A look back at Le Mans ELMS Teams II : They made it to the podium !

JOTA Sport – No.38 Zytek Nissan Z11 SN - 1st LMP2

Lying second in the ELMS Championship following the first two rounds of the season, the British JOTA Sport team had an eventful start to their Le Mans weekend as, between Wednesday's free practice and qualifying and Thursday's qualifying, the driver line up was altered.  Following Loïc Duval's accident (Audi No.1 in free practice) which prevented him from being allowed to race, Audi Sport made the decision to replace Duval in the LMP1-H with Marc Gené, at the time entered with JOTA Sport. 

The team's management thus chose to bring back its 2013 driver, Oliver Turvey, who quickly reintegrated himself into the team and qualified in order to take the start. By Thursday midnight it was mission accomplished, as the team qualified alongside the Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier on the front row of the LMP2 grid.

Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Oliver Turvey ran a sensible and trouble-free race, fighting the whole time to stay in the top three during the two turns round the clock. They took advantage of the No.46 Ligier's technical failure to go to the head of the class and kept it to the chequered flag, finishing Le Mans one lap ahead of the French car.

Thiriet by TDS Racing – No.46 Ligier JS P2 – 2nd LMP2

The Thiriet by TDS Racing team took a big risk for its first 24 Hours of Le Mans. Currently leading the 2014 European Le Mans Series classifications, the Montpellier-based team launched its attack on the largest endurance race in the world with a brand new car, the Ligier JS P2, which only ran on track for the first time less than a month ago. After the qualifying sessions, during which the drivers and engineers learnt a great deal more about the car, team manager Xavier Combet was confident about the car's set up and performance. Very conscious of its newness, however, the team manager's wish was above all to see the chequered flag. The team did far better than that as it finished on the second step of the podium of the 82nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

Starting from pole position, the No.46 Ligier JS P2 remained unvarying and consistent throughout the first 19 hours of the race, running between 2nd and 4th places in LMP2, and jostling for position with Signatech Alpine behind the official OAK Racing No.35 Ligier Nissan. Competitive throughout the race, Pierre Thiriet was behind the wheel of the No.46 when he was able to profit from the No.35's technical problem in the 14th hour of the race, moving into first place in class.  

Unfortunately, the team had a front suspension problem an hour later, then punctures, an electrical issue and a clutch problem ... fate was set against the Montpellier team towards the end of the race, but the Thiriet by TDS Racing family wouldn't give up. Tristan Gommendy, Ludovic Badey and Pierre Thiriet rewarded their new car and their team with a wonderful second place in LMP2 for the team's first participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Signatech Alpine – No.36 Alpine A450b Nissan – 3rd LMP2

European championship title-holders in the 2013 ELMS, and currently third in the 2014 standings, Signatech Alpine had made every effort to make the 82nd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans a true event for the team. After having made its return to endurance racing in 2013 and at Le Mans last year, the Signatech Alpine team, which included this year two “rookies" (Paul-Loup Chatin and Oliver Webb), reached its goal by claiming the much-coveted third place step on the podium following a hard-fought race between the three main protagonists of both the class and, indeed, the season. 

From the third hour of the race onwards, the Alpine A450b had a good number of laps in the lead of the LMP2 class, thanks mostly to very good tyre management during the two showers that beat down on the Circuit des 24 Heures.   Victim of a left front upright problem, the Alpine A450b had to pit to make repairs, and lost three places to go from second to fifth in the LMP2 standings after 19 hours of racing.  Determined to claim that Le Mans podium, the team calmly and steadily set about achieving that goal.