Porsche’s Le Mans hat-trick

LE MANS: Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the third year in a row yesterday with a stunning last-to-first victory in a race of retirements that left early favourites Toyota nursing more heartache.

The German manufacturer’s 19th outright win at the Circuit de la Sarthe followed a night of drama with Toyota’s top two cars retiring and the number one Porsche also suffering a terminal problem while leading with four hours to go.

That left the number two Porsche, shared by German Timo Bernhard and New Zealanders Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber, to move surprisingly back into contention after being at the back of the field on Saturday.

The trio’s chances had been written off by team bosses when the car suffered front axle problems and spent 90 minutes in the garage before rejoining some 22 laps adrift of the leading Toyota.

The number one Porsche drivers – Neel Jani of Switzerland, Britain’s Nick Tandy and Germany’s Andre Lotterer – were 13 laps clear when the car halted with four hours to go, sidelined by an oil pressure issue.

The podium was completed by two second tier LMP2 entries, with the number 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca – the team backed by the Hong Kong action movie star – finishing as runners-up.

Dutch-born Hong Kong racer Ho-Pin Tung shared that car with Britain’s Oliver Jarvis and Frenchman Thomas Laurent. – Reuters