06/29/2018
This
Friday morning Timo Bernhard (D) lapped the 20.832 kilometre (12.94
miles) Nürburgring Nordschleife race circuit in 5 minutes and 19.55
seconds. This results in an average speed of 233.8 km/h (145.3 mph) on
what is revered by race drivers, engineers and enthusiasts alike as the
world’s most difficult track. Driving the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo,
Bernhard beat the previous lap record, set by Stefan Bellof, by 51.58
seconds.
For 35 years and 31 days Bellof’s 6:11.13 minutes record remained
uncontested. The German driver from Gießen, who tragically died at
Spa-Francorchamps in 1985, counted as the biggest racing talent of his
time. He drove his record on May 28 in 1983 at the wheel of a powerful
620 bhp Rothmans Porsche 956 C during practice for the 1000-kilometre
WEC sports car race. Also his average speed was over 200 km/h.
Proud and relieved Timo Bernhard, five-time overall winner of the
Nürburgring 24-hours, two-time outright winner of the Le Mans 24-hours
and reigning World Endurance Champion with the Porsche 919 Hybrid,
clambered out of the tight Le Mans prototype cockpit. “This is a great
moment for me and for the entire team – the 919 programme’s icing on the
cake. The Evo was perfectly prepared and I have done my best on this
lap. Thanks to the aerodynamic downforce, at sections I never imagined
you can stay on full throttle. I’m pretty familiar with the
Nordschleife. But today I got to learn it in a new way”, said the
37-year old from Bruchmühlbach-Miesau in the German region of Saarpfalz.
He is a huge admirer of Stefan Bellof. In 2015, on the thirtieth
anniversary of Bellof’s fatal accident, Timo raced at the
Spa-Francorchamps 6-hour race of the FIA World Endurance Championship
with a helmet carrying the famous black-red-gold design of the 1980s
star. “For me Stefan Bellof is and remains a giant”, he emphasises.
“Today my respect for his achievement with the technology available back
then increased even more.”
Today’s success is the second track record on the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo
tally: On April 9 this year in Spa, the dramatic evolution of the
three-times Le Mans winner lapped faster than a Formula One car with
Neel Jani at the wheel. The 34-year old Porsche works driver from
Switzerland – Le Mans outright winner and Endurance World Champion of
2016 – set a lap of 1:41,770 minutes on the 7.004 kilometre (4.35 mile)
Grand Prix circuit in the Belgian Ardennes mountains. He topped the
previous track record, set by Lewis Hamilton in 2017 qualifying, by
0.783 seconds. The British Mercedes driver took pole position for the
Belgian Grand Prix in 1:42.553 minutes.
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