2017 24 Hours of Le Mans

The date for the 2017 Le Mans race was confirmed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council in a press conference of the sport's organiser, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), at the Musée des 24 Heures du Mans on 16 June 2016.[1] It was the 85th running of the event,[1] and the third of nine scheduled rounds of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship.[2] The race was scheduled to avoid conflicting with other major motorsport events, as was the case in the 2016 edition when it clashed with the European Grand Prix.[3]

Before the race Toyota drivers Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi led the Drivers' Championship with 50 points, 17 ahead of second-placed Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley and a further five in front of Neel Jani, Nick Tandy, André Lotterer in third. Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi were fourth on 19.5 points and their teammate Nicolas Lapierre rounded out the top five with 16 points.[4] Toyota were leading the Manufacturers' Championship on 69.5 points, seven and a half ahead of their sole rival Porsche in second position.[4] Toyota had so far dominated the championship with Davidson, Nakajima and Buemi winning the season's previous two rounds. Bernhard, Bamber and Hartley and Conway and Kobayashi had all finished in second once with their teammates Jani, Tandy, Lotterer having achieved one third-place result.[4]

Following the 2016 event in which the leading car failed on its final lap and was eventually not classified in the final results, the standards by which a car is classified have been changed. Instead of the mandatory six minutes for the final lap of the race, penalties will be awarded for any lap over six minutes on a gradual scale. Failure to complete the last lap of the race in under fifteen minutes will now lead to a car no longer being classified.[5]

The slow zone system used at Le Mans was also revised, with nine dedicated slow zone sectors laid out around the circuit. Previously individual marshal posts were used to mark the beginning and end of slow zones. The dedicated zones have been located such that the beginning of the 80 km/h (50 mph) is in a slow section of the circuit; previous slow zones could begin in areas of the track where cars were required to slow down from high speeds and cause accidents.[6]

Modifications were made to the circuit from the Porsche Curves to the Ford Chicane. The run-off area where the last right hand turn goes into the left hand corner that begins the entry to Corvette corner was widened with the barrier at the Porsche Curves being moved further back. Further the angle of the wall at the left hand entry to the short straight before the Ford Chicane was altered. The changes led to criticism from Lotterer and Jan Magnussen about the potential loss of challenge. The ACO's sporting manager Vincent Beaumesnil defended the alterations by saying that widening the run-off area was preferable than adding a chicane at the Porsche Curves.[7]

The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was revamped with the introduction of a single specification engine from Gibson, with increased power output compared to 2016 LMP2 cars.[8] Cockpit and chassis designs also mimic the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) regulations for safety.[9] The four approved chassis manufacturers were Dallara, Ligier, Oreca and Riley.[10]

A pre-Le Mans testing day was held at the circuit on 4 June, and mandated all entrants for the race to participate in eight hours of track time divided into two sessions.[15] The morning session, held on a dirty track with lap times improving throughout,[16] was led by pre-race favourites Toyota,[14] with Nakajima's No. 8 car setting a lap time of 3 minutes and 20.778 seconds. The second Toyota of Kobayashi followed almost seven-tenths of a second in arrears, and José María López completed a Toyota sweep of the top three in the No. 9 car.[16] Porsche were off Toyota's pace by more than two seconds and completed the LMP1 field with Bernhard fourth and Lotterer fifth.[17] Orecas led LMP2 with 13 cars at the top of the time sheets, led by the No. 36 Signatech Alpine of André Negrão, the sole driver to go under than 3 minutes and 30 minutes with a 3 minutes and 29.809 seconds lap, ahead of Rebellion and Graff.[16] LMGTE Pro was topped by Corvette with Magnussen's lap of 3 minutes and 55.726 seconds, followed by Patrick Pilet's No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR and the second Corvette of Oliver Gavin. The No. 77 Porsche driven by Matteo Cairoli was fastest in LMGTE Am, ahead of the DH Racing Ferrari 488 of Andrea Bertolini.[17]

The second session had Toyota continuing to lead the time sheets with Kobayashi setting a 3 minutes and 18.132 seconds lap, followed by Buemi whose best effort was 1.1 seconds slower and López was a further 2.2 seconds adrift in third. Porsche were still off Toyota's pace with their best effort coming from Bamber in the No. 2 car followed by Jani in the sister No. 1 entry.[18] Nelson Panciatici in the No. 35 Signatech Alpine improved the fastest lap in LMP2 to finish in front of the sole LMP1 privateer, the No. 4 ByKolles Racing ENSO CLM P1/01 of Dominik Kraihamer, for sixth overall, putting him ahead of Jean-Éric Vergne's No. 24 Manor Oreca and the No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car of Alex Brundle.[19] Gavin missed 91 minutes due to a mid-session engine change but recorded the best LMGTE Pro lap of the day at 3 minutes and 54.701 seconds towards the end of testing to displace Frédéric Makowiecki's No. 92 Porsche at the top of the time sheets. Aston Martin led LMGTE Am with Pedro Lamy's 3 minutes and 58.250 seconds lap time to go two-tenths of a second ahead of Fernando Rees in the Larbre Compétition Corvette.[19] The No. 33 Eurasia Motorsport Ligier JS P217 of Erik Maris stopped the session by becoming stranded in the Dunlop Curves gravel trap. Paul-Loup Chatin's No. 17 IDEC Sport Ligier and Jan Lammers in the Racing Team Nederland Dallara made contact at the second Mulsanne Chicane but both continued without major damage.[19] The session prematurely ended with less than fifteen minutes remaining when the No. 25 Manor of Roberto González laid oil on the track and stopped.[19][20]

Official practice was held on 14 June with the full 60-car field on track for four hours in hot and sunny weather conditions.[15][21] Toyota led from the offset once again, with Lapierre setting the early pace and remained at the top for most of the session until Bamber bettered Lapierre's effort.[22] Kobayashi improved on Porsche's time until he was overtaken in the final five minutes by Jani with a lap of 3 minutes and 20.362 seconds.[23] Alex Lynn in the No. 26 G-Drive Racing car led LMP2 with less than forty minutes left with a lap of 3 minutes and 30.363 seconds and displaced the No. 13 Rebellion of Nelson Piquet Jr. Bruno Senna's sister No. 31 Rebellion was third.[22] Aston Martins and Corvettes led LMGTE Pro from the start until Sam Bird's No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari topped the time sheets with a 3 minutes and 54.832 seconds effort. The best Aston Martin was placed second with Darren Turner's No. 97 vehicle and the second AF Corse car of James Calado placed third.[21] In LMGTE Am, the quickest vehicle was the No. 98 Aston Martin of Lamy, ahead of a trio of Ferraris led by DH Racing.[22] The safety cars were required for one hour and fifteen minutes after Christian Philippon's Larbre Compétition Corvette went off the track leaving the Porsche Curves and damaged the car's bodywork in an impact with a tyre barrier.[21] Stephane Lemeret's No. 88 Proton Porsche scraped a barrier through the Porsche Curves but continued to the pit lane for repairs. The Cetilar Villorba Corse Dallara of Roberto Lacorte slid into the Mulsanne Corner gravel trap and had to abandon the car.[21][24]

The first of three qualifying sessions began late Wednesday night under clear conditions.[15] The start was delayed due to an incident during practice for the first Road to Le Mans race in which a major crash necessitated barrier repairs to the Porsche Curves and the session was shortened by twenty minutes.[25] Slow zones and yellow flags limited the amount of quick running,[26] and the rapidly cooling track meant the best chance to set the fastest lap times was missed.[27] The first timed laps of the session had Porsche lead early on with a benchmark effort from Jani, followed by Bernhard's 3 minutes and 19.710 seconds lap. Fifteen minutes later, Kobayashi had no slower traffic impeding him and topped the session with a time of 3 minutes and 18.793 seconds for provisional pole position.[25] Nakajima followed six-tenths of a second behind in second and Bernhard's effort put him in provisional third.[26] Lapierre was the slowest of the three Toyotas in fourth and Jani was off the pace. Rounding out the LMP1 field was Kraihamer whose fastest time was ten seconds slower than the leading Toyota but clear of the LMP2 field.[27]

Matthieu Vaxivière carried TDS Racing's Oreca to provisional pole in LMP2 with a time of 3 minutes and 29.333 seconds set late in the session.[27] He was half a second clear of Senna who held the class pole until Vaxivière's lap. The No. 25 Manor, driven by Vitaly Petrov, was third-fastest and was followed by teammate Vergne in fourth.[26] Eric Trouillet in the No. 39 Graff Oreca caused the session's first yellow flag when he clouted the barriers leaving the second Mulsanne Chicane. The No. 27 SMP Racing Dallara caused further disruption when it reportedly impacted the barriers and suffered a fire that was extinguished quickly.[27] Aston Martin topped the LMGTE categories, with Nicki Thiim setting the fastest time of 3 minutes and 52.117 seconds in the No. 95 car,[27] while Mathias Lauda was the fastest Amateur class entry with a 3 minutes and 55.134 seconds lap.[25] The No. 82 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 was eleventh amongst LMGTEs before ACO officials disallowed their fastest lap times for the team transgressing parc fermé regulations by handling the tyres after the session.[28][29]

Kamui Kobayashi (pictured in 2010) broke Neel Jani's 2015 lap record to clinch Toyota's third pole position at Le Mans.

Thursday's first qualifying session began with a stoppage for a crash. Maris spun and crashed his No. 33 car heavily into the outside barriers leaving the first Mulsanne Chicane seventeen minutes in. Maris was unhurt but he was transported to the medical centre for a precautionary check-up. This meant organisers rescheduled second qualifying to end at 21:30 Central European Summer Time (CEST) (UTC+02:00).[30] When it restarted, Kobayashi exited the pit lane early. He was aided by tailwinds on the Mulsanne Straight and headwinds through the Porsche Curves to set a new provisional pole lap of 3 minutes and 14.791 seconds.[31][N 1] The No. 8 Toyota stopped leaving the second Mulsanne Chicane with an oil supply problem that necessitated an engine change. The Toyota returned to the track with ten minutes remaining but fell to fourth as Buemi could not improve on its best time.[31] Jani and Bernhard in the two Porsches bettered their lap times and moved to second and third. Yuji Kunimoto also improved the No. 9 Toyota's best lap but fell to fifth.[33]

Petrov's Manor set a new LMP2 class lap record with a time of 3 minutes and 25.549 more than a second faster than rookie Thomas Laurent in Jackie Chan DC Racing's No. 38 vehicle and the sister Manor of Vergne. Petrov consequently demoted the ByKolles car to seventh overall. The LMGTE categories had some changes with Aston Martin remaining the leaders in Pro but Jonathan Adam bettered Thiim's first qualification session lap with Calado improving to second. Euan Hankey became the provisional LMGTE Am pole sitter before Will Stevens eclipsed his time to take over the position.[31] At the premature end to qualifying with half an hour left, Timothé Buret drove onto grass in the No. 23 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier and lost control of his car. Buret heavily damaged the vehicle in an impact with a barrier and was stranded in a gravel trap entering Tertre Rouge corner.[33]

As temperatures cooled for the final qualifying session, more than half the field improved their fastest laps,[34] but Kobayashi's time could not be bettered by any other LMP1 driver. He thus held the record to clinch Toyota's third pole position at Le Mans and their first since 2014.[35] Nakajima improved the No. 8 car's time by more than two seconds to start alongside the sister No. 7 Toyota on the grid's front row. Porsche did not improve on their times from the second qualifying session and settled for third and fourth.[34] Hartley precautionarily slowed and stopped the No. 2 Porsche at Indianapolis corner due to rising oil temperatures.[34] He attempted to return to the pit lane on electric power but was forced to abandon the car.[36] Lapierre improved early on but could only muster fifth position.[34] Oliver Webb used clear air to move the ByKolles car back to sixth overall but was more than nine seconds off the pace.[37] Lynn reset the LMP2 lap record early on by 11.3 seconds over the 2016 time. demoting the No. 25 Manor Oreca to second. Ho-Pin Tung's No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car took third and battled with Senna for the position. Oreca chassis, as well as the variant Alpine chassis, secured the first nine positions in LMP2, while the Dallara of SMP Racing was the fastest of the other chassis in tenth place.[25][36]

Aston Martin led LMGTE Pro with Richie Stanaway setting a new class record before Turner improved with a 3 minutes and 50.837 lap to secure the British marque's first category pole since 2015.[38] The two cars were separated by Calado in the closing minutes and Bird came within 0.048 seconds of Stanaway's effort. All five manufacturers in LMGTE Pro were within a second of Turner's lap, with the fastest Ford in fifth courtesy of Ryan Briscoe, Antonio García taking sixth for Corvette and Porsche's best time came from Michael Christensen in seventh.[37] The lead in LMGTE Am changed with Rees earning Larbre Compétition's first class pole for ten years with a time of 3 minutes and 52.843 seconds, almost four-tenths of a second clear of Lamy's No. 98 Aston Martin in second and the No. 62 Scuderia Corsa Ferrari of Townsend Bell in third.[38][34]

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