The 24 Hours of le Mans is rightly described the greatest race in the world. But the 84th running of this amazing event threw up some last minute drama that no scriptwriter could dream of
At the Audi Sport Arena they had already started to pour out the champagne. The Indian press corps, guests of Audi were on the balcony which overlooked the pit entrance at the infamous Circuit Du Sarthe awaiting the leading cars to come past. Your writer waited inside the huge temporary hall where he was watching the second-to-last lap on the giant screen when he noticed something did not look right. The leading Toyota TS50 hybrid racecar, #5 being driven by Kazuki Nakajima had suddenly slowed down on the long Mulsanne straight.
Was there a reason for the slowdownIJ Was the leading Toyota waiting for the #6 Toyota which was running third for a photo-opportunityIJ After all, after a decade and a half of trying, Toyota was finally winning this, the most prestigious of races, the ultimate certification of reliability. A race that in 24 hours covers more kilometers than a whole season of Formula 1 — the leading cars cover over 5,000 kilometers. Each car with three drivers even pushes these men and couple of women to the limit. Drivers, engineers, mechanics, managers and even fans and the media have barely slept over the past day and a half. Why was the Toyota slowing down after 1437 minutes of a race that takes 1440 minutes.
It was not for the other Toyota, which given the 13.6 kilometer length of the circuit was actually ahead of the #5 Toyota on the track. The #2 Porsche which barely fifteen minutes ago was almost a minute behind the lead Toyota was catching up fast. The Porsche driven by Swiss driver Neel Jani was blitzing the lap, knocking thirty seconds off Nakajima’s Toyota in the second sector alone. Something was wrong with Nakajima’s car.
By now, the rest of the media and the guests from the balcony had rushed in, our sleep-deprived minds scarcely able to comprehend what was going on. The commentators were confused, the fans were confused but the fact was that the #2 Porsche swept past the #5 Toyota with two minutes of the race to go And then the #5 Toyota lost power altogether, on the start-finish line. In full public view of over 150,000 people crowding the grandstands. There was insanity on the race radios, commentators were ballistic in French, Spanish, English, Japanese and several other languages.
This has been a crazy, long and often insane race over the years with unbearable tragedy and amazing competitive storylines but never like this. Never has the leading car come to a stop so late in the race. Never has the lead car failed to be classified because of what can only be described as a last-minute mechanical failure as Nakajima spoke that he had “no power”. Hev managed to get the car going again, but because he could not complete a lap in the stipulated six minutes
Even at Audi, whose #8 car somehow managed to finish on the podium, another beneficiary of Toyota’s amazing collapse; the #2 Porsche driven by Jani, Marc lieb and Romain Dumas took the top-step. The #6 Toyota salvaged something for the Japanese team, yet after years of trying and coming second, first to Peugeot for many years then to Audi’s amazing run of wins through the past decade and now Porsche since last year, Toyota just can’t catch a break. Audi Sport whose much redeveloped R18 hybrid racecar has tasted some success at some other endurance races this year (albeit other endurance races are ‘only’ six hours long) managed to continue a run of podium finishes in the top le mans Prototype 1 class that goes back to 1999.
Jani, whose father is a Sindhi originally from Mumbai, won the race for the first time. However, his former colleague at the Red Bull racing academy Sebastien Buemi, Nakajima’s co-driver on the #5 Toyota was left rueing his luck as was another ex-F1 driver Anthony Davidson. Even as the chequered flag fell down, mark Webber, driver of the #1 Porsche as well as Audi Motorsport boss Wolfgang Ullrich were rushing over to Toyota to commiserate. But there was not much to say, Hughes de Chaunac, the Frenchman who runs Toyota’s motorsports team was visibly crying along with several of the mechanics.
The faces of the Japanese Toyota executives was stoic, the same stoicism one seems when a Japanese business executive apologises for a grave error. But this was no fault of theirs, this was heartbreaking for everyone who watching. Even at the Audi Arena, the champagne glasses were put down, even though an eighteenth consecutive podium had been achieved. Other automotive writers, including those who had were shaking their heads in disbelief. Two hours later, when four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel asked about the race result after finishing second at the F1 race in Baku he was stunned enough to blurt out a cussword when he found out what happened. Even Formula 1 drivers realise that the 24 Hours of le Mans is the greatest race.
But there are no prizes for second place, or forty-fifth where the #5 Toyota was finally classified. But there were prizes for America, as Ford won first place in the Grand Touring category with the Ford GT leading to an exhilarated Bill Ford who was jumping up and down. Ford’s famous GT40 had made its mark against the Porsches and Ferraris in the 1960’s and now 50 years later, Ford had returned triumphantly albeit controversially, with several issues for both Ford and Ferrari.
But this race will always be known as the race Toyota did not win. While the trophy will have the name of a Sindhi boy who delivered Stuttgart-based Porsche their 18th overall win at le Mans, this race will always be about the car that did not win.
The the 2016 le Mans will be remembered as Toyota’s race. But as the shuttle driver mentioned as we headed back, “It is the 24 hours of le Mans, not 23 hours 57 minutes, you have to be reliable for 24 hours and sadly the Toyota was not.” He is right on that, but it is thanks to this last minute heartbreak that this race will always remain the greatest race in the world.