Toyota had defeat literally stolen from the jaws of victory in one of the closest battles in recent Le Mans history. The record books will show that the pole-sitter led the first lap and the last, but everything in between will be the stuff of legend.
Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Buemi were set to score the first Japanese manufacturer win Le Mans since
1991 until their number five TS050
slowed on the penultimate lap – grinding to a halt in front of the main grandstand in front of 100,000 sports car fans. The cause - a technical defect on a connector on the air line between the turbo charger and the intercooler, causing a loss of turbo charger control being the official statement. Toyota's grace in the face of such a defeat however was something to behold.
Nakajima could only look on in horror as the number two 919 Porsche Hybrid of Romain Dumas cruised past – the eventually winner probably just as gobsmacked at what was transpiring.
Toyota team mate and second-placed Stéphane Sarrazin summed it up best, saying: “even in your worst nightmares you don’t think about that.”
“The car was great to drive” said Nakajima.
“It was tough to have
Porsche #2 only 30
seconds behind me
towards the end but
we had the pace and
we managed it very
well. It was only two
laps missing and it’s
a pity we didn’t get
the trophy; the team
deserved to win.”
“When I was doing my last lap to the chequered flag, all the marshals and fans were really kind to me and that was very emotional. I want to say thank you for that. Let’s come back stronger and grab that trophy.”
Number five’s failure elevated Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani to their first Le Mans victory ahead of the number six Toyota of Stephane Sarrazin, Mike Conway
and Kamui Kobayashi and the number eight Audi of Oliver Jarvis, Lucas di Grassi and Loic Duval.
Despite recording an historic 18th victory for Porsche at Le Mans, Neel Jani was gracious as ever. Having being on the wrong-end of reliability for the first half of 2015, the Swiss (and only Le Mans-winning driver of Indian heritage) driver knows all too well that the large print giveth and the small print all too often taketh away.
“To be honest. For them I felt heartbroken”, he said speaking of his rival’s misfortune. “It was one for the history books. It was a hard fought battle all through the race. It was qualifying for 24 hours. We were sometimes two seconds apart from each other. In the end the yellow zones cost us a little bit more.”
“All three of us were hunting each other I would say. Keep the hunt up and who would die first.”
Halfway through the 24 Hours of Le Mans
and the number six of Mike Conway, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kamui Kobayashi pulled the rug out from under Porsche and Audi to lead the race and record the fastest lap so far with Kobayashi on a 3:21.445.
After an hour behind the safety car in the rain, standing water was suitably removed to begin proceedings with Porsche leading the way in the hands of Romain Dumas, but surprisingly the TS050 of Mike Conway managing to stay in tow.
Toyota’s ability to run to fourteen laps has given the Japanese a massive strategic advantage over Porsche and Audi by the region of one to two laps.
Sebastien Buemi took the fight head-on after 8am Sunday morning, putting a move on the Mike Conway Toyota and controlling the race after a tussle with the number 2 Porsche.
Turbo issues hit the number seven Audi R18 early (requiring a complete turbo-charger change), but both Audi’s managed to crawl back to fourth and fifth when the number one Porsche of Webber, Hartley and Bernhard encountered overheating issues and was forced to spend an hour in the pits changing a broken water-pump.
The number seven car once again struck trouble at the twelve hour mark but was able to start again under electric power to complete a full-lap back into the pits.
Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi took victory for Signatech Alpine after controlling the race for the final three hours ahead of G-Drive Racing and SMP Racing.
Risi Competizione has startled Ford to lead the #GTE Pro class leading Ford in second and third. The number. 66 Ford GT had been in podium contention until it when it lost a lap with electrical problems, however Dirk Muller, Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais used the speed advantage of the Ford GT to take a one minute victory.
The Abu Dhabi Proton Porsche has had a three hour turn in the lead of GTE am ahead of both the number 98 Aston Martin Vantage and the number 78 Porsche KCMG, but eventual victory fell the way of Scuderia Corsa’s 458 in the hands of Jeffery Segal, Townsend Bell and William Sweeder.
Images: Richard Washbrooke Photography
Race - Le Mans