Motorsport: Kiwi drivers take on Nurburgring

Brendon Hartley will race the Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 car this weekend.

German manufacturer Porsche especially keen to prevail on home track as they chase leaders Audi

Two of Porsche's rising endurance racing stars, Kiwis Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley, are back in action this weekend at the Nurburgring for round four of the World Endurance Championship (WEC). It's the first time since the Le Mans 24 Hour race in June that the WEC cars and drivers continue the battle for the 2015 title.

This weekend's 6 Hours of Nurburgring is especially poignant for the German manufacturer, as they are racing the 919 Hybrid LMP1 on home soil for the first time, so the pressure will be on for the team to beat the Audis and Toyotas.

Defending Le Mans winner New Zealander Bamber will not be in the race-winning 919 Hybrid as Porsche are entering only two LMP1 cars - the regular Hartley, Mark Webber, Timo Bernard and Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb cars. Bamber will be suiting up to race his regular steed, the 911 RSR GTE entry.

Hartley (and co) were pipped to the post by the third 919 entry at Le Mans and he's keen not only to get back on the podium, but to get the win. In 2015 so far, a 919 has taken pole in every race and now need to convert those into race wins if they're to stop the Audi R18 of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer from winning the championship.

"We're really ready to go racing as it's such a long break between Le Mans and the Nurburgring," said Hartley. "There were some huge highs after Le Mans but we have been working hard at the factory.

"We have some big updates in the car this weekend. Everyone now has their sights firmly fixed on the world championship. It'll be a big weekend as it's a home race for Porsche and Audi, and for Toyota as they are based in Germany as well.

"Everyone is hoping for a big result in Germany and it'll be a real fight."

With both German manufacturers battling it out on home soil it's bound to pull in a big crowd, as there was no German Formula One Grand Prix this year. The pressure will be on for both German teams, but at least Porsche is heading into the race on the back on a one-two at Le Mans.

"We take a lot of confidence into this weekend being the winning team from Le Mans. It does come with added pressure and expectations. It's going to be an exciting race and we saw from testing at the Nurburgring about a month ago that the times between us and Audis are extremely tight."

Hartley's teammates know the track well considering Webber won an F1 Grand Prix there and Bernard is no slouch, having won the 24-Hours at the Nordschleife five times.

While Hartley may not have been doing much driving in anger, the same can't be said for Bamber. Soon after winning Le Mans, the Kiwi was back in America contesting his regular series, the United Sports Car Championship, where he finished on the podium at Watkins Glen. More recently he was also on the podium at the Oak Tree Grand Prix.

He got the call-up to race in Germany after regular driver Klaus Bachler had a clash of dates with his ADAC GT Masters series.

Bamber will share driver duties in the GTE-Am category with Christian Ried and Khaled Al Qubaisi.

"We learned a lot from the LMP1 programme and we're now applying it to the GTE programme and it's working really well," said Bamber.

"It also helps being part of a factory team - my engineer David Brown used to work in Formula One with Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and ran Senna when he was at Williams.

"It was a bit of a late call-up to race at Nurburgring. I was supposed to be at Sebring this weekend for a five-day test but to go racing is great.

When Klaus couldn't make it, Porsche said I should go and do the race.

"I'm looking forward to doing a WEC round in a GTE car as I haven't before. It'll be a bit of a challenge going to a new team and meeting two new drivers.

"I'm really looking forward to it and I hope I can be quick and do a good job for them."

The race starts tomorrow at 11pm NZ time.

WEC points

Standings after three rounds:
1. A Lotterer, B Treluyer, M Fassler 80
2. N Tandy 60
3. E Bamber, N Hulkenberg 58
4. M Lieb, N Jane, R Dumas 57
5. B Hartley, M Webber, T Bernard 53
6. L Duval, L Di Grassi, O Jarvis 40