Di Resta revels in ‘exceptional’ win as he claims first Le Mans triumph
● Scot delighted with car that ‘never missed a beat’ to earn LMPT2 title
Bath gate’s Paul Di Rest a claimed his maiden Le Mans 24 Hour race victor y yesterday – a dominant win which earned his United Autosports team the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 class title with one race remaining.
The 34- year-old Scotsman along with Phi Hanson (Eng land) and Filipe Albuquerque( Portugal ), won the annual twice-around-the-clock endurance sportscar race in France by almost 33 seconds.
Their United Auto sports Oreca started from pole position on Saturday afternoon courtesy of Di Resta the previous day and was in contention for victor y throughout, ultimately clocking 3,134 miles at an average speed of 130mph to earn the trio an LMP2 victory and fifth place overall. Di Resta was competing in his third Le Mans 24 Hours aiming to improve on a previous b est four th-place finish achieved last year.
Former F1 driver Di Resta earns the runners-up position in the prestigious world LMP2 Driver’s title standings, having scored four podium top-three finishes – including consec - utive wins in Bahrain, North America and Belgium.
Di Rest a said :“To win Le Mans is exceptional, especially taking into account that we have now won the last four consecutive WEC races – that’s something quite unique. I was fastest in Hyperpole to secure us pole position with an LMP2 lap record.
“Of course with no fans here this year, it hasn’ t been the same atmosphere but it was a great race right up until the end. It’ll take a while for me for this Le Mans victory to sink in.
The team was magnificent all week and our car never missed a beat.”
In the LMP1 class, Toyota Gazoo’s No 8 car comfortably won by five laps from Rebellion No 1 to secure a third straight victory in the prestigious endurance race.
It was also a third consecutive win for Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi and Japan’s Kazuki Nakaji mad riving. Brendon Hartley was the other driver, having replaced twotime Formula One champion Fernando Alonso.
Bue mi and Hartley sat on the side of the car as Nakajima drove toward the podium. Hartley won for a second time after tasting success with the Porsche LMP Team in 2017 before an unhappy season in Formula One.