Le Mans victory proves Hulkenberg is meant for more

As the race progressed, the #17 Porsche took the lead for a significant amount of time as the Audi of Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Rast in the #9 Audi managed to climb its way to 2^nd to challenge Porsche for the win. Through the race, Audi and Porsche kept exchanging the lead between themselves while the battles through the entire race between Porsche and Audi for the 3^rd, 4^th,5^th and 6^th, positions were getting heated. Unfortunately for Audi, all the three cars had to be brought into the garage at one point or the other due to minor setbacks in the second half of the race for repairs and component checks.

With Hulkenberg taking the wheel for the final stint, and after more crashes and safety cars, the Hulk managed to get on the lead lap and take the lead ahead of the #17 Porsche of former F1 driver Mark Webber with Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard and went on to win the race after 24 hours of gruesome racing, 1 lap ahead of the red livery Porsche. On the approach to the finish line on the final lap, Hulkenberg was asked to slowdown. When the German eased off, a long trail of cars refused to overtake the German in respect towards the soon to be winner which included the #17 Porsche, #48 LMP2 Oreca 03R driven by Karun Chandok and many others who followed. Hulkenberg then crossed the finish line to seal the victory after 395 laps of the Circuit de la Sarthe.

The 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Marcel Fassler, André Lotterer, Benoît Treleyur in the #7 Audi R-18 e-Tron Quattro had to settle for 3^rd ahead of Lucas Di Grassi, Loïc Duval, Oliver Jarvis in the #8 Audi which finished 4^th.

While the #18 Porsche in the black livery clocked a record breaking qualifying lap time, the team failed to capitalise on the performance and eventually finished 5^th overall and the best performing #9 Audi finished 7^th sandwiched between the #2 and #1 Toyotas which finished 6^th and 8^th respectively.

 Nissan came into the LMP1 category this year with the GT-R LM NISMO which proved to be radically different mechanically and 20 seconds of the pace in qualifying. However, the team was competing to understand and develop the car rather than the actual race and the self set target of finishing the race was achieved as the #22 car of Harry Tincknell, Michael Krumm and Alex Buncombe managed to cross the finish line.

The LMP2 category was won by #47 KCMG car followed by #38 JOTA Sport in 2nd and the #26 G-Drive Racing which finished 3rd. Indian driver, Karun Chandok and the Murphy Prototypes team finished a highly commendable 5th in class and 13th overall in the #48 Oreca 03R Nissan powered car.

Suffering a terrible experience all week with a car not even making into qualifying, and the 2nd car crashing after a sticky throttle in the hands of Jan Magnussen in qualifying, the Chevrolet Corvette Racing team managed to pull a victory in the GTE-Pro category with the sole #64 car which performed superbly as it held on to the lead through the entire 24 hours of the gruesome race. While the Ferrari 458 Italia #71 of AF Corse managed a well fought 2nd place in class, the team also celebrated the #51 Ferrari taking the final GTE-Pro podium finish.

The 20+ hours of leading the class, but during the final stages of the competition, Aston Martin Racing’s GTE-Am category car #96 of Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall, Francesco Castellacci, in the hands of Stuart Hall crashed near the Porsche Experience centre of the track completing 187 laps demoralising the whole team as SMP Racing’s #72 Ferrari eventually went on to take the win in the GTE-Am Category of the 24 hours of Le Mans. Followed by the Dempsey – Proton Racings #77 Porsche 911 took 2nd place in class and #62 Scuderia Corsa finished 3rd.

The next WEC round will be held at the Nurburgring for the 6 hours of Nurburgring race on August 30 as the battle led by Porsche, followed by Audi 16 points behind and Toyota with 53 more point behind the leader, heats up.