Ford gets its headlines
Joey Hand, Dirk Muller and local Le Mans boy Sebastien Bourdais have won the GTE Pro class at Le Mans 2016, succesfully repeating Ford’s victory on the 50th anniversary of the GT40’s triumph in the 1966 race. The #68 Chip Ganassi-run car, one of two IMSA Weathertech championship entries in Ford’s four-strong line-up, took pole position courtesy of Muller’s effort on Wednesday night (as well as taking Friday’s Balance of Performance adjustment pretty much in its stride) and ran at or near the front all race.
Although the Risi Ferrari pushed hard, the Ford always seemed to have pace in reserve (particularly in a straight line) and was able to come back from a drive-through penalty early Sunday morning to catch and pass the 488 for the win. It’s a first Le Mans win and second podium for Hand (who also co-drove with Muller for BMW in 2011), a first win and third podium for Muller (who finished third on his debut here in 1999 with Champion Racing) and also a first win for Bourdais (who was third on three occasions during his time with Peugeot). Scott Dixon, Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe made it two Ford GTs on the podium by coming home third.
It wasn’t completely smooth sailing for the other Fords however, particularly the two ‘Team UK’ WEC entries, which finished fourth (the #66 of Pla, Mucke and Johnson) and well down the order after losing a lot of time to an early gearbox issue (the #67 of Priaulx, Franchitti and Tincknell).
Risi returns in style, but could face penalty
US outfit Risi Competizione last showed up at Le Mans in 2010, but its entry this year nonetheless maked its 12th appearance at La Sarthe in 17 years. And it’s been a successful return: the #82 of Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Matteo Malucelli lead at times, was pretty much the only car to take the fight to Ford for the bulk of the race and eventually finished second.
It’s a result that may yet be changed, however, as the car was shown the black-and-orange flag in the final minutes of the race due to malfunctioning position lights – something several other cars seemed to survive without sanction earlier in the race. Risi took the decision not to take the mandated pit visit to attempt to fix the lights and so could face a post-race penalty
Should the result stand, it’ll be a redemptive one for Malucelli following a few unfortunate incidents in ALMS and IMSA races in recent years, and will also be a case of ‘point proven’ for Fisichella and Vilander, both having been recently moved from the works AF Corse line-up to the Italian marque’s American programme. Fisichella in particular is having a fine 2016, with tenacious stints in his GT3 outings in the Blancpain Endurance Series
Aston pushes hard but comes up short
The times in free practice and qualifying suggested Aston Martin would be battling the Porsches at best, and so it proved to be. But crucially the British cars were reliable, and through most of the race looked in good shape for a podium if one of the top three hit trouble. A puncture on Sunday morning saw the #95 of Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim and Darren Turner shuffled to fourth, ahead of the #97 of Fernando Rees and race deubtants Richie Stanaway and Jonny Adam.
Disaster for works Ferrari & Porsche efforts
Porsche knew from the outset this year’s race would be a tough one for its pair of GTE cars, with no chance of challenging Ferrari or Ford on pure pace. Indeed, motrosport vice-president Frank-Steffen Walliser became visibly emotional with frustration about the situation at Friday’s big press conference.
But even he probably wouldn’t have predicted that both works 911s would fail to finish due to mechanical issues: the #91 with a spectacular engine failure and the #92 with broken suspension. It was a major comedown too for 2015 overall winners Nick Tandy (in the #91) and Earl Bamber (in the #92), who’ll now be keener than ever to find a way back to the top class.
And unlike Ferrari, there was no saving grace in the form of a strong finish from a private entry: the #77 Dempsey-Proton driven by Richard Lietz, Michael Christensen and Le Mans debutant Phillipp Eng came home a distant eighth in class, albeit picking up WEC championship points for full-season drivers Lietz and Christensen.
At Ferrari, the normally fairly strong reliability of the AF Corse cars was absent, with engine issues eventually putting paid to James Calado, Gianmaria Bruni and Alessandro Pier Guidi’s efforts, while it was a wheel rim failure that threw Davide Rigon off in the #71, shared with his full-season WEC co-driver Sam Bird and Le Mans addition Andrea Bertolini.
Corvette on the back foot from the start
The mood wasn’t great at Corvette earlier in the week as the US squad realised it was facing a serious pace deficit to both its American rival Ford and most of the rest of the GTE Pro field. The times were partially explained by some disjointed running in practice and qualiffying, but even then team members admitted the best they could hope for was Porsche pace. In the end it proved a race to forget for the yellow machines, a far cry from last year’s victory. There was a heavy crash for Tommy Milner (fortunately unhurt) in the #64 and a nice gesture from Jan Magnussen in the other car, letting race debutant Ricky Taylor take the flag on his first appearance.
