The 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans could have gone of three ways. It was Toyotas from the time Fernando Alonso waved the tricolour until around 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning Le Mans time when the #7 with Kazuki Nakajima behind the wheel came to a halt due to an electrical problem. The #2 Audi took the lead but had a turbo problem and had to make a change, handing the lead to the defending Le Mans winners, the #1 Audi.
Just when it looked like Tom Kristensen was going to stand on the top step for an incredible 10th time, the same turbo gremlin bit the Dane and Le Mans glory appeared to be falling into Porsche's lap. The #20 of Timo Bernhard was leading when Mark Webber took over. Then the all-time leaders in overall victories at Le Mans got the same taste of medicine that befell Toyota and Audi. The Porsche pulled into the garage and the lead cycled back to the #2 Audi and of Benoît Tréluyer, Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer never looked back. The trio with names full of accent marks took overall Le Mans victory for the third time in four years, completing 379 laps.
The #1 Audi of Tom Kristensen, Lucas di Grassi and Marc Gené finish second, three laps back of their teammates. The #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi, which suffered a massive accident in the early stages recovered to finish third overall, five laps back. Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Mathias Beche finish fourth in the #12 Rebellion R-One-Toyota, 19 laps back of the #2 Audi.
Midweek, Oliver Turvey was not at Le Mans, he was in the gym. End of the week he drove the #38 Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan under the checkered flag to take the LMP2 victory in the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. Simon Dolan and Harry Tincknell made it an all-British victory with 356 laps completed. Second place, one lap back was the all-French driver line-up of the #46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier-Nissan of Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Bdaey and Tristan Gommendy. The #36 Signatech-Alpine Nissan of Nelson Panciatici, Paul-Loup Chatin and Oliver Webb rounded out the LMP2 podium. The #24 Sébastien Loeb Racing Oreca-Nissan of René Rast, Jan Charouz and Vincent Capillaire finished fourth in class with the #35 OAK Racing Ligier-Nissan of Mark Shulzhitskiy, Jann Mardenborough and Alex Brundle come home fifth having engine related issues.
For the second time in three years, the AF Corse Ferrari trio of Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella took the GTE-Pro victory. It's is Bruni's third career class victory at Le Mans and Vilander's and Fisichella's second. The #51 Ferrari completed 339 laps. The #73 Corvette of Antonio Garía, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor finished second in class, a lap back of the #51 Ferrari. The defending GTE-Pro class winning #92 Porsche of Frédéric Makowiecki, Richard Lietz and Marco Holzer round out the GTE-Pro podium. The #74 Corvette of Tommy Milner, Richard Westbrook and Oliver Gavin finished fourth. The late GTE-Pro edition, #79 WeatherTech ProSpeed Competition duo of Jeroen Bleekemolen and Cooper MacNiel finished fifth in class.
One year after the fatal accident of Allan Simonsen, the all-Danish trio of David Heinemeier Hansson, Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Thiim won GTE-Am in the #95 Aston Martin with 334 laps under it's belt. The #88 ProSpeed Competition Porsche of Klaus Bachler, Christian Ried and Khaled al Qubaisi finished second in GTE-Am with the #61 AF Corse Ferrari of Luíz Pérez Companc, Marco Cioci and Mirko Venturi finishing third in class. Two American teams rounded out the top five in GTE-Am class. The #90 8Star Motorsports Ferrari finished fourth with drivers Paolo Ruberti, Gianluca Roda and Frankie Montecalvo. The #77 Dempsey Racing-Proton of Patrick Long, Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster finished fifth.
Other notable finishers:
The #42 Caterham Racing Zytek-Nissan of Tom Kimber-Smith, Chris Dyson and 16-year old Mattheew McMurry finished 23rd overall, 10th in LMP2 having completed 329 laps.
The #58 Team Sofrev ASP Ferrari of Soheil Ayari, Anthony Pons and 1998 FIFA World Cup winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez finished 9th in GTE-Am having completed 325 laps.
The #97 Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke, Darren Turner and Bruno Senna finished sixth in GTE-Pro, completing 310 laps after overheating issues cost the team a shot at victory.
The next round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship will take place September 20th at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas.
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