We're entering what will be the final chapter of the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans. Oliver Turvey is catching Sam Bird. More drizzle coming. The #7 Audi pitted. No radio. Watch pit board. The fastest Audi does not have radio. They have to go old school to the end of the race. Watching Oliver Turvey, racing. He won Le Mans last year after being called up at the last moment. The #51 Ferrari is being buttoned up. They are 26th overall. Vilander and co. will be overtaken by an Aston Martin. Turvey takes second in LMP2. Sam Bird may not have much power in the G Drive car.
The #13 Rebellion R One is going for it. The pitter patter of rain can be heard on the microphones. The Ferrari wants a podium place. The one remaining Nissan GT-R LM has stopped. Ooh. Broken suspension on the #4 ByKolles prototype with Simon Trummer at the controls. Kudos to Nissan for not giving up. Nico Hulkenberg is still leading this race. One start, between the three drivers, here at Le Mans. Will the rookies spray the champagne? #38 is in the lane. No rain has fallen, to this point. Hmmm. That's odd. There's a yellow flag in the Porsche curves. We watch the Nissan. There's some fire from the exhaust pipes out the side of the front engined car.
Jann Mardenborough was at the wheel when the car stopped. Nicolas Lapierre will finish the race for KCMG. Or, maybe, it's Richard Bradley. Here comes the car. They've had a heck of a run. Are there raindrops out there? Hmmm. The KCMG car leaves the pits. Corvette is in the pits. They will need this stop and one more, to get to the checkers on fuel. Check the tires, and get fresh ones. Cross your T's and dot your I's. The crew is looking at the brakes and suspension, just checking things over. Time is a valuable commodity at this point.
We are nearing the one hour to go mark. In 1998, Porsche scored it's most recent overall victory at Le Mans with Allan McNish, Stephane Ortelli, and Laurent Aiello. Mark Webber gets into the #17 Porsche, and Neel Jani will finish the #18 car. Nico Hulkenberg leads by a couple laps over Brendon Hartley. The #40 Krohn Racing Ligier Judd is off the road. Contact in the chicane. Tracy Krohn at the wheel.
Audi is using eight mega joules, because they aren't sure how much more energy they can get out of the hybrid system. The diesel is a heavy lump, too. The weight will go up. The lump, is the engine, by the way. Crowds gather for the final hour at Le Mans. To win at Le Mans, you have to be the fastest. You have to endure. 23 hours ago the field of 55 was shiny and new. But, with barely an hour to go, only a handful, will see their efforts rewarded.
We have all Fox Sports commentators on deck now for the finish. We're into the final hour of this one now, folks. One hour to go. Porsche has record sales at the moment. The Ligier is in the pits. Racer's do not want to talk about results until they happen. You are still hanging on, and you hear every squeak and rattle in that car, in the last 55 minutes. You want to finish even if you are last in the train.
Cars not leading, are still pushing. You want the race to end now. This year, it is a role reversal. The Porsche's were fast, and reliable. Audi was fast, but have had big problems. Porsche's had speed last year, but had reliability issues. The Audi's have had the pace, under the previous track record. But they spent lots of time in the garage. That's why we run the races. Soon, we're going to see the cars, forming up for the pictures.
The #48 Murphy Prototypes car is still hanging in there. They were almost out, but a sister team, had a spare piece of bodywork. That is why this race has the legend it does. There is a spirit in this race, like no other. There's a big wreck with the leading GTE Am Aston Martin! Paul Dalla Lana has slammed the barrier! He drove straight off in the Ford Chicane. They had a big wreck with Roald Goethe earlier. There was only a lap lead to that car. He got crossed up, the car oversteered in the gray stuff, and he slammed the wall!
Did he go to the brake and get to both the brake and the gas at the same time? He never turned the car. He couldn't turn it. SMP Racing will assume the lead in LM GTE Am. Two sets of American drivers will be on the GTE Am podium. Viktor Shaitar, Aleksey Basov, and Andrea Bertolini, could win LM GTE Am. After his wreck, Paul Dalla Lana is OK. But, he's obviously gutted. G Drive pits. SMP Racing leads LM GTE Am. Two Ferrari's and a Porsche will finish on the LM GTE Am podium.
We always seem to see a twist in LMP2 as well. Marco Seefried makes a final fuel stop, to get him, perhaps, to the LM GTE Am podium. To have a chance to win a race as prestigious as Le Mans, you must survive the final 30 minutes. The #17 Porsche pits and Brendon Hartley will take it home. Rain is possibly ten minutes away. Nothing serious. As things stand, two drivers have a chance to win their first Le Mans races. 386 laps complete. 397 is the record. We won't reach that.
Porsche has done their homework and it looks like they'll survive the 24 hours. The final minutes are ticking away. Just under 23 minutes to go. Nico Hulkenberg could win on his first visit to Le Mans, as well as Earl Bamber. He's been racing cars for just five years. The #18 pits. Porsche was told to come back with a car, and be perfect. They're going to do it. The Audi team will have consolation, because this car, is not driven by full season regular drivers in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Nico Hulkenberg is still going for it, even though this race is coming to an end. There's rain falling on the back side of the track, with less than 20 minutes to go. Fifteen minutes to go in the 83rd 24 Hours of Le Mans. Porsche tops off what may be the winning car. Will a tire switch be necessary? Maybe not. Rain in Zones 14 and 15. That's down the Mulsanne between the first and second chicanes in the last twelve minutes. Are drivers more nervous than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs? We'll see.
Thanks to the volunteer track workers for all they do. Parasols have turned into Parapluie, for sure. Toyota keeps digging. But they are six seconds off the pace. 3:23 to 3:17. Lap times are dropping five seconds, with ten minutes left. People are just staring at the monitors. The crowd is allowed to flood the track, after this race. The drivers are here for the trophies, in eight minutes or so. The last active F1 driver to win Le Mans, could have been Johnny Herbert driving for Mazda in 1991.
It's a madhouse after this race for the trophy presentations. Dr. Ullrich comes over and congratulates Porsche. Dr. Ullrich is a class act. He knows they put their best foot forward. Johnny Herbert, Volker Weidler, and Bertrand Gachot, won Le Mans, in a Mazda. Mazda is the only Japanese make to win. Nissan and Toyota haven't won yet. Johnny Herbert had busted his feet in a Formula 3000 crash, and had to be carried out of the car after the race, he was so exhausted.
After last year, seeing Audi setting the benchmark. Well, Porsche has met the challenge with these high tech space ships on wheels. The last lap of this race has to be under six minutes. Fans are going nuts. Slow it down. But, these boys know they've won it. When the factory team won in LM GTE Pro, they ran out of flags, a few years ago. People threw jackets and hats out the windows. This is a huge commitment, even though they are built on racing heritage.
Today, Porsche will earn their 17th win at Le Mans. Audi's Reinhold Joest was responsible for a lot of those wins. 263,500 people came to Le Mans this year. Are we ready for a photo finish? Yes. That's the spirit of this race. Competitors know how to make this work. 5, 4, 3, 2 ,1. Checkers. New faces in victory lane this year. Porsche will win their 17th Le Mans overall. Nico Hulkenberg, Nick Tandy, and Earl Bamber... Porsche, wins Le Mans!
Patrick Dempsey and Patrick Long win LM GTE Am. But, Porsche wins overall. Nicolas Lapierre wins LMP2. He does so with Richard Bradley and Matthew Howson. In LM GTE Pro, the winner is Corvette Racing for the #64 of Jordan Taylor, Tommy Milner, and Oliver Gavin. In LM GTE Am it's the #72 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of Viktor Shaitar, Alexey Basov, and Andrea Bertolini. Wow. This is incredible.
You can go through every class, and there are stories all over the place. There was so much for thsi race. You had to be perfect. In years past, you could make a mistake. This time, you had to be perfect and have nothing go wrong. The outright pace was incredible. There are memories yet to come. The overall winners come into one of the most vfamous victory lanes in all of racing. These three drivers... Bamber, Tandy, and Hulkenberg, have had thrir lives changed, forever.
Overall/LMP1: #19 Hulkenberg/Bamber/Tandy Porsche 919
LMP2: #47 Howson/Bradley/Lapierre Oreca 05 Nissan
LM GTE Pro: #64 Gavin/Milner/Taylor Chevrolet Corvette C-7-R-
LM GTE Am: #72 Shaitar/Bertolini/Basov Ferrari 458 Italia
When the hybrid formula was developed, it was hailed as a new era. So true. Lots of new faces on the podium. 395 laps is within two laps of the all-time record despite safety cars. What a pace. What a race. It's been a long day, but the result was worth the effort. Yours truly thought Porsche would not make it and Audi would win. But, not today. Porsche is #1! The results today will do a lot for American sports car racing.
So many amazing moments. What a day for Corvette Racing, too. We'll be talking about this one, for a long, long time. The track is given over to the spectators for the podium ceremonies. Two of the three overall winners were here for the first time. Bamber, and Hulkenberg. Kudos to Corvette Racing, too, for pulling through and winning Le Mans despite the trouble with the sister car. Corvette wins their eighth Le Mans.
It's so emotional to see this. We see these blokes coming out on the podium, and it gives you goosebumps. You never predict the race on paper. This one, was a classic. In a race with a history like Le Mans, there's always a passing of the torch. Tom Kristensen is handing out a trophy to ounger drivers. It's a great moment. The work starts tomorrow. What's good for Porsche is good for sports car racing, as the German national anthem plays to honor Porsche.
Audi, losing to Porsche, makes their focus that much sharper, for next year. This is totally unexpected. But, Porsche deserves this 17th win. Amazing. Jacky Ickx and Tom Kristensen are both on the podium to congratulate the winners. Celebrations will go on into the night. Porsche wins Le Mans this year. It's over. We recall the heroes of the past, and the cars. Audi's dynasty is over. Porsche's is renewed.
For racers, risk is life. This race offers satisfaction to those who get to say, "I drove, and won, Le Mans." Au revoir, everyone. We'll see you, next year.
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