It is three consecutive at the 24 Hours Le Mans race for Porsche, thanks to the dramatic efforts of veteran German driver Timo Bernhard.
It was nearly an upset of epic proportions, as both Porsche and Toyota suffered various mishaps that almost handed the race to a French teenager name Thomas Laurent, the driver for the lesser category LMP2 entry of Team Oreca.
Laurent found himself with the lead after 21 hours of the race had been run.
He was chased down by the faster and more powerful car of Bernhard just around the start of the final hour of the race.
The 24 Hours Le Mans is somewhat unique for the fact that different classes of cars compete in the same race, on the same track, at the same time. It is considered one of the “Crown Jewels” of auto racing’s “Triple Crown,” which would include the Grand Prix of Monaco and the Indianapolis 500.
The format is simple: the car that goes the farthest in the 24 hours’ time is the winner.
The teams switch drivers, of course, and Porsche had plenty of assistance for Bernhard was ably assisted by teammate Brendon Hartley.
At the end, Porsche had a narrow one-minute edge of Jack Chan DC Racing Team.
Bernhard has won the race before. He was driving for Audi when he won in 2010.
Much of the drama in this year’s race was due to Porsche’s number two care experiencing technical issues that cost it more than an hour in the early part of the race.
Toyota might be considering sending its cars to the crusher after they seized the pole with a record setting qualifying lap, but during the night seeing two of their three cars fall out due to mechanical problems.
They should have used our Camry, which routinely runs 24 months at a stretch without any issues whatsoever.
