the season-opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Silverstone (Great Britain), the Italian Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz from Austria crossed the finish line first in the No. 91 car in front of 49,600 spectators. The reigning world champions Michael Christensen (Denmark) and Kévin Estre (France) claimed second place in the ca. 515 hp No. 92 sister car. A perfect tactic from the world champion team, strong driving performances, swift pit stops, and a reliable and fast car in both dry and the wet conditions were the key factors for this double win.

After a mediocre qualifying performance, the two Porsche 911 RSR run by the factory squad took up the four-hour race from positions four and six on the grid. In sunny conditions in the early phase, the two new GTE racers from Weissach initially made up very little ground. A heavy shower after around 90 minutes of racing changed the situation significantly. In contrast to the rivals, the Porsche GT Team opted for rain tyres – an ideal choice. The drivers made perfect use of the improved tyre grip on the wet track and managed to pull well clear of the field in the new 911 RSR, which is based on the high-performance 911 GT3 RS*. This impressive margin, however, disappeared when the safety car was deployed after two hours of racing. In the remaining 120 minutes, the drivers staved off attacks from the competition on a drying track and crossed the finish line in first and second place, separated by 3.802 seconds.

In the GTE-Am class, the best-placed Porsche 911 RSR (last year’s model) achieved fourth place. Right up until the final pit stop, the all-British driver line-up of Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker and Andrew Watson were on course for a podium result in the No. 86 vehicle fielded by Gulf Racing. Fifth place went to the No. 77 car run by Dempsey-Proton Racing with Porsche Young Professional Matt Campbell (Australia), Christian Ried (Germany) and Riccardo Pera (Italy). The sister car with the starting number 88, in which Porsche Young Professional Thomas Preining (Austria) had his first outing, finished on eleventh. The two Porsche 911 RSR campaigned by Project 1 yielded positions six (No. 56) and ten (No. 57).

After the double victory at the opening round of the 2019/2020 season, Porsche leads all categories of the GTE-Pro class. Next up on the calendar is the race in Fuji (Japan) on 6 October.

Видео New Porsche 911 RSR Wins at Silverstone 2019 канала Motorward