It’s been a bad year to be an LMP1 team at Le Mans as all six of the cars in class have suffered issues during the race.
The ByKolles was gone from pretty much the first lap, the No.2 Porsche and No.8 Toyota have spent a long time in the garage after hitting trouble early on, and then two of the Toyotas dramatically retired within half an hour of each other lastnight.
That left the No.1 Porsche way out in front with a 13 lap lead over the next car, but with just under four hours to go Andre Lotterer dramatically slowed.
DRAMA!
Leading car #1 @Porsche_Team slow down at Tête Rouge.🙈#LeMans24 #WEC pic.twitter.com/KawhR32H8u— FIA WEC (@FIAWEC) June 18, 2017
A seeming loss of drive left Lotterer trying to get back to the pits on electric power alone but just as happened to the Toyotas, it ran out of juice before being able to make it back to the pits.
That leaves something of an exciting finish on the cards. Incredibly the LMP2 car of Jackie Chan DC Racing is now leading, but the No.2 Porsche has been recovering quickly from its earlier delay that put it 18 laps down at one stage. If all goes well it could catch up and take the lead at some time close to the end of the race.
Endurance racing – don’t you just love it?!
