Force India's Nico Hulkenberg becomes first current F1 driver to win Le Mans in over twenty years.

The German, along with New Zealand's Earl Bamber and Britain's Nick Tandy, gave Porsche its first Le Mans win since its return to Sports Car racing (WEC), its seventeenth overall win at the French classic.

Second was former Red Bull star Mark Webber, also in a Porsche, who was partnered by New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley and Germany’s Timo Bernhard. The three had led until late on Saturday when Hartley overtook under yellow flags leaving Webber to serve the resultant penalty.

Porsche's win brings Audi's dominance at Le Mans to an end, the German manufacturer having won all but two events since 2000.

This year Audi could only manage third, 2014 winners Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler, taking the final podium position.

"I enjoyed every moment," said Hulkenberg, "these cars are great fun to drive and then to be on a huge track like this one.

"The pace was really high, and not what you would expect from endurance racing. Especially at night when the temperatures came down a bit, the car was fantastic to drive.

"Of course, I didn't think I would come here and rock 'n' roll this race, this would be silly because there are so many challenges in that race. However, we did it and we did it together."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by ape, 15/06/2015 11:43

"Great race , and really race entertainment for 24 hours in 4 classes. No whining about quiet hybrid engines or passing slower cars .
Aco does a much better job than FOM/cvc.
Nico's drive was great."

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by TheDarkKnight, 15/06/2015 8:06

"Can you imagine how many of F1 "drivers" could fight for a win if they all had equal equipment.

In some alternate universe out there F1 doesn't suck. Congratulations to Hulkenberg, Bamber and Tandy."

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by BWesty, 15/06/2015 7:52

"I thought it was a great race!!! If one considers all that can go wrong in 24 hours, and the amount of racing the top cars were doing amongst each other, to bring all 6 of those cars across the line and with only 2 laps difference between 1st and 6th, that was fantastic. The GTE Pro race was so tight for many hours between the Aston, Ferrari and Chev, it was so unfortunate that the Aston Martin crashed...
Well done to Porsche on a great performance. One can only imagine the amount of work and commitment that must have gone on behind the scenes to take the title away from a very game Audi outfit. I have no doubt they will be back to next year. Toyota and Nissan on the other hand will have to up their game if they want to compete against the two German outfits in LMP1.
Le Mans is still my favourite race of the year. I struggled to tear myself away from the TV... the wife was not a happy camper lol:)"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by ape, 14/06/2015 22:33

"Hulk is a very very good driver, he deserves a top car in F1 , the problem for him is that there are too many good german drivers in F1."

Rating: Positive (2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

5. Posted by scf1fan, 14/06/2015 21:18

"As I watched, all I could think of was that when Albuquerque broke the lap record . . . . he did it in a Hybrid . . . that sounded like a vacuum cleaner!! Oh the humanity!! ;-)

@Yeyox02 - That's true, but the question I have for you is that since there were a multitude of very good drivers in a number of very good cars . . . wouldn't that make NH (and his team's) success all the more impressive? On any given race day, any number of possibilities can happen. The winner then is usually the team that can maximize their strengths, minimize their mistakes and overcome the adversities.

That makes for a very good race; and it was. NH (and his team) was just able to make a little more of it than the rest! Congrats!
"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

6. Posted by Skidmarks, 14/06/2015 20:30

""Troll Alert!
"It proves that any driver with good equipment can win races"
He may not be a great driver but he is better than most outside F1"

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

7. Posted by Yeyox02, 14/06/2015 18:28

"It proves that any driver with good equipment can win races."

Rating: Negative (-3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Hulkenberg wins at Le Mans

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page