Second one-two in a row for Porsche Penske Motorsport

IMSA

Apr 13

Second one-two in a row for Porsche Penske Motorsport and third victory in a row for Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy who notched up victory in the Long Beach street race.

Third win in a row for the Nasr - Tandy duo.

The Porsche Penske Motorsport’s strategists and mechanics decided the outcome with a quick pitstop for the two Porsche 963 during the first safety car phase enabling both 496 kW (674 PS) hybrid prototypes to beat their rivals out of the pit lane and sweping into positions one and two. The two Porsche 963 held tight to the lead, spearheading the field over the finish line in a one-two win for the second time this season.

📷© Courtesy of Porsche. The two Porsche 963

Thanks to the third straight victory for Porsche and its second one-two finish since Sebring, the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer has pulled further ahead of the competition at the top of the championship rankings. In the manufacturers’ standings, the gap to its closest rivals now exceeds 100 points. In the drivers’ category, Nasr and Tandy rank first ahead of their fellow Porsche colleagues Campbell and Jaminet.

Felipe Nasr (Porsche 963 #7): “Three races, three wins! Everyone in the team did an incredible job – and was rewarded with another one-two finish. Nick put in an inspired drive early on and stayed out of trouble. For me, it was all about keeping a good eye on the tyres and fuel consumption. Everything ran beautifully. We got the reward we deserved.”
Nick Tandy (Porsche 963 #7): “It’s simply unbelievable! We won this race through strategy, good pitwork, and strong driver performances. Ultimately, our priority was to manage the available energy well to the flag. The car was super-fast over the distance – fantastic. I love winning races. It’s been an incredible start to the season so far.” Source: Porsche

Matt Campbell (Porsche 963 #6): “We’re thrilled with another one-two finish for our team. After the outstanding results at Daytona and Sebring, this result is certainly worth its weight in gold. We’ve taken another step forward in the championship. Unfortunately, we weren’t quite able to bring home the big trophy in our number 6 car but there are still more races to come this season.”

First podium for BMW

In terms of qualifying speed, the BMW M Hybrid V8 remains the benchmark in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) season after three races. Dries Vanthoor completed the pole position hat-trick at the street circuit in Long Beach (USA), following Daytona and Sebring, driving car #24.

📷© Courtesy of BMW

In the race, both BMW M Team RLL cars initially took the lead, but they lost valuable positions during a pit stop in the first yellow phase. Particularly Wittmann, who took over the number 25 from van der Linde, had to fight hard to move up from tenth to fifth place. Eng only had to let the two Porsches at the front go and ultimately drove home a solid third place.

Philipp Eng (#24 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team RLL, 3rd place): “Starting from the first and second positions, this is obviously not the result we had hoped for. Unfortunately, we had a small issue during the pit stop, which caused us to fall behind the two Porsches. If we had stayed ahead, I think we could have kept them behind us. It's still a podium, but it's a pity because more was possible. Nevertheless, we are on the right track, and we will come back stronger in Laguna Seca.”

Marco Wittmann (#25 BMW M Hybrid V8, BMW M Team RLL, 5th place): “Even though I managed a good comeback to fifth place, the disappointment prevails after this result. We were in first and second place in all practices and qualifying, so you naturally expect more than third and fifth places in the race. We made a strategic mistake with the timing of our pit stop during the yellow phase with our number 25, which almost threw us to the back of the GTP field. We need to learn from this and convert the strong pace that the BMW M Hybrid V8 has into top results next time.” Source: BMW Group

Cadillac GTP entries make advancements

The three Cadillac V-Series.R made progress during the race ending 4th, 6th and 7th.

The #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R advanced three positions from its starting spot to lead the Cadillac Racing Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) contingent with a fourth-place finish in the 50th Grand Prix of Long Beach.

📷© Courtesy of Cadillac. Mandatory driver change with quick execution by Action Express Racing and Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing.

The #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R picked up two positions to place sixth, while the sister #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R gained three spots to place seventh in the 11-car lineup for its best showing in three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races this season.

#31 Cadillac — 📷© Courtesy of Cadillac. #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.

Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber – along with Frederik Vesti for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring – have combined to gain 12 positions in the past two races and finish just off the podium both times in the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R. Most GTP cars visited pit lane during a full-course yellow 20 minutes into the 100-minute race for energy and the mandatory driver change. Quick work by the Action Express Racing crew got Bamber, who spelled Aitken behind the wheel of the #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R back on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit in fourth place.

Bamber, who was making his 75th IMSA start, remained within striking distance of the pole-winning No. 24 BMW M Team RLL entry in third place over the final 54 laps, closing to .580 of a second with 20 minutes left. Bamber recorded his best lap time on three consecutive laps, including 1 minute, 13.229 seconds with 11 minutes on the clock. But with limited overtaking spots on the tight circuit, Bamber was resigned to the spot just off the podium.

Jack Aitken: “The start was a little hectic as always at a street circuit, but I kept the position and was hanging on to the coattails of the cars in front of us. The pace was pretty strong and when it came to that early yellow we decided to get the driver change and stop out the way early and try and make it to the end from there much like the rest of the field. I think if we'd been in a situation where there was another pit stop sequence, we might have been in in a position to challenge the guys in front. But passing on track is nearly impossible here, so Earl did a great job bringing it around and managing the fuel. Top five on a weekend when we didn't look our strongest, I think it was a good result. It's solid points and got a clean car at the end of it, so it's good work for the championship.”

Earl Bamber: "I think the team did a fantastic job. Whenever you start here seventh and finish fourth, with a clean car or not a mark on it, I think that's a pretty good day. I’m gutted for the team that we just missed a podium. I had one chance at it, but I thought he'd probably force me in the wall but he gave me the room, and he would have the inside for the next corner anyway. A great team result, great work in the pit lane. Now we just need to look ahead to Laguna for these guys. It's a great working with Jack, Fred in for the next one, so I think sooner or later we're going to get some podiums and we'll get a win.” Source: Cadillac Racing

📷© Courtesy of Cadillac. #10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R.

Filipe Albuquerque: “Overall, I would say a hard weekend. We were not strong in qualifying and in the race we moved up but based on the mistakes of the other guys. P6 is a surviving result for us. Not really happy about the performance. On our side, we just need to learn the car and be more competitive.”

Ricky Taylor: "It was our first sprint race of the year and got through with no damage. I think the team learned a lot again. Unfortunately, I feel like we’re just a half a step behind each time we go on track, and every time we leave the track we say we wish we had one more session. I think that was the case again this weekend. I think if we had found what we found in qualifying a half a session earlier we would have qualified better and we would have put ourselves in better position for the race. At the end, I think we showed pace at times. Had we been in the mix, we could have salvaged maybe a top five. I think there’s progress and we’re looking forward to Laguna, which is longer race where we can strategize more and do our thing.” Source: Cadillac Racing

📷© Courtesy of Cadillac. #40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R

Louis Delétraz: “Good points today. Not the result we want, but we had a clean race, no mistakes. We kept learning and improving, so that’s a positive. We will take all that to Laguna Seca and go get some silver because it’s time for it.”

Jordan Taylor: "For the race, we could have taken some risks for strategy. But once that first yellow came out, it kind of took that out of play. The name of the game from there was trying to not making mistakes and trying to capitalize on other people’s mistakes. Not our best weekend, but we go to test at Laguna next week, so hopefully we can learn some things there for the rest of the year.”