LE MANS // With German Formula One driver Nico Hulkenberg behind the wheel, Porsche won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday to end Audi’s five-race winning run and clinch a record 17th win at the famous endurance race.
Hulkenberg teamed with British driver Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber of New Zealand in the No 19 car that finished ahead of the No 17 Porsche that featured former F1 driver Mark Webber, and Audi’s No 7 car.
Audi had won seven of the past eight races, with Porsche’s last win coming in 1998.
“Thank you so much everybody, great effort over the last few months,” Hulkenberg said over race radio as he headed back into the garage.
The German, 27, was driving in the race for the first time and will be back in action for Force India at the Austrian Grand Prix next weekend – his 85th F1 race.
“I’m lost for words,” Tandy said. “I hope it’s the first of many. I grew up watching the race.”
Webber was partnered in the No 17 by German driver Timo Bernhard and New Zealander Brendon Hartley. “It’s been an incredible race, an incredible sports car race,” Webber said.
Porsche returned to Le Mans last year after a 16-year absence in the top category, but struggled because of a mechanical problem as Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer, and Benoit Treluyer helped Audi to victory. This time, the Porsche 919 hybrids proved too dominant after overcoming an early scare.
Audi’s bad luck was summed up when, with two hours to go, the No 7 car, driven by Treluyer, went to the garage for an oil change and then had to come back straight away to fix some loose bodywork.
“We were very competitive yesterday, it went well for us on Saturday but things changed overnight,” Audi director Wolfgang Ullrich said. “We had a problem with our bonnets, which never happened to us before. It’s something we’ll have to study and rectify back home.”
The 83rd edition of the race was held up again in the morning when a safety car came out for the fourth time after Roald Goethe’s No 96 Aston Martin crashed and became the 10th car to retire from the race.
Shortly before 8am UAE time yesterday the No 7 Audi rolled into pit lane missing a large piece of its bodywork. The Audi team lost seven minutes making repairs.
Porsche’s scare came with less than one hour of the race gone when Frenchman Patrick Pilet was caught in a crash. The race was held up briefly as a safety car came out in what proved to be an action-packed opening few hours.
The crash happened when Swiss driver Alexandre Imperatori lost control of his Rebellion Racing car at the Forza Motorsport chicane, because of oil on the track. His car hit Jonny Kane’s Strakka Racing car, which collided with Pilet.
After about five hours of racing, another Porsche, driven by Christian Ried, had to pull over with flames coming out of its rear.
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