Porsche LMP Team scored its first 1-2 finish in WEC competition since Shanghai 2015, winning the 2017 6 Hours of Nurburgring in dominant fashion. In the end the No. 2 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber were victorious, after a close and fierce intra-team fight with the No. 1 sister 919 of Andre Lotterer, Nick Tandy and Neel Jani.

The winning margin was just 1.6 seconds, with the deciding move in the final minutes, when Andre Lotterer were made to pit for longer than Timo Bernhard at the final stops, after leading for most of the final two hours, allowing the championship-leading, Le Mans-winning crew to take the win. It was a clear move to manage the finishing positions, putting 20 seconds more fuel into the No. 1 car, allowing the No. 2 – ahead in the championship – through to the lead.

"It was a great team effort from Porsche team," Timo Bernhard said after taking the win on home soil. "Both cars could have won today; our teammates deserved the victory as much as we did. They were quick today. There was close fighting until the final hour, and we kept changing places."

After the stops the gap between the two cars stayed close, the No. 1 unable to strike and take its first win of the season. Instead, the No. 2 crew would win its second race of 2017.

Toyota unfortunately, failed to feature in the fight for the win past the second hour of the race. The No. 8 TS050 suffered a fuel pump failure on the parade lap, which cost it five laps in the pits due to repairs; it came home fourth.

And the sister No. 7, from pole, led early but slowly faded after the first hour, eventually crossing the line over a minute behind, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway unable to match the pace of the 919s ahead.

"I tried to defend (at the start) but it was a matter of time," Lopez admitted. "We struggled with grip, we knew Porsche was good on race pace. It's good to be fighting with Porsche, it's the first real race experience I've had, so I'm happy.

"We'll work hard and try to be stronger next time."

In LMP2, the Le Mans winners in the No.38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA dominated proceedings, Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent and Ho Pin Tung extending their championship lead with a 25-point haul.

The No. 38 started from pole position, but slipped back to third at the start, smothered by the two Rebellions. Jarvis and later Tung moved back into the top spot and drove away with it, however, winning by over a lap.

Second was the No. 31 Rebellion ORECA which led in the first hour, ahead of the No. 36 Signatech Alpine which battled for podium spots for most of the race. While the winner wasn't in doubt in the second half of the race, there were multiple sequences of tussling between the LMP2 teams racing for podium spots through traffic.

Off the podium was the second of the Rebellion ORECAs – the No. 13 of Mathias Beche, David Heinemeier Hansson and Pipo Derani – in fourth and the sister No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA in fifth.

Other contenders were taken out of the battle for podium honors due to penalties or issues in the case of the No. 35 Signatech Alpine which retired with gearbox issues.

The No. 26 G-Drive ORECA surely would have challenged, with Ben Hanley, Roman Rusinov and Pierre Thiriet all showing off great pace. But the three-minute penalty served in the race for the Le Mans incident, and starting at the very back after failing post-qualifying scrutineering, left them in a recovery drive for the entire race. In the end, after losing two laps, they recovered to sixth.

GTE Pro meanwhile, was a dogfight throughout, with the first hour in particular, like a touring car race, a seven-car train scrapping for places.

In the end the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado took its first win of the season, after a fight through the field in the first half of the race. It's Pier Guidi's first win as a Ferrari factory driver, and Calado's second.

Calado took the lead from the pole-sitting No. 92 Porsche that eventually finished third at up the inside of the Valvoline-Kurve at the halfway mark. It was a daring overtake. Calado wouldn't be matched on pace after that.

"We've worked really hard after the disappointment of Le Mans to improve the car set up, and it's been spot on here," Calado said. "We sacrificed qualifying for race pace here, and it's paid off."

After that decisive move for the lead, the Ferrari pulled away as the two Porsche GT Team 911 RSRs scrapped for the other podium spots. In the end the No. 91 of Fred Makowiecki took second from the No. 92 off Michael Christensen at Valvoline-Kurve just before the four-hour mark.

Finishing off the podium was the No. 95 Aston Martin Racing Vantage, which led early in the race. Marco Sorensen had to defend hard in Hour 1, after Christensen from pole locked up into Turn 1, going wide, letting the Aston through. The "Dane Train" looked like it could contend for the win at that point, though as the race wore on Sorensen and Nicki Thiim slipped back and ended up fighting with the Fords.

The best of the Chip Ganassi UK Ford GTs finished fifth, although the championship leaders in the No. 67 of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx would have finished higher up the order had Tincknell not spun into the gravel after slight contact with the No. 1 Porsche of Nick Tandy at the Warsteiner-Kurve.

At that point, Tincknell held a comfortable fourth.

"I was having a great stint, got into a good rhythm," explained Tincknell. "I saw the two Porsches coming, the first came down the inside, and I saw Nick dive around the outside and it was never on – he still swiped me even though I gave him room. It's an unfortunate thing, a shame for the team."

The No. 66 finished up sixth, ahead of the Le Mans-winning No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage which started at the back and, despite some superb driving toward the end from Daniel Serra, the trio with Darren Turner and Jonny Adam failed to finish above their championship rivals in the No. 67.

Last in the class, after suffering gear selection issues was the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari of Toni Vilander and Davide Rigon.

In Am, the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche took the win, after a sterling drive from Christian Ried, Matteo Cairoli and Marvin Dienst. Like the No. 51 crew in Pro, for the No. 77 squad, it marked their first win of the season.

The No. 98 Aston Martin built up a comfortable lead in the opening hour, but in the end, the Vantage would be reeled in during the second hour. After a lengthy battle involving the Spirit of Race and Clearwater Ferraris, as well as the winning crew, Dienst made the final move for the lead at the final chicane on Lauda with just under two hours to go which sealed the deal.

The Spirit of Race Ferrari finished second after Miguel Molina stormed past Pedro Lamy over the start/finish line in the final hour, and the No. 98 eventually, finished third.

"That was an incredibly tough race," Pedro Lamy said after the race. "We were looking strong in terms of overall pace but we were unlucky to lose out on the race win during the second half. We've still scored good points this weekend so I am just glad that we have kept ourselves in a good place for the championship."

For Clearwater, which led the title race after Le Mans, finishing fourth will come as a disappointment. Weng Sun Mok, Matt Griffin and Keita Sawa were a lap down at the end, mainly due to losing a considerable amount of time when Mok went wide at the Valvoline-Kurve and slid into the gravel trap down the hill on the outside of the Ford Kurve.

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