24 Hours of Le Mans 2015

24 Hours of Le Mans 2015
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Race Information
Series	World Endurance Championship
Circuit	Circuit de la Sarthe
Lap Length	13.63km (8.47mi)
No. Entries	56
Tyres	Michelin, Dunlop
Qualifying
Pole	Neel Jani
	3:16.887
Team	Porsche Team
	#18 Porsche 919 Hybrid
Class Winners
LMP1	#19 Porsche Team
	Earl Bamber	Nick Tandy	Nico Hülkenberg
LMP2	#47 KCMG
	Matthew Howson	Richard Bradley	Nicolas Lapierre
GTE Pro	#64 Corvette Racing-GM
	Oliver Gavin	Tommy Milner	Jordan Taylor
GTE Am	#72 SMP Racing
	Viktor Shaitar	Aleksey Basov	Andrea Bertolini
Overall Winner
Team	Porsche Team
	#19 Porsche 919 Hybrid
Drivers	Earl Bamber	Nick Tandy	Nico Hülkenberg
Distance	5,383.7km (3,345.3mi)

The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2015 was the 83rd running of the infamous 24 Hours of Le Mans, held at the Circuit de la Sarthe on the 13th/14th of June 2015. It was considered to be one of the most open races for many years, with Audi, Toyota, Porsche and Nissan all competing in LMP1 for victory. The race also formed part of the 2015 World Endurance Championship, with double points awarded to each class winner, with LMP1 joined by LMP2, GTE Pro and GTE Am.

Over the course of the race, Audi's three cars were all hit by problems, while Toyota found themselves off the pace and Nissan struggled to get to grips with their innovative new design. This left the #19 Porsche 919 Hybrid to take victory from the #17 car by a lap. At the wheel of the race winning car were Nick Tandy, and two rookies in Earl Bamber and Nico Hülkenberg, with Hulkenberg becoming the first active Formula One driver to win the race since Johnny Herbert.

Hong Kong based KCMG won the LMP2 class with their trio, consisting of Matthew Howson, Richard Bradley and Nicolas Lapierre. The second factory backed Corvette CR-7 of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor claimed the GTE Pro category, a victory made all the more emotional by the fact that the sister car was written off earlier in the week. GTE Am saw Russian outfit SMP Racing claim the honours, as Viktor Shaitar, Aleksey Basov and Andrea Bertolini took victory, overtaking the #97 Aston Martin (which was leading from early on) in the final hour after the latter crashed out.

Background

The World Endurance Championship was just two rounds old heading into the Le Mans week, with the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in May. Audi's #7 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer (incidently the defending winners of the Le Mans 24 Hours) led the Championship after winning the opening season races, leading the #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb. Audi led the manufacturers battle, with Porsche second and Toyota third, with all three marques battled with each other at every round.

In Le Mans terms, Nissan debuted their innovative GT-R LM Nismo (featuring front wheel drive and a front mounted engined), while Rebellion Racing brought their new R-One, although their power disadvantage to the hybrid manufacturers meant they were effectively out of the running. 

Entries

As usual, the entries for the 24 Hours of Le Mans were announced over the winter of 2014, with the invitations to the winners of various series and races revealed first. The entrants to the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship were also handed automatic entries to the race, although those invited through victory may not change categories and take their place on the 2015 grid. Entrants from the European Le Mans Series, Asian Le Mans Series and TUDOR United SportsCar Championship were also considered for entry.

Invitations

The class winners from the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2014 were all invited to take part, and all took their entries for the race. AF Corse won the 2014 European Le Mans Series in the GTE Pro category but, as they had already won their entry through Le Mans, SMP Racing were given their entry. USCC Overall runners up Wayne Taylor Racing were also invited to race in France, as were the winners of the Asian Le Mans Series, OAK Racing.

24 Hours of Le Mans Invitations
Class	No.	Entrant	Driver(s)	Car	Reason
LMP1	7	Audi Sport Team Joest	André Lotterer Marcel Fässler Benoît Tréluyer	Audi R18 e-tron Quattro	1st in Class
LMP2	38	Jota Sport	Simon Dolan Oliver Turvey Mitch Evans	Gibson-Nissan 015S	1st in Class
GTE-Pro	51	AF Corse	Gianmaria Bruni Giancarlo Fisichella Toni Vilander	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	1st in Class
GTE-Am	95	Aston Martin Racing	Christoffer Nygaard Nicki Thiim Marco Sørensen	Aston Martin V8 Vantage	1st in Class
24 Hours of Le Mans 2014
LMP2	36	Signatech Alpine	Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Vincent Capillaire	Alpine-Nissan A450b	1st in Class
GTE-Am	72	SMP Racing	Viktor Shaitar Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	1st in Class
2014 European Le Mans Series
LMP2*	N/A	Wayne Taylor Racing	Did not Compete		Nominated
GTE-Am	24	Scuderia Corsa	Bill Sweedler Townsend Bell Jeff Segal	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	Nominated
2014 United SportsCar Championship†
LMP2	35	OAK Racing Team Total	Jacques Nicolet Jean-Marc Merlin Erik Maris	Ligier-Nissan JS P2	1st in Class
GTE-Am	67	Team AAI	Jun-San Chen Xavier Maassen Alex Kapadia	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	1st in Class
GTE-Am	68	Team AAI	Han-Chen Chen Gilles Vannelet Mike Parisy	Porsche 911 RSR	2nd in Class
2014 Asian Le Mans Series

• * Wayne Taylor Racing did not enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans despite being awarded a place.
• ^† The United SportsCar Championship may nominate entries to the ACO rather than base them on results.

Full Entry List

As mentioned above, teams that had entered the World Endurance Championship in 2015 were also granted entry to Le Mans. These entries were then supplemented by additional entry applications from other Endurance competing teams. Manufacturer based teams were given priority over private entries, while a list of five reserves was also included. Garage 56, in recent seasons reserved for a unique/experimental entry such as the DeltaWing, was filled with a regular entry.

24 Hours of Le Mans Entry List
Series	No.	Entrant	Driver(s)	Car	Tyres
	1	Toyota Racing	Anthony Davidson Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima	Toyota TS040 Hybrid	M
	2	Toyota Racing	Alexander Wurz Stéphane Sarrazin Mike Conway	Toyota TS040 Hybrid	M
	4	Team ByKolles	Simon Trummer Pierre Kaffer Tiago Monteiro	CLM-AER P1/01	M
	7	Audi Sport Team Joest	Marcel Fässler André Lotterer Benoît Tréluyer	Audi R18 e-tron Quattro	M
	8	Audi Sport Team Joest	Lucas di Grassi Loïc Duval Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18 e-tron Quattro	M
	9	Audi Sport Team Joest	Felipe Albuquerque Marco Bonanomi René Rast	Audi R18 e-tron Quattro	M
	12	Rebellion Racing	Nicolas Prost Nick Heidfeld Mathias Beche	Rebellion-AER R-ONE	M
	13	Rebellion Racing	Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Daniel Abt	Rebellion-AER R-ONE	M
	17	Porsche Team	Timo Bernhard Mark Webber Brendon Hartley	Porsche 919 Hybrid	M
	18	Porsche Team	Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb	Porsche 919 Hybrid	M
	19	Porsche Team	Nico Hülkenberg Earl Bamber Nick Tandy	Porsche 919 Hybrid	M
	21	Nissan Motorsports	Tsugio Matsuda Mark Shulzhitskiy Lucas Ordonez	Nissan GT-R LM Nismo	M
	22	Nissan Motorsports	Harry Tincknell Michael Krumm Alex Buncombe	Nissan GT-R LM Nismo	M
	23	Nissan Motorsports	Olivier Pla Jann Mardenborough Max Chilton	Nissan GT-R LM Nismo	M
Le Mans Prototype 1
	26	G-Drive Racing	Roman Rusinov Julien Canal Sam Bird	Ligier-Nissan JS P2	D
	27	SMP Racing	Maurizio Mediani David Markozov Nicolas Minassian	BR-Nissan BR01	M
	28	G-Drive Racing	Gustavo Yacamán Ricardo González Pipo Derani	Ligier-Nissan JS P2	D
	29	Pegasus Racing	Léo Roussel Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng	Morgan-Nissan LMP2	M
	30	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel David Heinemeier Hansson	Ligier-HPD JS P2	D
	31	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek Jonathan Fogarty	Ligier-HPD JS P2	D
	34	OAK Racing	Christopher Cumming Laurens Vanthoor Kevin Estre	Ligier-HPD JS P2	D
	35	Oak Racing Team Total	Jacques Nicolet Jean-Marc Merlin Erik Maris	Ligier-Nissan JS P2	D
	36	Signatech Alpine	Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Vincent Capillaire	Alpine-Nissan A450B	D
	37	SMP Racing	Mikhail Aleshin Kirill Ladygin Anton Ladygin	BR-Nissan BR01	M
	38	Jota Sport	Simon Dolan Mitch Evans Oliver Turvey	Gibson-Nissan 015S	D
	40	Krohn Racing	Tracy Krohn Niclas Jönsson João Barbosa	Ligier-Judd JS P2	M
	41	Greaves Motorsport	Gary Hirsch Gaëtan Paletou Jon Lancaster	Gibson-Nissan 015S	D
	42	Strakka Racing	Nick Leventis Danny Watts Jonny Kane	Dome-Nissan S103	D
	43	Team SARD Morand	Pierre Ragues Oliver Webb Zoel Amberg	Morgan-SARD Evo	D
	45	Ibanez Racing	José Ibañez Pierre Perret Ivan Bellarosa	Oreca-Nissan 03R	D
	46	Thiriet by TDS Racing	Pierre Thiriet Ludovic Badey Tristan Gommendy	Oreca-Nissan 05	D
	47	KCMG	Matthew Howson Richard Bradley Nicolas Lapierre	Oreca-Nissan 05	D
	48	Murphy Prototypes	Karun Chandhok Mark Patterson Nathanael Berthon	Oreca-Nissan 03R	D
Le Mans Prototype 2
	51	AF Corse	Gianmaria Bruni Giancarlo Fisichella Toni Vilander	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M
	63	Corvette Racing-GM	Jan Magnussen Antonio Garcia Ryan Briscore	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	M
	64	Corvette Racing-GM	Oliver Gavin Tommy Milner Jordan Taylor	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	M
	71	AF Corse	Davide Rigon James Calado Olivier Beretta	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M
	91	Porsche Team Manthey	Richard Lietz Michael Christensen Jörg Bergmeister	Porsche 911 RSR	M
	92	Porsche Team Manthey	Patrick Pilet Frédéric Makowiecki Wolf Henzler	Porsche 911 RSR	M
	95	Aston Martin Racing	Marco Sørensen Nicki Thiim Christoffer Nygaard	Aston Martin Vantage V8	M
	97	Aston Martin Racing	Darren Turner Stefan Mücke Rob Bell	Aston Martin Vantage V8	M
	99	Astom Martin Racing V8	Fernando Rees Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin Vantage V8	M
Le Mans GTE-Pro
	50	Larbre Competition	Gianluca Roda Paolo Ruberti Kristian Poulsen	Chevrolet Corvette C7R	M
	53	Riley Motorsports*	Jeroen Bleekemolen Ben Keating Marc Miller	SRT Viper GTS-R	M
	55	AF Corse	Duncan Cameron Alex Mortimer Matt Griffin	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M
	61	AF Corse	Peter Ashley Mann Raffaele Gianmaria Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M
	62	Scuderia Corsa	William Sweedler Townsend Bell Jeffery Segal	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M
	66	JMW Motorsport	Abdulaziz Turki Alfaisal Jakub Giermaziak Michael Avenatti	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	D
	67	Team AAI	Jun-San Chen Alex Kapadia Xavier Maassen	Porsche 911 GT3 RSR	M
	68	Team AAI	Han-Chen Chen Gilles Vannelet Mike Parisy	Porsche 911 RSR	M
	72	SMP Racing	Viktor Shaitar Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M
	77	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Patrick Dempsey Patrick Long Marco Seefried	Porsche 911 RSR	M
	83	AF Corse	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas	Ferrari 458 Italia GT2	M
	88	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Christian Reid Khaled Al Qubaisi Klaus Bachler	Porsche 911 RSR	M
	96	Aston Martin Racing	Roald Goethe Stuart Hall Franceso Castellacci	Aston Martin Vantage V8	M
	98	Aston Martin Racing	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage V8	M
Le Mans GTE-Am

• *Riley Motorsports were promoted from the reserve list.

Qualifying

Qualifying for the race was held over three sessions after the conclusion of scrutineering on Wednesday and Thursday before the weekend. The Wednesday night session was held from 22:00 to midnight, with an evening session from 19:00 to 21:00 on Thursday. Qualifying was then scheduled to conclude at midnight on Thursday, with a final two hour session from 22:00, when the track is, traditionally, at its fastest.

Session One

Qualifying started brightly, both literally (being the first session in the Le Mans week to be held in the dry) and figuratively, with the lap record being broken twice in the early minutes. The first man to break the 2008 record was Timo Bernhard in the #17 on his first flying lap, just five minutes into the session, beating the record by eight tenths of a second. Then Neel Jani, just moments after Bernhard crossed the line, recorded a time of 3:16.887 in the ~18 Porsche 919 Hybrid, although was unable to match his time later on. Audi, it seemed, were biding their time, three seconds off of Porsche's time, with Toyota and Nissan further back.

Richard Bradley also took little time in setting foot on the top of the time sheets, taking the KCMG Oreca-Nissan to provisional pole in LMP2 in the opening minutes. They found themselves a second ahead of their nearest challengers Greaves Motorsport, whom would cause the only stoppage in the session after an accident a Mulsanne corner. Jota Sport, defending their LMP2 crown in Le Mans, found themselves in third, ahead of the first of the new BR Engineering prototypes being run by SMP Racing.

The GTE-Pros were topped by the Aston Martin Racing V8 squad in the #99 Aston Martin Vantage V8, ahead of the GTE-Am leaders, the #98 Vantage V8 run by the Aston Martin Racing team. A third Aston Martin followed, with Corvette Racing-GM the closest to the British marque in GTE-Pro with their #63 Chevrolet Corvette C7R. AF Corse's #71 lead the anti-Aston charge in GTE-Am for a time, until their fastest times were removed for exceeding track limits, with their counterparts in the #83 machine taking over the torch overnight.

Session Two

A storm was scheduled to hit Le Mans and the Circuit de la Sarthe on Thursday evening, affecting both of the final sessions, although clear skies as the evening session went on showed this was an incorrect report. Hot and humid conditions meant that the engines weren't running at their full potential as dusk settled over la Sarthe, with the #17 Porsche moving further ahead of the #8 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro, while André Lotterer improved the #7 Audi's time to move into fifth, still a second behind the final Porsche. Toyota and Nissan remained well off the pace, while Rebellion Racing began to encroach a little further into the top ten times with both their cars.

Team SARD Morand hit problems during the session and failed to set a time, as status quo ruled in LMP2, with only a couple of cars setting times better than they had on Wednesday. Meanwhile, in GTE-Pro, Jan Magnussen was at the wheel of the #63 Corvette once again, and was starting to push the car closer to the Wednesday times, until debris got caught in the throttle system of the C7R. This caused the throttle to stay wide open as the Dane went through the Porsche Curves, meaning there was little he could do to avoid first the armco and then concrete wall in the second part of the infamous chicane.

Magnussen was taken to hospital for checks, while the session itself was ended with half an hour left on the clock, with the ACO announcing that Q3 would be extended by half an hour instead. The #63 C7R, meanwhile, was dragged back to the pits, with Corvette announcing shortly afterwards that the car would be rebuilt, but not in time for Saturday. The #63 Corvette was promptly removed from the starting list, with the crew set to work on the #64 car to ensure that the same issue did not affect that car too.

Session Three

Despite cooler air, a gripier circuit and an extra half an hour of running, the provisional pole time set by Jani remained unbeaten through the final session, with Porsche, Audi and Toyota all seeming to favour race setup instead. Only Nissan found themselves improving, the #22 car creeping into a second of the Team ByKolles car, although their joy would be brief. All three Nissan Nismos, and the ByKolles car, were all relegated to the back of the LMP grid at the end of the session as they had all failed to set a time within 110% of the pole time for LMP1, meaning they would have to fight their way past the LMP2 field as well, which they were on a par with in terms of pace.

G-Drive Racing put in a late charge to climb to second in LMP2 behind KCMG, who also held on to their pole time despite the fact it had been set so early on. Meanwhile, the AF Corse cars in both GTE-Pro and GTE-Am closed in on the Aston Martins at the top of their classes, with both the #51 and #71 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2s making up for their disallowed times, while the #64 Corvette claimed ninth in class, unable to match the times of the European entries.

Qualifying Result

So Porsche claimed their first Le Mans pole position since the 1997 race, which was also their sixth in a row in the World Endurance Championship. They also claimed the circuit record since its latest reconfiguration, breaking the old time by over a second and a half under a second, despite Neel Jani setting the time on his first run in the car. Penalties were also applied to various LMP cars for various reasons.

Bold indicates the fastest time for each class in each session, with the name of the fastest car in each class also in bold. Italics show each car's fastest time in the entire qualifying session.

24 Hours of Le Mans Qualifying Result
Pos.	No.	Entrant		Q1		Q2		Q3		Grid	Class
1	18	Porsche Team		3:16.887		3:20.974		3:21.119		1	LMP1
2	17	Porsche Team		3:17.767		3:20.980		3:21.065		2	LMP1
3	19	Porsche Team		3:19.297		3:18.862		3:22.097		3	LMP1
4	8	Audi Sport Team Joest		3:19.866		3:21.681		3:22.678		4	LMP1
5	7	Audi Sport Team Joest		3:21.839		3:20.561		3:20.967		5	LMP1
6	9	Audi Sport Team Joest		3:21.081		3:22.595		3:20.997		6	LMP1
7	2	Toyota Racing		3:23.543		3:26.380		3:23.738		7	LMP1
8	1	Toyota Racing		3:23.767		3:25.233		3:24.562		8	LMP1
9	12	Rebellion Racing		3:26.874		3:28.745		3:38.053		9	LMP1
10	13	Rebellion Racing		3:31.933		3:38.044		3:28.930		10	LMP1
11*	4	Team ByKolles		3:40.368		3:36.825		3:37.167		29	LMP1
12*	22	Nissan Motorsports		3:41.400		3:42.230		3:36.995		30	LMP1
13*	23	Nissan Motorsports		3:38.468		3:38.954		3:37.291		31	LMP1
14	47	KCMG		3:38.032		3:40.624		3:39.147		11	LMP2
15*	21	Nissan Motorsports		3:51.289		3:39.992		3:38.691		32	LMP1
16	26	G-Drive Racing		3:39.867		3:47.713		3:38.939		12	LMP2
17	41	Greaves Motorsport		3:38.958		3:44.123		3:41.722		13	LMP2
18	38	Jota Sport		3:39.004		3:45.770		3:40.920		14	LMP2
19	36	Signatech Alpine		3:40.438		3:41.477		3:39.699		15	LMP2
20	46	Thiret by TDS Racing		3:39.923		3:40.441		3:39.805		16	LMP2
21	34	OAK Racing		3:40.058		3:43.853		3:40.078		17	LMP2
22	48	Murphy Prototypes		3:44.513		3:41.827		3:40.690		18	LMP2
23	28	G-Drive Racing		3:40.967		3:46.504		3:42.053		19	LMP2
24	43	Team SARD Morand		3:42.015		No Time		3:41.250		20	LMP2
25	29	Pegasus Racing		3:42.023		3:43.824		3:43.850		21	LMP2
26	27	SMP Racing		3:42.077		3:54.065		3:43.729		22	LMP2
27	42	Strakka Racing		3:42.237		3:44.704		3:43.750		23	LMP2
28	37	SMP Racing		3:42.417		3:52.383		3:43.549		24	LMP2
29	30	Extreme Speed Motorsports		3:44.675		3:42.862		3:42.453		25	LMP2
30	31	Extreme Speed Motorsports		3:46.165		3:44.631		3:46.585		26	LMP2
31	40	Krohn Racing		3:44.899		3:44.854		3:45.491		27	LMP2
32†	45	Ibañez Racing		3:45.450		No Time		3:48.220		33	LMP2
33	35	OAK Racing Team Total		3:52.843		3:59.244		3:53.995		28	LMP2
34	99	Aston Martin Racing V8		3:54.928		3:59.263		3:57.041		34	GTE-Pro
35	51	AF Corse		3:59.815		3:57.503		3:55.025		35	GTE-Pro
36	98	Aston Martin Racing		3:55.102		4:00.110		3:59.081		36	GTE-Am
37	97	Aston Martin Racing		3:55.466		3:57.447		3:57.219		37	GTE-Pro
38‡	71	AF Corse		3:57.216		3:58.398		3:55.582		54	GTE-Pro
39	95	Aston Martin Racing		3:55.783		3:58.983		3:55.848		38	GTE-Pro
40§	63	Corvette Racing-GM		3:55.963		3:59.754		No TIme		WD	GTE-Pro
41	91	Porsche Team Manthey		3:57.192		3:57.843		3:56.618		39	GTE-Pro
42	83	AF Corse		3:56.723		4:03.641		3:57.844		40	GTE-Am
43	72	SMP Racing		3:57.271		3:58.837		3:56.877		41	GTE-Am
44	92	Porsche Team Manthey		3:57.667		3:58.721		3:56.922		42	GTE-Pro
45	64	Corvette Racing-GM		3:57.081		4:00.025		3:58.689		43	GTE-Pro
46	53	Riley Motorsport		3:59.054		4:01.501		3:57.836		44	GTE-Am
47	77	Dempsey-Proton Racing		3:58.822		4:08.157		3:57.842		45	GTE-Am
48	88	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing		3:58.259		4:02.361		3:58.771		46	GTE-Am
49	55	AF Corse		3:59.091		4:03.765		3:58.433		47	GTE-Am
50	61	AF Corse		4:02.544		4:00.311		3:58.695		48	GTE-Am
51	62	Scuderia Corsa		3:58.946		4:05.332		4:03.162		49	GTE-Am
52	50	Larbre Compétition		3:59.522		4:02.871		3:59.566		50	GTE-Am
53	66	JMW Motorsport		4:00.551		4:03.881		3:59.612		51	GTE-Am
54	96	Aston Martin Racing		4:01.160		4:04.193		4:01.146		52	GTE-Am
55⁁	68	Team AAI		4:03.117		4:02.789		4:01.243		55	GTE-Am
56	67	Team AAI		4:04.827		4:05.137		4:01.270		54	GTE-Am

• * Cars 4, 21, 22 and 23 were all relegated to the back of the Le Mans Prototype grid for failing to set a time within 110% of the LMP1 fastest time.
• ^† Ibañez Racing also relegated to the back of the LMP grid for failing to set a time within the 110% time for LMP2.
• ^‡ The #71 AF Corse car was demoted to the back of the GTE grid as they failed to have all three drivers set a time within the 120% fastest time of the GTE-Pro class.
• ^§ The #63 Corvette Racing-GM entry was withdrawn after Jan Magnussen's accident on Thursday evening.
• ^⁁ Team AAI's #68 entry was relegated to the back of the grid as one of its drivers failed to set a time within the 120% time of the pole sitter in GTE-Am.

Race

With the Tricolour set to be waved at three o'clock in Le Mans on Saturday, the mornings entertainment was provided by a variety of races. The first in action was the Le Mans Classic, featuring cars from the 1950s and 60s races, before an Aston Martin race was released on the circuit, featuring a Template:Lola-Aston Martin B09/60, although the former LMP1 car started a lap down. A heavy crash during that race ended the morning's entertainment, with the focus fully on the 55 cars set to start the 83rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Report

The cars rolled through the Ford Chicane on the stroke of three o'clock on Saturday, the 13th of June, with the Tricolour dropping to start the race. It was grid order heading into the Dunlop Chicane for the first time, before a dog fight opened up between the last two Porsche 919 Hybrids and the first two Audi R18 e-tron Quattros down the Mulsanne and beyond. The #9 Audi was left to fight the [{Toyota|Toyotas]] while its sister cars mixed up with the #19 Porsche, taking the third of the Porsches before the end of the first lap.

Timo Bernhard was quick to put a small gap between himself and the #18 machine, which was now brawling with three Audis and the #17 car, with Toyota's cars now falling away. Nissan, meanwhile, missed the start with their #23 machine after a clutch issue in the warm-up, leaving their other two cars to mix it up with the LMP2 field, with Harry Tincknell and Lucas Ordóñez slowly rising through the field as the first hour progressed. The leading cars in LMP2 seemed locked together all throught the first hour, although the KCMG car remained stubbornly at the head of the field.

The end of the first hour saw the first retirement of the race, with the #92 GTE-Pro entry of Porsche Team Manthey destroying its own engine into the first chicane on the Mulsanne. The car spun on its own oil, while the #13 Rebellion R-One and #42 Strakka cars came together in avoidance. The Rebellion found itself beached in the gravel, while the Strakka car limped back to the pits. The #92 Porsche, meanwhile, pulled over on the exit of the chicane, set ablaze by the oil sprayed onto its exhaust, although the fire was put out quickly. Regardless, the first safety car of the day emerged, with the new Slow Zone system saved for another incident.

Result

So, Porsche claimed their first Le Mans victory in seventeen years, with Nico Hülkenberg becoming the first driver since Johnny Herbert in 1991 to win the race while competing in Formula One. KCMG completed their first LMP2 victory since competing in Le Mans in 2013, while the #64 Corvette Racing-GM entry claimed an emotional victory in GTE-Pro. SMP Racing claimed the final honours on offer by winning GTE-Am, benefitting from the demise of the #98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 in the final hour.

The final result of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2015 is displayed below, with class winners shown in bold. Points scored for the WEC entries is also displayed, while the fastest lap setter in each class is displayed in italics.

24 Hours of Le Mans Race Result
Pos.	No.	Entrant	Laps	Time	Stops	FL.	Pts	Class
1	19	Porsche Team	395	24:00:42.784	30	3:18.596	50	LMP1
2	17	Porsche Team	394	+1 lap	30	3:18.186	36	LMP1
3	7	Audi Sport Team Joest	393	+2 laps	32	3:17.475	30	LMP1
4	8	Audi Sport Team Joest	392	+3 laps	31	3:17.831	24	LMP1
5	18	Porsche Team	391	+4 laps	30	3:18.917	21	LMP1
6	2	Toyota Racing	387	+8 laps	30	3:22.633	16	LMP1
7	9	Audi Sport Team Joest	387	+8 laps	30	3:17.647	12	LMP1
8	1	Toyota Racing	386	+9 laps	29	3:20.896	8	LMP1
9	47	KCMG	358	+37 laps	31	3:36.836	51	LMP2
10	38	Jota Sport	358	+37 laps	32	3:36.679		LMP2
11	26	G-Drive Racing	358	+37 laps	32	3:37.078	36	LMP2
12	28	G-Drive Racing	354	+41 laps	35	3:38.109	30	LMP2
13	48	Murphy Prototypes	347	+48 laps	30	3:38.715		LMP2
14	27	SMP Racing	340	+55 laps	35	3:42.444		LMP2
15	31	Extreme Speed Motorsports	339	+56 laps	32	3:42.890	24	LMP2
16	45	Ibañez Racing	337	+58 laps	33	3:44.918		LMP2
17	64	Corvette Racing-GM	337	+58 laps	24	3:54.823		GTE-Pro
18	13	Rebellion Racing	336	+59 laps	32	3:26.594	50	LMP1
19	29	Pegasus Racing	334	+61 laps	34	3:40.794		LMP2
20	72	SMP Racing	332	+63 laps	23	3:56.165	50	GTE-Am
21	71	AF Corse	332	+63 laps	25	3:55.698	50	GTE-Pro
22	77	Dempsey-Proton Racing	331	+64 laps	23	3:58.832	36	GTE-Am
23	12	Rebellion Racing	330	+65 laps	34	3:27.184	36	LMP1
24	62	Scuderia Corsa	330	+65 laps	26	3:57.299		GTE-Am
25	51	AF Corse	330	+65 laps	26	3:54.991	36	GTE-Pro
26	83	AF Corse	330	+65 laps	23	3:56.841	30	GTE-Am
27	95	Aston Martin Racing	330	+65 laps	24	3:54.600	30	GTE-Pro
28	30	Extreme Speed Motorsports	329	+66 laps	36	3:39.702	20	LMP2
29	35	OAK Racing	328	+67 laps	32	3:46.095	16	LMP2
30	91	Porsche Team Manthey	327	+68 laps	25	3:56.863	24	GTE-Pro
31	61	AF Corse	326	+69 laps	25	3:57.565		GTE-Am
32	40	Krohn Racing	323	+72 laps	35	3:42.168		LMP2
33	37	SMP Racing	322	+73 laps	36	3:41.402		LMP2
34	99	Aston Martin Racing	320	+75 laps	25	3:54.246	20	GTE-Pro
35	68	Team AAI	320	+75 laps	25	3:59.683		GTE-Am
36	66	JMW Motorsport	320	+75 laps	21	3:58.646		GTE-Am
37	67	Team AAI	316	+79 laps	26	4:00.996		GTE-Am
NC*	98	Aston Martin Racing	321	Accident	24	3:56.988		GTE-Am
NC†	22	Nissan Motorsports	242	Not Classified	26	3:55.888		LMP1
Ret	34	OAK Racing	329		33	3:38.251		LMP2
Ret	53	Riley Motorsports	304		24	3:55.896		GTE-Am
Ret	42	Strakka Racing	264		26	3:41.304		LMP2
Ret	55	AF Corse	241		18	3:57.712		GTE-Am
Ret	23	Nissan Motorsports	234	Gearbox	23	3:36.525		LMP1
Ret	46	Thiriet by TDS Racing	204		19	3:39.575		LMP2
Ret	96	Aston Martin Racing	187		16	3:57.477		GTE-Am
Ret	43	Team SARD Morand	162		15	3:41.725		LMP2
Ret	21	Nissan Motorsports	115		13	3:37.863		LMP1
Ret	36	Signatech Alpine	110		9	3:40.324		LMP2
Ret	97	Aston Martin Racing	110		7	3:56.026		GTE-Pro
Ret	50	Larbre Compétition	94		9	3:58.640		GTE-Am
Ret	41	Greaves Motorsport	71	Battery	6	3:40.834		LMP2
Ret	88	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	44	Engine	2	3:59.008		GTE-Am
Ret	92	Porsche Team Manthey	14	Engine	1	3:58.639		GTE-Pro
DSQ‡	4	Team ByKolles	260	Disqualified	29	3:33.560		LMP1
WD§	63	Corvette Racing-GM	0	Withdrawn	0			GTE-Pro
Source

• * The #98 Aston Martin Racing entry crashed in the final hour, but had completed 70% of the race distance.
• ^† The #22 Nissan GT-R LM Nismo finished the final lap of the race, but did not complete 70% of the race distance.
• ^‡ Car #4 disqualified from the result due to a driver weight ballast discrepancy.
• ^§ The #63 Corvette Racing-GM entry was withdrawn after Jan Magnussen's accident on Thursday evening.

WEC Standings

The various WEC championships on offer in 2015 were left wide open depite the double points available in Le Mans. André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer held a 20 point lead over Nick Tandy, the first of the Porsche backed drivers in the World Endurance Drivers Championship. The reverse was true in the Manufacturers battle, with Porsche's strong display meaning they held a 16 point lead over Audi, overturning their rival's total in the process. Rebellion Racing led the way in the Private LMP1 teams' Championship, despite only attending one race so far.

 

Drivers' Championship Pos. Class Name Pts. +/- 1 LMP1 André Lotterer 80 1 LMP1 Marcel Fässler 80 1 LMP1 Benoît Tréluyer 80 2 LMP1 Nick Tandy 60 3 LMP1 Earl Bamber 58 3 LMP1 Nico Hülkenberg 58 4 LMP1 Marc Lieb 57 4 LMP1 Neel Jani 57 4 LMP1 Romain Dumas 57 5 LMP1 Brendon Hartley 53 5 LMP1 Mark Webber 53 5 LMP1 Timo Bernhard 53 6 LMP1 Loïc Duval 40 6 LMP1 Lucas di Grassi 40 6 LMP1 Oliver Jarvis 40 7 LMP1 Alexander Wurz 38 7 LMP1 Mike Conway 38 7 LMP1 Stéphane Sarrazin 38 8 LMP1 Anthony Davidson 27 8 LMP1 Sébastien Buemi 27 9 LMP1 Felipe Albuquerque 24 9 LMP1 Marco Bonanomi 24 9 LMP1 René Rast 24 10 LMP1 Kazuki Nakajima 23 11 LMP2 Sam Bird 10.5 11 LMP2 Julien Canal 10.5 11 LMP2 Roman Rusinov 10.5 12 LMP2 Gustavo Yacamán 8 12 LMP2 Pipo Derani 8 12 LMP2 Ricardo González 8 13 LMP2 Matthew Howson 6.5 13 LMP2 Richard Bradley 6.5 14 LMP2 Danny Watts 4.5 14 LMP2 Jonny Kane 4.5 14 LMP2 Nick Leventis 4.5 15 LMP2 Nicolas Lapierre 4.5 16 LMP2 Erik Maris 2.5 16 LMP2 Jacques Nicolet 2.5 16 LMP2 Jean-Marc Merlin 2.5 17 LMP2 Harry Tincknell 2 18 LMP2 Ed Brown 2 18 LMP2 Jonathan Fogarty 2 19 LMP2 Johannes van Overbeek 1.5 20 LMP2 David Heinemeier Hansson 1.5 20 LMP2 Ryan Dalziel 1.5 20 LMP2 Scott Sharp 1.5 21 LMP1 Alexandre Imperatori 1 21 LMP1 Daniel Abt 1 21 LMP1 Dominik Kraihamer 1 22 LMP1 Mathias Beche 1 22 LMP1 Nick Heidfeld 1 22 LMP1 Nicolas Prost 1 23 LMP2 David Brabham 0.5 24 LMP2 Nelson Panciatici 0.5 24 LMP2 Paul-Loup Chatin 0.5 24 LMP2 Vincent Capillaire 0.5 25 LMP2 Oliver Webb 0.5 25 LMP2 Pierre Ragues 0.5 25 LMP2 Zoel Amberg 0.5

Manufacturers' Championship Pos. Manufactuer Pts. +/- 1 Porsche 140 2 Audi 124 3 Toyota 71 4 Nissan 0 GT Manufacturers' Cup Pos. Manufactuer Pts. +/- 1 Ferrari 144 2 Porsche 99 3 Aston Martin 84

References

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