How laborious it was! Lagging behind at the start of the race in the hands of an exhausted and heckled Laurens Vanthoor at the start, the No. 6 Porsche 963 sailed outside the top ten for a long time. As a reminder, in the event of victory for the No. 7 Toyota, the trio Estre / Lotterer / Vanthoor had to finish tenth worst to take the Drivers’ crown. Concern then spread to the Porsche Penske Motorsport stands. But once the wheel was handed over to Kévin Estre, the German LMDh regained its splendor, the Frenchman moving up the rankings.
For a long time, we believed that Porsche was going to win everything, the No. 7 and No. 8 Toyotas seeming incapable of fighting for the win for various reasons. Finally, with a little less than three hours to go, an interruption in the race reshuffled the cards. Toyota then tried to solve the sensor problems causing cuts on the GR010 Hybrid no. 7, but the latter finally gave up shortly after. The No. 8 was surprisingly not in good spirits, Porsche believed it could take a breather, to the point of letting its two cars fight for victory.
But the race will be interrupted again three times. By a new safety car following the stop on the track of the Peugeot no. 94. Then by two Full Course Yellow. The first due to the simultaneous stopping of the #87 Lexus and the #77 Ford Mustang. The second one an hour from the checkerboard to allow the marshals to remove the debris left by the #50 Ferrari, victim of a puncture following contact with the #36 Alpine, which almost spun.
These interruptions to the race, combined with a very judicious splash made during the second Virtual Safety Car, allowed the No. 8 Toyota to return to the contingent of cars vying for the win. The Sébastien Buemi festival can then begin. The Swiss got the better of Matt Campbell (Porsche 963 n°5) and escaped to give Toyota the victory… but above all the Manufacturers’ title! Far from being varnished this year, including today, the Japanese team has once again retained its advantage and that is a lesser evil.
On the second step of the podium, we find the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, Antonio Giovinazzi having managed to steal second place from Matt Campbell (No. 5 Porsche) at the end of the race. For the second race in a row, Peugeot finished just off the podium with the #93 9X8 led at the end of the race by Mikkel Jensen, a result which deserves to be saluted although again due to numerous racing events.
And the Porsche No. 6 you tell us? Laurens Vanthoor penalized three times (non-compliance with the FCY then two contacts), she ultimately only finished 11th! Fortunately the No. 7 gave up and the No. 50 completely missed its race, otherwise the Drivers’ title which was holding out its arms to the Lotterer / Estre / Vanthoor trio could well have slipped through their fingers.
Thanks to a very inspired Paul-Loup Chatin at the end of the race, Alpine once again took a place in the top five thanks to the No. 35 A424 that the Frenchman shared this weekend with Jules Gounon and Ferdinand Habsburg.
Long in the running for the podium, BMW had to settle for a frustrating 6th place for the No. 15 of Dries Vanthoor / René Rast / Raffaele Marciello, the No. 20 having for its part had to give up due to a transmission problem. .
Lamborghini, for the second race, had to retire with its SC63, this time due to a problem with the cooling system, as was the case at Watkins Glen.
The provisional classification of the race is HERE
