Porsche took a stunning, historic victory in the 83rd running of the Le Mans 24 Hours as Formula 1 star and race debutant Nico Hulkenberg helped take the German manufacturer’s 17th win in the famous French race.
Hulkenberg, joined by fellow rookie Earl Bamber and one of the stars of the race, Nick Tandy, produced a virtually flawless performance in the #19 Porsche 919 Hybrid to see off a determined challenge from Audi Sport as well as their own team-mates to secure the win in only the second year since Porsche returned to top-flight prototype racing with the two-litre V4-engined Hybrid.
The victory came on the 45th anniversary of Porsche’s first win at Le Mans in 1970, when Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood famously won in the now iconic red and white 917K. It also marked 17 years since Porsche last won the race.
For Hulkenberg, it was a dream debut as he became the first contemporary F1 driver to win since Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot won with Mazda in 1991 and along with Kiwi Bamber, the first debutant to win at Le Mans since Laurent Aiello triumphed for Porsche in 1998.
The #19 machine led for more than half the race and by sunrise had a two-minute advantage over team-mates Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and former winner Timo Bernhard in the #17 car (painted in tribute colours to the 917). By this stage Audi’s trio of R18 e-tron quattros had already run in to various problems.
Toyota meanwhile was bereft of the pace that made it such a potent force in 2014.
Porsche began the week with a pace advantage over its key factory rivals Audi and Toyota. Indeed Neel Jani set a record 3m16.877s pole time that represented the sixth fastest lap of all time around the legendary La Sarthe circuit – and the fastest of all since chicances were installed on the Mulsanne straight.
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Lanehogger
Great race!
Audi put up a great fight and their R18s were much faster than anyone thought they were, especially after qualifying, and they were right on the pace of Porsche from the off. At one point looked liked they were going to win but as the race went on, especially through the night, their pace dropped off and reliability issues crept in too.
As for Toyota, they were amazingly off the pace even though they were the most reliable and consistent performing P1 cars.
Nissan on the other hand made themselves look like a complete joke, turning up to their first race with a half-hearted, underdeveloped and under-performing car, throwing all the hype and excitement with their unusual car out of the window. If they wanted race-pace and race environment development, they should have raced at Silverstone and Spa this year, instead they turned up at the biggest race of the year and made themselves look foolish. Also, it may seem like the front engined, front drive layout may not work as well as they thought while development is so far behind. Toyota and Porsche didn't lag this far behind when they returned to the P1 class.
Great result for Chevrolet, winning the GTE Pro class, the Corvette C7 was virtually bulletproof and probably reasserts themselves as having the GT car to beat again.
david RS
Bravo Porsche.
I've just come back from Le Mans.
Great week-end.
Greenracer
And may I say a BIG thank you
AddyT
Greenracer wrote: And may I
And a big thanks to Eurosport for showing the whole race from start to finish...and being able to watch that channel with just a regular Sky subscription without the Sports package! Fantastic race all round - can't wait to go next year!
jamesf1
Great result
Norma Smellons
Blitzkrieg!
kamlottis
No doubt
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