Timo Bernhard

Timo Bernhard 2016 in Le Mans

Timo Bernhard in the Audi R18 at the Petit Le Mans 2011

Timo Bernhard in the Audi R15 TDI at the 2009 Le Mans 24-hour race

Timo Bernhard (born February 24, 1981 in Homburg ) is a former German racing driver . In 2015 and 2017 he was world driver champion of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

Career

First years

Bernhard started karting at the age of 10 . The first stop was the kart slalom , where he won the Palatinate Championship in his first year in 1991. He then drove a racing kart, where he won the Baden Cup in 1993 and the DMV championship in 1994. The year 1995 was significant, when he won the German Junior Kart Cup and the DMV Junior Cup and took 5th place in the Junior Kart World Championship. After two successful years in the German Kart Championship, he switched to formula racing.

The next stations were the Formula Ford and the Porsche Carrera Cup , before Bernhard made his debut in 2001 with a 2nd place in the GT class at the 12-hour races of Sebring . That year he became champion in the Porsche Carrera Cup, and he was also the first Porsche junior driver to win a run in the Michelin Supercup. In 2002, his first as a Porsche works driver, he drove in the American Le Mans Series . Since then he has celebrated numerous successes in the GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series and was also champion in this class in 2004. Another great success in his career was overall victory in a Porsche 996 GT3 RS at the Daytona 24-hour race in 2003.

Works driver at Porsche and outings for Audi

From 2006 he started in a Porsche RS Spyder for the Penske team in the LMP2 prototype class. The year 2007 was of great importance for Timo Bernhard. He won the American Le Mans Series in the LMP2 prototype class and, together with his teammate Romain Dumas , was able to take home overall victory in eight races. In addition, Timo Bernhard won the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in 2006 with Lucas Luhr , Mike Rockenfeller and Marcel Tiemann . He was able to repeat this success in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011.

Since the 2011 season, Timo Bernhard has also been driving successfully in the German Rally Championship with a Porsche GT3 Cup ST used by the Penske Sports Car Center. The team under the leadership of his father Rüdiger Bernhard is the KÜS Team75 Bernhard. The team has been taking part in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany since 2013 and in the ADAC GT Masters racing series since 2016 . Bernhard has been racing at Le Mans with Porsche since 2014. In 2010 he won the important Le Mans 24-hour race in 2010 together with Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller in an Audi R15 .

In 2014 , Bernhard received a cockpit in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with the manufacturer Porsche, which has just entered the championship . His teammates were Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber . Three third places were the best results of the three. Bernhard and his teammates finished ninth in the drivers' world championship. In 2015 Bernhard again formed a driver trio with Hartley and Webber. After a retirement at the season opener, the three drivers finished third at Spa-Francorchamps and second at Le Mans . The following four races at the Nürburgring , in Austin , Fuji and Shanghai were won by the driver trio. A fifth place at the season finale in as-Sachir was enough to win the driver's world championship. Bernhard, Hartley and Webber prevailed with 166 to 161 points against Marcel Fässler , André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer . In 2016 , the driver trio was retained and the races at the Nürburgring , Mexico City , Austin and Shanghai were won. In the overall ranking, the team achieved fourth place.

On June 29, 2018, Bernhard set a new best time of 5: 19.546 minutes on the Nordschleife in the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo . With this, Stefan Bellof's previous record on May 28, 1983 with 6: 11.13 minutes was improved by 51.58 seconds after more than 35 years. The average speed of the record lap was 234.69 km / h.

In December 2019, Timo Bernhard announced his retirement as a driver at the end of the 2019 racing season.

statistics

Successes (excerpt)

• 1991: ADAC Pfalzmeister youth kart slalom
• 1993: 1st place ADAC Baden A-Junior
• 1994: 1st place DMV National Championship A-Junior
• 1995: 1st place in the German Junior Kart Cup
• 1995: 5th place in the CIK / FIA Junior Kart World Championship
• 1995: 1st place in the DMV Junior Cup
• 1997: 3rd place German Kart Championship
• 1998: 6th place Formula Ford Eurocup
• 1999: 3rd place in the German Formula Ford Championship
• 2000: 3rd place in the Porsche Carrera Cup
• 2001: 1st place in the Porsche Carrera Cup
• 2002: 1st place 24 Hours of Le Mans (GT)
• 2002: 1st place 24 Hours of Daytona (GT)
• 2002: 2nd place in the 24-hour race on the Nürburgring
• 2002: 3rd place in the Porsche Michelin Supercup
• 2003: Overall victory in the Daytona 24-hour race
• 2003: 2nd American Le Mans Series (GT)
• 2004: 1st American Le Mans Series (GT)
• 2004: 1st place Petit Le Mans
• 2004: 1st Sebring 12-hour race (GT)
• 2006: 1st Petit Le Mans (LMP2)
• 2006: Overall victory at the American Le Mans Series run in Mid-Ohio
• 2006: Overall victory in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring
• 2007: 1st American Le Mans Series (LMP2)
• 2007: Overall victory in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring
• 2008: Overall victory in the Sebring 12-hour race
• 2008: 1st American Le Mans Series (LMP2)
• 2008: Overall victory in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring
• 2009: Overall victory in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring
• 2010: Overall victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race
• 2011: Overall victory in the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring
• 2017: Overall victory in the Le Mans 24-hour race

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2002	The Racer's Group	Porsche 996 GT3 RS	Kevin Buckler	Lucas Luhr	16th place and class win
2003	The Racer's Group	Porsche 996 GT3 RS	Kevin Buckler	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 20
2005	White Lightning Racing	Porsche 996 GT3 RSR	Patrick Long	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 11
2009	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R15 TDI	Alexandre Premat	Romain Dumas	Rank 17
2010	Audi Sport North America	Audi R15 TDI	Mike Rockenfeller	Romain Dumas	Overall victory
2011	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18	Mike Rockenfeller	Romain Dumas	failure	accident
2013	Porsche AG Team Manthey	Porsche 911 RSR	Patrick Pilet	Jörg Bergmeister	Rank 16
2014	Porsche team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Mark Webber	Brendon Hartley	failure	Oil pump
2015	Porsche team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Mark Webber	Brendon Hartley	Rank 2
2016	Porsche team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Mark Webber	Brendon Hartley	Rank 13
2017	Porsche LMP team	Porsche 919 Hybrid	Earl Bamber	Brendon Hartley	Overall victory
2018	Porsche GT Team	Porsche 991 RSR GTE	Sven Müller	Romain Dumas	failure	Chassis break

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2001	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Randy Pobst	Christian Menzel	Rank 9
2002	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Jörg Bergmeister	Marc Lieb	failure	Electrics
2003	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Jörg Bergmeister		Rank 17
2004	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-RSR	Sascha Maassen		Rank 8 and class win
2005	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 996 GT3-RSR	Sascha Maassen	Romain Dumas	failure	Engine failure
2006	Penske Motorsports	Porsche RS Spyder	Patrick Long	Romain Dumas	failure	mechanics
2007	Penske Racing	Porsche RS Spyder	Helio Castroneves	Romain Dumas	Rank 5
2008	Penske Racing	Porsche RS Spyder	Emmanuel Collard	Romain Dumas	Overall victory
2011	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R15 TDI	Mike Rockenfeller	Romain Dumas	Rank 5
2012	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R18 TDI	Loïc Duval	Romain Dumas	Rank 2
2019	Mazda Team Joest	Mazda RT24-P	Tristan Nunez	Oliver Jarvis	failure	Electrics

Individual results in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
2012	Audi Team Joest	Audi R18	SEB	SPA	LEM	SIL	SAO	BAH	FUJ	SHA
			2
2013	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche 911 RSR	SIL	SPA	LEM	SAO	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH
			20th	DNF	16
2014	Porsche	Porsche 919 Hybrid	SIL	SPA	LEM	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH	SAO
			3	23	DNF	5	3	6th	3	DNF
2015	Porsche	Porsche 919 Hybrid	SIL	SPA	LEM	ONLY	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH
			DNF	3	2	1	1	1	1	5
2016	Porsche	Porsche 919 Hybrid	SIL	SPA	LEM	ONLY	MEX	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH
			DNF	26th	13	1	1	1	3	1	3
2017	Porsche	Porsche 919 Hybrid	SIL	SPA	LEM	ONLY	MEX	OUT	FUJ	SHA	BAH
			2	3	1	1	1	1	4th	2	2
2018/19	Porsche	Porsche 991 RSR GTE	SPA	LEM	SIL	FUJ	SHA	SEB	SPA	LEM
				DNF

Honors

• ADAC Motorsportman of the Year 2010

Web links

Commons : Timo Bernhard  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Timo Bernhard
• KÜS TEAM75 Bernhard

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gary Watkins: Porsche's Webber, Hartley and Bernhard secure WEC drivers' title. autosport.com, November 21, 2015, accessed November 22, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Timo Bernhard sets the Nordschleife record . In: Total motorsport . Retrieved June 30, 2018.
3. ↑ Timo Bernhard resigns