AFTER a bad start to its 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans campaign, Audi
emerged with its 13th overall win out of just 16 starts at the famous endurance
race, winning first and second places.
It was the race for third spot by Toyota’s hybrid cars, however,
that had the crowd on their feet.
In a reminder of that legendary race when British playboy James
Hunt clawed his way from the back of the field to third on a wet track at Mount
Fuji in Japan, the Toyota drivers clawed their way back for a bitter sweet third
spot, behind the Audi R18 e-tron quattro LMP1 and the number 1 R18,
The number 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid was involved in a multi-car crash
during a downpour in the first 100 minutes which saw the R18 of Felipe
Albuquerque, Marco Bonanomi and Oliver Jarvis retire.
Their Audi was beyond repair, but Toyota’s pit crew managed to fix
the extensive crash damage to the front of their car in less than an hour.
Then Toyota drivers Anthony Davidson, Nicholas Lapierre and
Sébastien Buemi returned to the track — eight laps behind the leading car and
grimly set on passing 40 cars for the rest of the day and night.
Their third spot also clinched for Toyota both the drivers’ and
manufacturers’ titles in the World Endurance Championship, with five rounds
remaining in the 2014 season.
Team president Yoshiaki Kinoshita summed up the team’s feelings
after an unpredictable and challenging race where the TS040 Hybrid race cars
demonstrated the speed required to claim victory.
“We will come back stronger for this experience, and we have a
world championship to fight for, starting at the next race,” Kinoshita
said.
“All team members, including the drivers, performed brilliantly in
this race — not only to repair the damage, but to stay positive and bring home
third position.”
The Porsche teams also looked like they could get onto the podium
throughout the first 22 hours of the race and is was only in the last 100
minutes that the Audis showed their superiority.
The first Audi in was driven by Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and
Benoît Tréluyer, the second by Lucas di Grassi, Marc Gené and Tom
Kristensen.
As always the 13,6 km long track with its six kilometre straight
took its toll, with the Toyota 7 TS040, driven by Kazuki Nakajima, Stéphane
Sarrazin and Alex Wurz having to retire with an electrical fault.
The delta wing Nissan ZEOD RC hubrid developed a gearbox issue that
the pit crew could not set right.
Both Porsche LMP1s retired were in the lead with three hours to go
when the number 20 919 driven by Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber
had an engine failure. They then drove solely on electric power back to the
pits.
Their sister 919, number 14 was in fourth place when it stopped in
the pits
The Ferrari of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor won
the LMGTE Pro with the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R in second place.
Number 92 Porsche 911 RSR of Marco Holzer, Richard Lietz and
Frédéric Makowiecki came third.
In the LMGTE Am category, the number 95 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
driven by David Heinemeier-Hansson, Kristian Poulsen and Nicki Thiim emerged
victorious (19th overall).
