Experience the unforgettable 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans — a race that delivered one of the most dramatic finishes in endurance racing history. Toyota, Porsche, and Audi fought relentlessly for 24 hours at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, showcasing the peak of hybrid technology, strategy, and human endurance. From high-speed battles to heartbreaking twists in the final moments, Le Mans 2016 stands as a true modern classic. Relive every lap, every duel, and every emotion of this extraordinary race.
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#24hLeMans
#EnduranceRacing
#MotorsportHistory
#ToyotaVsPorsche
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00Yeah, he ran in the P2 cars initially he's been here twice before yeah
00:00:05this is twice before and you know he's been absolute star today really
00:00:10tremendous opening stint in this number six Toyota and now dicing dicing for
00:00:16the lead with Neil journey well Johnny's pulled away double his advantage in fact
00:00:21more than that now 1.7 seconds as there is a little bit of moisture out there by
00:00:26the way because there's so much water fell earlier on today that we're getting
00:00:31a dew falling and we're going to take an entire lap here Jeremy we'd like to talk
00:00:37us through the through the lap we're going on board for a full lap here yeah
00:00:43through the Dunlop she came there under the Dunlop bridge now down towards the
00:00:47S's and that you can see the two headlight beams pointing directly ahead of them
00:00:53there and then other beams pointing out to the side of the car as well so as you
00:00:56can see pretty good visibility as he comes through there up into fourth gear
00:01:00fifth gear down now to Tertruche and on to the Mulsanne Strait the L'Homme-Droit de l'Azuna de l'Aire
00:01:07and here's his first of the kinks here this is one of the danger points on the
00:01:10track nowadays because the hybrid cars the prototype one cars they deploy their
00:01:15hybrid energy coming out of slow corners Tertruche being one of them relatively so
00:01:20still taking about 100 miles an hour and then they they use that boost down the
00:01:24first five part of the straight then the hybrid power runs out and then they
00:01:28they've kind of reset terminal velocity relatively early on that straight through
00:01:32the first of the chicanes there on the Mulsanne Strait and now up again through
00:01:37the gears and up to well over 300 kilometers here on this straight 306 as he
00:01:44came across the timing track on that lap the speed track on that lap and the next
00:01:48will be the left right left chicane the second of the chicane the Mulsanne
00:01:53corners here or Mulsanne chicane at least and still on this this the main road that
00:02:01leads south out of Le Mans and as you see around the outside of another car there
00:02:05the visibility on these cars is remarkably good these days there's been so much
00:02:10technology put into the headlight systems on these cars and it's just amazing the
00:02:15differences it has made through the the kink there and into Mulsanne corner this is
00:02:20another of the slower corners on the racetrack they've built up a lot of hybrid
00:02:24energy again under braking there and now deploying that power to lead onto the
00:02:28straight towards the blast down towards Indianapolis see that blue light flashing
00:02:33on the left-hand side of the racetrack that's to warn that GT car that our race
00:02:37leader just overtook that there is a faster car approaching there's also a blue light will flash on his dashboard
00:02:44as well on his steering wheel to alert him to the fact that it's a faster car coming up behind him
00:02:49the right-hander there now into the tight left at Indianapolis this is where Stefan Sarrazan made a big mistake
00:02:55in in one of the practice sessions earlier in the week and crashed the car pretty heavily down into our
00:03:01Nage corner the slowest corner on the track now accelerating once again look at the hybrid power you just blast past
00:03:07one of the p2 cars and headed towards the Porsche curves this is the the fastest section of corners on the racetrack the first corner will be to the right here here he goes look at the speed into that corner
00:03:22from there to the radio call to Neil Jarny who is in the lead of this race just ahead of Mike Conway
00:03:29on board with him now but just ahead of Mike Conway by a couple of seconds or so and confirming that Neil Jarny doing a fine job he's working his way through the Porsche curves
00:03:39Porsche curves and now down into the Ford chicane left right a short straight left heavy braking left and right again and now on to the start
00:03:51finish lane and that is a lap at the circuit de la Sarge 8.5 miles 30 and a half kilometers and it's taken him
00:04:01three minutes and 24 seconds a good lap there by Neil Jarny and you've got to go back a very very long time ago to realize that when Le Mans first started
00:04:11it was all about the development of headlights and electrics and everything else like that but something else which you might find very amusing
00:04:19was the cars ran with their hoods up for part of the race as well we'll talk about that when we come back
00:04:26Nottingham, Anglia
00:04:33Nottingham, Anglia
00:04:34за неделю до Wimbledon'a
00:04:36устроитесь поудобнее
00:04:37и наслаждайтесь красивой игрой
00:04:39с понедельника
00:04:41в прямом эфире на Евроспорт 1
00:04:43ATP Nottingham
00:04:45Эфире на Музыкаль
00:07:20We're right back.
00:07:24Everything is so tightly packaged to maximize the aerodynamic benefits of the design of the car, so it's not easy to get to anything, and it's certainly not a part that fails.
00:07:35I mean, the Porsche engines have been super reliable, considering how much pace they're putting out.
00:07:42It's remarkable in some people's minds as well just how small the capacity is, but of course, as you said, quite rightly, boosted by the turbo.
00:07:51Yeah, and what's cool about the major cars now, the factory teams is they're all running, not running quite as different technologies as it were a couple of years ago, because now the Toyota and the Audi have gone to the same battery system or similar battery system as used by Porsche.
00:08:11But certainly the engine configurations are different.
00:08:41competitively, but certainly right now, it's a Porsche in the lead of this race.
00:08:46It was looking really, really good for Toyota, still is, because they're getting excellent fuel mileage out of that brand-new engine.
00:08:53It was developed only since this time last year, but it is a Porsche that leads the way at the moment.
00:08:59The Toyota in second place about six seconds back, and then a little bit more of a minute behind to the third place, Sebastian Buemi.
00:09:06Morgan's had so much trouble, and this is yet more, I'm afraid.
00:09:11It seems that they have been dogged so often, and here we are at Arnage, and yet another issue.
00:09:18It seems that they're spending an awful lot more time off the track than almost on it.
00:09:23Going back to this question of power units, it's all the more interesting, of course, that we're seeing in Formula One development actually on the berm,
00:09:31with the way that the design of the Mercedes engine, of the Ferrari engine, and, of course, of the Renault engine.
00:09:40And there we see actually nothing to do with that at all, but somebody going off in the daylight into the bank, which was a great job.
00:09:46I think it's actually showing the sequence of problems that Pegasus Racing has had.
00:09:51It almost seems, Jeremy, that they are building up a bank of issues for themselves.
00:09:57It looks like driver error more often than not.
00:09:59Yeah, perhaps so.
00:10:01Certainly a few mistakes.
00:10:02We've seen that car off the road several times during the weekend, isn't it?
00:10:04Somebody else going slowly.
00:10:06That's a Krohn racing entry.
00:10:07That's the Ligier Nissan this season.
00:10:10Tracy Krohn shown at the wheel of that number 40 car.
00:10:14They've had some problems earlier in the going.
00:10:17Most senior driver in the race, Tracy Krohn.
00:10:20Apart from Mark Patterson.
00:10:22Yeah?
00:10:23Yeah, Mark Patterson's a little bit older.
00:10:25Well, they're both claiming, shall we say, to...
00:10:30Jeremy, it's time to issue a happy birthday to...
00:10:33Is it Andreas?
00:10:34Yes, it is.
00:10:36And how is he this evening?
00:10:37He is now 24.
00:10:41Isn't that appropriate?
00:10:4223 when he started the race.
00:10:44So 24, 24-hour race.
00:10:45Yeah, very appropriate indeed.
00:10:47So happy birthday.
00:10:47Happy 24th to Andrea.
00:10:49And the 24 hours are just past the witching hour as well,
00:10:52which in some people's minds is it's hour zero,
00:10:55and to others, 24, of course.
00:10:58And he's out at the bottom end of the...
00:11:00How is it?
00:11:02Hard to see.
00:11:02How many?
00:11:02Two, three, four...
00:11:0315th place, perhaps, in LMP2.
00:11:0625th overall, Andrea Pizzitola.
00:11:09But he's certainly been running well.
00:11:10That car's been running well in this race so far.
00:11:13In LMP2, it is Pierre Thierrier who leads for the Thierrier by TDS.
00:11:18That is an Orica Nissan, car number 46.
00:11:21That car is in the pits for routine service and has a pretty handy lead of over two minutes
00:11:26over Nicola Lapierre in number 36, Signatec Alpine.
00:11:32And the number two crew getting ready to welcome Neil Jarny back in.
00:11:37The Porsche is on the approach, and he'll be pitting off the lead.
00:11:42And he's put himself a nice cushion between himself and Conway in the lead Toyota,
00:11:47running in second place, the sixth car, a lap clear of Buemi.
00:11:52And so he's really attacking this final lap before he comes in for his scheduled stop.
00:11:57Looking at Richard Westbrook.
00:12:00Excuse me.
00:12:01Another of those.
00:12:02I think he said 40 years of age.
00:12:04It's always strange when I look at Richard Westbrook.
00:12:07I always think he's a lot younger than that, to be honest.
00:12:10So does he.
00:12:11Yes, quite possibly.
00:12:13Incidentally, you will get demoted a class from...
00:12:17There's gold, silver, bronze drivers, of course.
00:12:19When you hit 50, you'll move down one.
00:12:21And when you hit 55, you moved down two,
00:12:24which seems a little bit unkind that they rack up so quickly there, Neville.
00:12:29Yes, that's not going to age, if you don't mind.
00:12:34Actually, I've got a son who's 40 in a week's time.
00:12:37So that just goes to show that I am getting old.
00:12:41Nevertheless...
00:12:42It's a busy time.
00:12:43The Tracy Cronin machine is being taken in.
00:12:45Not quite sure what the issue was,
00:12:46but it was in the hands of the man himself
00:12:49that apparently, not only a distinctive colour,
00:12:54but a patented colour of green as well.
00:12:56A driver change going on.
00:12:57I think it's possibly a little bit more than that.
00:12:59Yes, they've got the back off.
00:13:00So I'd say there's a fair indication
00:13:02that all in the garden is not pretty.
00:13:06We were talking, actually, about this question
00:13:07of the burn on current Grand Prix engines.
00:13:11So I've yet to actually see pretty pictures of the Porsche engine.
00:13:15But I've got a pretty fair idea
00:13:17that if Porsche are doing anything like this Ford Sunder engine
00:13:20with the power that it's producing
00:13:22and also the economy that it's producing as well,
00:13:25I can't believe that it isn't very much well in charge
00:13:28following the latest trend there.
00:13:31We talked about also this question of electrics
00:13:34because this was where it all started
00:13:36as far as Le Mans was concerned.
00:13:38And even, as I said, in the early days of Le Mans,
00:13:41they used to have to run part of the race
00:13:42with their hood up in the days when they ran hoods.
00:13:45Things now have changed completely
00:13:47because, of course, we've got fully enclosed cars
00:13:49in every class.
00:13:50And that's made some huge changes.
00:13:53Let's run down the overall classification on your screen.
00:13:57You can see where each of the cars is placed
00:13:58in the overall rankings.
00:14:00And another note has come up on our timing
00:14:02and scoring screen here.
00:14:05We heard it a little while ago.
00:14:06Several cars had been reported to race control
00:14:10for not having their right-side number panels illuminated.
00:14:14And amongst the latest cars here,
00:14:16the most significant one is perhaps the number seven car.
00:14:19That's the Benoit Trillier Audi currently running in sixth place.
00:14:22That was delayed earlier on.
00:14:24And it's now nine laps behind, eight laps off the overall lead.
00:14:27And also number 88 car, which is a leader in GTE-AM.
00:14:32Car number 88, that is the Porsche,
00:14:35currently driven by Patrick Long
00:14:37for the Abu Dhabi Proton racing team.
00:14:39As you see, number two car, the second place,
00:14:42or the race leader on two-pit lane.
00:14:45Yeah, the two car coming in, we saw them prepping for it.
00:14:47It's a driver change as well.
00:14:49Didn't see you just got into the car,
00:14:51but we'll have that for you in just a few moments' time.
00:14:53But, yeah, Gianni is in.
00:14:56Those panels, Jeremy, it's a rudimentary thing.
00:15:00It's clearly mandated as well.
00:15:03And there's been a number of vehicles
00:15:04that have actually been called in already.
00:15:06And it seems that list is actually growing.
00:15:08It's a strange thing to be a fault in so many vehicles.
00:15:10Yeah, it is, because it's not as if it's a new requirement on the cars.
00:15:15As you can see, that beautifully choreographed tire change there
00:15:19for the Porsche team.
00:15:20And away now goes car number two.
00:15:23I'm presuming it will be Romain Dumas at the wheel of that car now.
00:15:29That would be the regular sequence.
00:15:30Neil Gianni has just done a one, two, three, well,
00:15:33kind of four stints there with that safety car period as well.
00:15:37He got into that car on lap 90, and he gets out at lap 143.
00:15:44It is indeed Dumas.
00:15:45We'll take a break.
00:15:46We'll be back in a moment.
00:15:47We'll be back in a moment.
00:16:17We'll be back in a moment.
00:16:27Mom, I have a surprise for you.
00:16:33It's your favorite творог.
00:16:35With a miracle, children can be very happy to care about the neighbors.
00:16:38It's a wonderful творог and a soft corn.
00:16:41It's a wonderful delight.
00:16:46You're my favorite, my love.
00:16:57It sounds like a sport car.
00:17:01It gives a feeling of a sport car.
00:17:04It gives a feeling of a sport car.
00:17:07And the hat on it is a witness of a sport car.
00:17:10Porsche Macan.
00:17:12For those who believe that every Porsche Porsche is a sport car.
00:17:28In the end of the day, the feeling of a sport is out of the inside.
00:17:32It brings a feeling of a soul.
00:17:35It breaks down the shadows.
00:17:37It allows the pulse to get faster.
00:17:40To turn on the freedom and turn on the speed.
00:17:45What fuel takes your car car?
00:17:48Porsche select Ecto Plus from Lukoil.
00:17:57PIECE!
00:17:59DEMONDED!
00:18:01DEMONDED!
00:18:03IT'S 5
00:18:20DEMONDED!
00:18:22I put a spell on you
00:18:44Because of mine
00:18:52Welcome back. Phenomenal battle going on.
00:19:12It's just honour's been made a little bit more uneven over the last few moments.
00:19:19Sebastian Buam was on the radio while we were on our break
00:19:21complaining that there was oil on his screen.
00:19:25Not sure whether that was not cleaned at service.
00:19:28Can't imagine that to be the case.
00:19:30Clearly something he's picked up and hoping it's not fluid from his own vehicle somehow.
00:19:34But it looks like it's from someone else.
00:19:36Roman Dumas closed within 0.7 of a second, which is why Buam was panicking,
00:19:40essentially blaming the lack of vision.
00:19:43It's extended due to traffic to about four and a half seconds.
00:19:45So a little bit of respite for them.
00:19:47Brendan Hartley, lights have been lit up in the Porsche at number one.
00:19:52They're about to come out.
00:19:54Just looking at some other changes going on right now in the Golf liveried Porsche RSR here.
00:19:59The 86 car just ringing through its changes.
00:20:01But, Jeremy, they've had such a long stop, the number one Porsche.
00:20:06I guess they can only take heart from perhaps the seven Audi,
00:20:10which now finds itself up into sixth place, having been way down the order.
00:20:14Just a question of belief, I guess, and the possibility of fighting back even from distance.
00:20:20Yeah, 15 laps already now behind is the number one car.
00:20:25But it did seem to be getting that car ready and perhaps get it back out into the fray.
00:20:28That would be pretty impressive evidence they'd manage to change the water pump on that car
00:20:32because that's no easy job.
00:20:34It's not.
00:20:35But nevertheless, you've got to look at the time and say,
00:20:37well, we aren't even halfway yet.
00:20:39Yeah.
00:20:40Now, we know Porsche have had their problems.
00:20:43We know that Audi have had their problems.
00:20:45At the moment, as far as we can tell,
00:20:48Toyota have been, shall we say,
00:20:50everything in the garden has been working for them.
00:20:54Can it continue?
00:20:56Will it continue?
00:20:57This is always going to be one of those races.
00:21:00You've got two cars per team.
00:21:02There's a lot of pressure out there.
00:21:04There's no sort of third car.
00:21:06Going back to the days of, you know,
00:21:08when there were three cars in a team
00:21:09and you basically sat down there like John Wah used to say,
00:21:12right, well, you can go as fast as you want to,
00:21:14but you won't do any more than 4.22s
00:21:18and you're talking more than 4.25s
00:21:21because it's never been one.
00:21:23Any other car's always gotten quickly to do that.
00:21:26It's interesting, though,
00:21:27when we're asking Anthony Davidson about the team strategy,
00:21:31we said, are you going to do a split strategy?
00:21:33One go for longevity, basically,
00:21:37and one go for the sprint.
00:21:38He said, we're both going to go for it.
00:21:40So no holding back from Toyota.
00:21:42Certainly when you look at the timing boards, Jeremy,
00:21:44that seems to be the way things are at the moment.
00:21:46You just get on with it.
00:21:47Yeah, you do.
00:21:47Because you can go.
00:21:48And particularly nowadays
00:21:49when the cars are relatively reliable,
00:21:52much more so certainly than back in the days
00:21:54of the original Ford GT40s
00:21:56or the Porsche 970s
00:21:58or even up into within the last 15, 20 years,
00:22:02I mean, the cars,
00:22:02you would have to look after the cars
00:22:04very much during a 24-hour race.
00:22:06But now the driver is told just get on with the job,
00:22:10drive pretty much as fast as you can.
00:22:11But just trying to keep a little bit of the hand
00:22:13because there's more time lost
00:22:15through contact with other cars
00:22:17or parts of the scenery than anything else.
00:22:21Yes, if you were driving a D-Type, right, here,
00:22:24and we're going back 50 years ago now
00:22:26with the Jaguar R120 engine,
00:22:285.8 was about as high as they wanted to rev
00:22:31if you were going to keep them in one piece for long.
00:22:33Those self-same D-Types today with that engine
00:22:36can go an awful lot faster.
00:22:40Another couple of thousand revs without going bang.
00:22:43And that's modern engineering
00:22:44applied to an engine,
00:22:46the design of which goes back
00:22:48many, many years ago.
00:22:50Now, these are much more modern engines.
00:22:52These are totally different matters.
00:22:53I mean, this question of harvesting electricity
00:22:56as we've been going into
00:22:57during the course of this lap.
00:22:59This is a very exciting development.
00:23:01There are exciting developments
00:23:03that they do have and will have
00:23:05an immense change in your motoring
00:23:09and my motoring
00:23:09in the next four or five years.
00:23:12It's going to be a sea of change.
00:23:14Mark my words.
00:23:15Looking at the eight car,
00:23:17it's Duval in service at the moment.
00:23:19Just seeing what change we're making.
00:23:22Slicks, as you'd expect at this time.
00:23:25These slick immediates have been a revelation,
00:23:27I think, to many of you at home.
00:23:30Not, thankfully, having to be used this time by.
00:23:33They look like slicks,
00:23:35but in fact are sort of a sponge-like compound
00:23:37that basically absorbs some of the water
00:23:39and then release it at the tire wall quite remarkably.
00:23:43Well, thankfully, the rain has abated more than that.
00:23:47We've got a bone-dried track
00:23:48and we're expecting it for much of the remainder,
00:23:50provided France Meteo are keeping honest with us.
00:23:55There's no reason why they shouldn't.
00:23:56Yellow at zone 26, Jeremy.
00:24:00Yes, okay.
00:24:01Zone 26 is at the Arnage, in fact.
00:24:08Again, it's taken so many prisoners.
00:24:09I'm just looking at that pit stop,
00:24:11with just a Lloyd Duval bringing number 80.
00:24:13Whoops, that's going into the barrier.
00:24:15It's the, it's the Marta again.
00:24:19And there it is, the 98 car.
00:24:21They've had their bruises, haven't they?
00:24:23Yeah.
00:24:23They have.
00:24:25They have, unfortunately,
00:24:27because the car was running in the lead of the race
00:24:28not that long ago.
00:24:30Paul Dallana is still at the wheel of that car,
00:24:32having had the incident earlier on.
00:24:33And there is a number one car.
00:24:35There's not a great deal of activity going on there, is there?
00:24:37But we were, we were told
00:24:38that the car was going to be back out again,
00:24:39but it doesn't seem to be any time particularly soon
00:24:42because there's no driver, I don't think, in sight.
00:24:46It's only going to be in situ in the car.
00:24:48Just going back to that pit stop very quickly,
00:24:49the number eight car,
00:24:51as we see the number seven also on the pit lane here.
00:24:54It was only eight laps since Lloyd Duvald
00:24:56was in the pits last time
00:24:57with that car number eight.
00:24:59So why should we be coming in now?
00:25:01I don't know whether he picked up a puncture, perhaps.
00:25:04We might be getting to find out at a minute.
00:25:06Incidentally, that Aston ended up in the gravel.
00:25:09Whether he can get out all by himself or not,
00:25:11I don't know.
00:25:11What they're doing there
00:25:12is they're cleaning the windscreen,
00:25:14very much so.
00:25:15There have been complaints
00:25:16that there's a lot of fluid being kicked up here.
00:25:21I'm not quite sure
00:25:22whether there's any particular car responsible for it
00:25:24or indeed whether it's just the marbles,
00:25:26the debris that's still scattered out
00:25:29there after such a long run.
00:25:30We've had remarkably few safety cars,
00:25:32only two so far, Jeremy.
00:25:34We had one right at the beginning of this race
00:25:36and then one for debris and stranded vehicles.
00:25:40But it's actually been relatively quiet
00:25:42considering what a dramatic start we had.
00:25:45Well, the one at the start was different
00:25:46because it was basically starting behind the pace car.
00:25:50In other words,
00:25:50you don't really count that one as such
00:25:52because that sets the pace
00:25:54that everybody's going to have to go up
00:25:55until such time as the pace car comes in.
00:25:57But when it comes out because of an incident,
00:26:00because of the track either blocked
00:26:02or pieces of car on the side of it,
00:26:04that's a totally different matter altogether.
00:26:06And that's when we get, of course,
00:26:08two or three of them
00:26:08and try basically to run to a slightly different way.
00:26:12But it's only happened once so far,
00:26:14which is quite remarkable.
00:26:14And we aren't, as we've said,
00:26:17we aren't even halfway yet,
00:26:18which is quite remarkable.
00:26:20Yeah, just over nine hours,
00:26:21nine hours and 24 minutes into this 24-hour race.
00:26:25So not much more than one third distance.
00:26:28And still, there's a little bit more than the minutes now
00:26:31separated in the top three cars.
00:26:32That's 302 Toyotas now running first and second.
00:26:35Mike Conway at the wheel of car number six,
00:26:37the star of the early stages.
00:26:39Sebastian Buemi has clawed his way into contention,
00:26:42also in number five car.
00:26:43He's about a minute behind,
00:26:45a minute between those two leaders.
00:26:47And then about seven seconds behind Buemi
00:26:50is Romain Dumas in the only Porsche
00:26:54that hasn't yet had any difficulties.
00:26:56It's interesting, the battle of the chassis makers as well.
00:26:59Orica looked to be bossing absolutely everything in LMP2.
00:27:03No longer the case.
00:27:04Alpine running in second place with Lapierre.
00:27:06Beche and the Orica 46 machine is leading for the time being.
00:27:11Brandy Rast for Orica again,
00:27:12so two in the top three.
00:27:13But the Gibsons are making a very good account of themselves,
00:27:16formerly Zytec, of course.
00:27:17The 38 and 42 car running fourth and sixth in class,
00:27:22split by Petrov in the 37 car.
00:27:26Yeah, the BR-01 chassis, the Russian dot car.
00:27:28And the Alpine in second place,
00:27:30it's listed as an Alpine.
00:27:31It is, though, an Orica chassis.
00:27:33But you're right, it's run by the Zytec Alpine team,
00:27:36and they've kind of used the naming rights on there.
00:27:39And also the same chassis, the basic chassis from Orica,
00:27:44is used in the Rebellion as well.
00:27:45It's an LMP1 car,
00:27:46runs a completely different engine,
00:27:48of course, and a completely different class.
00:27:49But that car also built by the Orica factory.
00:27:52It's interesting, yet, Rebellion,
00:27:54they have a big board with all of the LMP1 hybrids,
00:27:58and they're putting their own black marker of doom
00:28:01through them one by one.
00:28:03Where will they finish?
00:28:04Rebellion,
00:31:20That was an hour and 15-minute stop for car number one, but they have got that car back
00:31:26out again, so that is...
00:31:29Yeah, we missed something there, very very honest, because we didn't see the huge cloud
00:31:34of steam.
00:31:35That is number one in trouble again.
00:31:41That sounds more and more and more to me like transmission that's playing out now.
00:31:51Well, yeah, he's been asked there, I think, to kind of reboot the system.
00:31:56Everything has been put off kilter by that engine problem they've had, and clearly all is not
00:32:04well at the wheel of car number one.
00:32:06He's fought all the way down to 32nd place overall, and...
00:32:10He's going to a halt.
00:32:12Yeah.
00:32:12That is very sad after some very, very hard work to, if you like, get it repaired, get it
00:32:19back on the track.
00:32:20And we missed when they took the bodywork off.
00:32:24I suddenly saw this huge cloud of steam, which I hadn't seen before, so they obviously had
00:32:28a very major overheating problem.
00:32:31Yeah, they did, but we'd been told it was overheating, and there was a water pump failure, we were
00:32:36told, and they were trying to change and get the car back out of the race.
00:32:39We heard at one stage the team wasn't particularly confident about getting the car back in the
00:32:44race again.
00:32:45They have done so, but clearly all is not well at the wheel of car number one, and...
00:32:49No, they're...
00:32:50And Brendan Hartley.
00:32:51Is he on...
00:32:53Electric power there?
00:32:55He's on electric power there.
00:32:56I don't think he's got any engine.
00:32:58I think he's on electric power.
00:32:59Yeah, trying...
00:33:00Just trying to get it back.
00:33:02Yeah.
00:33:02But he's got a long way to go.
00:33:04He's got a long, long, long way to go.
00:33:05You're absolutely right.
00:33:06You'll be able to do it, Miles, with a better luck.
00:33:09Yeah, that'll seem like an eternity.
00:33:12Maxine is 27.
00:33:14Yeah, I told you, mate.
00:33:14I told you.
00:33:20I didn't hear that call to me.
00:33:21It must be just one of those absolutely infuriating things.
00:33:25You've waited so long, you've got in the car, you think, right, at least I
00:33:29can get a few laps and I can get it up to a pace and at least show you how quick the
00:33:33damn thing is if I can't actually get it in the top three.
00:33:36Yeah.
00:33:36And you go out, and then all of a sudden you think, oh, no.
00:33:41Not even halfway around the lap.
00:33:42Yeah.
00:33:42Yeah, he's just...
00:33:46And he does sound like a bag of nails, doesn't it?
00:33:49No.
00:33:49It looks like he's got it going and going.
00:33:53He's certainly got more speed than he has had a few hundred yards ago.
00:33:57You can see the yellow flags warning there of the slow car.
00:34:01He's coming now, I think, into Mulsanne corner.
00:34:03Control-Alt-Delete, I think.
00:34:06That was numerous times on that Porsche car number one.
00:34:10He's fallen down to the seventh position in the class.
00:34:16And he is 19 laps behind the race leader.
00:34:22That's how much time was lost by that lengthy pit stop for the number one car.
00:34:26That's like 160 miles.
00:34:28Yeah, well, it is, actually.
00:34:29Particularly with, we were just talking about how reliable the cars have become nowadays.
00:34:33I mean, you don't nurse the cars in the same way as you used to really just, you know, 10, 15 years ago.
00:34:40Hello, what have we got here?
00:34:41Now, that's the Nissan.
00:34:43And that's come to a horrid halt, look.
00:34:45That's the KCMG.
00:34:47Yeah, yeah.
00:34:48That's the car that won this race last year.
00:34:51They had some problems a little while ago and have fallen quite a long way down the order.
00:34:56And he's walking away from the car.
00:34:58Well, he's scampering away from the car.
00:35:01I'm not quite sure why he's scampered away, other than to explain to the marshals, I think, that I'm not going to sit there.
00:35:08I don't like where it is.
00:35:10But if you go more than a certain distance away from the car, the car's disqualified, the car's out of the race.
00:35:18Well, yes, I think he was in a position there where he felt that he was in a dangerous position with no lights on on the edge of the track.
00:35:25And I think he took the only sensible decision as to what he should do, which is to go to the marshals' post.
00:35:33And I would be expecting any minute to see action because it's in a dangerous place.
00:35:39Yellow flag at zone 30.
00:35:41Zone 30, of course, is just entering the Porsche curves, which is exactly where you don't want to have any sort of a problem because that's one of the most dangerous parts on the racetrack.
00:35:49That is the KCMG car.
00:35:51We've already had a problem a while ago.
00:35:52It's fallen 20 laps off the lead, having run among the top three in the early stages.
00:35:56It's actually led for quite a while in LMP2.
00:36:00But clearly now Richard Bradley was at the wheel of the car right now, and it looks like this time it might be more permanent.
00:36:09Well, you can see where the car is now from, or we can see where the car is, and it obviously is not in a very comfortable place to want to stay with it.
00:36:18But we have been told to prepare for a slow zone, so they're obviously going to remove the car.
00:36:25It is in a very dangerous position.
00:36:27Yeah, got to happen.
00:36:28Yeah.
00:36:29Prepare for a slow zone at zones 30 and 31.
00:36:33So those are the first two zones going into the Porsche curves.
00:36:37So at least this time the slow zone won't come into effect halfway through the Porsche curves, which is what caused the problem for the number two car, I think it was, earlier.
00:36:48In the proceedings.
00:36:50Yeah.
00:36:50Number one, number two.
00:36:53No, I think it was, I think it was Timo Bernhard who had that problem, wasn't he?
00:36:56Yeah, he locked up the brakes.
00:36:57That was Timo Bernhard.
00:36:58That was car number one.
00:36:59That is the car that has had the difficulties.
00:37:02And where is it now?
00:37:05Tell me, the Franchitti.
00:37:06It's taken through the middle sector, but still not yet back to the pits, Noel.
00:37:09But the Franchitti GT40, has that sort of regained some forms after they had quite a long stop, didn't they?
00:37:15Yeah, they had a long stop early on.
00:37:16They had two stops fairly early on.
00:37:18Then Marino had an off into the grab at the Marsan corner.
00:37:21I think the car is back underway again now, but it's certainly a long way down to the leaders.
00:37:27That's the 67 car.
00:37:28It's still running in 50 ninth place overall.
00:37:30It's four laps behind the next closest car.
00:37:33I saw that, and I still feel that he didn't have any front brakes.
00:37:38It was the rear that was locked up, not the front.
00:37:40Well, it wasn't the rear's, it seemed to be the right side was locked up, probably the right front.
00:37:46And Marino, he got on the radio afterwards, and he was apologizing to the team.
00:37:50You know, he was being very magnanimous there, I think, Marino, because clearly it was a difficult situation.
00:37:57He had been put the par in the grab, and he wasn't blaming anybody for himself.
00:38:01He was obviously fairly upset about it.
00:38:02Yeah, of course he was.
00:38:04Particularly as a crew would work so hard to get that car back out in the fray.
00:38:07But, Chris, I mean, you've been to this race for an awful lot of years now, and it's still a fascinating contest brewing here.
00:38:13We've still got three cars on the lead lap, and they're all running healthy.
00:38:16We've got two Toyodas out in front, and then the number two Porsche of Romance, you might, in third place.
00:38:21Yeah, and an Audi sitting there, only one lap down.
00:38:28They could, and as Neville keeps on telling us, we're nowhere like halfway yet.
00:38:33No, we're not.
00:38:34We've got another two hours.
00:38:36Well, we didn't get anywhere in there that anything could happen.
00:38:40So there is Brendan Hartley.
00:38:42He has got that car back to the pit lane.
00:38:44Well, once again, it's gone back into the garage, and I wouldn't expect to see that car back out at any time particularly soon.
00:38:53Well, it's all leisurely, isn't it?
00:38:59There's nothing going crazy.
00:39:00We've said several times.
00:39:02This year, all of these cars have been, have had reliability problems.
00:39:07At Spa, both Toyotas lost their engines.
00:39:11It's all right, they put it down to bottoming, but the cars have been fragile.
00:39:16So, yeah, they had no problems at Silverstone as well, didn't they?
00:39:20I think it was an accident, but it certainly is a difficult one.
00:39:26It's not been an easy season, and of course, it would or has come to time when the cars have dropped from three cars to two cars,
00:39:34and across the board, that has, if you like, made things a little more difficult.
00:39:38Yeah, certainly, you know, there's less bullets in the gun.
00:39:41We're going to see you another quick commercial break here on Eurosport, and we'll be back with you right away afterwards.
00:42:08Welcome back to Eurosport's Courage of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
00:42:21I'm Jeremy Shaw, alongside me is Neville Hay and Chris Parsons.
00:42:25150 laps now completed by our race leader, that is Mike Conway at the wheel of car number six for Toyota.
00:42:31Into second place now goes the number two car, that is a Porsche of Roma, because Sebastian Buemi has just made a pit stop in car number five.
00:42:42Chris Parsons, you've been to this race an awful lot of years again.
00:42:44Any surprises for you so far with what? We're just over nine hours, nine hours and 40 minutes into this race.
00:42:51Any surprises so far?
00:42:52No, not at all. No, not at all. This is exactly what we actually expected. Unreliability and the race is completely open.
00:43:03An LMP2 car could still win. An LMP2 car could still win it. They're pushing me the envelope of reliability and this is what we're seeing.
00:43:18Indeed so. That was an on-schedule stop there for Sebastian Buemi in car number five. Once again, 14 laps since its last pit stop.
00:43:30The Toyotas alone are able to do 14 laps on the Sint of Fuel. Both the Audis and the Porsches, generally 13, occasionally 12 for the rivals of the Toyota.
00:43:44Everything plays into their hands because, Neville, hey, if they continue to do one more lap on every pit stop through this race, that will amount to two pit stops saved over the 24 hours.
00:43:56And that's enough. You know, you can more or less say without any exaggeration at all that if you've saved a couple of pit stops, that is really very, very precious time.
00:44:06Well, I think the time in the pits is about one minute and 20. Jeremy?
00:44:13If they're changing tyres only, or rather fuelling only, it's about a minute six, between a minute six and a minute nine.
00:44:20If they're changing drivers and taking on tyres, it's about one minute 26, 27, something like that.
00:44:26So it's well over two minutes that Toyota have probably got in hand by doing one extra lap at each pit stop.
00:44:37There's a good pit stop there for number 30, extreme speed motorsports car.
00:44:41Scott Sharp is shown at the wheel of that car, currently running in the 22nd position overall.
00:44:47And that is the 13th position in P2.
00:44:54That's number one car again.
00:44:56And more work to be done underneath that car, behind it, on the sides.
00:45:00The number one car clearly not happy.
00:45:02Just the car was in the pits for an hour and a quarter, and it made just one lap before limping its way back in again.
00:45:09That actual stop is going to give you a full lap.
00:45:13Yes.
00:45:14A full lap.
00:45:15That's the sort of time we're talking about.
00:45:17Indeed.
00:45:18Jeremy, you say, are there any surprises?
00:45:21In a way, the fact that Audi lost a turbo and Porsche have lost a water pump, those are not the sort of things that you would expect from those teams.
00:45:34Indeed.
00:45:34Okay, they could be just road parts, but normally a water pump and a turbo, very unusual.
00:45:47No, that's exactly right.
00:45:49Because we've been growing accustomed to how reliable these cars have been over the last few years, despite the extraordinary technology and the fact that they are so much more efficient than they were just a few years ago.
00:46:02We've seen this year yet another reduction in the amount of energy they're allowed to use on one lap.
00:46:09That is closely monitored by the officials in the World Endurance Championship.
00:46:14Another 7.5% reduction since last year.
00:46:18And it's something like a 40% reduction, if not more than that, over the last three or three years.
00:46:25Leader in.
00:46:26Mike Conway.
00:46:29Presumably this will be all as well.
00:46:30He got in at the last stop.
00:46:32I think all as well.
00:46:33This will be fuel.
00:46:35Absolutely on schedule here.
00:46:36Lap 152 for our race leader.
00:46:40Yeah.
00:46:41So another 14-lap stint, Jeremy?
00:46:43Yes, indeed.
00:46:44Yeah, making quite sure they can see.
00:46:47This question of not being able to see the numbers on the cars one time, it's quite amusing, because they've had number lights on these cars at the mall since, I was going to say, it was a boy.
00:46:55I mean, it goes back to the days of, well, very, very early days.
00:46:59So that they should have a problem like that, with so many cars, was quite infuriating.
00:47:06I mean, somebody's going to have his nipples rubbed, I thought, but that's the way it is.
00:47:11Yes, I think the fact they're putting it up on the screens is just to get the teams to attend to the problem at the next pit stop.
00:47:20They're not actually, they're not actually pinging anyone yet.
00:47:24I don't know if it's hard because I'm pinging and I don't see it at all.
00:47:27Don't be reviled.
00:47:2955 degrees, a little bit cold from that slow zone.
00:47:32It's going green shortly, so we should come back.
00:47:37There we are, hearing the engineer, or Romain Dumas, complaining about the understeer, and the engineer saying, don't worry, tires will warm up soon.
00:47:46It is cold here tonight.
00:47:49The bad weather that we've been having all week, it seems to be clearing away, and the wind has changed.
00:47:57It's no longer coming from the west.
00:47:59Stop tempting fate.
00:48:01Yes.
00:48:04Well, it was, when I was last outside, it was a very clear night, so the temperatures will be dropping.
00:48:12On board here, then, with Romain Dumas and those lights in the semi-distance, that is our race leader, Mike Conway, having just made his pit stop.
00:48:21One minute nine, he was on pit lane.
00:48:24That includes just enough time for the Toyota to top up that car with petrol, send him on his way again.
00:48:32No tires, no driver change, and still having made that stop, Mike Conway able to resume in the lead in that Carnival 6.
00:48:40Yes, and they're still working on Porsche number one.
00:48:42I don't think it's going anywhere, and I think it's probably a question of, basically, let's put it back together again, but I don't think they have any great hope of it achieving anything.
00:48:54No, it won't be achieved, but it will be a result if they can get to the end of the race, because if they can get to the end of the race and be classified as a finisher, then they will score world champion points, and that, of course, is what they're after.
00:49:05And Le Mans is double-pointed, so they just want to run it, and, of course, there are only seven cars left in LMP1, so...
00:49:17And if you lose a couple of three, they're still running, yes.
00:49:22And we've got...
00:49:25That's the Porsche rounding Mulsanne.
00:49:31Yeah, that's where the car had stopped and has been pulled out of the way.
00:49:36Where it is now, I don't know.
00:49:39So, Mike Conway leads, then, after that latest pit stop, and it's Roman Dubai now in second place.
00:49:45Sebastian Buemi, having been on the pit lane two laps ago, he is running in the third place.
00:49:51He's about 49 seconds behind the second-placed car, and we can expect car number two, the Porsche.
00:50:01That was last in to the pit on lap 143, so I would expect that to go another three or four laps, probably four laps, before that car is next on to the pit lane.
00:50:12And in LMP2, it's Nicola Lapierre who leads right now for the Signatec Alpine team.
00:50:17Car number 36, the Orica-built Alpine chassis, and he holds a lead of about 69 seconds over René Rast.
00:50:26And Matthias Besch, who made a pit stop a little while ago in the TDS by Tyrion, car number 46, is in third base.
00:50:32In GTE Pro, it's the number 68 Ford of Dirk Muller, the pole sitter, who leads by a pretty healthy margin at the moment.
00:50:41We're still waiting for the second-place car, this is Tony V Lander, and he brings that car onto pit lane.
00:50:47So we're going to take one more commercial break, and we're back with you after these messages.
00:51:17We're back with you after these messages.
00:51:47We're back with you after these messages.
00:52:17We're back with you after these messages.
00:52:47We're back with you after these messages.
00:52:49Welcome back.
00:52:50Pit stop here for the Labra competition Chevy Corvette, and that car's got a pretty good history.
00:52:56That is the car that won here last...
00:52:58It's not the car that won here last year.
00:53:00No, it's not the one that lost.
00:53:01Because that's the AAI team car.
00:53:04But Labra competition, they had to make a driver change after the test day with Paolo Roberti ruled out by an injury sustained while doing some driver coaching, which is rather unfortunate.
00:53:17It's something you don't want to hear.
00:53:19And his pace taken by Jean-Philippe Belloc, and at the car number 50, running in the GTE AM class, currently in the sixth position in that class.
00:53:29We see the newer Corvette, the updated LMGT Pro entry car number 64, and the Corvettes just haven't run the same sort of pace that we've kind of expected from them the last two years.
00:53:43They've been outclassed the Aston Martins and the Chevy Corvettes.
00:53:46They've got a bit of a performance break in terms of the balance of performance after the...
00:53:52Well, after the qualifying on Thursday, in actual fact, they get a little bit larger edge in air restrictor now, a little bit more air into the engine.
00:54:00They get that already.
00:54:01They've got that already.
00:54:02I thought this for next year, they get it.
00:54:03No, no, no, no.
00:54:04They've got it now.
00:54:05Already, already.
00:54:06But it means it's too little too late.
00:54:08Yeah.
00:54:09And the Fords and the Ferraris, the new turbocharged car.
00:54:12The turbocharged cars for this year, they've shown just predict your space.
00:54:15Nobody else really has been able to get close to the level.
00:54:18Yeah.
00:54:19Everyone was very surprised because suddenly they went four seconds quicker in qualifying than they were able to do on the test day two weeks ago.
00:54:29And there were lots of accusations of sandbagging going on.
00:54:34Well, what it has to admire, I mean, Ford have done a hell of a good job, let's face it.
00:54:41They really have.
00:54:42Oh, it's a terrific car.
00:54:43You know, you might say, well, why shouldn't they?
00:54:46But it's not quite that easy to start from scratch, throw your hat in the ring and say, we're going to make it happen.
00:54:54And, Jeremy, you and I were both at Daytona in January for the 24 hours there when the Fords actually made their debut.
00:55:04And they didn't look that impressive then, did they?
00:55:07They had an awful lot of problems.
00:55:08They've done a huge amount of work in the intervening months.
00:55:11Yeah.
00:55:12They had some niggling little problems there, certainly.
00:55:14And they have won victory under their belts already this season in the Imson WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in North America.
00:55:20They won at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seiko at the beginning of May.
00:55:24But that win was, yeah, the car certainly showed pretty good pace.
00:55:29I think a couple of times this year they had a fastest lap in races.
00:55:32But I don't think they've really shown the full potential.
00:55:35Until that race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seiko where Ryan Briscoe just got, and Richard Westwood got incredible fuel mileage.
00:55:42And they were able to stretch their last Sanka fuel to win the race over the Ferrari, which had been the dominant car.
00:55:49The American Fords were going seemingly an awful lot better than the European Fords at that time.
00:55:55Nobody will tell me why.
00:55:57You know, I've asked.
00:55:59And they look at me and they smile.
00:56:01But that's all.
00:56:02Yeah.
00:56:03Neville, take us, let's go back to the 60s again.
00:56:07And the competition between all the Ford teams was incredible.
00:56:14I think in those days there were four different Ford teams.
00:56:19Now there are only two, the American team and the European team.
00:56:23But apparently there's still very healthy competition between the two.
00:56:27Oh, very much so.
00:56:28And this is one of the two American cars.
00:56:30This is the third place car in GTE Pro.
00:56:33Richard Westbrook has just brought that car in for service.
00:56:37As has Jan Magnussen in the Corvette number three.
00:56:40But it is still Dirk Muller that leads away in GTE Pro.
00:56:43Eighteenth position overall.
00:56:45137 laps completed.
00:56:47And he's about almost half a minute ahead of Tony Villander in a Ricci Competizione Ferrari car number 82.
00:56:55And this is the third place car we just see on pit lane there.
00:56:59That is number 69.
00:57:00It's great to see Jan Magnussen again.
00:57:03I mean, I think it was last year, was it not, that he had a fairly extensive accident.
00:57:07Oh, yes.
00:57:08Yes.
00:57:09Didn't even start the race.
00:57:10Yeah.
00:57:11But, you know, the fact that he's back here again.
00:57:13And I mean, I really find this quite amusing.
00:57:16I mean, here he is back driving here.
00:57:19Still a very fine driver.
00:57:21Still had a Formula One career, which sadly didn't come to much.
00:57:25But where's his son?
00:57:26Back in Formula One.
00:57:27Where he belongs.
00:57:28Yeah.
00:57:29Yeah.
00:57:30That was certainly good to see, isn't it?
00:57:31Kevin Magnussen.
00:57:32He was a star coming up through the.
00:57:33Oh, yeah.
00:57:34And getting the opportunity originally with McLaren.
00:57:36Then kind of let go.
00:57:37And now picked up again by Renault.
00:57:39Good opportunity.
00:57:40He's our race leader Mike Conway working his way through the traffic.
00:57:45And there is never a dull moment here on this racetrack.
00:57:48This has been really, I think, the find, you know, I mean, I started this line of thought,
00:57:55this line of description.
00:57:57He has made a heck of a difference.
00:57:59Kevin, can you please ask your driver if he's having a problem identifying the blue flags which are being showed to him?
00:58:06Well, Eduardo Freitas, the race director, an ironic question there to the team.
00:58:14Yes.
00:58:15To Julia.
00:58:16He's going to love that, isn't he?
00:58:19You know, I mean, here you've got a problem.
00:58:21We have a safety car.
00:58:23Yeah.
00:58:24We do have a safety car.
00:58:25He has a problem then.
00:58:26A yellow at zone 30, which is the Porsche curves.
00:58:31Well, we haven't seen any pictures.
00:58:33We haven't seen why that is, have we?
00:58:35No, but a safety car has been scrambled once again.
00:58:37This is the...
00:58:38And...
00:58:39There doesn't seem to be much traffic about it, does that?
00:58:42If you see what I mean.
00:58:43No.
00:58:44Um...
00:58:45So I'm not quite sure why that is.
00:58:47There's oil on the track causing this...
00:58:50Ah...
00:58:51So if there's a copious amounts of oil lying around on a racetrack,
00:58:55that certainly isn't good.
00:58:56I'm sure where that oil came from.
00:58:57Here comes a bunch of cars.
00:58:58There's no...
00:58:59And there's a safety car.
00:59:00Yeah.
00:59:01And there's the car was scrabbled from a direct in front of us here as well.
00:59:05Yeah.
00:59:06So there are three safety cars around.
00:59:08Whoa.
00:59:09Oh, that's where...
00:59:10That's...
00:59:11We just don't know who was doing it, but whoever it was.
00:59:13It's a comprehensive engine failure.
00:59:14Oh, that is a very comprehensive engine failure.
00:59:15That looks like a Porsche.
00:59:16Yeah.
00:59:17Oh, yes.
00:59:18It's all of its own, isn't it?
00:59:19At least 91.
00:59:20Wow.
00:59:21It's been a really dismal day for the Porsche team in GT.
00:59:25A GTE Pro because those cars just haven't been compared with...
00:59:26What have we got here?
00:59:27What have we got here?
00:59:28The beginning...
00:59:29Yes, the car is just pulled off to the side of the road.
00:59:30That isn't that same car though, is it?
00:59:31Yes.
00:59:32Is it?
00:59:33Yes, it is.
00:59:34Ah.
00:59:35Kevin Estra then one of the factory drivers in that car.
00:59:50He's...
00:59:51This is his...
00:59:52Only his second start here at Le Mans.
00:59:55Made his debut last year.
00:59:56Amazing.
00:59:57Somebody of his calibre last year.
00:59:59Long...
01:00:00Long...