WEC - Le Mans 24hrs: Toyota Breaks Curse to Take 1st Le Mans Win
This means that Fernando Alonso, 2005-6 F1 Champion is now 1 step closer to the Triple Crown, having now won Le Mans 24hrs and Monaco Grand Prix. All he needs to win now is the Indy 500: does this win consolidate a full-time drive for Alonso with a McLaren entered car in IndyCar next year?
LMP1:
It was a dominant race from Toyota, not giving up the lead throughout the entire race from its 2 cars, however it was the #8 car which took a fairytale win ahead of the #7, thanks to stunning performances by Alonso and Nakajima during the night to make up for a penalty that dropped them behind the #7.
It wasn't plain sailing for Toyota however, with the #7 of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez running into trouble in the morning hours, when Kobayashi missed his lap to pit for fuel, causing him to cruise around for an entire lap, and receive a stop-go penalty for exceeding the mandated 11 lap stint length.
It was the 2 LMP1 Rebellion Racing cars to finish 3rd and 4th, with #3 car of Gustavo Menezes, Thomas Laurent and Mathias Beche taking honours over teammates Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer and Bruno Senna, after a lap 1, turn 2 collision between #1 Rebellion and #17 SMP Racing LMP1, losing ground from a door coming loose and having penalties for exceeding the stint length.
Miraculously, the #5 Manor Ginetta made it to the finish in the car's first ever full race, having suffered so many issues and only turning a couple of laps at Spa before the Le Mans weekend started, however the #6 Manor Ginetta was not so fortunate, retiring from the race.
Along with the #6 Manor Ginetta, the other LMP1 retirement included the #4 ByKolles car, who crashed heavily at the Porsche Curves whilst lapping GTE Am traffic, after also spinning on the formation lap; both SMP Racing cars, with the #17 crashing at the Porsche Curves, and the #11 retiring with an engine failure with 2009 F1 Champion Jenson Button at the wheel.
LMP2:
It was the #26 G-Drive Racing car who cruised to victory with Jean-Eric Vergne, Andrea Pizzitola and Romain Rusinov, leaving almost every lap to take their first win at Le Mans.
After starting 3rd, #26 lost places at the start to 6th, but after the first round of pitstops, they emerged in a lead that they never gave up, having no incidents or unscheduled pitstops to win by 2 laps over the #36 Signatech-alpine of Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet.
The battle for 3rd was raging in the final laps of the race, with the #39 Graff-SO24 Racing car edging out the #28 TDS Racing car by just 2.5 seconds after 24 hours of racing.
In 5th was a surprising #32 United Autosports car, after Juan Pablo Montoya crashed at the Indianapolis corner in Hour 6. They managed to recover it however, and were even on course for 4th before a puncture in the penultimate hour dropped it a lap behind their rivals. You had 'Juan' job...
It was not such a good race for teammate Paul di Resta in the #22 United Autosports car, as he crashed heavily into a concrete wall at the Porsche Curves.
GTE Pro:
Porsche's GT Team claimed a 1-2 finish with their pair of retro-liveried, European run 911 RSR's, with the #92 'Pink Pig', driven by Laurens Vanthoor, Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre, taking honours ahead of the #91 Rothmans liveried Porsche.
The 2 retro Porsches and the #68 Ford GT battled early on, broken up by a safety car, but the #92 was never under real threat, maintaining the lead for most of the race.
However, in the morning hours, the #91 Porsche and the #61 Ford put on an amazing show for 2nd, with the #91 of Frederic Makowiecki dividing opinion with his very strong, Verstappen-esque defending, causing Sebastien Bourdais in the #61 to get very vocal about his driving both on team radio and in interviews after his stint.
It seemed to be only Ford and Porsche in the race however, with the lead Ferrari finishing in 6th with the #52 car, while Aston Martin's struggles with the new Vantage AMR continued, the lead car finishing only 9th.
Both BMW M8's had suspension issues, with the #81 finishing 11th and the #82 retired after Alexander Sims crashed the car at the Porsche Curves in the early hours of the morning.
The #64 Chevrolet Corvette also retired with engine troubles, and the #94 Porsche retired with terminal suspension problems. The #69 Ford spend the final 2 hours in the garage with an electrical issue.
GTE Am:
It was the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche who took honours in GTE Am, rounding off a good race for Porsche cars, with the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 taking 2nd.
The #77 took early control of the class, with their drivers building the lead over Saturday evening, and by morning the #85 Ferrari who was in 2nd, could not mount an attack, after spinning off at Mulsanne corner in the 22nd hour, allowing #54 to retake 2nd.
Aston Martin's #98 Vantage crashed shortly after the one third distance marker, with the pole sitting Dempsey-Proton #88 Porsche retired after crashing at the Ford Chicane in the morning hours.
Full Results - LMP1 and LMP2:
Full Results - GTE Pro and Am:
Full LMP Drivers' Standings:
Full GTE Driver's Standings:
