2015 24 Hours of Le Mans: LM GTE Pro and LM GTE Amateur race report

In the LM GTE Pro category, the no. 51 Ferrari, led first time round, but it was soon overtaken by the Aston Martins. Porsche lost a car early on when car no. 92’s engine caught fire on Les Hunaudieres with Patrick Pilet at the wheel gladly the driver wasn’t injured. Thus, all the hopes of Team Porsche Manthey reposed on no. 91 that was in third place on Sunday morning but it had to head to the pits owing to a leak in the gearbox. The no. 51 Ferrari let the no. 64 Corvette fight it out with the Aston Martins, and then retook the smartly took the race lead on Sunday morning after which it became involved in a race long battle with the Corvette. Ferrari faced issues with its gearbox thereby handing over the lead to the Corvette. It rejoined third behind its sister car no. 71. Despite Ferrari’s best effort it was Gavin-Taylor-Milner took the flag to give General Motors its eighth victory at Le Mans, the first for the Chevrolet Corvette C7. The Ferrari cars rounded up the podium. 

In the LM GTE Amateur category car no. 98 Aston Martin started off as favourite and it dominated qualifying in the hands of Dalla Lana, Lamy and Lauda. But the car no. 72 SMP Racing Ferrari and the no. 83 458 Italia entered by AF Corse posed a threat to the English car. The Aston Martin cars were always in command of the race but they were closely followed by Ferrari yet the British carmaker had a healthy land. Unfortunately though a slew of racing incidents meant that Aston Martin were out of reckoning and the car no.20 Ferrari of SMP Racing won with drivers Davide Rigon, James Calado and Oliver Beretta. Second place went to AF Corse Ferrari while Patrick Dempsey realised his Le Mans dream by grabbing third position for Porsche.