Porsche smashes Nordschleife record
NURBURGRING
The long-standing fastest lap time around the 12.94 miles of the Nurburgring-nordschleife has finally been beaten.
The 6m11.13s pole position mark for the 1983 Nurburgring 1000Km set by Porsche driver Stefan Bellof 35 years ago has been obliterated. Fittingly, it was achieved by another Porsche driven by a big fan of the late German driver.
Timo Bernhard lowered the unofficial record for one of the greatest challenges left in motor racing to 5m19.546s aboard the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo. That mark aboard the uprated LMP1 car, which incorporates more power, active aerodynamics and side skirts, is nearly 52s quicker than the late Bellof’s time aboard his works Rothmans Porsche 956 Group C car.
The five-time winner of the Nurburgring 24 Hours needed just three flying laps aboard the 1100bhp 919 Evo to get down to the 5m19s early last Friday morning. An installation run was followed by what the German driver called a “familiarisation lap”, which resulted in a 5m31.899s. He stopped the clocks at 5m24.375s on his first proper run, before going again and knocking nearly five seconds from that mark.
“I wanted another run to kind of clean up my lap,” said Bernhard. “I knew I could find a few seconds. I’m sure I could have found a bit more time if I’d had another 10 runs in the right conditions, but the temperatures were rising, so I think we did pretty much the maximum in the time we had. It was a clean lap; I was pretty happy with it.”
Bernhard tested the Evo version of the 919 on the Nordschleife last month, but preparations for the record bid started at the beginning of the year.
“I’ve been in the simulator since January, and as well as the test I did a day at the track with a 911 GT2 RS road car with my race engineer,” explains Bernhard. “That was important to work out a strategy.
“You can’t just take a prototype and drive it the same way as a GT3 car. All the reference points changed because the speeds are so much higher – I was seeing the Nordschleife from a new angle. You can’t use the kerbs – they are pretty old-style and it wouldn’t be a good idea to go over them in a prototype.”
Nor could the Evo go down into the banked section of the Karussell or the mini Kleines Karussell further around the lap.
“If we’d raised the rideheight, we’d have lost downforce,” said Bernhard. “We would have gained time in those sections, but lost time around the rest of the lap. It was all about finding the best balance for 90% of the lap.”
Bernhard stressed that he doesn’t want to be compared with Bellof, a driver whose career and life he celebrated with a lookalike helmet at the Spa World Endurance Championship race in 2015. “I think he was one of the best ever and what he did in a Group C car without all the technology we had was phenomenal,” said Bernhard. “And he did his time with other cars on the track!”
He was touched, however, to get a telephone call from Bellof’s 93-year-old father, Georg, on the evening of his record run. “I’ve been in touch with the family over the years and Georg phoned to say well done and that he was proud of me,” said Bernhard. “That was very touching.”
Bellof’s lap record for a circuit layout that was only fleetingly used for international racing between the demolition of the old pits loop and the completion of the Nurburgring Grand Prix Circuit remains intact, however. Lap records are set in races, of course, so that means the 6m25.91s he posted the day after his qualifying run is the time that is in the record book.