Rajan’s 20 top shots from Le Mans

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Once again, Le Mans has quite frankly been the motorsport event of the year. Our photographer Rajan Jangda has been keeping an eye (or better: his lens) on the Formula E drivers taking part in the event and after countless hours of decision-making, here are his 20 top shots of the weekend.

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Upright Is Open To Interpretation: The #41 Greaves Motorsport Ligier awaits its team photograph after emerging from the scrutineering tent in Place De La Republique. Is it the car which is upright or the tyre labelling?

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The People’s Champion: Everyone had a part of them which wanted this car to win, slowly rolling across the tarmac to the scrutineering tent 6 days before the race. As you bring your eye level closer to the ground the presence of this car grows even further.

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The Centre of Attention: The Audi R18s absolutely surrounded by DSLRs, compact and phone cameras. These cars were stalked more than Brad Pitt before and after the race.

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Warning! Sharp Objects: The great thing about the Audis is that they not only sound like stealth bombers, but they also look part crossed with a mad Michael Bay movie contraption, every little detail is an angle waiting to happen.

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Night Moves: There’s a reason why there’s always so many photographers hanging about at the Ford Chicane at night, multiple sources of light bouncing off the cars, from the floodlights, grandstands, elaborate hospitality buildings and other cars, fortunately timed here with the #2 Porsche’s pole lap.

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Sounds Like Thunder, Looks Like Thunder: The Corvette’s engine sounds well and truly like the sound of thunder harnessed into an engine, it pretty much is with the 8 cylinders of the apocalypse.

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Before The Rain: The last shot I took before the red flag on Thursday night which was followed by some of the heaviest rain I’ve had to shield my equipment from. Just by looking at this you could never tell that it was going to rain the way it did.

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Some Things Never Change: Once this curve at the start of the lap was a flatout charge without the chicanes on either end, a long endless run from the old Maison Blanche (which is now the D139) to the old Forest Esses. Nonetheless, the speed carried through here is insane despite the proximity of chicanes.

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Indianapolis Away From Indianapolis: Here’s why it’s called Indianapolis; that banking. This isn’t an artistic tilt or lean, this shot is actually taken upright and the banking is that steep and just so happens to be one of the best places to watch the sun go down.

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Waved Flags: At any given moment during the race there is probably at least one flag being waved at some part of the track, whether it’s blue, yellow, green, striped or meatball. The marshals easily have one of the toughest jobs at the track.

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Sun Stroked: Harsh lit sunsets are almost a hallmark of this race, if you pick your spots right you will be chasing gold-lit silhouettes through the shadows and into the sun.

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Perfect Sunset: I took a gamble on going to inside the Golf Curves and Indianapolis for sunset after shooting it from the outside the previous year, and boy did it pay off. The light was amazing, it bathed the track perfectly in patches of sun breaking through the trees.

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The Runway to Porsche: This stretch of track left me amazed as the cars tore past in the dark, lighting up the track and the reflective stickers on the barriers, it felt like I was watching a live and constant rendition of those posters you used to see of Concorde landing on an airport runway at night.

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Frame Intruders: Some people would usually complain about shot obstructions, but I see them as a challenge to be creative. Here I took a few minutes out to study the behaviour of the cars and how other cars intruded the frame then waited for a cluster of cars to compose something a little different.

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Conventions Are Made To Be Broken: The Dunlop Bridge has stood at Le Mans since 1932, and as much as it would be cool to shoot it square on, that’s just too conventional for my liking, and what better way to break convention than to shoot the car that defied the convention of petrol.

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Battlescars: These are the marks that victory leaves on a car at Le Mans; fluid, flies and debris. All these scars tell the story of the race, they are like a bayeux tapestry on the winning car.

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Pumped Back To Life: The #1 Porsche was favourite to win for many people, but unfortunately they would lose about an hour through a water pump failure at night. Luckily thanks to the race being a double points round of WEC, it was back out.

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Even Mulsanne Has Heard About The Bird: Hour 2, and DS Virgin’s Sam Bird flies on a prancing horse down the Mulsanne Straight, spreading mass awareness of the avian variety. Unfortunately, the car would drop out despite early signs for being able to take the fight to Ford.

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Taken Liberties: Gravel, rubber, dirt, debris, fluid, flies (trust me on that last one) and other bi-products lined the edges of the racetrack during hour 22, something that is usually ignored during the actual race itself.

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The One That Got Away: This is the last shot I would take of the leading #5 Toyota before an almost certain victory was cruelly taken from them.

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Image courtesy of Rajan Jangda

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