Global Information2017 24 Hours of Le Mans information
Index: Races | Winners | |||
The 85th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 85e 24 Heures du Mans) was a 24-hour automobile endurance race for 60 teams of three drivers in Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars. It was held from 17 to 18 June 2017 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, before 258,500 spectators. The race's 85th running, organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, was the third of nine rounds in the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship. A test day was held two weeks earlier on 4 June.
Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard, and Brendon Hartley drove a Porsche 919 Hybrid to victory, taking the lead in the final two hours. It was Bamber and Bernhard's second Le Mans victory, Hartley's first, and Porsche's 19th. Toyota's Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson, and Kazuki Nakajima finished eighth in a TS050 Hybrid after starting second, and were the only other competitors in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) field to finish the race. Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent, and Ho-Pin Tung of Jackie Chan DC Racing's Oreca 07-Gibson won the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category; they led the race for nearly two hours in the closing stages before finishing second overall. The second DC Racing entry of David Cheng, Tristan Gommendy, and Alex Brundle finished third overall, three laps ahead of the Signatech Alpine of André Negrão, Nelson Panciatici, and Pierre Ragues.
The Aston Martin Vantage shared by Jonathan Adam, Daniel Serra, and Darren Turner overtook the stricken Chevrolet Corvette C7.R of Antonio García, Jan Magnussen, and Jordan Taylor in the final two laps to win the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) category for Aston Martin Racing. On the final lap, a Ford GT passed the Corvette to take second place for Pipo Derani, Andy Priaulx, and Harry Tincknell. The JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE shared by Robert Smith, Will Stevens, and Dries Vanthoor won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) class. Spirit of Race's Marco Cioci, Duncan Cameron, and Aaron Scott and Scuderia Corsa's Townsend Bell, Cooper MacNeil, and Bill Sweedler completed the class podium for Ferraris in second and third.
Bamber, Bernhard ,and Hartley took the World Endurance Drivers' Championship lead from Buemi, Nakajima, and Davidson by 17 points. Jarvis, Laurent, and Tung moved to third after their LMP2-class victory. Derani, Priaulx, and Tincknell stayed first in the GT World Endurance Drivers' Championship, with Adam, Serra, and Turner's category win, moving them to second. Porsche overtook Toyota to lead the World Manufacturers' Championship by 28.5 points, as Ford passed Ferrari for the GT World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship lead with six races left in the season.