Five reasons why Le Mans 2015 was awesome

Watching from the pits as team-mate Jordan Taylor hunted down the leading Ferrari of Toni Vilander, a breathless Oliver Gavin declared that the 83^rd running of the Le Mans 24 Hours was “one of the best races I’ve been involved in.” And unless you happened to be stood in the Aston Martin camp, which lost a near-certain victory with 45 minutes to go, you might be inclined to agree.  The sight of one of the paddock’s more instantly recognisable figures, Grey’s Anatomy actor turned racing driver Patrick Dempsey, visibly fighting back tears after prevailing in a tussle with the Scuderia Corse Ferrari to finish second in the GTE-Am category, told everything of the emotion invested in this gruelling battle of wits. Here’s why the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours will go down as an instant classic.

The 19 Porsche was a deserved and popular winner (Nick Dungan, Adrenal Media).

Feel good winners

It wasn’t the Porsche that was meant to win, but that hardly mattered for Nick Tandy, Nico Hulkenberg and Earl Bamber. Free from the mistakes which blighted their team-mates and the uncharacteristic reliability problems which befell all three Audis, the no. 19 crew in the third Porsche ran like clockwork throughout, belying their inexperience in LMP1 machinery to deliver a memorable and hugely popular win after 24 hard-fought hours. But whilst Bamber and Hulkenberg were busy writing themselves into the history books as the first rookie winners since Laurent Aiello in 1998 – incidentally the last Porsche victory at La Sarthe – and Hulkenberg as the first incumbent Formula One driver to win since 1991, Tandy was the standout performer of the three. It was his sheer pace in the late-night quadruple stint –lapping in the mid to high 3:18s despite the cooler track conditions – which allowed his team-mates breathing room, a trick he repeated when he clambered back into the cockpit at around 8am. It’s been a long time in coming, but at last, as the 30^th British winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, Tandy should receive the recognition he deserves.

Jani (centre) broke the all-time lap record in qualifying (John Rourke, Adrenal Media).

Record pace

With huge strides made by the leading LMP1 entries over the winter, it was expected that lap-times would tumble, but just by how much was not clear. Neel Jani emphatically answered that question in qualifying, blitzing the field to set a new lap record of 3:16.887, almost 5 seconds faster than Kazuki Nakajima’s pole lap for Toyota last year. But come the race, it was Audi setting the pace; Filipe Albuquerque blew away the fastest lap record with a 3:17.647 on lap 62 – some 4.85 seconds quicker than the car’s best time in qualifying – only for defending winner Andre Lotterer to better it on lap 337 with a 3:17.475 as he fought in vein to catch the leaders.  It was small consolation for the German however; Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and marathon man Marcel Fassler would eventually collect third after an eventful run delayed by a puncture, drive-through penalty and a few spells in the garage.

The lone Corvette took GTE-Pro honours (Nick Dungan, Adrenal Media).

Overcoming adversity

It simply wouldn’t be the Le Mans 24 Hours without tales of adversity, and this year’s edition was no different. After an early delay to resolve gear selection issues, Jota Sport fought their way back to second in LMP2 with stellar turns from Oliver Turvey, Simon Dolan and rookie Mitch Evans – only narrowly missing out on a repeat of their come-from-behind victory of 2014 – while the no. 71 Ferrari of Olivier Beretta, Davide Rigon and birthday boy James Calado collected an improbable second in GTE-Pro after losing four laps changing the starter motor.  But it was for Corvette that the biggest celebrations were reserved. Reduced to one car after a stuck throttle at the Porsche Curves put paid to Jan Magnussen’s no. 63 in Thursday afternoon’s Q2 session, the weight of expectation weighed heavy on the team’s second entry of Jordan Taylor, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner. But whilst they may have lacked the ultimate pace of the Aston Martins and needed gearbox problems for the 51 Ferrari to assure them of victory, the marque’s first victory for the C7.R – and Gavin’s fifth – was no less deserved.

The 22 Nissan made it to the finish, thanks to the efforts of its pit crew (John Rourke, Adrenal Media).

Heroic pitwork

We’ve become accustomed to seeing Formula One pit crews perform lightning-fast pitstops – it took Red Bull a mere 1.923s to service Mark Webber’s car at the US Grand Prix in 2013 – but Audi’s mechanics proved they are no slouches either. It had looked to be curtains for 2013 winner Loic Duval in the third hour after he came upon a wall of traffic at speed and was assisted into the wall by a GTE Ferrari, the front end destroyed. But after returning to the pits, the no. 8 R18 e-tron Quattro was repaired inside three minutes and sent back on its way: a display of German efficiency at its finest. Special mention must also go to the NISMO crew, who put in a herculean effort to keep its trio of troublesome GT-R LMs running through the night and were rewarded by the sight of Michael Krumm bringing the no. 22 car to the flag in its first race.

Scrutineering allows the fans to get close to the cars (John Rourke, Adrenal Media).

Atmosphere

Drawn by the promise of a titanic fight for LMP1 honours and intrigue at the radical new Nissan, the atmosphere in 2015 was one to savour. From the traditional scrutineering in the town centre to the raucous Drivers’ Parade, which followed the announcement that Ford would be returning to contest the GTE category next season with American superteam Chip Ganassi Racing, there was a buzz surrounding the event which suggests Le Mans is firmly on the rise once again. Even Francois Hollande dropped by to check on proceedings, becoming the first President to do so since 1972.  Mark Webber described the record 263,500-strong crowd before the race as the biggest he had ever seen and after this year, don’t be surprised to see that number swell even more next year.

This article originally appeared on Red Bull Motorsports.