Le Mans: Two Swiss with a big goal
LE MANS The French city is back in the motorsport spotlight. For Sébastien Buemi/Toyota and Neel Jani/Porsche, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the most important race of the year. Marcel Fässler is aiming for GT victory with Corvette. A year ago, Switzerland had three hot irons in the fire with Sébastien Buemi, Marcel Fässler and Neel Jani. [...]
A year ago, Switzerland had three hot irons in the fire with Sébastien Buemi, Marcel Fässler and Neel Jani. Buemi's Toyota retired three minutes before the end of the race while in the lead, after which the actually favored opponent Porsche with Jani took a surprise victory. Audi, on the other hand, and with them Fässler, were for once unable to have a say in the victory.
A year later, the signs are reversed. Toyota is the big favorite, Porsche in the role of the hunter. The Cologne-built Japanese are over a lap faster - so fast, in fact, that a new absolute lap record is expected in qualifying on the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe - a 13.629 km mix of race track and country road.
Neel Jani was the pole setter in 2015 and 2016. "It would be a surprise if I were on the front row of the grid again. We can only win this race through distance and reliability," predicts the 33-year-old from Biel.
His partners this year are André Lotterer (D) and Nick Tandy (GB). In the field of 60 cars, they form the only trio consisting solely of drivers with at least one overall victory at Le Mans.
Buemi would also like to be one of them. If there is such a thing as compensatory justice, then his number 8 car must win, as was the case in the first two 6-hour races of the 2017 World Endurance Championship at Silverstone and Spa. The brutal reversal of fortune a year ago stayed with him for a long time.
Now that he is back at the site of his supposed greatest triumph, he doesn't care anymore. "Because I can no longer change it. The most important thing is that Toyota has become even more competitive with the car for 2017. This gives me another chance."
In seven starts with the Audi works team, Marcel Fässler has been able to use it three times (2011, 2012 and 2014) and turn it into overall victory. In the last two years, the driver from Schwyz has also contested endurance races with Corvette Racing when Audi was not on the grid.
He will now benefit from this double program, as Fässler will be able to drive for the American works team again, as he last did at Le Mans in 2009. He won in the GT class at Daytona and Sebring in 2016, and a further victory at Le Mans would also have earned him this Triple Crown.
"Even if it is difficult for many to understand: I'm looking forward to this race and the new challenge with Corvette. Because it will be an even tougher battle than in LMP1 between Porsche and Audi."
There are other drivers of purely Swiss nationality (plus some dual nationals under a different flag) who are allowed to take part in the training. Mathias Beche, Hugo de Sadelaer, Jonathan Hirschi and Simon Trummer will be driving four different cars from three teams in the LMP2 class. Like the two GT classes (Pro and Am), this class is extremely strong with 25 cars. The only GT driver apart from professional Fässler is aviation entrepreneur Thomas Flohr in a Ferrari 488 GTE.
You can find out how practice went for all the Swiss and what the starting position is for the race (85th edition since 1923, start on Saturday at 3 p.m., live on Eurosport) in the report on our homepage on Friday. In any case, the irons will be hot again - the 24 Hours of Le Mans are expected to be as scorching hot as never before since 2005.
