Motorsport: How the final drama unfolded at Le Mans
During the second half of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a historic double victory for the Swiss drivers was on the horizon. But Sébastien Buemi's Toyota stopped shortly after the race with engine failure, after which Neel Jani in the Porsche crossed the finish line as the winner. Bewilderment, horror, jubilation - the final phase of the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours goes [...]
After an hour-long duel with the faster of the two Porsches, the Toyota TS050 Hybrid driven by Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima looks like the sure winner. But in the final phase, the car driven by the Japanese increasingly slows down, stops briefly at the pit wall and can only complete the last lap, when Neel Jani has already been flagged off first, with the help of the electric motor due to the broken primary drive. Because this does not happen in the prescribed minimum time of six minutes, the unfortunate trio is knocked out of the classification despite finishing second. A race can hardly end more dramatically.
The 18th triumph for Porsche at the 24 Hours
So Porsche comes to its 18th triumph at Le Mans completely unexpectedly, but by no means undeservedly. And Toyota also fails in its 18th attempt since 1985. The second place of the second trio Stephane Sarrazin/Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi is no consolation; every team member is deeply disappointed and heartbroken at the end. Among them Sébastien Buemi. For him, this success, which slipped away in the final minutes, is the worst experience of his career. At the other end of the emotional scale, from a Swiss perspective, is Neel Jani. After leading the first eight laps in the opening phase, the man from Berne only took turns with the two Toyota cars at the front in the second half of the race together with Marc Lieb (D) and Romain Dumas (F) and was initially unable to grasp his greatest racing success to date.
Now Neel Jani is also the favorite for the world championship title
"It was almost surreal," admitted the 32-year-old Porsche works driver from Jens near Biel. "I was so surprised when I saw the Toyota standing on the right-hand side of the road after the penultimate crossing of the finish line that I couldn't let my emotions run free after the unexpected victory. Unbelievable, something like that probably only happens to you once in a lifetime." Neel Jani is only the second overall winner from Switzerland after Marcel Fässler (2011, 2012 and 2014 with Audi). In addition, he was the first since Jo Siffert in 1968 to clinch the prestigious pole position at Le Mans, which he managed again this year in qualifying for the 84th edition of the world's most famous endurance race. "So it means a lot to me that I have now also won."
Marcel Fässler finishes fourth in the Audi R18
While Neel Jani had a lot of bad luck with technology last year, which ultimately cost him the World Championship title, he is now well on his way to claiming the World Endurance Championship crown as well. Thanks to the double points score at Le Mans, Jani, Lieb and Dumas have extended their lead in the standings to the Audi team Duval/Jarvis/di Grassi, which finished third at Le Mans. This double was already achieved by Marcel Fässler in 2012, who was unable to compete for victory this year due to many minor problems on the Audi R18 that was not quite competitive and ultimately finished fourth.
How the fight for the overall victory and the race of the other Swiss participants went, you can read here in our liveticker.
www.lemans.org
Photos: Archive
