Monday 15th June 2015

Motorsport on Monday: 15/06/2015

Porsche wins, Nissan finishes and Aston is left ruing what might have been

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Porsche wins Le Mans 2015! Despite a 1-2-3 qualifying lockout, who saw that coming? And it didn't luck into the win either: current F1 star and perennial 'will he ever get the front-running seat he deserves' titleholder Nico Hulkenberg took the lead at the ninth hour after passing Mark Webber, and pretty much didn't look back from there.

Still nothing like Le Mans for a racing spectacle

For those of us following the race from the UK, it certainly delayed bedtime, and meant we leapt straight to the laptop/smartphone/TV first thing Sunday morning to check once more. Sure enough, the dream result remained until the chequered flag. Three drivers with a total of two Le Mans 24 Hours between them broke the Audi 13-out-of-16 stranglehold to become blue riband motorsport event victors. What a stunning achievement.

Despite the inexcusable lack of mainstream coverage, it was an added good news story here in Britain, for Northamptonshire's Nick Tandy was part of the winning crew. Nick's one of the most unassuming stars around, who's brilliantly set his career into the stratosphere by quietly getting on with driving very fast. His LM24 drive in the night-time, extending the lead over the Audis, was particularly praiseworthy: even Webber was impressed enough to comment on this.

And the third victorious Porsche driver? That's Earl Bamber, a Kiwi who won last year's Porsche Supercup and is now firmly part of the Porsche Motorsport works driver squad. The 24-year-old is mates with fellow Porsche works driver Brendon Hartley and now also seems set for a career of stardom in top-level sportscars.

The victory was Porsche's first since 1998, and its 17th in total - 45 years to the day since clocking up its first. The second place by Timo Bernhard, Hartley and Webber confirmed the lockout (and made for THE classic finishing shot - plus a tense final lap as Nico slowed to let the #17 car catch up...). At the end, Hulkenberg added: "I didn't think I would come here and rock 'n' roll this race, this would be silly because there are so many challenges in that race. However, we did it and we did it together".

Yes, you did: and it's one of the most popular feel-good victories in a long time.

Says a lot when third is disappointing!

Audi not victorious
So what happened to the Audis that many expected to come through on top? A combination of crashes, surprising unreliability and bad luck. Sure, the #7 Audi of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer was third at the finish, but that was scant consolation after earlier battling with the lead Porsches.

The #9 Audi also had a lengthy front driveshaft change, while the #8 car dramatically crashed early in the race after getting caught out by a slow zone. It happened so early in the race, Loic Duval's embarrassment was continually compounded on multiple replays throughout the consecutive TV coverage...

Really though, Audi simply didn't have the pace, meaning petrol once again beat diesel at Le Mans. Props to Audi Motorsport team boss Dr. Ullrich for conceding victory and congratulating the Porsche team before the end of the race (maybe he was hoping to tempt fate?) but you can be sure this will hurt Audi. The determination to come back fighting - combined with reigning WEC champion Toyota's embarrassment at being so plain slow this year - means we're potentially in for a superb LM24 2016...

Certainly one to watch in 2016...

Nissan GT-R LM NISMO: one finished...
Nissan had a fraught Le Mans with the radical front-wheel drive GT-R LM NISMO. But the #22 car still made it to the end, which the team considers a result in itself (remember it's a brand-new concept just eight months in development - at this stage last year, Porsche already had almost double that...).

Making the best of a flawed concept? Not at all: remember, this isn't the definitive car by any means, thanks to suppliers not matching design genius Ben Bowlby's admirable ambition. Getting it to the finish will provide Nissan with no end of useful data for 2016's machine - we haven't heard the last of this by any means.

The other classes
Le Mans isn't just about LMP1, but in LMP2 there was much less unpredictability: the KCMG ORECA 05 of Nicolas Lapierre, Richard Bradley and Matt Howson led from pole almost throughout the race, to the pain of G-Drive OAK Racing, Jota Sport and Strakka. Not so in GTE Pro, where Aston Martin Racing's heartbreak at a double retirement saw the sole Corvette C7.R of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor triumph. There wasn't even any consolation for Aston in GTE Am: the #98 Vantage was on for victory until Paul Dalla Lana binned it in the final hour. Enter the #72 Ferrari 458 Italia of Victor Shaitar, Andrea Bertolini and Aleksey Basov.

[Images: LAT]

[Maldini35]

Tandy was superhuman on the night shift.

A star is born.

A curious race for Audi - aside from the car niggles and punctures they lacked outright pace for most of the race but then seemed able to fly later on - especially Lotterer who set the fastest lap with a hour to go.

Another great weekend, roll on 2016.

[GravelBen]

Great weekend for kiwi drivers - Bamber and Hartley 1st and 2nd at Le Mans as mentioned, Mitch Evans 2nd LMP2, Hayden Paddon leading most of WRC Italy and scrapping with Sebastian Ogier until gearbox problems saw him settle for second. Big step up for his first year in WRC.

Top effort all round - but to be honest the WRC was far more interesting!

[PtheP]

Quest (bless 'em) made a valiant stab at live coverage for parts of the race so thank them for that. Otherwise I was glued to the iPad pretty much all the way through. Great stuff and makes F1 seem so tame.

[richardaucock]

Maldini35 said:

Tandy was superhuman on the night shift.

A star is born.

Fully agree! It really did make the weekend for me - bursting with British pride that such a great driver and downright decent bloke was able to fully capitalise on the opportunity with an historic drive.

Hulkenberg and Bamber were stars too, but it's Tandy I was beaming most widely for.

[PorscheGT4]

Team orders Porsche had to win ;-)

most cars are VAG Group owned now, Porsche had to do well ,they won.

Porsche SE orders :-)

Porsche SE, and Volkswagen AG in turn controls brands and companies such as Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Škoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche AG, Ducati.

they can pick who they want to win no ? As long as some thing can beat Nissan, Ferrari, Toyota etc

I find it odd in GT that most cars are VAG group now.

Bentley GT3 already won a race over the R8 !! come off it lol

Edited by PorscheGT4 on Monday 15th June 13:33

[daddywild]

PorscheGT4 said:

Team orders Porsche had to win ;-)

most cars are VAG Group owned now, Porsche had to do well ,they won.

Porsche SE orders :-)

Porsche SE, and Volkswagen AG in turn controls brands and companies such as Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Škoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche AG, Ducati.

they can pick who they want to win no ? As long as some thing can beat Nissan, Ferrari, Toyota etc

I find it odd in GT that most cars are VAG group now.

Bentley GT3 already won a race over the R8 !! come off it lol

Edited by PorscheGT4 on Monday 15th June 13:33

With all due respect, that is boll@cks To take any credit away from Porsche for that win is unfair and the competition between VW and Porsche is very real.

[Macboy]

PorscheGT4 said:

Team orders Porsche had to win ;-)

most cars are VAG Group owned now, Porsche had to do well ,they won.

Porsche SE orders :-)

Porsche SE, and Volkswagen AG in turn controls brands and companies such as Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Škoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche AG, Ducati.

they can pick who they want to win no ? As long as some thing can beat Nissan, Ferrari, Toyota etc

I find it odd in GT that most cars are VAG group now.

Bentley GT3 already won a race over the R8 !! come off it lol

Edited by PorscheGT4 on Monday 15th June 13:33

You clearly have no idea at all what goes on within VW or any other company with more than one brand competing for development budgets and to justify their existence internally as well as in the marketplace. I'd love to hear your views on the Kennedy assassination, 9-11 and UFOs.

[PorscheGT4]

Macboy said:

You clearly have no idea at all what goes on within VW or any other company with more than one brand competing for development budgets and to justify their existence internally as well as in the marketplace.

This win will not change where the money is spent.

[Ahonen]

PorscheGT4 said:

Team orders Porsche had to win ;-)

most cars are VAG Group owned now, Porsche had to do well ,they won.

Porsche SE orders :-)

Porsche SE, and Volkswagen AG in turn controls brands and companies such as Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Škoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche AG, Ducati.

they can pick who they want to win no ? As long as some thing can beat Nissan, Ferrari, Toyota etc

I find it odd in GT that most cars are VAG group now.

Bentley GT3 already won a race over the R8 !! come off it lol

Edited by PorscheGT4 on Monday 15th June 13:33

Bet you're one of those special types who thinks airliners are all spraying mind-controlling chemicals into the atmosphere, too.

[marshall100]

How chuffed was I that Quest picked up some coverage of this over the weekend. Trying to explain to my eight year old boy that the race was still on just because it wasn't on the TV was hard work though....