So was 2017 the best recovery drive to win Le Mans?
Discussion
Was it that amazing?
Yes they dropped a long way back but then everyone else in their class either had the same issues and took longer to fix them or retired. Is it a great recovery drive to have the fastest car and beat a load of cars that, even with their best drivers in, lap 10s slower than you?
To my mind all they really did was only brake down once, though maybe I'm being a little bitter as I really wanted to see an LMP2 take out-right victory
Yes they dropped a long way back but then everyone else in their class either had the same issues and took longer to fix them or retired. Is it a great recovery drive to have the fastest car and beat a load of cars that, even with their best drivers in, lap 10s slower than you?
To my mind all they really did was only brake down once, though maybe I'm being a little bitter as I really wanted to see an LMP2 take out-right victory
Yeah I can see where you are coming from – would have been cool to see Jackie Chan on the podium as a winner, but to be fair, if you’d offered him 2nd overall at the start of the race, they would have taken it.
When I woke up on Sunday and the LMP1 Porsche was around 14 laps down, and then little by little caught up the gap? That was amazing – its one thing to have the capability to reel in a slower car over a period of 5-6 hours, but its another thing altogether to actually do it – Porsche needed to hit its marks on every lap and every pit stop to overhaul the 38 car – and they did. At the same time the LMP2 car was balls to the wall going for it on its strategy to stop this from happening…. Really exciting.
The high point for me was the chase down of the Corvette by the plucky Aston driver. Again, I thought it would be too big a margin, but little by little they caught up. At the end of the race, it seemed that staying out in front had really taken its toll on the Corvette and its brakes – which in my opinion led to the Muslanne overshoot and the suspension / tyre damage that ultimately cost it the race. Again, an excellent strategy well executed by Aston to cover the ground and overcome the Corvette.
I have always loved sitting in the Motul Stand as the reverb from the cars entering the pit lane is enormous – the Corvettes were the loudest and most guttural sounding cars I’ve ever experienced. Watching the corvette with broken steering / front left jump the two chicanes on the Ford Chicanes I won’t forget in a hurry.
Le Mans was amazing.
The guys playing Grime at 2 in the morning in their Jaguar XF at the first tickets site on Sunday night when everyone else was trying to snatch some sleep before driving home was less so. 500 miles with 3 hours sleep was not very safe. So thanks to them for that. Hopefully everyone got home safe. Next Sunday night, I’m staying in a hotel en route to Calais.
That’s the only bad memory from an otherwise epic weekend.
When I woke up on Sunday and the LMP1 Porsche was around 14 laps down, and then little by little caught up the gap? That was amazing – its one thing to have the capability to reel in a slower car over a period of 5-6 hours, but its another thing altogether to actually do it – Porsche needed to hit its marks on every lap and every pit stop to overhaul the 38 car – and they did. At the same time the LMP2 car was balls to the wall going for it on its strategy to stop this from happening…. Really exciting.
The high point for me was the chase down of the Corvette by the plucky Aston driver. Again, I thought it would be too big a margin, but little by little they caught up. At the end of the race, it seemed that staying out in front had really taken its toll on the Corvette and its brakes – which in my opinion led to the Muslanne overshoot and the suspension / tyre damage that ultimately cost it the race. Again, an excellent strategy well executed by Aston to cover the ground and overcome the Corvette.
I have always loved sitting in the Motul Stand as the reverb from the cars entering the pit lane is enormous – the Corvettes were the loudest and most guttural sounding cars I’ve ever experienced. Watching the corvette with broken steering / front left jump the two chicanes on the Ford Chicanes I won’t forget in a hurry.
Le Mans was amazing.
The guys playing Grime at 2 in the morning in their Jaguar XF at the first tickets site on Sunday night when everyone else was trying to snatch some sleep before driving home was less so. 500 miles with 3 hours sleep was not very safe. So thanks to them for that. Hopefully everyone got home safe. Next Sunday night, I’m staying in a hotel en route to Calais.
That’s the only bad memory from an otherwise epic weekend.
I heard the 2am Sunday night/Monday morning incident @the PH main site but someone else politely pointed out the facts of life before my rather tired tent mate could.
Agreed that the last few hours & laps were as good as it gets & typical unpredictable LM24 excitement - we had 2 newbies with us & they were amazed....roll on 2018
PS I have iPod music I use on Sunday nights after the race to mask what's normally a quieter night though like many others needed a decent nights sleep after an 04.45 bed time on Sunday morning - it was worth the late bedtime & I'd like to thank PH (Ben) & Aston Martin for a great excuse to stay up as I had a pit tour at just after 03.00 hrs
Agreed that the last few hours & laps were as good as it gets & typical unpredictable LM24 excitement - we had 2 newbies with us & they were amazed....roll on 2018
PS I have iPod music I use on Sunday nights after the race to mask what's normally a quieter night though like many others needed a decent nights sleep after an 04.45 bed time on Sunday morning - it was worth the late bedtime & I'd like to thank PH (Ben) & Aston Martin for a great excuse to stay up as I had a pit tour at just after 03.00 hrs
//j17 said:
Is it a great recovery drive to have the fastest car and beat a load of cars that, even with their best drivers in, lap 10s slower than you?
To my mind all they really did was only brake down once, though maybe I'm being a little bitter as I really wanted to see an LMP2 take out-right victory
The 919 wasn't the fastest car. They were several seconds per lap slower than the Toyota's.To my mind all they really did was only brake down once, though maybe I'm being a little bitter as I really wanted to see an LMP2 take out-right victory
Winning Le Mans is very rare with a car that spends longer than 60 minutes or so in the pits, in total including fuel and tyre stops, so yes, it was an amazing achievement, even if not the greatest recovery drive in absolute terms.
andy tims said:
The 919 wasn't the fastest car. They were several seconds per lap slower than the Toyota's.
So? For the final quater of the race they weren't racing the TSO50, due to the 30min slower front motor replacement on the Toyota vs. the Porsche. They were racing the JCDC Oreca and were much faster than the LMP2 car.Personally I think the 32 United Autosport drive was better than the Porsche one. OK, no major issues but to drag one of the dog-slow Ligiers up to 5th overal/4th in class was quite a feat.
TrickyTrevM5 said:
The high point for me was the chase down of the Corvette by the plucky Aston driver. Again, I thought it would be too big a margin, but little by little they caught up. At the end of the race, it seemed that staying out in front had really taken its toll on the Corvette and its brakes – which in my opinion led to the Muslanne overshoot and the suspension / tyre damage that ultimately cost it the race. Again, an excellent strategy well executed by Aston to cover the ground and overcome the Corvette.
The report from Corvette Racing is that Radio Le Mans were getting a little carried-away with their speculation. The 63 Corvette was on very old tyres at the end of the race and the gap to the 97 Vantage meant pitting wasn't an option, it was do or die.Taylor's been quoted as saying “(the tyres) were pretty well used up. When the lock-up happened it was so abrupt and unexpected - usually you lock in the second part of the brake phase, but these just locked as soon as I touched the brake, so it caught me off-guard. When I knew I wasn’t going to make the chicane I decided just to go straight, try to make the most of it, so I went flat-out through the gravel trap to try to maintain the gap. But at that point I had such a big flat-spot on the tire, and I think I had another tire going down at the same time. It was just a train of unfortunate events.”.
andy tims said:
Sorry if I wasn't clear in the OP - of course it was an incredible drive, but I was hoping someone might know if any car has actually ever recovered from a lower position to take the win.
Sorry - this was misunderstood by me as incredulity rather than a serious question. So to answer your original question - in my memory, i cant think of a bigger overhaul of a timing deficit for a win at Le Mans
It was a good recovery drive, but for reasons of team efficiency and not giving up rather than a miracle drive of overcoming their lmp1 competitors.
In recent years where some cars have only stopped for the time to do routine pit stops, the recovery may have got them to 4th or 5th again maybe. Only lack of same class cars meant the win was still capable. 1hr lost would normally mean you're out of it.
It was a good recovery for the team having a car they could get the job done reasonably quickly and making it a reliable fix. A longer job by 10-15mins might have lost the chance of a win.
Drivers also had to go flat out for most the race also.
Still a good come back rather than abandoning. Don't know historically if a car has lost more time/places and still won.
In recent years where some cars have only stopped for the time to do routine pit stops, the recovery may have got them to 4th or 5th again maybe. Only lack of same class cars meant the win was still capable. 1hr lost would normally mean you're out of it.
It was a good recovery for the team having a car they could get the job done reasonably quickly and making it a reliable fix. A longer job by 10-15mins might have lost the chance of a win.
Drivers also had to go flat out for most the race also.
Still a good come back rather than abandoning. Don't know historically if a car has lost more time/places and still won.
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