Twenty-two cars always looked set to deal out a fascinating battle, and whilst the record number of Safety Car periods helped to keep the relative pace up, the leading pack always looked capable of doling out real racing.
There always have to be losers, and this time around there were plenty – The Lotus team had a trying Le Mans in many ways and neither car ultimately finished this one – their headlines came for reasons they’ll likely want to forget.
The Lola trio had runs to forget too – The #39 DKR Engineering team brought it home but there were too many incidents, too many clashes that affected too many other people’s races.
The Gulf Racing car was out early and sadly the HVM Status car went out too, in dramatic fashion, overnight.
Only two of the Orecas failed to finish.The luckless #25 car crashed at the entrance to the Porsche Curves for the second time this week, and Archie Hamilton’s hopes of an historic 60th anniversary celebration of his grandfather’s win ended there as Tor Graves stepped out of the car.
The #46 Thiriet by TDS car went well but crashed out in the final hour, caught out by the rain.
The Morgans lost a pair of cars too – the #45 Art car stopping soon after a pitlane incident for which they were blameless, spoiling a far from troubled but steady run.
The #47 KCMG car again impressed but their race ended in unfortunate fashion, the car falling victim to a ruptured fuel cell.
The #33 Level 5 HPD failed to deliver against the successes that the marque has had in the past here. The speed was there in flashes, as were the flames, but the car seemed to struggle with the stop-start nature of this race and eventually succumbed.
The Boutsen Ginion team was another that had spins and dramas aplenty – not enough pace and too much trouble to make an impact, but enough to finish.
Then there were those that battled back from early difficulties:
The #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan hit early trouble with rear, and later front suspension woes (was someone clattering kerbs?). Tom Kimber Smith was as impressive as ever, Eric Lux played the role of anchor man well, and Alex Rossi seemed to finally ‘get it’ about this sportscar racing lark as the meeting went on. It’s a very different world and takes some getting used to! They’d battle back into 24th position overall by the flag.
The #34 Race Performance Oreca Judd needed a faultless run to get anything like a good result but didn’t get one. Early delays left the little Swiss team battling from the back of the field after an early problem on course for Bleekemolen and a trip into the gravel from the impressive youngster Niederhauser. They’d come home a distant tenth in class.
Ninth place went to the #36 Signatech Alpine Nissan. The car played a near race-long catch up game after early contact with the barrier left the car struggling round to the pits with rear-end damage.
The #38 Jota Zytek Nissan was a real contender for a podium finish throughout most of the race. Third or better looked a likely and deserved result until front suspension failure gave them the time in the garage they couldn’t afford – 8th will be a real disappointment for the Kentish crew.
Murphy Prototypes had their first Le Mans finish, but suffered several minor issues. A faulty fuel sensor early on, a faulty illuminated number panel and a minor off into the gravel after a brush with a GT car resulted in a seventh place finish for the #48 Oreca Nissan, and shows the margins that small delays can cause at this level.
Morand Engineering’s #43 Oreca Judd was the highest finishing non-Nissan engined entry. Franck Mailleux led the class at one point as the pitstops wound out but some niggly issues conspired to cost the team valuable time and once again a perfect run was ruined.
The #49 Pecom Oreca Nissan had a relatively trouble-free run, aside from a 30 second stop-go, a gravelly moment for Perez Companc, and a lurid but ultimately harmless spin in front of the #8 Toyota on standing water right at the end of the race. Fifth will give them valuable points – but they’d have wanted more from this one!
The #42 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan had a near perfect run but lost time to the leaders under several Safety Car periods.
Michael Krumm and Lucas Ordonez were as professional as ever but the revelation here was Jann Mardenborough. The young Welsh GT Academy winner and now ‘NISMO Athlete’ showed stunning form for a Le Mans rookie, fending off spirited attacks from drivers with far more experience. The car ran as high as third but couldn’t eventually fend off the challenge from the recovering #26 G-Drive Oreca Nissan.
Roman Rusinov, Mike Conway and John Martin made for a very convincing driver squad and, but for another early delay, this is an entry that might well have dominated. The G-Drive (Delta ADR) squad will be disappointed with the third step on the podium but the pace in this squad cannot be denied.
Oak Racing’s weak point has always been reliability. If they sorted that out the rest were always going to struggle to match a car ideally suited to the Le Mans track.
They did! The #24 car led, and led well. All three drivers performed well: Pla was sublime as usual, Brundle too showed real pace, whilst Heinemier Hanssen was his usual highly effective self. Sadly though it was a minor off for the Dane on cold tyres that cost the team the lead, and potentially, effectively the race. It’s a mark of their quality as a package that they will genuinely be disappointed with that finish.
The #35 car meanwhile was faultless, Bertrand Baguette and Martin Plowman and Ricardo Gonzales drove a fast and fault-free race that stretched an advantage that the arguably faster, but recovering, #24 crew couldn’t match.
They, and Oak Racing, emerged as worthy winners. Congratulations to the team and especially to Team Manager Sebastien Philippe and to Team Owner Jacques Nicolet – a real racer and a true gentleman.
Congratulations as well to Dunlop. Their cars saw off the Michelin threat by filling the top four slots, while Nissan Nismo power went one better – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 before the Judd-powered Morand Morgan appears in the order.
GG
