This was a cat and mouse race between #17 and #19 Porsche's, #7 and #9 Audi's. The race could be won between these four cars. But, come after midnight #19 Porshce was leading, ahead of #7 and #9 Audi's. By the eighteen hour, #19 Porsche was leading comfortably and with now #17 Porsche in second place, while the Audi fade away.
By the twenty-fourth hour, the Porsche Team won the race overall and the LMP1 class too of Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy and Nico Hülkenberg in their Porsche 919 Hybrid and managed to do 395 laps altogether in dry conditions to win this years 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
To give Porsche their first win at Le Mans since 1998, their seventeenth outright win at Le Mans, the first petrol overall win at Le Mans since 2005. And for Nico Hülkenberg became the first time full time F1 driver to win Le Mans since Bertrand Gachot for Mazda in 1991.
While second was the second Porsche Team of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley to make it an Porsche one-two finish at Le Mans. Despite, the #17 Porsche could have won, until a minute penalty occurred when Hartley was overtake other cars under yellow flags in the eighth hour. They were a lap down from the leaders at the end.
Meanwhile, third place was the Audi Sport Team Joest team of André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler in their Audi R18 e-tron quattro. They were two laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
With Porsche taking an one-two finish at Le Mans, the final Porsche 919 Hybrid came in fifth place in the hands of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani. They were four laps behind the leaders at the end.
For the first time since 2009 that an Audi has not won at Le Mans. The remaining Audi R18 e-tron quattro's came in fourth with the team of Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis; they were three laps behind the leaders at the end. While, the last Audi came in seventh place in the hands of Marco Bonanomi, Filipe Albuquerque and René Rast, they were eight laps behind the leaders at the end.
While Toyota Racing had a not so great weekend, Toyota TS040 Hybrid has been slow throughout the weekend to climax with a sixth place finish in the hands of Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Mike Conway; they were eight laps behind the leaders at the end. Meanwhile the last Toyota came in eighth place in the hands of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima; they were eight laps behind the leaders at the end.
And to Nissan return with the all new Nissan GT-R LM Nismo, did not gone to plane as all three cars have been slow as a slow LMP2 car all weekend with only the #22 Nissan of Harry Tincknell, Alex Buncombe and Michael Krumm finishing thirty-ninth place and unclassified; they were a hundred fifty-three laps behind the leaders at the end. While the #21 Nissan of Tsugio Matsuda, Lucas Ordóñez and Mark Shulzhitskiy retired at the ten hour mark. While the #23 Nissan of Max Chilton, Jann Mardenborough and Olivier Pla retired at the twenty-third hour to complete a miserable return for Nissan at Le Mans.
Top privateer LMP1 car at Le Mans was Rebellion Racing of Alexandre Imperatori, Dominik Kraihamer, and Daniel Abt in their Rebellion R-One with a AER P60 Turbo V6. They finish in eighteenth place overall and they were fifty-nine laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
In LMP2 class, the KCMG team of Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley and Nicolas Lapierre in their Oreca 05 with a Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 engine won in LMP2 class. They finish in ninth place overall and they were thirty-seven laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
While in GTE Pro class, was won by Corvette Racing-GM team of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor won in their Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. They finish in seventeenth place overall and they were fifty-eight laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
While in GTE Am class, was won by SMP Racing team of Viktor Shaitar, Aleksey Basov and Andrea Bertolini in their Ferrari 458 Italia GT2. They finish in twentieth place overall and they were seventy-three laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
Highlights of the 24 Hours of Le Mans below, enjoy.
Next Stop 6 Hours of Nürburgring in eleven weeks time for round four of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
End of post/blog for now, new post soon. Bye.
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