The 24 Hours of Le Mans, third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, were exciting, full of drama and unexpected developments throughout the whole race. After qualifying sessions which were dominated by Toyota and Kamui Kobayashi’s record qualifying lap time (#7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID), Porsche finally got the upper hand over the Japanese manufacturer and put its name in the record books with a hat trick of three consecutive victories (2015, 2016 and 2017). Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber claimed their second crown while Brendon Hartley won for the first time in the # 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid. It was all the more amazing as this car had earlier lost 65 minutes in the pits to repair the hybrid system and came back from 55th place!
In LMP2, an incredible battle took place and the Jackie Chan DC Racing team proved to be the strongest with a 1-2 for the #38 ORECA 07 – Gibson (Thomas Laurent, Ho-pin Tung, Oliver Jarvis) and #37 following the disqualification of the #13 Vaillante Rebellion ORECA 07 – Gibson. Consequently, the #35 Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine A470 was awarded third place.
The LMGTE Pro category offered a final worthy of the best of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies. Aston Martin Racing’s victory – #97 with Darren Turner, who took his third class victory at Le Mans, Jonny Adam and Daniel Serra – came after a decisive move on the last lap over the #63 Corvette which was in turn overtaken in the last few metres by the #67 Ford GT.
The #84 Ferrari 488 GTE driven by Dries Vanthoor, Robert Smith and Will Stevens won the LMGTE Am. The JMW Motorsport was followed by two other Ferraris: the #55 Spirit of Race and #62 Scuderia Corsa, which means the first three places for the Italian manufacturer, and maximum GTE Am WEC points for 5th placed Clearwater Racing.