Le Mans 24h 2016

Utterly devastating... What a sad end to the race. Porsche can't really be happy with their win and I do hope they don't take their regulations all too seriously to at least allow Toyota to show up on the board...
 
Of course it's devastating for Toyota, but the regulations are quite clear (you must not cross the line more than 6 minutes after 15:00h) and they agreed to them as well. Nakajima could have stopped somewhere before the start-finish-line to attempt to restart the car since the Porsche would clearly overtake at that pace of the Toyota in the last lap anyway - why risking the second place which they would have anyway since the then-third place Toyota was 3 laps behind by stopping just after the start-finish-line? That was an unfortunate call in the last minute, but can't be changed afterwards. :(
 
Well, stopping for the chequered flag is also forbidden - not sure how it is though when your car is broken.
 
What a gut wrenching finish for Toyota... They ran a perfect race in that car right up to that moment. But Kazuki... Stopping it a foot after the start-finish was just idiotic, I was screaming at the screen for fuck's sake. Just insanely devastating.

Signatech winning LMP2 also ran quite an impressive race getting 5th overall, kudos. Ford winning GT-Pro participating for the 1st time in over 50 year is beyond impressive. I'm still not sure what happened there that gave em 4 sec over Porsche, Aston and Corvette but seems it was all legal so a big wow there.

Congrats to team USA winning GT Am as well.

Anyone know what's up with Ferrari #82's stop-go penalty which they never did? They were running second in GT-Pro but only 24 sec before the Ford in 3rd place.
 
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Le Mans update: Winning Ford GT hit by post-race penalties

Both the winning and runner-up cars in the GTE Pro division of the 24 Hours of Le Mans were both penalised post-race, after the Chip Ganassi Team USA and Risi Competizione teams protested each other.

The winning #68 Ford GT ? driven by Dirk Muller, Joey Hand and Sebastien Bourdais ? was given a 50s penalty after Risi alleged it had been speeding in a slow zone. Additionally, stewards also found that the #68?s wheel speed sensors were not working properly ? and a further 20s penalty was added.

This would have handed the victory for the #82 Ferrari, driven by Giancarlo Fisichella, Toni Vilander and Mateo Malucelli.

Ganassi, meantime, had protested the Ferrari as one of its leader light panels was not working. The car had been shown a black and orange warning flag in the closing stages of the race to have this rectified, but failed to pit as instructed.

Stewards also gave this car a 20s penalty ?? and a EUR5,000 fine.

The re-issued final result means that the #68 Ford GT wins the class by 10.2s from the #82 Ferrari.

The #69 Ford, which finished third, closes to just 4.6s behind the #82 Ferrari. The top three cars were covered by 15s after 24 hours of racing.

The decision upholds Ford?s class victory 50 years on from its first Le Mans win, when it beat Ferrari for overall honours in 1966.

http://www.motorsport.com/lemans/ne...ord-gt-hit-by-post-race-penalties-790114/?s=1
 
"The re-issued final result means that the #68 Ford GT wins the class by 10.2s from the #82 Ferrari
Ferrari
The #69 Ford, which finished third, closes to just 4.6s behind the #82 Ferrari. The top three cars were covered by 15s after 24 hours of racing."


So not only Ferrari team's attempt at pulling the rug from under Ford's feet backfired, they almost managed to lose their second place to another Ford? :lol:
 
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"The re-issued final result means that the #68 Ford GT wins the class by 10.2s from the #82 Ferrari
Ferrari
The #69 Ford, which finished third, closes to just 4.6s behind the #82 Ferrari. The top three cars were covered by 15s after 24 hours of racing."


So not only Ferrari team's attempt at pulling the rug from under Ford's feet backfired, they almost managed to lose their second place to another Ford? :lol:

Not really since they knew some sort of penalty was coming their way. I think the penalties were handled well. The Ford deserved to keep it's win and the Ferrari deserved that 2nd place. Happy with that.
 
The only problem with the Ferrari penalty is, as I understand it since it happened during a stretch I didn't watch, one of the Ford GT's had the same issue with the leader lights and had to pit to repair it. It took them 15 minutes, or so I read. If all a team has to worry about is a 20 second penalty and a 5k fine, I can't imagine any team pitting to make that fix in the future.

Not that they'd be consistent with penalties of course, but still, sends the wrong message.
 
Akio Toyoda, President, Toyota Motor Corporation

From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank everyone who lent us their incredible support during this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. We of Toyota GAZOO Racing put tremendous pressure on ourselves to break our losing streak at Le Mans and fought so hard to make up for the unfortunate results of the past. All of the mechanics, engineers, drivers, suppliers, and everyone else involved with the team made incredible sacrifices and achieved constant improvements to build an even-better car for this year's Le Mans.

Just as our dreams began to come true, we all made to burn that moment into our minds even as unbelievable heartbreak unfolded before our very eyes. Toyota's cars have become so fast and so strong. But Porsche grew even faster and they were stronger. Throughout the 24 hours of the race?and, indeed, the 30 total hours including qualifying?it is not such an easy thing to continue to drive faster and more powerfully than anyone else on the road at Le Mans. When I think of what everyone in the team must be feeling? not to mention everyone who supported us? I honestly do not know what to say. I cannot find the words.

We at Toyota GAZOO Racing are "sore losers." We do not compete without knowing the feeling of loss. Having tasted the true bitterness of losing, we will return to the World Endurance Championship arena next year, and we will return to compete in the battle that is the 24 Hours of Le Mans. For our quest to build ever-better cars?

For this, we will certainly come back to the roads of Le Mans. I would like to express my gratitude to all of the cars and drivers who fought alongside us on the track at Le Mans; particularly Porsche and Audi. We will be back next year, reborn, and ready to take you on with all of our might. Look out for the "sore losers," Toyota, on the track next year. The fight is not over!
http://newsroom.toyota.co.jp/en/detail/12476843/
 
the big boss of toyota is called toyoda?

that's unfortunate :lol:
 
Gutted to see Toyota go out like that, they deserved a Le Mans win at this point. Porsche gave them credit for their tough competition through the 24 hours. After all, Porsche are no strangers to mechanical faults putting them out of contention in the last hour, most recently this happened in 2014. Also, this isn't the first time Toyota have been a close runner up with their leading car succumbing to mechanical issues just before the finish, 1994 and 1998 springs to mind.

Race highlights:
 
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anyone else thinks ford should shut up about their category win?

Ford crew on Le Mans GT win: ?We?ll go down in history?

you won the fucking GT category! big woop
especially since it's a brand new car, which hadn't shown its capabilities beforehand and was treated very generous by the BoP
if you want bragging rights, go for an all out win!
they won the race, but in my eyes, haven't "achieved" anything
 
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Ford can go fuck themselves with the GT.
 
anyone else thinks ford should shut up about their category win?

Ford crew on Le Mans GT win: ?We?ll go down in history?

you won the fucking GT category! big woop
especially since it's a brand new car, which hadn't shown its capabilities beforehand and was treated very generous by the BoP
if you want bragging rights, go for an all out win!
they won the race, but in my eyes, haven't "achieved" anything

Ford doesn't give two shits about the overall win. They wanted to come back and beat Ferrari, Ferrari doesn't race LMP so they did it in GTE. They achieved exactly what they set out to do, and as a bonus produced maximum butthurt.
 
Ford doesn't give two shits about the overall win. They wanted to come back and beat Ferrari, Ferrari doesn't race LMP so they did it in GTE. They achieved exactly what they set out to do, and as a bonus produced maximum butthurt.

Are you aware of the politics behind it? I don't think so, otherwise you'd probably understand why it caused the by you so-called "butthurt".
 
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