The stakes are high in this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship and 2014 final round winner Porsche have headed to Bahrain to continue their preparations for the 2015 battle.

Despite some strong, sand blowing winds at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, it was a productive test with a total of 5,118 kilometres covered. Driving duties were shared by Romain Dumas (France), Brendon Hartley (New Zealand), Nico Hülkenberg (Germany), Marc Lieb (Germany) and Mark Webber (Australia).

Now all nine drivers who will be racing the second generation of the 919 in 2015 have had the chance to test it.

“We have been doing tyre testing with Michelin, worked on set-up and aerodynamics, tried different adjustments for the differential lock and traction control, plus we have evaluated various hybrid strategies,” Alexander Hitzinger, Technical Director, said.

“It is extremely important to complete such a good mileage to discover and solve any teething problems in all areas. We encountered no problems that would cause us a headache. The strong, sand blowing winds were a disturbing factor and made it difficult to draw clear conclusions from the set-up work.

“Because at night the conditions were a bit more consistent, we changed our operating hours and once we even drove until two o’clock in the morning. It was the first time we had been on a race track where we had data from last year’s car for comparisons, so this was helpful. The results are encouraging, but not meaningful enough yet.

“Another positive thing is that the five drivers testing in Bahrain agreed with the four from the Abu Dhabi test that the driveability of the 2015 car is better than last year. This was one of our development targets.”

Porsche will battle with Le Mans winner Audi, FIA WEC champions Toyota and newcomer Nissan in the 2015 championship.