02/05/2015
NEWS STORY
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."