2017 24 Hours of Le Mans

The FIA World Motor Sport Council confirmed the date for the 2017 race at a press conference held by race organiser Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) on 16 June 2016 at the Musée des 24 Heures du Mans. The event was held for the 85th time at the Circuit de la Sarthe from 17 to 18 June 2017, The race was scheduled to avoid clashes with other major motorsport events, which occurred in 2016 (when it was held the same day as the ). Before the race, Toyota drivers Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima and Sébastien Buemi led the World Endurance Drivers' Championship with 50 points17 more than second-place Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley, and another five more than Neel Jani, Nick Tandy and André Lotterer in third. Toyota led the World Manufacturers' Championship with 69.5 points, 7.5 ahead of second-place Porsche. Ford Chip Ganassi Racing's Pipo Derani, Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell led the GT World Endurance Drivers' Championship by two points over AF Corse's Sam Bird and Davide Rigon, and Ferrari led Ford by seven points in the GT World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship. ==Regulation and circuit changes==

Following the 2016 race, when the lead car failed to complete the final lap and was eventually not classified in the final results, the standards for car classification were changed by the ACO. Instead of the mandatory six minutes for the race's final lap, penalties were assessed on a graduated scale for any lap exceeding six minutes. Failure to complete the race's final lap in under fifteen minutes no longer led to a car being classified. The event's slow-zone system was also revised, with nine dedicated slow zones around the circuit. Previously, individual marshal posts were used to mark the beginning and end of slow zones. The dedicated zones were located so the beginning of is in a slow section of the circuit; previous slow zones could begin in areas of the track where cars were required to slow down from high speeds, causing accidents. The circuit was modified from the Porsche Curves to the Ford Chicane. The run-off area where the last right-hand turn goes into the left-hand corner, which begins the Corvette corner, was widened, with the barrier at the Porsche Curves moved further back. The angle of the wall at the left-hand entry to the short straight before the Ford Chicane was also altered. The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was revamped with the introduction of a single specification engine from Gibson, with increased power output compared to 2016 LMP2 cars. Cockpit and chassis designs mimicked the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) regulations for safety. The four approved chassis manufacturers were Dallara, Ligier, Oreca and Riley. ==Entries==

Automatic invitations Teams which won their class in the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans or won championships in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS), Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) and GT3 Le Mans Cup (GT3 LMC) earned automatic invitations. The 2016 ELMS Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) championship runner-up received an automatic invitation. The ACO gave two participants selected from the IMSA SportsCar Championship (IMSA) automatic entries, regardless of performance or category. When teams received invitations, they were allowed to change cars (but not their category) from the previous year. The LMGTE-class invitations from the ELMS and ALMS allowed a choice between the Pro and Am categories. ELMS' Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) champion was required to field an entry in LMP2, and the 2016–17 ALMS LMP3 champion could choose between LMP2 or LMGTE Am. The 2016 GT3 LMC champions were limited to the LMGTE Am category. The ACO issued its initial list of automatic entries on 23 January 2017. The ACO initially named two cars to the reserve list; RLR MSport later withdrew their LMP2 Ligier, and a fourth entry (from Proton Competition) was not promoted to the race. Audi Sport Team Joest's withdrawal from LMP1 reduced the class to six entries for the race. Garage 56 The Garage 56 concept, which began in 2012 to test new technology at Le Mans, was to be continued by the ACO. Welter Racing intended to enter a three-cylinder prototype vehicle powered by biomethane fuel, stored in cryogenic tanks which could withstand very low temperatures, to concentrate and maximise fuel volume. Due to funding issues, the car was not entered in the race. ==Pre-race balance of performance changes==

The ACO and the FIA altered the balance of performance (BoP) in the two LMGTE categories in an attempt to eliminate sandbagging. To reduce performance, the Ford GT received a minimum weight increase and reduced turbocharger boost across all RPM levels. The Aston Martin Vantage was made heavier with an air restrictor elongated by , and the Chevrolet Corvette C7.R had less fuel capacity and its air restrictor lengthened by . Porsche's 911 RSR received a minimum weight increase of , and its air restrictor was lengthened by . The LMGTE Am-class Porsche 911 RSR's ballast was increased by ; the Ferrari 488 GTE and Aston Martin Vantage's ballasts were decreased by and , respectively. All three cars had minor power and restrictor adjustments. ==Testing==

On 4 June, the circuit held two mandatory four-hour sessions as part of a pre-Le Mans testing day. The morning session, held on a dirty track with lap times improving throughout, was led by pre-race favourite Toyota; Oreca 07s led LMP2 with 13 cars leading the time sheets, led by André Negrão's No. 36 Signatech Alpinethe sole driver to lap below 3 minutes 30 seconds with a 3-minutes 29.809-second lap, ahead of Rebellion and Graff. Nelson Panciatici's No. 35 Signatech Alpine lapped faster in LMP2 than Jean-Éric Vergne's No. 24 Manor and Alex Brundle's No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry to lead the sole LMP1 privateer (Dominik Kraihamer's No. 4 ByKolles Racing ENSO CLM P1/01). Gavin missed 91 minutes due to a mid-session engine change but set the day's best LMGTE Pro lap (3 minutes 54.701 seconds) towards the end of the test, beating Frédéric Makowiecki's No. 92 Porsche. Aston Martin led LMGTE Am with Pedro Lamy's 3-minute 58.250-second lap from Fernando Rees' Larbre Compétition Corvette. Post-testing balance of performance changes After testing, the FIA re-adjusted the BoP. The LMGTE Pro-category Corvettes had their performance lowered with an air-restrictor reduction. The Aston Martins, Ferraris, Fords, and Porsches received fuel-capacity increases to equalise refuelling times and stint lengths. The LMGTE Am-class Aston Martin and Ferraris increased their fuel capacity, with the Ferraris receiving turbocharger boost pressure increases. == Practice ==

Practice was held on 14 June, with all 60 cars on the circuit for four hours in hot and sunny weather. Toyota led from the start once again, with Nicolas Lapierre setting the early pace and leading for most of the session until Bamber went faster. Kobayashi improved until Jani's lap of 3 minutes 20.362 seconds with five minutes remaining led the session. Alex Lynn's No. 26 G-Drive Racing car led LMP2 with less than forty minutes left, with a 3-minute 30.363-second lap from Nelson Piquet Jr.'s No. 13 Rebellion. Bruno Senna's sister No. 31 Rebellion was third. ==Qualifying==

Beginning late Wednesday night in clear conditions, the first of three qualifying sessions to set the race's starting order by the fastest lap times set by each team's quickest driver commenced. Due to a significant practice incident in the first Road to Le Mans race, the start was delayed by 20 minutes for barrier repairs at the Porsche Curves. Slow zones and yellow flags limited the amount of quick running, and the rapidly-cooling track meant that the best chance to set the fastest lap times was missed. The session's first timed laps saw Porsche lead early on with a benchmark effort from Jani, followed by Bernhard's 3-minute 19.710-second lap. Fifteen minutes later, Kobayashi had no slower traffic impeding him and took provisional pole position with a 3-minute 18.793-second lap. When it restarted, Kobayashi exited the pit lane early; aided by tailwinds on the Mulsanne Straight and headwinds through the Porsche Curves, he reset the track lap record to 3 minutes 14.791 seconds. Petrov's Manor set a new LMP2 class lap record of 3 minutes 25.549 seconds, more than a second faster than rookie Thomas Laurent in DC's No. 38 entry and Vergne's second Manor; Petrov demoted the ByKolles car to seventh overall. but Kobayashi's time was not bested. He took Toyota's third pole position at Le Mans and their first since 2014. Nakajima lapped more than two seconds faster, putting the No. 8 Toyota alongside the sister No. 7 car. Porsche failed to improve from the second session, finishing third and fourth. Lapierre improved early on to go fifth. Lynn reset the LMP2 lap record early on by 11.3 seconds over the 2016 time, demoting the No. 25 Manor Oreca to second. Ho-Pin Tung's No. 38 DC car took third, battling with Senna for the position. The Oreca chassis, as well as the variant Alpine chassis, secured the first nine positions in LMP2; the Dallara of SMP Racing was the fastest of the other chassis, in tenth place. Calado separated the two cars in the closing minutes, and Bird came within 0.048 seconds of Stanaway. All five of LMGTE Pro's manufacturers were within a second of Turner's lap, with the fastest Ford in fifth courtesy of Ryan Briscoe, Antonio García sixth for Corvette, and Porsche seventh through Michael Christensen. Qualifying results Provisional pole positions in each class are denoted in bold. The fastest time set by each entry is denoted with a gray background. ==Warm-up==

A 45-minute warm-up session was held on Saturday morning. Nakajima's No. 8 Toyota set the fastest lap at 3 minutes 18.308 seconds; Kobayashi's sister Toyota was three-tenths of a second slower in second. The best-placed Porsche was Tandy's No. 1 car in third, having led for most of the session. Kunimoto and Hartley were fourth and fifth, respectively. Lynn set the fastest LMP2 lap at 3 minutes 27.096 seconds. Briscoe's No. 69 Ford led in LMGTE Pro, with Bertolini's No. 83 DH Racing Ferrari fastest in LMGTE Am by over a second. Paul Lafargue oversteered the No. 17 IDEC car in the Porsche Curves, made contact with the barriers before stopping in the gravel trap and returned to the pit lane for repairs. ==Race==

Start to evening led most of the first ten hours before retiring with clutch trouble. The weather was hot, with an air temperature of ; the track temperature ranged from . Formula One Group's chair and chief executive Chase Carey waved the French tricolour to begin the race before 258,500 spectators with a rolling start at 15:00 local time. Mike Conway maintained the No. 7 Toyota's pole-position advantage for most of the first hour, before Buemi overtook him on the outside into Indianapolis turn for the lead after Conway made a braking error at the Dunlop Esses. The first retirement occurred during the opening hour when Webb's No. 4 ByKolles car hit the wall at Tertre Rouge corner after suffering a front-left puncture, damaging both its front bodywork and engine. As the class pole-sitter No. 26 G-Drive Oreca of Roman Rusinov dropped to 14th at the start, the LMP2 lead became a multi-team battle between the No. 38 DC car and the Nos. 13 and 31 Rebellion Racing teams between pit stop cycles. Rusinov caught Khaled Al Qubaisi's No. 88 Proton Porsche and lapped him in the middle of the Porsche Curves before both drivers crashed into the SAFER barrier at high speed. Although both cars could be driven to the pit lane, they had severe damage and were retired. The accident triggered the race's first localised slow-zone procedure to enable repairs to the barrier. On the Mulsanne Straight, Conway retook the overall lead in the No. 7 Toyota when his teammate (Buemi, in the sister No. 8 car) went wide at Mulsanne turn. After Marco Sørensen relieved Thiim in the No. 95 Aston Martin, he was slowed by a left-rear puncture from debris at Tertre Rouge corner. Sørensen relinquished the LMGTE Pro lead to Daniel Serra's sister No. 97 Aston Martin, with the No. 67 Ford in second. After three-and-a-half hours, Bamber's No. 2 Porsche was forced to the garage for 65 minutesand 18 lapsto fix a failed front-axle hybrid harvesting motor which required multiple components (including the motor generator unit). Tandy's No. 1 Porsche overtook Davidson's No. 8 Toyota for second overall after a pit-stop cycle, challenging the No. 7 Toyota for the lead. Kaffer was unhurt, but a lengthy slow zone was imposed by race officials to allow for barrier repairs; Vaxivière received a seven-minute stop-and-go penalty for the accident. The slowdown brought the leading cars together and Senna extend the No. 31 LMP2 Rebellion Oreca car's lead to over 90 seconds over his teammate, Piquet, in the second-place No. 13 entry. Although Kunimoto had to make an unscheduled pit stop to repair a loose right-side door, the No. 9 Toyota remained fourth. The No. 98 Aston Martin relinquished its lead in the LMGTE Am category to the No. 84 JMW Ferrari of Stevens when Lamy had a front-right puncture from debris. This removed the bodywork from the car's front-right corner, and Lamy dropped to the rear of the category when he made an unscheduled 18-minute pit stop for repairs. Senna's No. 31 Rebellion car received a drive-through penalty for passing another car in a slow zone. He dropped from the lead of LMP2 to third, and his teammate Piquet, driving the No. 13 Rebellion entry, became the new class leader. Buemi was battling Jani's No. 1 Porsche when the No. 8 Toyota began to leak oil, but telemetry indicated no issues. Due to a battery-damaging axle hybrid motor failure emitting smoke from the front-right wheel arch, he lost 29 laps and nearly two hours while components were changed in the garage. Olivier Pla got the No. 66 Ford stuck in the left-hand turn gravel run-off area after the Indianapolis corner early in the tenth hour; the car was recovered, leaving gravel on the racing line. The incident led to the race's first safety car's a half-hour for debris removal. During the slow period, Jani spun the No. 1 Porsche at the pit-lane entry but did not lose position. The No. 7 Toyota's retirement promoted Tandy's No. 1 Porsche to the race lead, Lapierre's No. 9 Toyota to second and Rebellion's No. 31 LMP2-class-leading entry to third overall. Soon after, in the Dunlop Chicane, Simon Trummer's No. 25 Manor Oreca and Lapierre's No. 9 Toyota's left and right rear corners collided. Lapierre drove too fast, and rubber chunks from the disintegrating tyre's rim damaged the gearbox hydraulics and an oil line. When racing resumed, Tandy slowed the race-leading No. 1 Porsche because he had a nine-lap lead over the LMP2 order. After the race's halfway point, Nicolas Prost's No. 31 Rebellion Oreca car entered the garage for an inspection due to a reported gearbox problem. The inspection took five minutes, and the car dropped to fourth in LMP2 (giving Tung's No. 38 DC car the category lead). Christensen lost control of the No. 92 Porsche on the Ford Chicane kerb, heavily damaging the car's rear on the tyre barrier before stopping in the gravel and retired behind the barrier. The safety cars were deployed for the third and final time (for 24 minutes) to allow for barrier repairs and the extrication of the stricken car after Emmanuel Collard crashed the No. 28 TDS Oreca into the tyre wall exiting the Porsche Curves at high speed. Collard sustained bruising and exited the car unaided; he was transported to the medical centre and then Le Mans Hospital for checks. Morning After green-flag racing resumed in the early morning, a slow zone was imposed when James Allen beached the No. 40 Graff entry in the gravel trap on the left-hand Indianapolis turn after contact with the barrier and was pushed back onto the circuit. Tung used the slow zone to return the No. 38 DC car to the LMP2 lead when Piquet's No. 13 Rebellion entry lost a minute in it. Calado's No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari had to drop out of the LMGTE Pro lead battle when Calado and Rob Bell's No. 90 TF Aston Martin collided at the second Mulsanne chicane; they went to the garage to repair front bodywork damage and a rear diffuser replacement, respectively. The No. 95 Aston Martin relinquished the LMGTE Pro lead to Jordan Taylor's No. 63 Corvette, which cycled to Makowiecki's No. 92 Porsche on pit-stop rotation when driver Stanaway, on cold tyres after a scheduled pit stop, damaged the car's left front corner against the tyre wall at the Mulsanne hairpin. Stanaway entered the pit lane for quick repairs and Thiim relieved him. The No. 31 Rebellion car stopped in the garage for more than an hour to replace gearbox internals, Will Owen, driving United Autosports' No. 32 car, was fourth in LMP2 when he spun twice (at Indianapolis corner and the Porsche Curves) and David Cheng's No. 37 DC entry passed him. Dries Vanthoor lost control of JMW's Ferrari at the pit-lane entry, but retained the LMGTE Am lead. Hartley recovered the No. 2 Porsche to fifth overall by the 20th hour, and the LMGTE Pro lead battle was between three cars: the No. 97 Aston Martin, the No. 63 Corvette and the No. 91 Porsche. 's No. 38 Oreca 07 took the race lead from the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid, following its retirement. Lotterer's No. 1 Porsche slowed at the Dunlop Curves after 20 hours and 10 minutes when the engine lost oil pressure. Lotterer attempted to return to the pit lane on hybrid power, but was advised to stop and abandon the car on the Mulsanne Straight when Porsche believed the problem could not be fixed and did not want a slow zone or safety car to slow Hartley. Laurent's LMP2-category-leading No. 38 DC Oreca car moved to the race lead after the No. 1 Porsche retired, making him the first LMP2 overall leader in race history. Mathias Beche (second overall) received a stop-and-go while adjusting the brake duct and rear of the No. 13 Rebellion vehicle, and he fell behind Hartley's recovering No. 2 Porsche. Laurent lost a minute in the pit lane when the No. 38 DC car's rear bodywork was changed to repair faulty rear brake lights before Bernhard unlapped the Oreca entry to return the No. 2 Porsche to the lead lap, as he was lapping significantly faster on average than the LMP2 car, at a rate of almost ten seconds. Makowiecki's No. 91 Porsche exited the LMGTE Pro race after suffering a left-front puncture and making an unscheduled pit stop. Bernhard closed up on Tung's No. 38 DC Oreca car and overtook it on the inside on the right-hand kink into Indianapolis turn for the race lead with just over one hour remaining. Adam's No. 97 Aston Martin tried to pass Taylor's No. 63 Corvette for the LMGTE Pro lead, but ran wide and hit the Corvette. He tried again after Taylor drove across the gravel trap at the second Mulsanne Straight chicane and took the category lead on the start-finish straight with two laps remaining, which he maintained to the finish. The No. 38 DC Oreca entry led the final 141 laps of LMP2 to win the category and finish second overall, a lap down. Tincknell's No. 67 Ford took second in class with a last-lap pass of Taylor's No. 63 Corvette, which had bodywork damage and a slow front-left puncture. JMW, unchallenged since the race's eighth hour, won the LMGTE Am class with the No. 84 Ferrari leading the last 234 laps. The Spirit of Race and Scuderia Corsa Ferraris completed the category podium, two laps behind in second and third. == Post-race ==

The top three teams in each of the four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies, and spoke to the media at a later press conference. Bamber called Porsche's victory incredibly nerve-wracking. A great fightback from us, and one of those fairytale Le Mans stories I think. Hartley added, You can't write these stories. It's Le Mans. It's always unpredictable. Sometimes at the beginning of the race you don't believe that such a story exists. But it did. Oliver Jarvis said, We can't be disappointed winning LMP2 and finishing second, but there was a moment when I saw the #1 Porsche at the side of the track and thought we could actually win! It would have been incredible. Jota Sport team director Sam Hignett said an LMP2 car winning overall might have been legendary with a little bit more luck, but the team was delighted to achieve its objectives. FIA president Jean Todt said that LMP2 cars driven by unknown drivers leading the race and finishing on the overall podium were great for racing. After the race, third-place-overall finisher No. 13 Rebellion Oreca was disqualified by race officials after it was found that the team had modified its rear bodywork by cutting a hole to allow them to access a faulty starter motor; it was declared an unnecessary modification of approved bodywork. The disqualification moved the second Jackie Chan DC Racing car to third place overall, and second in class. Rebellion Racing issued a statement admitting an error of judgement. Rusinov was assessed a three-minute penalty at the following 6 Hours of Nürburgring, with three additional stop-and-go penalties suspended for the following three FIA WEC events, for his second-hour collision with Al-Qubaisi's Porsche. Rusinov called the penalty a very harsh decision, saying that he had apologised to Al-Quabisi and his team; Al-Quabisi told Rusinov that he would have allowed him past at the next corner. Toyota president Akio Toyoda suggested that hybrid technology may not yet have been developed enough to cope with the event's demands. Oreca president Hugues de Chaunac echoed Toyoda, suggesting that the state of LMP1 hybrid cars were too convoluted. Porsche team principal Andreas Seidl felt that the hybrid failures were a consequence of faster racing, and Porsche had not experienced such problems. Jarvis said that ACO rule changes attempting to slow the LMP1 hybrid cars were ineffective and impaired reliability. Capillaire apologised to Toyota (which was accepted) for indirectly causing the No. 7 car's retirement, saying that he ran across the pit lane to encourage Kobayashi. Kobayashi said "It is so disappointing" following his retirement and that he felt very sad for all of the Toyota staff. Prodrive chairman David Richards praised the extraordinary team effort of his Aston Martin team to win LMGTE Pro; Adam called his pursuit of Taylor the stint of my life, saying that his team's reaction to his race-winning overtake of Taylor was quite emotional. Bamber, Bernhard, and Hartley took the Drivers' Championship lead with 83 points; Buemi, Davidson, and Nakajima fell to second with 66, and Jarvis, Laurent, and Tung moved from sixth to third. Porsche overtook Toyota to lead the Manufacturers' Championship by 28.5 points. Derani, Priaulx, and Tincknell remained the GT World Endurance Drivers' Championship leaders, with Adam, Serra, and Turner second. Ford took the GT World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship lead from Ferrari with six races left in the season. ==Official results==

The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 257 laps. Class winners are in bold. ==Championship standings after the race==

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for the Drivers' Championship standings. • Note: Only the top five positions are included for the Drivers' Championship standings. ==Footnotes==