The 84th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans will always be remembered for its dramatic finish on June 19th 2016. Porsche took its 18th overall victory when the leading Toyota retired on the final lap. The pace at the front in the duel with the Japanese manufacturer and the many lead changes pushed everyone to the limit and beyond.
Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, witnessed it from the team’s garage: “What happened in Le Mans is almost incomprehensible. From the first to the last lap this race was competition on the ultimate level in terms of sport and technology – and it was thrilling as well.
“The race asked the utmost from our cars, our drivers and the team. We always were either in the lead or in striking distance of Toyota. We were fighting until the end and never gave up. This spirit was rewarded in the end. We have the greatest respect for Toyota.”
• The winning team of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb in the number 2 car completed 384 laps (5,233.54 kilometres).
• Car number 2 was leading the race for 51 laps. The number 1 sister car of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber was leading for 52 laps in the first third of the race.
• Due to the many phases with reduced speed because of safety car periods and slow zones, the race distance was almost 150 kilometres short of the distance covered in 2015.
• The average speed of the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid was 216.4 km/h.
• The highest top speed of a Porsche 919 Hybrid in the race was 333.9 km/h and was achieved by Brendon Hartley on lap 50.
• Car number 2 used 11 sets of tyres in the race. The first set were rain tyres, all others were slick tyres.
• The longest distance covered with one set of tyres was 53 laps with Marc Lieb at the wheel.
• The fastest pit stop, including a tyre and driver change, by the Porsche Team was 1:22.5 minutes.
• The fastest stop for refuelling was done in 65.2 seconds.
• The winning Porsche’s gearbox mastered 22,984 gear changes (up shift and down shift) during the 24 hours.
• The longest time behind the wheel in the winning car was for Neel Jani with nine hours and 24 minutes. Romain Dumas spent the longest continuous time in the car.
After three rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship, with double points in Le Mans, Porsche now leads the championship with 127 points, followed by Audi (95) and Toyota (79). In the drivers’ world championship Dumas/Jani/Lieb have scored 94 points and are leading by a gap of 39 points. Bernhard/Hartley/Webber are currently in 19th position with 3.5 points.
Read the full race report here.