[LM24 Race] 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours Race Thread

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

You can't see the left side in that footage, so when did it come loose, at the virage du raccordement because a noise comes from the car just before it goes onto the start/finish strait?

The noise is just the car on the kerbs.

You can see the left side in the footage. If you watch on the left beside the windscreen wiper, before he makes contact with the Toyota, the whole left side shifts forward.

On the right-hand side, before the contact, as he's accelerating you can see a small bodywork gap opening up as he increases speed. The aero load is bending the whole nose off because it isn't properly attached.

The bodywork was always loose - it just wasn't apparent until the aero load because high enough to shift it.

[skycafe]

There was something wrong with the nose even before he tapped the Toyota. Watch a panel gap begin to open approx. where the 'V" in TVR is. The tap closes that but unlatches the entire front end seemingly. Odd.

see others commented while I was watching videos.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

No, of course its not "their fault" that Audi Porsche (and Nissan?) ran away. However the victory would have meant so much more if it had more works teams taking part.

When John Cleland won the 1995 BTCC he said that it had extra meaning because they were up against 9 other big budget works teams. By that same rationale, having zero works teams competing against you should have "less" meaning, should it not?

Not sure the comparison works. If you’re the only major manufacturer pounding round Thruxton for a dozen laps, a win isn’t a particularly big achievement.

Le Mans is a different kettle of fish. It’s an unforgiving 24 hour race where the circuit itself can break the car just as easily as one of the 59 other competitors or stroppy weather can.

Even when it’s one manufacturer dominating, a win for an individual driver line up is still an achievement and it’s often just as revealin of driver talent. I for one do not believe that it was a coincidence that TK so often found himself in the winning VAG car.

Ask any of the other drivers in the TMG garage and they would say that beating the race itself is an achievement, because they’ve it’s beaten them more often than a rival has.

A win is a win. Some wins are greater than others, but every win at Le Mans is an achievement.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

The noise is just the car on the kerbs.

You can see the left side in the footage. If you watch on the left beside the windscreen wiper, before he makes contact with the Toyota, the whole left side shifts forward.

On the right-hand side, before the contact, as he's accelerating you can see a small bodywork gap opening up as he increases speed. The aero load is bending the whole nose off because it isn't properly attached.

The bodywork was always loose - it just wasn't apparent until the aero load because high enough to shift it.

The windscreen wiper sort of obscures the body work but yes you're right, it does move on that side of the car before contact with the Toyota.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

The windscreen wiper sort of obscures the body work but yes you're right, it does move on that side of the car before contact with the Toyota.

If you fancy getting a magnifying glass and playing Sherlock Holmes (get a hat, hats are cool), there's a tiny little triangle of windscreen to the left of the wiper that shows the nose. You can't really tell what it's doing, other than moving more than it should be.

Whilst I understand why the #1 didn't get a driving penalty for it, I'd be surprised if they don't get a fine or something. It's still an avoidable accident.

Also, there is bound to be a better camera view available from the camera on the exit of Dunlop. That would've gotten a perfect view of it! And there must've been a helicopter shot - theres always 3 or 4 helicopters at the start.

[fieldodreams79]

Some may add a personal asterisk to their record books, but there won't be one. Toyota won't care. Sure, more competitive classes is something everyone wants including teams and drivers but at the end of the day, you got to play to win.

Also, a 2x F1 world champ, current F1 driver and generally handsome bloke won so it will be talked about because it's kind of a big deal. I bet Kaz, Buemi and the crew will sleep well tonight even though their more famous co-pilot and lack of competition are garnishing a fair amount of attention.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by skycafe

There was something wrong with the nose even before he tapped the Toyota. Watch a panel gap begin to open approx. where the 'V" in TVR is. The tap closes that but unlatches the entire front end seemingly. Odd.

see others commented while I was watching videos.

Think the team claimed it wasn't latched properly at the start. Seems a big thing to miss but def seemed like it launched off the car under heavy breaking.

[airbusA346]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ae-UEQRBzo

And there's onboard of the weirdest accident we've seen in a while. Confirms Lotterer never hit the DragonSpeed, but the nose came off and did.

It was confirmed it wasn't fitted correctly before the start which is why it came off.

[bobec]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_FB_cm_WD0

From this one, you can see the lights turn off before the contact because it was already moving itself out of place. Whether there was the Toyota touch or not, that was coming off.

Oh yes, I see it. That too is before contact with the Toyota

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Some may add a personal asterisk to their record books, but there won't be one. Toyota won't care. Sure, more competitive classes is something everyone wants including teams and drivers but at the end of the day, you got to play to win.

Also, a 2x F1 world champ, current F1 driver and generally handsome bloke won so it will be talked about because it's kind of a big deal. I bet Kaz, Buemi and the crew will sleep well tonight even though their more famous co-pilot and lack of competition are garnishing a fair amount of attention.

They will all wake up with a headache.

They thing is the ‘problem’ with this is on Radio Le Mans and the internet. It strikes me that everyone involved is perfectly happy. They win. Miserable people lose. Hurrah!

[airbusA346]

The reason the #90 TF Aston retired is because a driveshaft failed after its spin and trip through the gravel in the Porsche Curves.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Adam43

They will all wake up with a headache.

Yes indeed!!

They thing is the ‘problem’ with this is on Radio Le Mans and the internet. It strikes me that everyone involved is perfectly happy. They win. Miserable people lose. Hurrah!

Seems kinda simple, don't it?

[S griffin]

I just think having not just Fred there, but also drivers like Jense and JPM added to the event, which was much needed at this time

[Lagunaseca_4life]

I didnt watch much of the race,my sister graduated from ucla.which is a 6 hour drive,i watched the first two hours while driving on my wifes iphone.then i watched 6 hours at a viewing party at the petersen museum in los angeles.that was fun,and was nice to be around other knowledge fans.then i caught the last 6 hours at the hotel.

At first i was annoyed by toyota and the aco with the eot,basically giving the win to toyota.then i realized le mans is a race where you not only need to beat the competition,but the track itself.once they crossed the finish line i was happy for them, they deserve it after all their privious struggles,attempts, and comming so close.its not their fault other brands left and no one was willing to come in.it was also nice to see the 8 car win,i can care less about alonso, but nice to see nakajima and bumi get a win after sticking with toyota for that long.good job guys.

Gte pro was were i was left disappointed, the field was stacked with top drivers and factories. But the aco went and ruined it with the bop, and wosre with the 14 lap mandated stints for everyone. It ruined any startegy for any one to try to get ahead, especially after the safety car.it felt fake like something imsa would do to gutantee porsche thewin.

The track is stll great and the cars still look damn good, hope I can make it there some day.

[carbsmith]

In reality beating the Rebellions by 12 laps is a heck of a lot more impressive than beating an LMP2 by 1 lap like last year. Funny how the Toyota's just starting the race somehow makes that a better win even though they didn't really matter.

[Maelochs]

Originally Posted by Adam43

They thing is the ‘problem’ with this is on Radio Le Mans and the internet. It strikes me that everyone involved is perfectly happy. They win. Miserable people lose. Hurrah!

“Good” race, “classic” race, “great” race … all wholly subjective.

Anyone who watched this race for 24 hours and is now complaining about the outcome is an idiot … sorry to be rude, but not sorry to be honest.

None of us were sure whether/if Toyota would employ its normal corporate strategy of spending big bucks and making intricate preparations and then failing painfully. But I think Most of us expected that if Toyota finished, it would be the #8 in front, one way or another.

Oh, Noes!! There is both politics and marketing in racing. Oh, no! The loss of purity, the loss of innocence … the Complete Disconnect From Reality of all the people making that idiotic and disingenuous argument.

This year’s race wasn’t as rules-controlled and contrived as some others have been. The maximum laps thing is complete BS, and not penalizing a car for spinning its wheels with an electric motor while having a penalty for an ICE …. Like my fingers would regrow if they were torn off by a hybrid-powered wheel?

But … stupid as I am, I enjoyed the race.

Toyota got rid of most of its liability drivers, and got lucky with ACO screw-ups (for people forgetting Spa 2018, Toyota was repeatedly forced to pit because an ACO-supplied part failed repeatedly … same thing cost them Le Mans in 2014, I believe?)

I’d say the quote I opened with explains the phenomenon we see here: People who are miserable human beings who haven’t learned how to suck out the sweet and spit out the bitter in their personal life (we call them “losers” in the vernacular) are all waiting to pounce, all waiting for something to crap on so they can climb to the top of the crap pile and say, “I am King!”

Some folks haven’t realized you cannot elevate yourself by depressing everything else—you just have to be the same unhappy person in a crappy environment.

Politics and marketing? Never in Racing!

It’s funny … ACO created rules specifically for Peugeot and Audi (possibly because both firms pledged endless dollars and long-term commitment to the series when it needed it? Perhaps) which highlighted the “clean diesel” tech they wanted to promote in European showrooms (great how That worked out …. ) but not a lot of people complained because the cars were amazing.

Nobody complained Last year when the same rules as this year were in place ….

But this year, cars which ran at a pace which would have made them competitive against Any of the last few years’ hybrid P1s … won a “hollow” victory. Okay.

“Hollow” victory?

I have to say this … if Toyota had trundled around just one lap ahead of the nearest privateer, obviously making no effort to actually race, playing it 100 percent safe and just looking to win by whatever means …. That would have kind of sucked. Still would have been a real win, and would have been a sensible strategy, but it would have hurt my spirit a little.

Toyota could even have let one car run and have the other walk, to provide a back-up.

But I didn’t see Toyota sandbagging. I saw Toyota running at race pace for 24 hours. I saw Toyota treat every lap as a lap on which to compete to get the lead and increase the lead.

I watched the onboards of Alonso’s night stints … he is a Very Good Driver, it seems to me (admitting I am almost wholly ignorant.) But all the Toyota drivers went quickly and drove cleanly.

The cars didn’t break. They got lucky enough not to be taken out by accidents. They fired Nicolas Lapierre. (Sorry, that was kind of mean, but pretty much earned.)

We all know there are “Glass half full” people … and some of them can go to extremes, but not many. There are also “No matter how full the glass, I hate the contents, and the glass, and glasses in general, and glass as a material for beverage containers, and everything else (and particularly myself, but I refuse to realize that)” types.

I will only see so many Le Mans 24s in my lifetime … and that number is one smaller today. But I look at the hours I spent watching it, watching qualifying, reading about the race, being displeased (or disgusted) by the rules … as time well spent.

It was my life, I spent that part doing that thing. I take responsibility for that. And on balance … I think my life is a little better for it.

Any fool who wasted all that time and now thinks his or her life is worse off for it … I am saddened and amused together.

“Racing has Politics??? Racing is used for Marketing??? When did this start?” Back well before any of us were born so none of us have any excuse to be ignorant of the obvious facts.

I feel blessed that politics and marketing did so little to alter the outcome of this race.

Originally Posted by TRspitfirefan

The best team with the best car won. That's what competition is supposed to be about. That is how racing should be.

It's also awesome when a team with a slower car manages to snatch a victory through better strategy, teamwork or just pure perseverance.

With modern racing, the organizers are so worried about having multiple cars capable of winning, that they are making racing artificial. It's becoming just another form of entertainment instead of a sport.

I see this as true … all three propositions.

Toyota brought the best, and performed the best (how many other teams had so few issues?) I do not hate a meritocracy.

All the teams knew the rules. All the teams decided to compete, prepared for the event, and competed.

The fastest car with the best crew won the race? It must be rigged!

I am a Big Rebellion fan (and funny, no one called them “hollow victories” when they beat all the P1 privateers … by which I mean ByKolles, the Car which is also a Tiki Torch-- in earlier seasons.) I would have loved to see Rebellion do better. But there is that pesky thing, reality, and unscripted events … stuff happens.

As for “racetainment” …. IMSA even admitted they are creating sport-based entertainment.

I spoke almost accidentally with Scott Atherton and Scot Elkins at a Sebring test day right after the merger, and they were absolutely clear—they wanted Zero development by teams.

They wanted Everything locked down, roped in, fenced off, homologated …. Exactly so every team could have a chance to win (supposedly) and so no one would innovate in such a way as to **** off any of the big sponsors (say, Cadillac.)

The idea of “racing improves the breed” was not even sneered at, it was abandoned. “Build a better mousetrap” was banned by the rules. They wanted spec racing with just enough variety to not anger the fans, but not enough that anyone could actually do anything not approved in advance by the sponsors’ committee.

I know there has always been politics in racing (Ferrari pulled out of one season (the last race, in fact) because (opposite of what Toyota did) he sank a world championship by withdrawing—to keep the Cobra from winning the World GT championship.)

I know there have always been teams trying to find an unfair advantage or loophole, and the rules have gotten tighter because of it.

I know (well, I don’t Know) … but somehow only Ford and Ferrari were competitive for Ford’s anniversary win … (just by chance.)

BoP and EoT is pretty much S of B … not Entirely arbitrary of political, but seriously, if they want to balance the cars, they need to have an independent team of test drivers do the testing, not the teams, which obviously gain by sandbagging.

No matter.

This is what we have. It isn’t what we all wish for, but likely that “halcyon era of yore” when everything was how we imagine it should be is also wholly imaginary.

What we had this year was this year’s race.

Toyota ran really fast and won. Alonso drove really well and picked up the second leg of his Triple Crown. Porsche painted two cars in really striking liveries and they topped the class. A lot of drivers seemed to make a lot of driving errors and create a lot of slow zones … but nobody was severely hurt or killed.

It was an endurance race. People ran fast, and either lasted or broke, either repaired it of parked it. The Russians (the BR1s) made a brave showing. Ginetta Almost made to the end—they deserve some special mention. Rusinov and G-Drive did what he has always done but without that one error which always kept him off the top step at Le Mans.

You guys had something better to do and didn’t?

Hah … losers.

I enjoyed the race.

[Articus]

Originally Posted by porsche962fan

no 8 straight to museum I guess complete with dirt

Originally Posted by Lagunaseca_4life

I didnt watch much of the race,my sister graduated from ucla.which is a 6 hour drive,i watched the first two hours while driving on my wifes iphone.then i watched 6 hours at a viewing party at the petersen museum in los angeles.that was fun,and was nice to be around other knowledge fans.then i caught the last 6 hours at the hotel.

At first i was annoyed by toyota and the aco with the eot,basically giving the win to toyota.then i realized le mans is a race where you not only need to beat the competition,but the track itself.once they crossed the finish line i was happy for them, they deserve it after all their privious struggles,attempts, and comming so close.its not their fault other brands left and no one was willing to come in.it was also nice to see the 8 car win,i can care less about alonso, but nice to see nakajima and bumi get a win after sticking with toyota for that long.good job guys.

Gte pro was were i was left disappointed, the field was stacked with top drivers and factories. But the aco went and ruined it with the bop, and wosre with the 14 lap mandated stints for everyone. It ruined any startegy for any one to try to get ahead, especially after the safety car.it felt fake like something imsa would do to gutantee porsche thewin.

The track is stll great and the cars still look damn good, hope I can make it there some day.

Did you really think GTE BOP was off? In my eyes, the only thing that ruined GTE was the first and second safety cars. Most of the other GTE teams said the same thing. Ferrari felt they had pace in the night. Ford thought they would have won it. BMW was the quickest car on the track going into the night. The stints from Felix and Catsburg were mega. This is the first time inn quite a few years where every car had the pace to win it. Last year was the Aston, Corvette show. The year before that was the Ford GT benefit...The safety cars gave the 92 an insurmountable 2 minute lead which held steady, not increasing or decreasing. The race showed that the other Porsche's could be raced and passed if you found yourself on track near one.

Unlike Daytona where the Fords lapped the entire field on raw pace in a series where safety cars actually make it very hard to put a gap on your rivals....The Porsche's didn't come anywhere that kind of gifted BOP domination.

The Rothmans car is where the Porsche's would have ended up without the help of the safety car. And the Fords, Corvette's, BMW, Ferrari's ran within 30 seconds of that car for most of the race. Bourdais even passed the 91 late albeit for naught. Everyone lapped in the 3:52s and 3:51s at will. I've never seen it so close.


Was amusing to see Bourdais complaining about the BOP after the Daytona farce....Ford seem to always think the BOP is wrong unless they can lap the field.

[EffectiveSprinkles]

I had a good time, caught about 19 hours in total I think. Much more enjoyable than last year except those last hour shenanigans, but whatever. Toyota did an amazing job, the car was perfect and ran hard for the entire race without any issue. The only mistakes came from the drivers. Really happy to see that they won, and the 8 car was the fastest car on the day so they deserved it.
Looking forward to next year already

[rich07]

I was thrilled to see the #77 win GTE AM as I’m a Matt Campbell fan. That my best memory of the race. Happy for Toyota also because despite all the EOT etc they still had to finish the race in first and they did just that. Shame Buemi and Nakajima will get overlooked in the mainstream press but Alonso seemed to genuinely enjoy the event and drive very well so good on him.

Don’t get me started on BOP in GTE and the politics played in race week. Had enough. It really does put a bad light on such a quality packed class.

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by Lagunaseca_4life

I didnt watch much of the race,my sister graduated from ucla.which is a 6 hour drive,i watched the first two hours while driving on my wifes iphone.then i watched 6 hours at a viewing party at the petersen museum in los angeles.that was fun,and was nice to be around other knowledge fans.then i caught the last 6 hours at the hotel.

At first i was annoyed by toyota and the aco with the eot,basically giving the win to toyota.then i realized le mans is a race where you not only need to beat the competition,but the track itself.once they crossed the finish line i was happy for them, they deserve it after all their privious struggles,attempts, and comming so close.its not their fault other brands left and no one was willing to come in.it was also nice to see the 8 car win,i can care less about alonso, but nice to see nakajima and bumi get a win after sticking with toyota for that long.good job guys.

Gte pro was were i was left disappointed, the field was stacked with top drivers and factories. But the aco went and ruined it with the bop, and wosre with the 14 lap mandated stints for everyone. It ruined any startegy for any one to try to get ahead, especially after the safety car.it felt fake like something imsa would do to gutantee porsche thewin.

The track is stll great and the cars still look damn good, hope I can make it there some day.

I HATE the BoP formula, but the cars were quite well balanced. Having a good "balance of performance" does not mean that Ford gets to be quicker than the others. In fact, through much of the race (once the weather got warmer), the Ford lap times were quicker than the Porsche.
Anyway, for those that were unhappy with the Porsche victory you just need to wait for next year. Porsche will get Bop'ed so badly that it will be quicker for them to walk around the track.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

“Good” race, “classic” race, “great” race … all wholly subjective.

Anyone who watched this race for 24 hours and is now complaining about the outcome is an idiot … sorry to be rude, but not sorry to be honest.

None of us were sure whether/if Toyota would employ its normal corporate strategy of spending big bucks and making intricate preparations and then failing painfully. But I think Most of us expected that if Toyota finished, it would be the #8 in front, one way or another.

Oh, Noes!! There is both politics and marketing in racing. Oh, no! The loss of purity, the loss of innocence … the Complete Disconnect From Reality of all the people making that idiotic and disingenuous argument.

This year’s race wasn’t as rules-controlled and contrived as some others have been. The maximum laps thing is complete BS, and not penalizing a car for spinning its wheels with an electric motor while having a penalty for an ICE …. Like my fingers would regrow if they were torn off by a hybrid-powered wheel?

But … stupid as I am, I enjoyed the race.

Toyota got rid of most of its liability drivers, and got lucky with ACO screw-ups (for people forgetting Spa 2018, Toyota was repeatedly forced to pit because an ACO-supplied part failed repeatedly … same thing cost them Le Mans in 2014, I believe?)

I’d say the quote I opened with explains the phenomenon we see here: People who are miserable human beings who haven’t learned how to suck out the sweet and spit out the bitter in their personal life (we call them “losers” in the vernacular) are all waiting to pounce, all waiting for something to crap on so they can climb to the top of the crap pile and say, “I am King!”

Some folks haven’t realized you cannot elevate yourself by depressing everything else—you just have to be the same unhappy person in a crappy environment.

Politics and marketing? Never in Racing!

It’s funny … ACO created rules specifically for Peugeot and Audi (possibly because both firms pledged endless dollars and long-term commitment to the series when it needed it? Perhaps) which highlighted the “clean diesel” tech they wanted to promote in European showrooms (great how That worked out …. ) but not a lot of people complained because the cars were amazing.

Nobody complained Last year when the same rules as this year were in place ….

But this year, cars which ran at a pace which would have made them competitive against Any of the last few years’ hybrid P1s … won a “hollow” victory. Okay.

“Hollow” victory?

I have to say this … if Toyota had trundled around just one lap ahead of the nearest privateer, obviously making no effort to actually race, playing it 100 percent safe and just looking to win by whatever means …. That would have kind of sucked. Still would have been a real win, and would have been a sensible strategy, but it would have hurt my spirit a little.

Toyota could even have let one car run and have the other walk, to provide a back-up.

But I didn’t see Toyota sandbagging. I saw Toyota running at race pace for 24 hours. I saw Toyota treat every lap as a lap on which to compete to get the lead and increase the lead.

I watched the onboards of Alonso’s night stints … he is a Very Good Driver, it seems to me (admitting I am almost wholly ignorant.) But all the Toyota drivers went quickly and drove cleanly.

The cars didn’t break. They got lucky enough not to be taken out by accidents. They fired Nicolas Lapierre. (Sorry, that was kind of mean, but pretty much earned.)

We all know there are “Glass half full” people … and some of them can go to extremes, but not many. There are also “No matter how full the glass, I hate the contents, and the glass, and glasses in general, and glass as a material for beverage containers, and everything else (and particularly myself, but I refuse to realize that)” types.

I will only see so many Le Mans 24s in my lifetime … and that number is one smaller today. But I look at the hours I spent watching it, watching qualifying, reading about the race, being displeased (or disgusted) by the rules … as time well spent.

It was my life, I spent that part doing that thing. I take responsibility for that. And on balance … I think my life is a little better for it.

Any fool who wasted all that time and now thinks his or her life is worse off for it … I am saddened and amused together.

“Racing has Politics??? Racing is used for Marketing??? When did this start?” Back well before any of us were born so none of us have any excuse to be ignorant of the obvious facts.

I feel blessed that politics and marketing did so little to alter the outcome of this race.


I see this as true … all three propositions.

Toyota brought the best, and performed the best (how many other teams had so few issues?) I do not hate a meritocracy.

All the teams knew the rules. All the teams decided to compete, prepared for the event, and competed.

The fastest car with the best crew won the race? It must be rigged!

I am a Big Rebellion fan (and funny, no one called them “hollow victories” when they beat all the P1 privateers … by which I mean ByKolles, the Car which is also a Tiki Torch-- in earlier seasons.) I would have loved to see Rebellion do better. But there is that pesky thing, reality, and unscripted events … stuff happens.

As for “racetainment” …. IMSA even admitted they are creating sport-based entertainment.

I spoke almost accidentally with Scott Atherton and Scot Elkins at a Sebring test day right after the merger, and they were absolutely clear—they wanted Zero development by teams.

They wanted Everything locked down, roped in, fenced off, homologated …. Exactly so every team could have a chance to win (supposedly) and so no one would innovate in such a way as to **** off any of the big sponsors (say, Cadillac.)

The idea of “racing improves the breed” was not even sneered at, it was abandoned. “Build a better mousetrap” was banned by the rules. They wanted spec racing with just enough variety to not anger the fans, but not enough that anyone could actually do anything not approved in advance by the sponsors’ committee.

I know there has always been politics in racing (Ferrari pulled out of one season (the last race, in fact) because (opposite of what Toyota did) he sank a world championship by withdrawing—to keep the Cobra from winning the World GT championship.)

I know there have always been teams trying to find an unfair advantage or loophole, and the rules have gotten tighter because of it.

I know (well, I don’t Know) … but somehow only Ford and Ferrari were competitive for Ford’s anniversary win … (just by chance.)

BoP and EoT is pretty much S of B … not Entirely arbitrary of political, but seriously, if they want to balance the cars, they need to have an independent team of test drivers do the testing, not the teams, which obviously gain by sandbagging.

No matter.

This is what we have. It isn’t what we all wish for, but likely that “halcyon era of yore” when everything was how we imagine it should be is also wholly imaginary.

What we had this year was this year’s race.

Toyota ran really fast and won. Alonso drove really well and picked up the second leg of his Triple Crown. Porsche painted two cars in really striking liveries and they topped the class. A lot of drivers seemed to make a lot of driving errors and create a lot of slow zones … but nobody was severely hurt or killed.

It was an endurance race. People ran fast, and either lasted or broke, either repaired it of parked it. The Russians (the BR1s) made a brave showing. Ginetta Almost made to the end—they deserve some special mention. Rusinov and G-Drive did what he has always done but without that one error which always kept him off the top step at Le Mans.

You guys had something better to do and didn’t?

Hah … losers.

I enjoyed the race.

I don't usually quote very long posts (sometimes I don't even bother to read them as my eyes glaze over!), but I'm quoting this as I wish I'd written it...… So spot on I need to go and apply some cream to the spots...…

[Adam43]

“I hate glass as a material for beverage containers”. Brilliant.

At Le Mans they are plastic you have to pay a Euro for them, generally only contain Calsberg, but I like them at Le Mans.

[rdjones]

I am still not sure what to make of this race. I said to someone at Work on Friday that Toyota and Alonso wouldn't win the race. I also caught one of Radio Le Mans Facebook live video's on Friday and they where also said that the Toyota's wouldn't win. I guess we were both wrong.

I have just been looking at the results and everything was done and dusted in every class by half distance.

I just hope that the ACO do something with the BOP if they don't we are going to have repeat performance next week.

[mattsmith]

I don't think Toyota had to push. I can't remember the last time that one team lead all the laps. Usually there was at least one incident or out of sync pit stop to change the order.

Toyota did deserve the win but a bit less favourable EoT would have given us a better race.

GTE BoP seemed mostly fine to me. Stint lengths need to go though.

I really think they need to strip the race back to basics in all the classes. No movable equivalencies, no mandatory strategies just a simple rule book.

[Racer65]

Stint lengths in GTE definitely need to go. Lap times were ok amongst the developed cars so it think the BoP was about right but the stint lengths took a lot of the strategy away which is the key point of endurance racing.