Hartley's title defence takes big hit at Silverstone series opener
New Zealander Brendon Hartley will have a lot of work to do in order to defend his World Endurance Championship crown, after the Kiwi crashed out heavily from the Six Hours of Silverstone overnight.
While lapping a slower car, Hartley cut around the outside of them through a left-hand sweeper, clipping their nose as he aimed to take the line for the next corner. The contact tipped Hartley's Porsche 919 onto its side at high speed, and resulted in both cars failing to finish the race. You can view the crash in the video above.
Hartley had been leading at that point, after a stellar stint from Australian teammate and former Formula 1 driver Mark Webber.
Following the race, Hartley was reprimanded by event stewards, as it's ruled that the onus is on the quicker cars to give room to the slower cars when they are being lapped.
"You are reminded that LMP1 drivers are liable for the way they overtake slower cars such as LMP2 and especially LM GTE cars," said the stewards in a statement.
"In this case, the stewards consider that Mr Brendon Hartley is responsible for the lack of caution and didn’t watch out before overtaking car #86."
Porsche's arch rivals Audi eventually won the race with drivers Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler, and Benoit Treluyer.