Porsche's Games Pay Off

Two manufacturers were left to fight it out after Audi’s withdrawal from the WEC. Toyota topped more phases of the year than Porsche,but the German marque took all the glory.

- Gary Watkins ​​​​​​​

There were four distinct phases to the 2017 World Endurance Championship, and Toyota had the advantage in three of them. Yet it was Porsche that collected all the big prizes on offer. It claimed the drivers’ title with Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber, and the manufacturers’ crown, as well as Le Mans 24 Hours glory with the same trio. And it was that win in France that provided the foundation to its successful pursuit of the end-of-season silverware.

Porsche won a topsy-turvy Le Mans in which all five of the factory LMP1 prototypes hit problems. It then followed up on its 19th victory in the 24 Hours with a short burst of dominance (phase three) after the arrival of the high downforce version of the 919 Hybrid. Only for the three races after Le Mans was Porsche in the ascendant, but its dominance at the Nurburgring, Mexico City and Austin was enough to put the titles all but out of reach for Toyota, now its only rival in the wake of Audi’s withdrawal from LMP1 at the end of 2016.

For the rest of the year, Le Mans included, the latest version of Toyota’s TS050 HYBRID had the edge. The Japanese manufacturer started the season with back-to-back victories at Silverstone and Spa (phase one) for Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima, and completed an end-of-season hat-trick at Fuji, Shanghai and Bahrain (phase four) with the same trio to outscore Porsche five-four in race victories over the course of the season. But it wasn’t enough to prevent Porsche taking a clean sweep of the all-important trophies.