At a glance
- No. 6 Porsche 963 finishes third in Indianapolis
- Sister car of the Porsche Penske Motorsport factory team was involved in a collision early in the race
- Championship will be decided at the “Petit Le Mans” on 3 October
The 2-hour-and-40-minute race in Indianapolis got off to a dramatic start. During an unfortunate incident in the first turn, all three Porsche 963 were involved in collisions. Car No. 7 was hit the hardest, sustaining significant damage. Its sister car, No. 6, however, emerged virtually unscathed. French driver Kévin Estre and former Porsche Junior Laurin Heinrich from Germany brought the hybrid prototype from Weissach across the finish line in third place with strong lap times.
The No. 7 sister car lost all chance of a good result as early as the first corner of the very first lap. In an unfortunate collision, the car driven by Frenchman Julien Andlauer spun. The LMP2 cars coming from behind were unable to avoid the Daytona and Sebring winning Porsche 963 and collided with it. Due to the necessary repairs, Andlauer and his Brazilian teammate Felipe Nasr fell more than 20 laps behind. In the end, car number 7 was classified in eleventh place in the GTP class.
“We got the most out of the No. 6 car today,” says Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport. “The comeback to the podium was impressive and the result of a perfect team effort. Unfortunately, despite this result, our hopes of winning the championship again are now purely theoretical. Nevertheless, we’ll give it our all at the finale at Road Atlanta. Car No. 7 had terrible luck on the first lap. It was a very unfortunate incident. I hope we’ll have luck on our side at Petit Le Mans.”
“We’re back on the podium for the first time since April. That feels really good,” said Urs Kuratle, Director Factory Motorsport LMDh. “We did everything right strategically today. That, combined with the drivers’ strong performances, earned us this result. Congratulations to BMW on the race win.”
In the manufacturers’ championship, Porsche still has a mathematical chance of winning the title again. They trail the leader by 136 points. If all cars start the race, they could make up as many as 165 points. Based on this, Laurin Heinrich’s hopes for the drivers’ title are also still alive. The German is 147 points behind the leader, Jack Aitken from Great Britain.
JDC-Miller MotorSports customer team strikes bad luck on the first lap
The Porsche 963 from the JDC-Miller MotorSports customer team was also caught up in the collision on the first lap through no fault of its own. The No. 5 car, driven by Tijmen van der Helm, had to make a pit stop for repairs and fell behind all the GT cars in the process. The Dutch driver and Porsche works driver Nico Müller from Switzerland fought their way up to ninth place overall as the race progressed.
GT Classes: “Rexy” Porsche 911 GT3 R far behind after penalty
In the GTD Pro class, the Porsche 911 GT3 R from AO Racing nicknamed “Rexy” was on course for a podium finish at times. However, the American customer team had bad luck during a safety car period. Factory driver Nick Tandy had to head into the closed pit lane to refuel. Since the team performed more work than allowed during such an “emergency stop,” a 60-second penalty was imposed. This dropped the team back to tenth place. In the GTD category, Wright Motorsports delivered a solid performance. The No. 120 911 finished sixth in the class.
The season finale of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will take place on 3 October at Road Atlanta. The so-called “Petit Le Mans” race will run for ten hours.
Driver comments on the race
Laurin Heinrich (Porsche 963 #6): “That was a great comeback. It was fantastic to be able to drive the #6 car. We made the best of our situation. This was my first time sharing a car with Kévin Estre and we immediately ended up on the podium. Given our current capabilities, that’s a dream result. I still have a chance to win the championship. That was the goal for this weekend. We achieved it.”
Julien Andlauer (Porsche 963 #7): “We started the race with a lot of confidence, but then everything was lost right after the first corner. Three cars tried to go through the corner side-by-side, which of course didn’t go well. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Our team repaired all the damage within 20 minutes. That was impressive! Afterward, our car was like new. We weren’t able to gain any more positions as the race went on, but we collected important data. This might help us at the season finale at Road Atlanta.”
Nico Müller (Porsche 963 #5): “My teammate was caught up in absolute chaos right after the start. He couldn’t do anything in that situation to avoid contact. Unfortunately, we then had to pit for repairs and serve a penalty. After that, we were a lap down. Thanks to a good strategy, we at least managed to move up a bit. For the next race at Road Atlanta, we need to try to get our Porsche 963 into the optimal operating window more effectively. If we can do that, a good result is possible.”
