What they said after the 24 Hours of Le Mans (LMP1)
Photo: Porsche Motorsport
Romain Dumas, No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid – 1st overall: “For sure we feel sorry for Toyota. It was a great race. But of course if you get the chance to win Le Mans, you won’t say no thank you. It’s impossible to realize right now what just happened. This year, the lap times were a bit slower due to the regulation changes.”
Neel Jani, No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid – 1st overall: “I feel heartbroken for the Toyota drivers. I think every racing driver knows how this feels like. I still have no words to describe winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is really surreal. Still we drove a very good race with very few mistakes and pushed the car to the maximum. This win is really, really special.”
Marc Lieb, No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid – 1st overall: “It was not at all an easy race with regards to traffic and slow zones. The last quadruple stint I did was really on the edge. Even the first three stints were quite difficult with overtaking in the traffic and taking risks. In the last one I then also had to save fuel, and especially the front tyres that began to lose performance. I gave everything I had – and now I think I have to digest what all has happened today.”
Photo: Adrenal Media / FIA WEC
Stéphane Sarrazin, No.6 Toyota TS050 HYBRID – 2nd overall: “It was amazing; to lose the lead right at the end is just incredible. Even in your worst nightmares you don’t think about that. The team did a great job. Car #6 was fast and fighting for the lead for 20 hours. We showed we have a strong car with good pace and a strong team. But it was incredible to finish like that.”
Mike Conway, No.6 Toyota TS050 HYBRID – 2nd overall: “I have mixed feelings. Second is okay but we are all gutted for car #5. They drove a great race and were controlling it. You could see how upset everyone was; I really feel for them. We were fighting up there all race at the front so it was a good race in terms of the performance of the car. It’s okay to get one car on the podium but we wanted more.”
Kamui Kobayashi,No.6 Toyota TS050 HYBRID – 2nd overall: “Unfortunately our second position was not what we wanted. We are here to win so I am not really happy. We showed the car has strong performance and our car set the fastest lap of the race. I feel really sorry for car #5, all the crew, drivers and engineers. They did a great race. They fought back through difficult moments and deserved to win.”
Photo: Ferdi Kräling Motorsport-Bild GmbH/Audi Sport
Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, Head of Audi Motorsport – No.8 Audi R18 3rd overall: “Unfortunately, neither of our two cars made it over the distance without issues. This weekend once more showed why Le Mans is regarded as the world’s toughest endurance race. I’m proud of our squad having managed to bring both cars home but, obviously, this is not the result we were hoping for. Congratulations to Porsche on their second victory in succession. Following a tremendous race, Toyota, on making their 18th attempt, again just barely missed finally winning Le Mans – that speaks volumes about how incredibly difficult this race is.”
Bart Hayden - REBELLION Racing Team Manager – 1st LMP1 Private Team, 29th overall: “We are happy to secure the LMP1 Privateer win in the 2016 24 Hour race at Le Mans, but we are also somewhat disappointed that we were not able to get both cars to the chequered flag and that we had to spend time in the box repairing the #12 car. It’s true that the Manufacturers also had problems with their cars, so it shows how tough the 24 Hour race at Le Mans is.
“When our cars were running cleanly, the pace was pretty good and car #13 was in fifth place overall on merit when the problem with the fuel injector ended its run; that was a really hard moment.
After the ByKolles car encountered its race-ending problem, we decided to make a precautionary stop to change the injectors in car #12. That lost us more time, but the car made it to the end of the race, so perhaps it was a good decision.
“We had come into the 24 hour race with justified optimism after back-to-back overall podiums in the first two races of the season and were hoping for a really strong result. It’s great to claim the LMP1 Privateer win, but our ambitions were for even more.”
