Porsche secured its 19th Le Mans 24 Hours win after a gruelling race of attrition, beating the best of the LMP2 and prevent a huge upset win for the lesser category Oreca team.
Veteran German driver Timo Bernhard led Porsche to a dramatic third straight win and a third successive triumph at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France.
In a race where only two of the LMP1 cars made it to the finishAfter a series of mishaps to pre-race favorites Porsche and Toyota, the LMP2 category Oreca suddenly found itself in the lead with 19-year-old Frenchman Thomas Laurent behind the wheel three
hours from the end of the grueling endurance race.
But the 36-year-old Bernhard, racing in the faster and more powerful LMP1 category Porsche 919 Hybrid, overtook the Oreca with about 1 hour remaining. As the Porsche No. 2 crossed the finish line, there were scenes of relief in the Porsche garage as team members danced around holding up t-shirts with “Hat trick 2015, 2016, 2017” written on them.Bernhard finished about one minute ahead of the Jackie Chan DC Racing team car, owned by the famed action movie star.
Bernhard also won the race in 2010 when driving for the dominant Audi team. It was a fantastic comeback win considering that the Porsche No. 2 was held up for more than one hour in the garage in the fourth hour of the race to replace a front axle-motor, earlier in the Le Mans 24 Hours 2017 sports car endurance race.