Le Mans 24 Hours: the greatest motor race in the world

FROM left, drivers of the Porsche 919 Hybrid No. 2, Switzerland’s Neel Jani, France’s Romain Dumas and Germany’s Marc Lieb AFP

SO FINALLY, the dust has settled, another year at Le Mans is over, and Porsche takes a come from behind victory, their 18th yet in a Porsche Team 919, the No. 2 car driven by Neel Jani, Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas. The German Porsche Factory team completed the race with 384 laps at an average speed of 243.2 kilometers per hour, making a total of 30 pit stops along the way, roughly one stop for every 14 laps.

It wasn’t an easy win. Not by any chance.

Toyota’s factory, Gazoo Racing Team, was simply unstoppable. Despite the Porsche starting from pole, the Toyota was simply too fast for Porsche to match on the Mulsanne Straight.

Toyota’s TSO50 Car No. 6, driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi, finished in second place, another heartbreaker for Toyota.

Both Toyotas looked like an Energizer battery as they just went literally flat-out for most of the 24 hours. Even with amazing pit strategy from Porsche, the Toyotas would simply overtake the Porsches in one to two laps after pitting in.

Truly, the Toyotas were the faster cars in terms of outright speed at this year’s 83rd running of the 24-hour classic.

Alas, 6:30 seconds prior to the very end of the race, the leading Toyota TSO50, car No. 5 driven by ace driver Anthony Davidson (shared with Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastian Buemi) suddenly lost full revs and power on the Mulsanne Straight.

By the end of the second chicane, all seemed normal and Davidson was flat-out again, but the loss in speed, revs and power meant the trailing Porsche 919 made time and narrowed the gap.

Alas, it was just not meant to be for Toyota. Roughly 1:30 before the end of the race, car No. 5 lost complete power exactly in front of the start/finish line, and was thus overtaken by the second place Porsche 919 car No. 2.

Porsche then cruised to on their final lap to take the win for the 18th time, itself a new record.

The other big news was Ford Racing’s victory in the GT LM Pro category, their Ford GT car No. 68, driven by Joey Hand, Dirk Müller and Sébastien Bourdais, on its maiden Le Mans outing.

While Ford had almost a year to prepare for this major event, it was, for all intents and purposes, a virgin car to run a full race distance of 24 hours in length.

Their main rival, Rissi Competizione’s Ferrari F488 car No. 82 and driven by the experienced squad led by former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella, WEC champion Toni Vilander and Mateo Malucelli, was an equally all-new car, but Ferrari has been racing in WEC and GT far longer than Ford, and has substantial experience.

Pundits, however, cited that while the F488 was extremely fast and easy to drive, the American-backed Ferrari semifactory team (Rissi is the world’s largest Ferrari dealership in the world, and is based out of Texas) had a few concerns.

The 488, like the Ford GT, was an untested package and thus its reliability was still an unknown quantity. Both cars completed 340 laps and were a minute apart, being a true dogfight for most of  24 hours.

PORSCHE staff and drivers of the Porsche 919 Hybrid No. 2 celebrate on the podium overlooking the winning car. AFP

A turning point was when the Ferrari spun out onto the gravel traps exiting the Porsche curves, and lost precious time in the process and the resulting pit stop to check the tires for punctures.

So what does this tell you and me? Obviously, the most well-prepared team has an advantage, as well as the fastest car. But reliability is a huge factor as well as pit strategy.

Commentators were citing the possibility that many of the top teams were in fact sandbagging and hiding their true pace to preserve the car until the race was down to two to three hours prior to the end.

Some teams, like the Toyota and Ford, only knew two speeds: pit-lane limiter and flat-out. Toyota’s gamble backfired, while Ford’s bravery won them their race.

Luck is also a crucial factor in a race very long, tiring and testing, not just for the drivers, but also the cars and the rest of the teams.

By my own personal calculation (bear with me), Toyota should have taken first and third, sandwiching the Porsche No. 2 (car No. 1 suffered a technical problem, pitted to rectify it, but was basically out of as contention as early as midway in the race).

The pace of the Toyota was simply too fast. It was a very tough lesson as in 2015, the Toyota TSO40 chassis was very slow, unable to match the Porsches and Audis.

This year, Toyota came with the new TSO50 chassis, and was fastest indeed. Unfortunately, methinks reliability probably suffered due to their flat-out pace.

It was a gut-wrenching moment, reminiscent of Toyota’s earlier efforts in 1998 and 1999. Keiichi Tsuchiya was driving the Toyota TSO20 car in the lead, after a slow pace in a race filled with attrition.

Their conservative pace had paid off as they gained the lead. But while Tsuchiya was lapping a slower car in the closing stages, the Toyota suffered a puncture which resulted in him losing much time to get back to the pits to replace the tire.

Unfortunately, history has repeated itself. Well, third time’s a charm, as they say, and I hope Toyota does not back down from its Le Mans challenge.

Notable mention is Audi. Both cars were plagued with problems, but thankfully, thanks to lightning fast pit-work and attrition, the factory-backed Team Joest’s Audi R18 TDI Ultra car No. 8 and No. 7 secured third and fourth, respectively.

Audi, perhaps the sport’s most accomplished competitor in modern times, secured their 18th podium finish in Le Mans, itself an amazing achievement.

In other news, it seems like turbocharging has also replaced the rule of normally aspirated motors. The Ford and Ferrari have turbocharged V6 and V8 engines, respectively, whereas the Porsche uses a normally aspirated flat-six engine.

Scouring the Internet, it seems like the Porsche 911 might be in for a tough battle throughout the rest of the 2016 WEC Calendar. The mid-engine layout favors not only optimal balance, but optimal aerodynamics.

Looking at the Ford GT and Ferrari F488, both mid-engined cars have massive rear diffusers but tiny GT wings.

The Porsche 911 RSR, in comparison, had a modest rear diffuser, but a massive GT wing. The huge wing definitely generates downforce, but also generates drag.

The mid-engined race cars like the Ferrari and Ford rely far more on their rear diffusers to generate significant downforce rather than their GT wings.

If you would like to continue to follow Le Mans and the rest of the World Endurance Championship, you can download mobile media device apps such as the one I used, called 24 Hours of Le Mans by Netco Sports. It gives live timing, video highlights, and some commentary to help you follow your favorite endurance races.

The next one is the 6 Hours of Nürburgring which happens in 34 days. You can bet I’ll be watching my favorite Porsche, Toyota, Audi, Ford, Ferrari and Aston Martin duke it out there as well!