At 18:30 on Saturday evening the 24 Hours of Le Mans looked over for the Porsche 919 Hybrid of Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley. Their car had no front axle drive anymore, was repaired for 1.05 hours and rejoined the race 18 laps behind. But the 85th running of the endurance classic in Le Mans produced such dramatic changes that the impossible ultimately came true. After an enormous effort, the trio sliced through the field from 56th position to overall victory. For Le Mans record holder Porsche, it is the 19th overall win in the world’s toughest race and the third in a row meaning the German manufacturer can now keep the famous trophy.
It was Timo Bernhard who crossed the finish line and seconds later could not hide his tears
That was his second Le Mans overall win, following his maiden success in 2010, when the driver was on loan in Audi.
“It feels surreal”, the 36-year-old admitted.
“When I joined Porsche as a junior driver back in 1999, I carefully developed the dream to perhaps one day get the chance to fight for overall victory at Le Mans. I hoped I would be good enough to really do this one day. Now, 18 years later, we have achieved it together. The final lap was very emotional for me. It will take some time before I realise what has happened.”
So proud of my two brothers today @BrendonHartley and @Timo_Bernhard Le Mans winners with Porsche, and @earlbamber ✌️ pic.twitter.com/gMBPDf5C92
— Mark Webber (@AussieGrit) June 18, 2017
For Earl Bamber, it was also a second Le Mans overall win after 2015. Both his victories came at the wheel of the Porsche 919 Hybrid.
“I can’t believe we’ve managed to pull this one off having been at the back of the field after an hour in the pit-box. Both Brendon and Timo have been part of the Porsche LMP programme from the beginning while this victory is as much down to the guys in the pits. Without their hard work we wouldn’t have got back racing again so this win is down to them”, the 26-year-old New Zealander commented.
Brendon Hartley was arguably the hungriest of this year’s six Porsche LMP works driver squad as his name had yet to be engraved on the big trophy
“Le Mans is one crazy race”, was the second Kiwi’s comment.
“The mechanics worked incredibly hard on Saturday evening to repair our car in super fast time and since that moment Timo, Earl and myself, together with our engineers, have been pushing hard, 100% every second, and desperately hoped that our efforts would somehow pay off.”
