THE ELMS ON THE PODIUM AT LE MANS

The Oreca 03-Nissan then fell victim to some of the traps that are part and parcel of the Sarthe classic, including several punctures, and dropped back to sixteenth in the category. It then fought its way up through the pack to a well-deserved second place when the chequered flag fell. It was Thiriet by TDS Racing's first outing at Le Mans, and its result has established it as one of the benchmarks in the baby prototype category.

Completing the podium in LM P2 in third place, which it held for most of the race, was Argentinean squad Pecom Racing. The Oreca O3-Nisan driven by Ayari-Kaffer-Perez Companc, handed a stop and go for speeding in the pit lane, got as high as second at half-distance, but was unable to fend off the attacks of the Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca, which pushed it back to third.

In LM GTE AM, the suspense lasted till the very end! The IMSA Performance Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Armindo-Narac-Pons led for most of the race, and finally saw the flag in second place after a thrilling duel with the no. 50 Corvette. It was almost as good as a win for the Normandy-based team, which had a fault-free event, given the fact that the race result was in doubt until the dying seconds of the 24 Hours.

AF Corse, one of whose Ferraris is entered in the ELMS, also had a great 24-Hours weekend winning in LM GTE Pro. Privateer squad JMW Motorsport entered in the same category also had a good race until mechanical problems caused its Ferrari's retirement.