Porsche’s fairytale Le Mans win
WHEN Porsche returned to its hallowed Le Mans 24-Hour race in 2014 after a long hiatus from competing in the top league, it would have been a fairytale of Disney-like proportions if the German sportscar brand had won on its comeback. It did come close, agonisingly close, losing the lead with mechanical problems with the finish line only some two hours away, leaving Porsche’s cousin Audi to take its 13th victory in 15 years at the world’s most famous endurance event.
It was an honest performance, a dress rehearsal, if you will, and a chance to show the potential of Porsche’s 919 petrol-electric hybrid. This year, there was more of an expectation for Porsche to win. And it did, taking second place too for emphasis.
When Nico Hülkenberg cruised across the Le Mans finish line at 3pm on Sunday in the white Porsche #19, the historical significance left a lump in the throats of the large Porsche contingent amongst the 263 500 spectators. Second over the finish line, a lap behind, was the red #17 Porsche driven by Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley.
Perhaps the Disney movie version might have made the #17 car the winner to better commemorate the fairytale of Porsche taking its 17th win, exactly 17 years after its last overall victory. But the real-life feat was suitably memorable nonetheless, and extended Porsche’s record as the most successful marque in Le Mans history.
It was a relatively inexperienced team that delivered the win, with Nick Tandy the only driver to have raced at Le Mans before (twice), while his team-mates Hülkenberg (the only current F1 driver in the race), and Earl Bamber were both Le Mans rookies.
As a nod to the past, the #19 car’s white livery was in tribute to the famous Martini-branded Porsche 917 that won the race in 1971, but under this historic paint job was the very modern setup of a hybrid powerplant, as used by most competitors in the elite LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1) category who whined as much as roared their way around the 13.6km Circuit de la Sarthe.
For a gruelling event that covers the same span of time as 12 Formula One races, this year’s Le Mans was unusually uneventful in terms of mechanical breakdowns or crashes, with all six LMP1 cars that were in contention for overall victory still running at the end.
With the three Porsches and three Audi R18 e-trons running similar laptimes, it was left to a vital few seconds gained in pitstops or manoeuvring through traffic to grind out a small advantage, and avoiding any glitches.
It was Audi that had the lion’s share of these, most notably the #9 car driven by Filipe Albuquerque, Rene Rast and Marco Bonanomi, which, with three hours to go, needed a lengthy pit stop to replace a driveshaft, dropping it from third to sixth place.
The #7 Audi driven by last year’s victors Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer (who set the fastest race lap) and Benoit Treluyer, also lost time with a puncture and later had to stop for a loose engine cover, but recovered to finish third.
The #17 Porsche held the early race lead until it lost ground in the evening after getting a one-minute penalty for overtaking under yellow flags.
In the meantime, Hülkenberg, Bamber and Tandy kept it all neat and tidy in their #19 Porsche, and once they took the lead on lap 252 they held it until the finish on lap 395.
With an Audi in fourth and a Porsche in fifth it was a German clean-sweep of the top placings, and Toyota represented the best of the Japanese challenge with its two TS 040 Hybrids taking sixth and eighth, several laps down. The reigning World Endurance Champions (albeit yet to win the coveted Le Mans trophy), have admitted they need go back to the drawing board after running around four seconds a lap slower than the Porsches and Audis.
Nissan’s challenge never materialised. Employing an unusual front-engined, frontwheel-drive car that visibly struggled to get through the corners, the new GT-R LM Nismos lapped around 20 seconds slower than their rear-engined rivals, and all three cars failed to finish the race.
The #22 Nissan took the flag, but was an unclassified finisher as it hadn’t done at least 70% of the distance covered by the winner.