Race report
WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans
Le Mans 24h: Alonso, Buemi, Nakajima win again for Toyota
Toyota sealed its second Le Mans 24 Hours victory in expectedly dominant style, but a late problem for the #7 car handed another win to Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Jun 17, 2019, 11:44 AM
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The #7 TS050 Hybrid looked to have an edge over the sister car - and Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez looked well set for a straightforward victory over the #8 car until drama struck the trio with just over an hour of the race remaining.
Lopez had more than two minutes in hand when he pitted to replace a suspected front-right puncture, but it was in fact the left-rear that needed changing, forcing the Argentinian to limp back to the pits. He resumed 50s down on Nakajima in the #8 car once the issue was solved.
After assuming the lead when Nakajima made his final routine stop, Lopez pitted for the final time with 20 minutes to go and took the flag only 16s in arrears.
Minute by minute coverage:
Victory for Alonso, Nakajima and Buemi also guaranteed them FIA World Endurance Championship honours, with Buemi earning that accolade for the second time after his 2014 triumph.
The best of the non-hybrid LMP1s dropped off the lead lap early in hour five, and by the finish the third-placed car, SMP Racing's #11 BR Engineering BR1, was six laps down on the winning car.
Le Mans debutant Stoffel Vandoorne and his teammates in the #11 car, Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov, enjoyed a virtually-trouble free run to ensure SMP came out on top against its main rival Rebellion Racing, which suffered dramas with both of its R-13s.
The #3 survived a crash for Thomas Laurent in the evening without losing a lap, thanks to rapid pitwork and a well-timed safety car, but Gustavo Menezes was less fortunate when he got the car beached in the gravel at the Porsche Curves with just over six hours to go.
That was followed by numerous trips to the garage that left the #3 machine down in fifth and 15 laps down on the winning car, five laps behind the #1 Rebellion of Neel Jani, Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer which had dropped out of the fight for privateer honours before night fell.
SMP could have made it a three-four if not for a terminal crash at the Porsche Curves for Egor Orudzhev in the #17 BR1 he shared with Stephane Sarrazin and Sergey Sirotkin.
Neither of the remaining LMP1s, the DragonSpeed BR1 and the ByKolles entry, were still in the race by sunrise. The #10 BR1 was plagued and ultimately halted by persistent electronic gremlins, while the #4 ENSO CLM P1/01 suffered a terminal gearshift problem in the early hours.
LMP2: Signatech Alpine seals dominant victory
Signatech trio Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and Andre Negrao secured a dominant victory in the LMP2 division in their #36 Alpine-branded Oreca, backing up their inherited victory of last year and also securing WEC class championship victory in the process.
Their triumph again owed much to G-Drive Racing hitting trouble, as the #26 Aurus-badged Oreca shared by Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and Job van Uitert gave up a dominant three-minute lead after losing 20 minutes to a wiring issue during a routine stop in hour 19.
From there, the #36 crew was not challenged for victory, having already established a lap's buffer over the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca shared by Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry, which lost ground when the car lost a lap with a puncture.
Third place went to the polesitting #28 TDS Oreca of Loic Duval, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Francois Perrodo, who enjoyed an easy run to what became the final podium place after Pastor Maldonado crashed the #31 DragonSpeed Oreca at Tertre Rouge with just under seven hours remaining.
Best of the non-Orecas was the fourth-placed United Autosports LMP2 of Phil Hanson, Paul di Resta and Filipe Albuquerque, two laps down, ahead of the IDEC Sport Oreca and the G-Drive car, which was able to recover from its issue to finish sixth, four laps down.
The sister Jackie Chan DC Racing car failed to finish after suffering a gearbox failure while running inside the top five.
GTE Pro: Ferrari wins after Corvette heartbreak
Ferrari scored its first GTE Pro class victory since 2014 thanks to the efforts of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra in the #51 AF Corse 488 GTE.
The vagaries of the safety car periods had essentially turned the battle for honours into a two-horse race between the #51 Ferrari and the #63 Corvette of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller heading into the morning hours.
However, the 21st-hour intervention caused by Nyck de Vries’ high-speed off in the Racing Team Nederland Dallara at Indianapolis led to the #63 car getting held at the end of pitlane, which handed the #51 Ferrari a one-minute lead it would never lose.
Any chance of Corvette salvaging a podium finish was lost when Magnussen spun at the Porsche Curves, making light contact with the barriers, which cost the car two laps. A further 15-minute trip to the garage left it five laps off the pace.
Corvette had already lost one car when Marcel Fassler hit the barriers at the same part of the track with force towards the end of the sixth hour, the result of contact with the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche of Satoshi Hoshino for which the stewards judged Fassler to blame.
Behind the winning Ferrari, Porsche filled out the remaining spots on the podium, with the #91 car of Gianmaria Bruni, Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz beating the best of the IMSA entries, the #93 of Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Patrick Pilet, by under 20s.
Ford’s quartet of retro-liveried GTs filled out the next four places, led by the #68 machine of 2016 class winners Sebastien Bourdais, Dirk Muller and Joey Hand.
Exhaust problems in the night cost the #92 Porsche crew any of chance of defending their 2018 victory, but 10th and fifth among the WEC points-scoring cars was enough to ensure Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen came away with title honours.
Both BMW and Aston Martin had races to forget, BMW’s top finisher finishing six laps down in 11th and both Astons suffering problems in the night.
Marco Sorensen’s violent crash at Indianapolis in the #95 Vantage GTE, which had started on pole, made it one of three non-finishers in the class, along with the #64 Corvette and the #71 Ferrari, which suffered engine troubles.
GTE Am: Keating Ford survives late scare
Keating Motorsports' privateer Ford GT, piloted by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga, held on for a narrow win in GTE Am, surviving a late scare when owner-driver Keating picked up a stop-and-go-penalty.
The Wynn's-liveried #85 machine had led by as much as a lap, but in the closing hours the #56 Project 1 Porsche of Jorg Bergmeister, Egidio Perfetti and Patrick Lindsey had worked its way back into the fray even before Keating earned his penalty for spinning his wheels in a pitstop.
That infraction reduced a 36s lead to less than 5s, but Bleekemolen was able to pull away in the final hour to secure victory by around 50s, helped by a late splash for Bergmeister - who nonetheless sealed WEC GTE Am class title honours along with his teammates.
The final spot on the class podium went to the JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rodrigo Baptista, Jeff Segal and Wei Lu, which ended up only 40 seconds behind the Project 1 Porsche.
Full race results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Laps Gap 1 8 Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Fernando Alonso Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 385 2 7
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 385 16.972 3 11
Vitaly Petrov
Mikhail Aleshin
Stoffel Vandoorne BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 379 6 Laps 4 1
Neel Jani
Andre Lotterer
Bruno Senna Rebellion R13 LMP1 376 9 Laps 5 3
Thomas Laurent
Nathanael Berthon
Gustavo Menezes Rebellion R13 LMP1 370 15 Laps 6 36
Nicolas Lapierre
Andre Negrao
Pierre Thiriet Alpine A470 LMP2 368 17 Laps 7 38
Ho-Pin Tung
Stéphane Richelmi
Gabriel Aubry Oreca 07 LMP2 367 18 Laps 8 28
François Perrodo
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Loic Duval Oreca 07 LMP2 366 19 Laps 9 22
Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Paul di Resta Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 365 20 Laps 10 48
Paul Lafargue
Paul-Loup Chatin
Memo Rojas Oreca 07 LMP2 364 21 Laps 11 26
Roman Rusinov
Job Van Uitert
Jean-Eric Vergne Aurus 01 LMP2 364 21 Laps 12 30
Nico Jamin
Pierre Ragues
Romain Dumas Oreca 07 LMP2 363 22 Laps 13 23
Rene Binder
Julien Canal
Will Stevens Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 362 23 Laps 14 39
Tristan Gommendy
Vincent Capillaire
Jonathan Hirschi Oreca 07 LMP2 362 23 Laps 15 25
David Zollinger
Andrea Pizzitola
John Falb Oreca 07 LMP2 357 28 Laps 16 20
Anders Fjordbach
Dennis Andersen
Mathias Beche Oreca 07 LMP2 356 29 Laps 17 50
Erwin Creed
Romano Ricci
Nicholas Boulle Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 355 30 Laps 18 47
Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Andrea Belicchi Dallara P217 LMP2 352 33 Laps 19 32
Ryan Cullen
Alex Brundle Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 348 37 Laps 20 51
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Daniel Serra Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 342 43 Laps 21 91
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 342 43 Laps 22 93
Patrick Pilet
Earl Bamber
Nick Tandy Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 342 43 Laps 23 68
Joey Hand
Dirk Muller
Sébastien Bourdais Ford GT LMGTE PRO 342 43 Laps 24 67
Andy Priaulx
Harry Tincknell
Jonathan Bomarito Ford GT LMGTE PRO 342 43 Laps 25 69
Ryan Briscoe
Richard Westbrook
Scott Dixon Ford GT LMGTE PRO 341 44 Laps 26 66
Stefan Mücke
Olivier Pla
Billy Johnson Ford GT LMGTE PRO 340 45 Laps 27 29
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Nyck de Vries Dallara P217 LMP2 340 45 Laps 28 94
Sven Muller
Mathieu Jaminet
Dennis Olsen Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 339 46 Laps 29 63
Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia
Mike Rockenfeller Chevrolet Corvette C7R LMGTE PRO 337 48 Laps 30 92
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 337 48 Laps 31 82
Augusto Farfus
Antonio Felix da Costa
Jesse Krohn BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 335 50 Laps 32 85
Ben Keating
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Felipe Fraga Ford GT LMGTE AM 334 51 Laps 33 56
Jörg Bergmeister
Patrick Lindsey
Egidio Perfetti Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 334 51 Laps 34 84
Jeff Segal
Rodrigo Baptista
Wei Lu Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 334 51 Laps 35 62
Cooper MacNeil
Toni Vilander
Robert Smith Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 333 52 Laps 36 77
Matt Campbell
Christian Ried
Julien Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 332 53 Laps 37 57
Takeshi Kimura
Kei Cozzolino
Côme Ledogar Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 332 53 Laps 38 78
Louis Prette
Philippe Prette
Vincent Abril Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 332 53 Laps 39 61
Luis Perez Companc
Matthew Griffin
Matteo Cressoni Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 331 54 Laps 40 86
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker
Thomas Preining Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 331 54 Laps 41 83
Manuela Gostner
Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 330 55 Laps 42 89
Pipo Derani
Oliver Jarvis
Jules Gounon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 329 56 Laps 43 70
Motoaki Ishikawa
Olivier Beretta
Eddie Cheever III Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 328 57 Laps 44 90
Salih Yoluc
Euan Hankey
Charles Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 327 58 Laps 45 54
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 327 58 Laps 46 97
Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin
Jonathan Adam Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 325 60 Laps 47 34
Jakub Smiechowski
James Winslow
Nigel Moore Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 325 60 Laps 48 60
Claudio Schiavoni
Andrea Piccini
Sergio Pianezzola Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 324 61 Laps 49 81
Nick Catsburg
Martin Tomczyk
Philipp Eng BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 309 76 Laps 43
John Farano
Arjun Maini
Norman Nato Oreca 07 LMP2 295 90 Laps 31
Roberto Gonzalez
Pastor Maldonado
Anthony Davidson Oreca 07 LMP2 245 140 Laps 37
David Heinemeier Hansson
Jordan King
Ricky Taylor Oreca 07 LMP2 199 186 Laps 17
Stéphane Sarrazin
Egor Orudzhev
Sergey Sirotkin BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 163 222 Laps 4
Tom Dillmann
Oliver Webb
Paolo Ruberti ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 163 222 Laps 49
Miro Konopka
Henning Enqvist
Konstantin Tereshchenko Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 160 225 Laps 71
Davide Rigon
Sam Bird
Miguel Molina Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 140 245 Laps 95
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim
Darren Turner Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 132 253 Laps 98
Paul Dalla Lana
Pedro Lamy
Mathias Lauda Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 87 298 Laps 64
Oliver Gavin
Tommy Milner
Marcel Fassler Chevrolet Corvette C7R LMGTE PRO 82 303 Laps 88
Satoshi Hoshino
Giorgio Roda
Matteo Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 79 306 Laps 10
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley
Renger van der Zande BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 76 309 Laps View full results
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