Le Mans – The No. 919 2 Hybrid offers Porsche a 19th victory

The 85e edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will have kept the 258 spectators in suspense from start to finish. The No. 500 919 Hybrid of Bernhard-Bamber-Hartley, behind following a problem with the hybrid system which caused it to lose an hour in the garage, took advantage of the misfortunes of the other LMP2s to return to the front of the race at only 1h1 to go and offer a 07th victory at the 19 Hours of Le Mans. This is the second success in Sarthe for Timo Bernhard after 24 and Earl Bamber after 2010. However, it is the first for Brendon Hartley.

La Porsche 919 Hybrid #2 @Porsche_Team wins the 24 2017 Hours of Le Mans! # LeMans24 pic.twitter.com/rp2pFOCViV

- 24 Heures du Mans (@ 24heuresdumans) 18th June 2017

Timo Bernhard took the lead by overtaking the #07 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 38 of Laurent-Tung-Jarvis which remained in the lead of the race for several hours following the retirement of Lotterer's #1 Porsche -Jani-Tandy suffered an oil pressure problem while she dominated the race.

The general classification podium is completed by another LMP2, the No. 13 Vaillante Rebellion of Piquet Jr-Heinemeier Hansson-Beche, who gained a place following André's Arnage crash. negrao on'Alpine No. 35 in the last hour.

The A470 of Negrao-Ragues-Panciatici finally completes the top five in the general classification behind the second Oreca 07 of Jackie Chan DC Racing entrusted to Gommendy-Cheng-Brundle. United Autosports placed the first Ligier in 6th place with Albuquerque-Owen-De Sadeleer. The first Dallara completes the top ten with the Cetilar Villorba Corse from Lacorte-Sernagiotto-Belicchi.

La Toyota n ° 8 of Buemi-Davidson-Nakajima is the only other LMP1 finisher. The TS050 Hybrid also suffered from a hybrid system problem and finished in 9th place overall.

The GTE Pro will have offered a magnificent pass of arms between the five manufacturers involved. The final laps were animated by a duel between Jordan Taylor in the No. 63 Corvette and Jonathan Adam in theAston Martin No. 97. The Vantage tried to overtake the C7R at Mulsanne, but the Corvette driver regained the advantage coming out of the corner at the cost of a slight contact.

The American was finally overtaken at Raccordement and had to settle for 3rd place following a puncture on the last lap which allowed Harry Tincknell (teammate of Luis Felipe Derani and Andy Priaulx) to overtake the n°63 for a 3”6 lead on the finish line.

JMW Motorsport dominated GTE Am during the second half of the event with the Ferrari of Vanthoor-Smith-Stevens taking the class lead following a tire blowout on the #98 Aston Martin by Lamy-Dalla Lana-Lauda. The category podium is monopolized by the F488 GTEs with second place taken by the No. 55 Spirit of Race of Cameron-Scott-Cioci and the No. 62 Team McNeil-Sweedler-Bell Corsa.

Discover the analysis of the 85th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2119 of AUTOweekly, available from Monday evening from 22 p.m. in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.