This year’s 24 Heures du Mans should have been a cause for celebration for many including the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, marking 90 years since the first 24-hour event in La Sarthe, Aston Martin Racing, which was founded 100 years ago, and Porsche – the iconic 911 was first launched 50 years ago.
At the chequered flag it was the new-for-2013 No.92 Porsche AG Team Manthey of Marc Lieb-Richard Lietz-Romain Dumas which crossed the finish line ahead of all others in the LMGTE Pro category. Celebrations were, however, tempered by the tragic loss of Aston Martin Racing driver Allan Simonsen in the opening hour of the race – an incident which affected many throughout the paddock who had known and raced against him.
In fact, Porsche recorded an extremely impressive 1-2 in the LMGTE Pro category plus victory in the LMGTE Am class. Second Pro car to cross the line was the sister No.91 entry of Jörg Bergmeister-Patrick Pilet-Timo Bernhard, the only other car to finish on the same lap as the class leader.
Third in class was the No.97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Darren Turner-Stefan Mücke-Peter Dumbreck who had desperately been hoping to claim victory in tribute to their team mate. The Aston had led the category for the first four hours before relinquishing the place to its sister car, the No.99 of Fred Makowiecki-Rob Bell-Bruno Senna. This last trio had led from hour 5 until just before 10:00h when, during one of the many frequent and unpredictable rain showers, Makowiecki lost control and crashed the car.
The weather and track conditions were the largest contributor to the 11 safety car periods which punctuated the event. With such a long circuit and large field, there are in fact three safety cars which pick up and control the four different classes.
LMGTE Am also had a Porsche on top of the podium, with the IMSA Performance Matmut team of Rouen-based Raymond Narac claiming class honours. The No.76 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR took control of the category from the 11th hour and performed flawlessly to control the race to the end. Behind them were two AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italias – the No.55 of Perrazini-Casé-O’Young finished just 1m26s in front of the FIA WEC entry of Jack Gerber-Matt Griffin-Marco Cioci after 24 hours of long, hard racing.
With the two wins in LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am Porsche have passed yet another milestone in their long and illustrious motorsport history, claiming their 100th class victory at the 24 Heures du Mans.
The next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of Sao Paolo, will take place on September 1st in Brazil.
Full results can be found HERE
Fiona Miller
