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Le Mans 24 Hour - Race Report - 14/6/15

By MJP Media / Formula Photographie | 15 June 2015

Porsche end their 18 year drought with dominant 1-2 in the Dunlop sponsored 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours and extend their record number of wins to 17!

Porsche's winning No. 19 - Hülkenberg, Bamber and Tandy

It has been an intense week of rivalry between Porsche and reigning champions Audi after Toyota never really came to the party for this year's Le Mans 24 Hours. The lack of performance from Toyota was surprising, especially as after a poor qualifying performance, the team said they were concentrating on race pace.

Victory in front of a massive 263,500 crowd went to the number 19 Porsche 919 of drivers Nico Hülkenberg, Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy with the sister car, number 17, of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley making it a fantastic 1-2 for the German manufacturer. So dominant was the performance that Dr Ullrich of Audi elegantly presented his congratulations to the team even before the finish. Audi have not had much practice at being gracious in defeat recently and their 3rd place on the podium will not have been well received back at Ingolstadt.

The Porsches had been relatively untroubled at any point, with the number 19 car being just that little bit quicker, especially during the night. The team were a little nervous at the end as drizzle started to fall, but in the end it was a relatively comfortable win. Winning driver Nico Hülkenberg said at the end: "Our goal was to have one car on the podium, but a 1-2 victory is amazing. I am very proud of what we achieved. We had a flawless race with a great pace and we didn't make any mistake. The last lap was a bit weird because it was drizzling and people got nervous in the garage. After the finish line, it is amazing to see thousands and thousands of people cheering up. I am very happy that we've done it."

Webber, Bernhard and Hartley made it a 1-2 for Porsche

Mark Webber in the second placed car said: "We weren't quick enough. Simple as that. The guys in the 19 did a great job. All three of them were exceptional for 24 hours. We served a penalty as well, I don't know if that would have been enough - maybe if we didn't have that. Especially in the night, the No. 19 car was really quick. It left the Audis and the other Porsches as well." The car can have no complaints though after being forced to serve a 1 minute penalty for overtaking under yellow flags.

Audi, despite getting onto the podium, were perhaps guilty of their own downfall after their cars were delayed by a succession of errors. The first to drop back was the number 8, when late on Saturday afternoon it hit the barrier between Mulsanne and Arnage. Having gone head to head with the winning number 19 Porsche all night, the number 7 Audi lost its engine cover early on Sunday morning. Finally, as a result of a contact with a Ferrari during the night and subsequent problems with its left-hand front hybrid system, the number 9 was the last of the Audi Sport Team Joest cars to run into trouble and that final problem ruled out any chance of an Audi victory.

Audi's No. 7 car finished 3rd with Fässler, Lotterer and Tréluyer

Toyota tried to keep up with Porsche and Audi, although the TS040 Hybrid was consistently outpaced by the Germans. The number 2 car, in the hands of Sarrazin, Wurz and Conway was the highest placed in 6th, eight laps behind the winner. Only one of the three Nissans on the grid finished after the number 21 and 23 cars had retired early. Whilst the number 22 Nissan did take the chequered flag, it was an unclassified finisher as it hadn't done the mandatory 70% of the distance covered by the winner.

There is no doubt that the teutonic rivalry between Porsche and Audi will now be even greater, whilst the Japanese pairing of Toyota and Nissan will both be licking their wounds and planning hard for next year. Whilst there will be some rule changes for the super-quick cars going forwards, Le Mans continues to be the pinnacle of sports car racing and the highest attended motor sport event in the world.

Words copyright MJP Media
Pictures copyright MJP Media / Formula Photographie

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