Le Mans 2017: Porsche triumph in 24-hour race after another Toyota disaster

Timo Bernhard drove the Porsche 919 hybrid over the line in first on Sunday afternoon while Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber celebrated from the pits a famous win.

The No2 Porsche crew only claimed the lead in the penultimate hour of an incident-filled race when Bernhard passed LMP2 racer Ho-Pin Tung in the No38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA.

Bernhard eventually finished over a lap clear of Tung to secure his and Bamber’s second Le Mans wins and the first for Hartley.

The trio’s late victory bid came after a motor generator unit failure in the fourth hour dropped the 919 Hybrid crew 18 laps behind the leaders.

It looked like the sister No1 car would take a dominant victory ahead of the LMP2 runners until it ground to a halt with a lack of oil pressure with three hours left on the clock. At the time it had a massive lead of 13 laps.

The early stages of the race were all about Toyota until the Japanese manufacturer’s ‘curse’ at Le Mans struck again.

First the No8 TS050 dropped out of contention in the eighth hour with an MGU issue when running second.

Work to fix the problem caused it to drop 30 laps with Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima eventually finishing ninth overall.

Neither of the other two Toyotas made it beyond half-distance.

The No7 car of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Stephane Sarrazin led from pole and was beginning to build a commanding advantage when a clutch problem caused the car to slow as it crossed the start/finish line during the 10th hour.

Kobayashi, who set a new circuit record qualifying lap, attempted unsuccessfully to get the car back to the pits.

Then, just minutes later, the No9 car was also out of the race after being hit by the No25 Manor ORECA of Simon Trummer.