Porsche earns 17th overall Le Mans victory after winning 2015 event

It was an historic day in Le Mans, France, with Porsche taking a page out of Audi’s book and finishing in the top two spots at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. Audi has won 13 of the last 15 contests, with seven 1-2 finishes and a handful of 1-2-3 finishes during that time.

When the Rolex clock at the Circuit de la Sarthe’s start/finish line struck 3 PM UTC, the trio of New Zealand’s Earl Bamber, German Nico Hulkenberg, and Brit Nick Tandy took the chequered flag in their #19 Porsche 919 Hybrid. The #17 car of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley at Mark Webber finished 2^nd overall. A lap record set during qualifying for the #18 car of Romain Dumas, Neel Janni and Mark Lieb, meanwhile, completed Porsche’s three-part assault on Le Mans 2015. It’s the first win for Porsche since 1998, when they returned to the podium after dominating the race throughout the ‘80s.

The #7 Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro of Marcel Fåssler, André Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer finished third overall, securing Audi a podium spot for the 16^th straight year. The Audi cars suffered a few issues throughout the grueling affair, while the winning Porsche managed to finish with nary an issue, highlighting the importance of reliability in an endurance test like this. The 919 may look strange, but obviously, it works.

The victory in the LM GTE Pro class went to the #64 Corvette C.7R of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor, who edged out the #71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Olivier Beretta, James Calado and Davide Rigon. Corvette Racing once again finds itself in the top spot of LM GTE Pro at Le Mans, after Ferrari and Porsche traded victories over the last three years. The victory came with a price, however; while Chevrolet had originally planned on fielding two cars, a qualifying crash involving car #63 meant that only the #64 car was able to take to the grid on race day.

Finally, the #48 Oreca-Nissan of Richard Bradley, Matthew Howson and Nicolas Lapierre took top honours in the LMP2 class, with the #72 SNP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of Andrea Bertolini, Alexsei Basov and Victor Shaytar taking top honours in LM GTE Amateur.

The fact that Porsche now has a real competitor on its hands with the 919 means that Audi will have to re-double its efforts in the coming years if it ever wants to catch Porsche’s overall victory count, which stands at 17 after this year’s race. Corvette Racing, meanwhile, also seems to be back in the driver’s seat, and it will be interesting to see what kind of counter-punch the rest of the manufacturers can provide in the ultra-competitive LM GTE Pro class over the rest of the World Endurance Championship season, as well as the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship.