A successful start to the season: The Porsche GT Team got off to a flying start in the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with a victory at Sebring International Raceway.
Works drivers Kévin Estre and Michael Christensen drove the number 92 Porsche 911 RSR to a superior first place in the fiercely contested GTE-Pro class. The driver duo started the race from the best grid position.
Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz completed the podium in the second #91 Porsche: The team finished third in the sister car with its around 515 hp 911 RSR.
The GTE-Am class was also successful: Brendan Iribe was the fastest driver of his Porsche 911 RSR. The US American finished third at the wheel of number 56 of the customer team Project 1.
It was a race with incidents. Because of rule violations on the formation lap shortly before the start, race control had issued a time penalty of 15 seconds to each of the two 911s in the GTE-Pro class.
And a serious accident involving a hypercar caused the race to be interrupted for a good 45 minutes.
"We scored important points for the championship. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough for a double victory – that would have been possible today," comments Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Motorsport.
Due to a thunderstorm warning, the race was first interrupted, then later ended early: The 1000-mile circuit, scheduled for eight hours, had to be discontinued. Ten minutes before the end of the seventh hour, the red flag was shown.
"In the U.S., there is a basic rule that during thunderstorms, all employees must be brought to safety. That's why it was finally canceled," explains Richard Lietz.
At least the WEC has now finally been able to conduct the edition of the 1000-mile Sebring race, which had already been cancelled twice.
In the history of endurance racing at Sebring, Porsche is by far the most successful manufacturer. A total of 18 overall victories have been achieved by the sports car manufacturer.
The 2022 WEC season continues on May 7 with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
