2015 24 Hours of Le Mans
It was the 83rd running of the 24 Hour race organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest as well as the third round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Audi's best car, driven by the title defenders Benoît Tréluyer, Marcel Fässler, and André Lotterer, finished third, a further lap behind the two Porsche vehicles.
The result meant Lotterer, Tréluyer and Fässler remained the leaders of the Drivers' Championship on 80 points, 20 ahead of Tandy, and a further two in front of his co-drivers Bamber and Hülkenberg.
[2] Before the race Audi Sport Team Joest drivers André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler led the Drivers' Championship with 50 points, 14 ahead of their nearest rivals Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb and a further 14 in front of third-placed Mike Conway, Stéphane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz.
Dumas, Jani and Lieb had twice finished in second while Davidson and Buemi along with Bernhard, Hartley and Webber had achieved third-place results.
[3] Following the introduction of slow zones during the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans, the race's organiser, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) revised the system for 2015.
[13] The session served as the first appearance for the trio of Nissan GT-R LM Nismo amongst its World Endurance Championship competitors, although the cars were not on pace with the LMP1 field.
The Murphy Prototypes Oreca-Nissan later caused a second stoppage when Mark Patterson spun in the Porsche Curves entry and heavily impacted the safety barrier.
The Greaves car, driven by rookie Gaëtan Paletou, later caused the session's only stoppage when it collided with the safety barriers at Mulsanne Corner and had to be towed back to the garage.
Gianmaria Bruni's AF Corse Ferrari was third amongst LMGTEs before ACO officials disallowed their fastest lap times for going beyond the track limits, demoting the car down the grid.
[23] As temperatures cooled in the final qualifying session, over a third of the field improved their fastest laps, but Jani's pole position time was unchallenged.
SMP Racing improved their time by leading both of the day's qualifying sessions to take second place on the grid, splitting the Aston Martin cars.
[35] The safety cars were deployed to slow the race as marshals worked for twenty-two minutes to dry the spilled oil along the Mulsanne Straight.
51 AF Corse Ferrari's (Giancarlo Fisichella) right-hand section and was thrown back sideways across the track, impacting the outside barriers head on heavily driving into Indianapolis corner and ripping the car's front bodywork off.
Safety cars were required once again as the barriers needed lengthy repairs, while Duval was able to drive the damaged Audi back to the garage.
88 Proton Porsche suffered an engine fire in the second Mulsanne Straight chicane, extending the safety car period as it was tended to.
71 AF Corse Ferrari, and two circulating Aston Martin vehicles were nose to tail in LMGTE Pro, continuing their battle after the safety car period ended.
71 Ferrari was forced to the garage to fix starter motor problems, bowing out of its battle with Corvette and Aston Martin in LMGTE Pro.
[46] When racing resumed, Hülkenberg was able to attack the leaders, first overtaking Webber's Porsche around the outside on the opening lap then passing Rast when he made a scheduled pit stop.
Returning to the track Rees' car failed to stop in time for the first Mulsanne Straight chicane and hit the rear of the TDS Racing Oreca-Nissan of Gommendy.
The Oreca, which had held second place in the LMP2 category, was abandoned in the gravel at the chicane while Rees limped the damaged Aston Martin back to the garage for repairs to its front-left corner.
43 Morand car billowed smoke because of an oil pressure sensor failure and his vehicle caught fire, causing him to retire at Arnage corner.
42 Strakka Dome pulled off the track on the front stretch with gearbox issues and fluids leaked from his car, requiring a local slow zone.
[57] Viktor Shaytar overran the Indianapolis corner and became stuck in the gravel, losing two laps as it was extracted by recovery vehicles and went into the pit lane but remaining in second place in LMGTE Am.
51 AF Corse Ferrari slowed on course and came to the garage with gearbox issues, handing the LMGTE Pro lead back to Corvette and allowing the No.
[66] Hülkenberg became the first active Formula One driver to win Le Mans since Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot in 1991 and the first rookie to clinch overall victory since Laurent Aïello in 1998.
98 Aston Martin in the final hour, actor Patrick Dempsey's team moved into second place behind the winning SMP Ferrari, while Scuderia Corsa, in their first appearance at Le Mans, finished third.
"[72] Webber did not believe that his one-minute stop and go penalty prevented him from winning the event, saying he was not fast enough but praised the race victors on their success.
[75] The result meant Lotterer, Tréluyer and Fässler remained the leaders of the Drivers' Championship with 80 points, 20 ahead of second-placed Tandy, who in turn, was a further two in front of his co-drivers Bamber and Hülkenberg in third.
Dumas, Jani and Lieb's performance saw them fall from second to fourth place and Bernhard, Hartley and Webber's second-place result allowed them to move into fifth on 53 points.
