Above: The Vipers put in a spirited performance in only their second year at Le Mans.
Left: The Audi crew takes the idea of‘ alternative power’ one step too far! cars came the No26 Oreca 03-Nissan( Rusinov-Martin- Conway) entered by G-Drive Racing in third place( although this car was later excluded due to an oversize fuel tank), and the No42 Greaves Motosport Zytek-Nissan( Mardenborough- Ordonez-Krumm) in fourth, later promoted to third. Only two laps separated first from forth after 24 hours of racing!
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Unfortunately, the third works Morgan-Nissan No45( Nicolet- Merlin-Mondolot), a car which won public affection thanks to its‘ art car’ livery, experienced too many problems and eventually had to retire. The hopes of French automotive legend Alpine, making its Le Mans return with the No36 A450( Panciatici-Ragues- Gommendy), didn’ t quite go to plan. The team’ s race turned into a nightmare, mainly because of two offs in the space of thirty minutes! Still, the attractive blue car finished a respectable ninth in class. In the LM GTE Pro category the race quickly turned into a ding-dong battle between four works cars: the No 99( Bell-Makowiecki-Senna) and No97( Dumbreck-Mücke- Turner) Aston Martins and the No92( Lieb-Lietz-Dumas) and No91( Bergmeister-Pilet- Bernhard) Porsches. Around 10h00 on Sunday morning the No99 Aston Martin leading the category went off and had to retire. The British team was visibly deeply shaken by this incident, as they were hoping to dedicate a victory to Allan