Porsche sealed an historic victory today in the 83rd running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the German marque finishing a convincing first and second in front of 263,500 spectators to break Audi’s stranglehold on the jewel in the crown of sportscar racing.
Nico Hülkenberg became the first driver to win the race overall at his first attempt since Laurent Aiello in 1998, the year of Porsche’s last overall victory, and the first current F1 driver to win since Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot in 1991.
The Formula One driver, together with his team mates Nick Tandy of Britain and Earl Bamber of New Zealand, didn’t put a foot wrong in their No. 19 Porsche 919 Hybrid and headed home Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard in the No.17 entry. Audi was 3rd and 4th after uncharacteristically encountering a number of minor setbacks in the second half of the race.
In the LMP2 class KCMG’s Nicolas Lapierre, Matt Howson and Richard Bradley reigned supreme and the drivers and their ORECA 05 Nissan won with a 48s advantage over the No.38 JOTA Sport entry of Oliver Turvey, Simon Dolan and Mitch Evans – the latter being the third of the four New Zealand drivers entered in the race to mount the podium. Third in class was the Russian G-Drive Racing entry of Sam Bird, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal.
The LMGTE Pro and Am classes looked set to see repeat victories for 2014 victors AF Corse and Aston Martin Racing, but Le Mans can be a cruel mistress and the twice-round-the-clock classic was not kind to either team.
The winner in the Pro category was the No.64 Corvette Racing entry of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor who battled with the current GTE World Champions from AF Corse Ferrari throughout the race. With less than two hours to run the No.51 Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella lost 30 minutes in the pits due to a gearbox problem and in the end finished in third place behind their AF Corse team mates in the No.71 – Davide Rigon, James Calado and Olivier Beretta.
The SMP Racing Ferrari 458 of Andrea Bertolini, Victor Shaytar and Aleksei Basov were in exactly the right place to benefit from the heartache that befell the No.98 Aston Martin Racing entry in the LMGTE Am class. Paul Dalla Lana, who had led the class almost the entire way through the race, with his team mates Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda, son of three times F1 World Champion Niki, had a big crash 47 minutes before the chequered flag which put the Vantage V8 out on the spot. The No.72 Ferrari had been right on its heels and took the class victory a lap ahead of the No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR of Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried, the latter making his debut at the 24 Hours. The Scuderia Corse Ferrari of Segal, Bell and Sweedler was third.
The results absolutely throw into play once again the potential outcome of the World Endurance Championship and other title chases, as the WEC moves towards its midway point. Round 4, the 6 Hours of Nürburgring on 30th August, promises to be even more exciting than the previous three…if that’s possible!
A fuller race report will be published in due course.
