This was a cat and mouse race between #1 and #2 Porsche's, #5 and #6 Toyota's. But, come after midnight #1 Porsche while leading had been in the pits with high water temperatures forcing them to be lapped over thirty-eight laps. By the twenty-first hour, #6 Toyota was force to pit because of damage picked up in the night after clipping a backmarker during the night, suffering floor damage, and following a spin into the gravel in the twenty-first hour, Toyota decided to fix the bodywork damage and also carry out precautionary checks on cooling systems to make sure the car reaches the finish giving the #5 Toyota the lead.
#5 Toyota was in line to win, giving Toyota's their first ever Le Mans win outright, until an even bigger upset occurred in the final minutes. The #5 Toyota led the race by ninety seconds inside the final 10 minutes, but with just over five minutes of the 24 hours remaining #5 Toyota slowed, reporting that he had no power. As the Toyota attempted to crawl around the finish, #2 Porsche blasted by to grab the lead and complete one more lap to take an unexpected victory while #5 Toyota did not finish the race, to give Porsche their eighteenth outright win at Le Mans.
The Porsche Team won the race overall and the LMP1 class too of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani in their Porsche 919 Hybrid and managed to do 384 laps altogether in mostly dry conditions to win this years 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
While second was the Toyota Gazoo Racing team of Kamui Kobayashi, Stéphane Sarrazin and Mike Conway in their Toyota TS050 Hybrid, they were three laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
Meanwhile, third place was the Audi Sport Team Joest team of Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and Loïc Duval in their Audi R18 e-tron quattro, they were twelve laps behind the leaders at the end of the race. While, the remaining Audi R18 e-tron quattro's came in fourth with the team of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer; they were seventeen laps behind the leaders at the end.
With Porsche taking a last gap victory, the final Porsche 919 Hybrid came in thirteenth place in the hands of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber. They were thirty-eight laps behind the leaders at the end.
Top privateer LMP1 car at Le Mans was Rebellion Racing of Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Nelson Piquet, Jr. in their Rebellion R-One with a AER P60 2.4l Turbo V6. They finish in twenty-ninth place overall and they were fifty-four laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
In LMP2 class, the Signatech Alpine team of Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stéphane Richelmi in their Alpine A460 with a Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 engine won in LMP2 class. They finish in fifth place overall and they were twenty-seven laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
While in GTE Pro class, was won by Ford Chip Ganassi Team USA team of Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais won in their Ford GT. They finish in eighteenth place overall and they were forty-four laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
While in GTE Am class, was won by Scuderia Corsa team of Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell and Jeff Segal in their Ferrari 458 Italia GT2. They finish in twenty-sixth place overall and they were fifty-three laps behind the leaders at the end of the race.
And finally, mention to Frédéric Sausset who is a quadruple amputee drove this years Le Mans in a modified Morgan LMP2 provided by the SRT41 by OAK Racing team with Christophe Tinseau and Jean-Bernard Bouvet as the other drivers finished in thirty-eighth place overall and they were sixty-nine 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 five weeks time for round four of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
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