Porsche to take WEC case to International Court of Appeal
Porsche has appealed the decision of the stewards to reject its protest of the GTE Pro-winning Ferrari in Saturday's Bahrain 8 Hours World Endurance Championship round.
The FIA and the WEC organisation have confirmed that the Porsche GT Team will take the case to the International Court of Appeal.
What are described as the final results of the second of the two Bahrain double-header WEC races have been published, but they state that they are subject to an appeal.
No comment was available from Porsche.
The stewards' decision means that James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi are provisionally crowned WEC GTE Pro champions and Ferrari take the manufacturers' title.
Porsche protested the result after Pier Guidi's AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE made contact with the #92 Porsche 911 RSR with Michael Christensen at the wheel as they battled for the lead with 11 minutes of the race remaining.
Christensen spun in the car he shared with championship contenders Kevin Estre and Neel Jani, and Pier Guidi was ordered by race control to give the position back to the Porsche driver.
The Ferrari clearly slowed, but the Porsche pitted for what was a scheduled splash-and-dash fuel stop before Pier Guidi could respect the command from race control.
The Ferrari pitted for a splash the following lap and the order of the Ferrari to cede position was withdrawn, although never publicly communicated via the timing screens.
The protest, made the Manthey-run Porsche GT Team factory squad, alleged that the decision was made solely by the race director and not investigated by the stewards according to the FIA's international sporting code.
The stewards' bulletin rejecting the protest said: "In fact all the decisions related to the incident between #51 and #92 in T14 were reported to the stewards by the race director, investigated and taken by the stewards in accordance with the race director.
"It was reported verbally and with video evidence."
The bulletin continued that because the provisions of the international sporting code had been respected the protest was rejected.
Porsche was reminded of its right of appeal in the bulletin.
Christensen said after the race that he was "just punched off the track" and expressed surprise that the penalty was not a drive-through or a time penalty.
Pier Guidi suggested that the accident was precipitated by Christensen letting Filipe Albuquerque in the United Autosports LMP2 ORECA through at Turn 15.
"I didn't like [what happened] but I couldn't do anything different — I couldn't avoid him," he said.
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