Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg finished sixth in the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps WEC event.

The German, who participated in the race at the Belgian venue as part of his preparations for the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, finished sixth in the Porsche 919 Hybrid.

The No 19 car, which qualified second - the German manufacturer taking the first three positions on the grid - was in trouble soon after the start when Nick Tandy hit a backmarker whilst in the process of lapping it. The time taken to return to the pits and the damage incurred meant the car was never in contention for a podium finish from that point on.

Out front, Porsche went head-to-head with Audi and following the final pit stops the leading Porsche of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb and the Audi of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer were separated by just eleven seconds.

However, canny tyre strategy, which saw the Audi run a triple-stint on its final set of tyres saw victory go to the three-time Le Mans winners.

Former F1 star Mark Webber finished third in the No 17 Porsche, the Australian and his co-drivers penalised when Brendon Hartley used a marshal post to avoid the run-off after making a mistake in the final chicane.

"The handling was better than expected really," said Hulkenberg, who is back on F1 duty for Force India next weekend in Spain, "these four-wheel-drive cars are impressive in terms of traction out of low speed corners.

"They're great fun to drive. You have to push, lap after lap. That's also something I've been quite impressed about. The whole technological side with the hybrid system is working also really well so these cars are great."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Hondawho?, 05/05/2015 15:49

"Take a look at the Daytona 1967 race. A long time ago I admit but Ferrari P3 & 4s along side triumph TR4s and the like, hard to imagine but true.

Maybe its what makes WEC series interesting. Different cars.

On another note, I would also like to see back a proper MIXED not one make sports car series in the UK (or is there one I have not been following club racing). I used to be involved in a team that raced TVRs back in the seventies and sponsored by Blue Circle. All great fun."

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2. Posted by Leo, 05/05/2015 11:04

"I read a lot of very positive comments on WEC, so I decided to follow the Spa event. This is what I noticed:

There are 2 leading factory teams (Audi, Porsche), who can compete for the win and one (Toyota) that's quite a bit off the pace. A total of 8 entries, with only one additional privateer in the lead category, that qualified 108% off the pace.
There are 9 more privateers in the 2nd division, qualifying in the 111-113% bracket. For comparison, in Bahrain the GP2 field qualified 107-109% off Hamilton's pole.
Now there are only 18 prototypes, a very thin field even compared to F1. To fill out the track there are 18 GT cars, but those are really far behind, qualifying at 119-123%.

So here is WEC Spa translated to F1:
3 Mercedes's
3 Ferrari's
2 Red Bulls
1 Manor Marussia
9 Andrea Moda's
18 Formula Renault 2000's

I'm not convinced...."

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Hulkenberg finishes 6th on WEC debut

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