Le Mans 2016 (Hours 1 to 6): Conway stars

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Venturi’s Mike Conway shone in the early stages of the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours, battling for the lead in his Toyota in a three-way battle with Porsche’s Brendon Hartley and fellow Formula E racer Loïc Duval at Audi.

After a race that started under the safety car due to heavy rain, Conway in the #6 Toyota got an early jump on the field when the green flag finally flew – moving up from 3rd to 1st in a single lap passing both the leading Porsche cars. He put in several blistering laps early on, as did team-mate Sébastien Buemi (Renault e.dams) driving the #5 sister car, moving up to P2. Pitting later that the Porsche and Audi cars ahead, both Toyota’s lost out on the first round of stops, but as the first few hours went on proved to be able to run longer stints – 14 laps on one tank of fuel as opposed to 12 or 13 laps for both German manufacturers.

While Buemi’s pace dropped after a few hours, Conway’s did not, the Brit setting the fastest lap of the race and being involved in a three way lead battle with Hartley and Duval (Dragon Racing) as one car from each of the three manufacturers was involved. On lap 54, a few laps after Duval had handed his Audi over to Oliver Jarvis, both Conway and Buemi pitted to swap with Kamui Kobayashi and Anthony Davidson respectively. Davidson unfortunately had to pit the very next lap to replace a tyre, wiping out a lot of Buemi’s hard work. Kobayashi was initially not able to match the pace of Conway, dropping off the lead now held by Mark Webber after he took over from Hartley. However he set a new fastest lap and is still in contention for the lead, with the Toyota still able to run more laps per stint than the Porsche. ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport’s Lucas di Grassi has now taken over the #8 Audi from Jarvis and is still running in the top five. Stéphane Sarrazin (Venturi) is yet to drive, and should soon take over from Kobayashi.

It has been a difficult day for the only all-Formula E driver trio in the field, with the #12 Rebellion Racing car started by Nick Heidfeld (Mahindra Racing) and shared with Nelson Piquet Jr of NEXTEV TCR (who has done the bulk of the driving so far) and Nicolas Prost (Renault e.dams), which stopped under the safety car at the start, dropping all the way to P60 after repairs had to be carried out on a misfire. They battled their way back up towards the front before having to pit again for repairs. The car is still in the pits and sliding down the order once more, currently 12 laps off the lead.

In the LMP2 category, Mahindra Racing’s Bruno Senna is now in the #43 RGR Sport by Morand car he shares with Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzalez. However, after a strong opening to the race, the car suffered mechanical issues and had to pit; the trio is now down in 50th overall with Senna looking to work his way up the field.

A better race has been had by Team Aguri’s René Rast so far – the LMP2 polesitting #26 G-Drive Racing car was started by the German driver, and he was battling for the class lead for most of his stint, although varying pit strategies meant that the battle for the lead was constantly changing. He handed the car over to Will Stevens after a successful stint, but unfortunately the Brit left the engine on during refuelling, which is not allowed, resulting in a drive-through penalty for the trio. However the car is still 4th in class, currently in the hands of Roman Rusinov.

Also in LMP2, former Formula E racers Ho-Pin Tung and Nathanaël Berthon are 10th and 13th in class respectively, Tung in the #35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine and Berthon in the #41 Greaves Motorsport machine.

Finally in GTE Pro, DS Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird started the #71 AF Corse Ferrari and had an eventful first stint, trading 5th in class with Earl Bamber (last year’s overall race winner) and showing strong pace. Andrea Bertolini is now in the #71 car and lying 6th in class. Former NEXTEV TCR racer Antonio García started at the back of the field in the #63 Corvette. He and team-mates Jan Magnussen and Ricky Taylor have battled up to 10th in class at the six hour mark.

Laurence Thorn and Renate Jungert | e-racing.net

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Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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