LM GTE @ 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018
The 86th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018 has been a very special one for Porsche. They celebrated their 80th birthday, presented a special livery to remember the 917/20 of 1971 as well as the 956 and 962 of the 80th, and dominated the race during the 24 hours.
The trio Estre/Christensen/Vanthoor dominated these 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018. For the second place, it was a tough race between the Porsche 911 RSR # 91, driven by Gianmaria Bruni/Richard Lietz/Frederic Makowiecki and the two Ford GT #68 (Sebastien Bourdais / Muller / Joey Hand Racing), #67 (Harry Tincknell/Darren Turner/Kanan), finishing in this order. The Ford #67 was penalized after the race for Kanan not completing the minimum 6 hours of racing during the 24 hours.
The finish of the # 92 winning car, shared by race drivers Kévin Estre, Michael Christensen and Laurens Vanthoor, harks back to the Porsche 917/20 that tackled Le Mans in 1971. The 917/20 was dubbed the “Pink Pig” due to its pink paintwork with sections of the car labeled in butcher-style cuts. Still today, the 917/20, also known as the “Truffle Hunter”, is one of the most famous Porsche cars ever.
The “Pink Pig” #92 Porsche 911 RSR of Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor won, one lap ahead of the sister car.
The 911 RSR # 91, driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz and Frederic Makowiecki, echoes the Rothmans paintwork of various Porsche race cars. Porsche celebrated major successes with two blue-and-white Group C sports prototypes, and clinched overall victory twice at the 24 Hours of Le Mans – the 956 C in 1982 and 1983, and the 962 C at the 1986 and 1987 races. They finished 2nd after an anthology duel with the Ford #68.
Just after the pit stop that enabled him to take some distance from the Ford GT #68, Frédéric Makowiecki set up a new fastest lap in LM GTE PRO with his Porsche #91 in 3’50”201.
The trio Sebastien Bourdais / Muller / Joey Hand Racing with their FORD GT #68 gave a hard time to the Porsche #92 and 91 but had to settle with the last step of the podium for 26.729 sec.
Sebastien Bourdais (Ford #68) has been fighting with both Porsche taking the lead at 18h37 for several laps. Porsche #92 then took definitively the lead.
Sunday morning, Porsche was still far from getting the two first positions of the LM GTE PRO class. The battle was fierce between both the Ford GT #67, #68 and the Porsche #91 for the second position. At 11:09, Priaulx (#67) had to pit and fell back in P4.
In front of him, Bourdais (#68) and Makowiecki (#91) fought like hell with less than one inch between their car’s bumpers. The fight with the Porsche #91 was so tight for P2, that Bourdais was rather upset about Makowiecki’s conduct. At 11h31, they both pitted. The German team was faster than Chip Ganassi Racing USA, giving a little bit of “space” to Mako. Joey Hand took over from Bourdais. From then on, the Ford #68 trio was not able to reconnect with the Porsche #91 anymore.
Corvette Racing were celebrating their 20th birthday and their 19th participation at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2018.
WEC fans always look forward to seeing the yellow CR’s in the only race of the WEC championship that Corvette is participating in and to listening to the amazing sound of the 5.5-liter V8 engine.
The trio Mike Rockenfeller, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia driving the #63 Corvette finished 4th after fighting 5th place with Dixon and Briscoe (Ford #69). The regularity of the Corvette made the difference as two Ford (#67 and 69) had to stay in pit for long periods on Sunday.
Ferrari made illusion at 19h13. When Antonio Giovinazzi with his Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #52 took over Dixon’s Ford to get P3 in GTE Pro. With his teammates Pipo Derani and Toni Vilander, he ended 5th in LMGTE Pro, 3 laps behind the winners.
Stéphan Mucke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson suffered a flat tire with their Ford #66 around 7pm, when they were the fourth Ford in the race. They ended 6th.
AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #51 shared by the two 2017 GTE world champions - James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi (Daniel Serra added to the tandem for the 24 hours) ended 7th despite being the fastest Ferrari and a fifth faster lap by Per Guidi during qualifications. James Calado’s Ferrari did suffer a flat tire around 4:30 pm Saturday.
Aston Martin Racing arrived at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans as the defending LMGTE Pro winner with a new Aston Martin Vantage GTE, which made its first competitive appearance on the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe. The new Vantage GTE made its debut in Spa-Francorchamps (See our FIA WEC LMGTE PRO Season 7: 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 2018 (Race 1/8) report).
The Danish duo Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen shared the # 95 with three-time Le Mans winner Darren Turner (Jonny Adam was the third driver of the 2017 winning team last year).
Sørensen’s accident at the Le Mans test day required the team to build up a brand-new chassis to ensure a #95 new race car.
Despite the team’s efforts, the AMR cars were still lacking competitiveness and the #95 finished 8th, 6 laps behind the winning Porsche.
AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #71 shared by Davide Rigon, Sam Bird and Miguel Molina ended 9th.
In GTE AM, another Porsche 911 RSR won. The #77 Dempsey-Proton, driven by Matt Campbell, Christian Ried and the then very young Julien Andlauer (18 years). They are also 10th of all LMGTE, in front of many LMGTE PRO.
Former F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella with Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellaci, with their Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #54, ended 2nd in the LMGTE AM class and 11th of all LMGTE, in front of many LMGTE PRO.
Giancarlo Fisichella even led all the LMGTE cars at the time of the first pit stop thanks to a late refuel.
Despite being 3rd at the beginning of the night in LMGTE class, the IMSA trio Earl Bamber, Patrick Pilet, Nick Tandy Racing ended 12th LMGTE with Porsche 911 #93, 10 laps behind winning sister.
After 7 hours of intense racing, the BMW #81 driven by Tomcsyk/Catsburg/Eng was 4th in LMGTE PRO class behind the 3 Porsche. At 1:20 am, Nicky Catsburg got a penalty when passing through the pit lane because its mechanics refueled the M8 while it was still on “roulettes” after a passage in the box.
7:47 was the start of a very long pitstop that canceled any hope for a podium.
They finished 13th LMGTE, 12 laps behind the winning Porsche.
The battle was fierce between both Ford GT #67, #68 and the Porsche #91 for the second position Sunday morning. At 10:54, Fred Makowiecki (Porsche 911 #91) could not resist to the Ford’s pressure and went into the gravel at Porsche curve. Andy Priaulx (Ford GT #67) took P2. At 11:09, Priaulx had to pit and fell back in P4, which remained his final position at the end of the 24 hours.
Nevertheless, the team was penalised by 11 laps because Tony Kanaan did not run the minimum 6 hours. As a result, the Ford #67 (Andy Priaulx MBE, Harry Tincknell Racing, Tony Kanaan) fell back in P14 of LMGTE class, 12 laps behind the winning Porsche.
The second Aston Martin Vantage GTE driven by Alex Lynn, Maxime Martin and Jonathan Adam ended 15th in LMGTE PRO class, 17 laps behind the winning Porsche.
The #69 Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe (AUS), Richard Westbrook (UK) and Scott Dixon (NZ), who were trying for a rare 24-hour double after their victory in the Rolex 24 at Daytona earlier that year, were running 6th with two hours to go before being hit with gearbox issues. The team repaired the car to allow it to finish the race. As for sister car #67, the #69 Ford was penalized 2 laps and 1:42.968 by the stewards following the race because Scott Dixon did not meet the minimum overall drive time of six hours.
They were the last LMGTE PRO to finish the race.
Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Marcel Fassler with their Chevrolet Corvette C7R #64 abandoned after 259 laps due to an overheating issue.
Alexander Sims oversteered at “Maison Blanche” with his BMW M8 GTE #82 and slightly hit the wall with the rear. He could drive back to the pit but had to retire with his teammates Aufusto Farfus and Antonio Felix da Costa, at 6:37 in the morning. They were 9th in LMGTE PRO.
The Porsche #94 driven by multi 24 hours of Le Mans winners Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard were the first LMGTE PRO to retire due to a suspension issue, after covering only 92 laps.
