Nico Hulkenberg wins Le Mans for Porsche as last year’s winner Audi finishes in third position

14 June 2015: Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg drove Porsche to victory at the 24-hour race at Le Mans 2015, alongwith team mates Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber. Mark Webber in another Porsche came second and Audi followed in third position. It was the first success for Porsche who returned to Le Mans in 2014 after a 16-year gap, ending a long string of wins for Audi, who was aiming for its 14th victory.

Le Mans is one of the world’s biggest sporting events and known as the ‘Grand Prix of Endurance Racing’. It is amongst the oldest and most prestigious automobile races, attracting hundreds of thousands of fans, celebrity guests and television audiences across the world.

While Audi’s record at Le Mans has been consistently impressive, this time last year’s winners André Lotterer (D), Marcel Fässler (CH) and Benoît Tréluyer (F) managed to finish third in their Audi R18 e-tron quattro, despite an early puncture and a large section of the engine hood coming apart that required unscheduled pit stops for repairs.

Lotterer also achieved a new track record with a lap time of 3m 17.475s on lap 337.

Audi and Porsche with two completely different concepts of hybrid race cars were practically driving on the same level throughout the entire race as the lead kept changing. But both Group brands with their concepts were clearly faster than Toyota.

Before the start of the event, France’s President François Hollande also visited the pit and met with the teams.