Porsche's #1 crew of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley claimed their third straight win in the FIA World Endurance Championship on Saturday night in Austin after issues ended Audi's hopes of victory.
Porsche arrived at the Circuit of The Americas braced for a tight battle with Audi and Toyota for top honours in LMP1, and was left to settle for P3 and P5 on the grid as Audi locked out the front row.
Audi's one-lap dominance extended into the race as the #8 R18 shared by Loic Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis led from the sister #7 car, enjoying an advantage of over a minute on the trailing Porsches.
However, an electrical issue for the #8 car damaged its win hopes, with Porsche picking up the lead after a lucky break under a full course yellow allowed Hartley to pit and lose less time compared to his rivals.
A crash for the #7 Audi with Benoit Treluyer behind the wheel cost the German marque six laps in the pits, leaving the #8 to take the fight to Porsche alone.
Ultimately, Bernhard was able to keep Andre Lotterer at an arm's length through the final stint before crossing the line with an advantage of 23 seconds.
The result marks the third straight win for the Bernhard/Hartley/Webber trio, but the sister #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid shared by Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani retains the championship lead after finishing the day fourth. The #6 Toyota rounded out the podium, less than three seconds behind the second-placed Audi.
LMP2 saw the #36 Signatech Alpine entry shared by Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stephane Richelmi claim their fourth win in five races, finishing a lap clear of the RGR Sport by Morand entry that won last time out in Mexico. G-Drive fought back from qualifying exclusion to round out the podium with its #26 Oreca Nissan.
Aston Martin swept the board in the GTE classes, with the #95 V8 Vantage shared by Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen converting class pole into victory in GTE Pro. The 'Dane train' finished 11 seconds clear of Gianmaria Bruni and James Calado in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 to record its first win of the season. Mathias Lauda, Paul Dalla Lana and Pedro Lamy claimed their third win of the season in GTE Am in the #98 AMR entry, finishing over a minute clear of the field.
