Nissan wins at Le Mans!*
*But not overall.
I wasn't going to post anything today
since I was expecting to be soaking up the whole spectacle of Le Mans
but since the race ended this morning I thought I'd post a quick
summary. Needless to say, if you haven't been following the event
yourself, SPOILERS LIE AHEAD!
Image credit: Nissan |
This first year back to Le Mans was
always going to be difficult for Nissan with not only the learning
curve of returning to the world's premiere endurance race after a
long absence but also the added complexity of developing a radical
new concept for a race car. Adversity was exactly what they
encountered with clutch trouble sidelining the #23 car from the very
start. The #21 car was in and out of the pits for various issues
ranging from the gearbox to a door that popped open on the Mulsanne
straight. Eventually, it was the first of the three cars to retire.
The other two cars would also spend a lot of time in the garage but Nissan
valiantly kept them going and the #23 at least made it all the way to
the 23rd hour before succumbing like its sister before
it. On the bright side, the #22 car did make it all the way to the end despite all the mechanical issues and being over a hundred fifty laps down from the winner.
The GT-R LM Nismo's were consistently
well off the pace of the frontrunners but this year they weren't even
running their hybrid system properly and suffered due to not having
the extra power as well as the added acceleration and grip afforded
by the originally planned electric RWD boost. They basically ran on
just the 500ish hp V6 engine driving the front wheels without the
benefit of the hybrid systems that gave the other LMP1 teams over a
thousand horsepower of peak output. A lack of regenerative braking
also played havoc with slowing the cars down. Overall, very much a
learning year for Nissan but kudos for the determined effort despite
the lack of development time. Next year will be very interesting if
Nissan can get their full AWD hybrid system working and the aero
setup optimized.
Since Nissan obviously didn't win
overall, someone else had to take the honors and this year it was the
Porsche team in a convincing 1-2 for their 19 and 17 cars. Audi's #7
car ended up in third while the Toyotas were surprisingly a
non-factor for the win pretty much the whole race. Congratulations to
Porsche and their winning driver team of Earl Bamber, Nico
Hulkenberg, and Nick Tandy for a magnificent drive!
The LMP1 results may have been
disheartening for Nissan but solace can be had in their continued
dominance of LMP2. The #47 KCMG Oreca-Nissan led the class for almost the
entire race and was never seriously challenged for the win
except in the early going. Nissan-powered cars filled the top spots
of LMP2 with the nearest alternate powerplant way down in seventh. An
interesting bit of trivia is that roughly a third of this year's Le
Man's grid had Nissan power.
In the GT classes, Corvette Racing did
America proud by winning GTE-Pro – fitting for Flag Day when the
Stars and Stripes are everywhere. Even more impressive is the fact
that they've now won the Triple Crown of endurance racing this year,
having scored victory at Daytona and Sebring earlier. Unfortunately
the #63 car that had got those victories was unable to complete the
hat trick after a stuck throttle put Jan Magnussen hard into the wall
during a pre-qualifying test session. Fortunately he was unhurt but
the car was unsalvageable. The sister #64 car fought hard and claimed
the win in their stead however.
In GTE-Am Aston Martin looked set to win in the closing hours.
Unfortunately a late shunt by the leading car within the final sixty
minutes scuppered their bid and the #72 SMP Ferrari went on to the
class victory. Of note, TV star Patrick Dempsey got second place in
the class together with fellow American Patrick Long.
Overall, another great installment of
Le Mans despite the troubles Nissan faced. Here's looking forward to
next year!
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