Le Mans/DTM: Swiss on the podium 🎥
TOYOTA DOMINATED In Toyota's one-two at Le Mans, Sébastien Buemi had to settle for second place. Philip Ellis and Lucas Mauron also finished on the podium at the DTM at the Nürburgring. Robin Faustini made a strong Osella debut at the Osnabrück hill climb. The highlights of the first two hours show the turbulent start phase in which Sébastien [...]
The highlights of the first two hours show the turbulent start phase in which Sébastien Buemi was very lucky.
After the 89th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans started behind the safety car due to rain, Toyota Gazoo Racing's two GR010 hypercars dominated the action in increasingly better conditions. In the process, the #7 car of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López was the better and luckier one for once, with 348 leading laps (out of 371) to the finish.
Deserved victory for Toyota teammates
The second Toyota finished a lap down in the photo finish. After three wins in a row, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley, who joined the team in 2019, had to settle for second place.
For the Vaudois and his two colleagues, however, the race could have been over after a hit and spin in the first corner and other minor problems.
Sébastien Buemi: "I'm therefore also happy about second place and about our teammates' victory. They deserve it after so much bad luck at Le Mans. The whole Toyota team did a huge job."
Amazingly, all five hypercars from the top class came over the full distance and occupied the first five positions. Alpine, driven by the Franco-Swiss Niclolas Lapierre among others, managed a single lead lap due to the earlier first refueling stop of the winning duo and ended up with the third podium position ahead of the two Glickenhaus prototypes.
Drama in LMP2
It looked like victory for a Swiss driver in the LMP2 class. The Oreca-Gibson rolled out on its last lap with a broken throttle cable. Stunned, Louis Delétraz from Team WRT in Belgium had to watch the drama on the monitor in the pits. The fact that at least his teammates inherited the class win with a lead of less than eight tenths of a second (!) over the pursuing car was of little consolation to the man from Geneva.
Fabio Scherer's car was in the pit garage for two hours for repairs due to technical problems (clabbered oPower supply). However, the team got his car over the distance. The 40th place overall and last place (12th) in the class at least finds entry in the statistics. Simon Trummer's American team did not manage this after the retirement in the 20th hour.
The Franco-Swiss Realracing Team with Esteban Garcia from Geneva was the twelfth best team and finished third in the Pro-Am sub-ranking.
Neel Jani back on the podium
In the GTE LM-Pro class, Porsche's factory cars lacked a bit of performance to win the race against the slightly faster Ferraris from AF Corse and Corvette Racing. This was compounded by bad luck in two safety car phases. At least Neel Jani and his team partners were able to finish third on the podium, which he knew from his overall victory in 2016.
In the Am class, Rahel Frey and her teammates made it to a good ninth place for the third time in a row with the Ferrari 488 GTE from Iron Lynx. Without two punctures and a shock absorber problem, which cost a lot of time, an even better placing would have been possible for the Iron Dames. Victory in this GT class also went to the factory partner team AF Corse.
Here the overall ranking and here the view into the classes.
Philip Ellis second in the DTM
The Italians also triumphed in the DTM at the Nürburgring less than two hours earlier. This time, ex-Red Bull GP driver Alexander Albon brought the cheers in Sunday's race.
On Saturday, Philip Ellis from the Mercedes team Winward Racing was able to enjoy another podium. Already a strong second in qualifying, the man from Zug finished third. A subsequent time penalty for the second-placed driver moved him up to second place. In the second race, he was one of the victims of the starting scrum.
Kelvin van der Linde's third win of the season and second place for Ellis are the highlights of DTM race 1.
Nico Müller continues to have problems
For Nico Müller, the fourth DTM weekend ended with the still rather disappointing positions 8 and 10. On Saturday, the driver from Bern at the wheel of Rosberg's Audi R8 showed a nice recovery to P6, but ten penalty seconds set him back by two positions.
On Sunday, bad luck with the caution period prevented a possible top result. Saturday's winner Kelvin van der Linde from Audi Team ABT continues to clearly lead the DTM standings despite Sunday's retirement.
Lucas Mauron had a strong showing in the DTM Trophy. The driver from Abtwil ended his long drought with a supposed victory in an Audi R8 GT4, but saw himself relegated to second place retrospectively due to a minor misdemeanor on the track. As the winner on Aston Martin was a guest entrant, Mauron still received full points.
Joy and sorrow in Osnabrück
At the hill climb in Osnabrück, France's Sébastien Petit took the day's win in the Nova sports car. Robin Faustini came in a brilliant fourth overall and second in the race cars at the premiere with the Osella FA30.
Joel Burgermeister (Tatuus F4 LRM) celebrated a class win in fifth place in the two-liter class, which also had a strong field. Marcel Steiner already had to charge on Saturday after an engine failure. Michel Zemp was not allowed to start due to a non FIA-compliant fuel tank.
