\n Le Mans. On its third attempt, BMW M Team WRT celebrated its
\n long-awaited first major success at the legendary 24 Hours of Le
\n Mans (FRA). In an exciting race, Robin Frijns (NED), Ren\u00e9 Rast
\n (GER), and Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) secured second place in the
\n #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8. It was the first overall podium at Le
\n Mans for BMW M Motorsport since its victory with the BMW V12 LMR in
\n 1999. A repeat of the historic triumph was within reach, but in the
\n end, final driver Frijns was 10.9 seconds short of the winning Toyota
\n .\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The historic Le Mans weekend began as early as Thursday, when the #15
\n BMW M Hybrid V8, with drivers Kevin Magnussen (DEN), Raffaele
\n Marciello (SUI), and Dries Vanthoor (BEL) claimed the first pole
\n position for BMW M Motorsport and BMW M Team WRT at Le Mans. In the
\n race, the #20 crew, starting from fourth on the grid, took the lead
\n early on and led the field at times. A safety car period about six
\n hours before the finish brought the field back together and set the
\n stage for a thrilling showdown right up to the final lap. While car
\n #20 celebrated at the end with a podium finish, car #15 retired early.
\n After an unavoidable collision and a puncture, a technical defect
\n ultimately forced the crew to retire the car.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the LMGT3 class, things looked promising after qualifying with
\n starting positions five and six at the beginning of the race. However,
\n over the course of the 24 hours, the two BMW M4 GT3 EVOs were unable
\n to keep up with the pace at the front. Augusto Farfus (BRA), Sean
\n Gelael (INA), and Darren Leung (GBR) finished in seventh place. Their
\n teammates Dan Harper (GBR), Parker Thompson (CAN), and Anthony
\n McIntosh (USA) retired with gearbox problems.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Quotes after the 24 Hours of Le Mans:\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Franciscus van Meel (CEO of BMW M GmbH): \u201cIt was an
\n incredibly emotional weekend with the world premiere of our BMW M
\n Concept Neue Klasse and a thrilling, nerve-wracking 24-hour race at Le
\n Mans. Second place, the first podium for BMW M Motorsport in 27 years,
\n just ten seconds behind the winner after a perfect performance \u2013 it
\n could hardly have gone better. A huge thank you to everyone at BMW M,
\n BMW M Motorsport, and BMW M Team WRT who contributed to this great
\n success. You have all shown what can be achieved when you work
\n tirelessly to make a project like the BMW M Hybrid V8 a success. Congratulations!\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport): \u201cWhat a
\n magnificent and historic result! Pole position and second place on the
\n podium \u2013 incredible! I\u2019m absolutely delighted for the drivers Robin
\n Frijns, Ren\u00e9 Rast, and Sheldon van der Linde. But it was a gigantic
\n achievement by everyone: the drivers, the team, and all the colleagues
\n at BMW M Motorsport. We can be very proud of this \u2013 thank you all! We
\n have worked for years to be successful at Le Mans again, and now we
\n have reaped the reward with second place. It was an incredibly
\n exciting race. For us, it was a rollercoaster ride, but in the end, to
\n finish second just ten seconds behind is a fantastic achievement. Pit
\n stops, strategy \u2013 everything worked perfectly. Congratulations to
\n Toyota on a well-deserved victory! It\u2019s a shame that car #15 retired
\n and we had hoped for a much better result in the LMGT3 class. We will
\n analyzey that, but for now, the joy prevails.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Vincent Vosse (Team Principal, BMW M Team WRT): \u201cThat
\n was one of the strongest races we have ever had as a team with the BMW
\n M Hybrid V8. Absolutely flawless. No penalties, no bad pit stops \u2013
\n nothing. Congratulations to everyone in my team and at BMW M
\n Motorsport! We are one unit, we are making progress, and we deserved
\n this podium. I\u2019m not disappointed at all that we didn\u2019t win. Toyota
\n deserved it \u2013 congratulations! I feel sorry for the crew of car #15.
\n On the LMGT3 side, we have to admit that we simply had no chance. That
\n is very disappointing. Many thanks to the team and drivers for their
\n great effort. They gave everything, but unfortunately, it just wasn\u2019t
\n enough this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Robin Frijns (BMW M Team WRT, #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8, 2nd
\n place): \u201cI honestly don\u2019t quite know what to say yet.
\n Second place at Le Mans is a fantastic achievement, but seeing the
\n victory so close does hurt a bit. The last safety car brought the
\n Toyotas, who had problems just before, back into the game. That was
\n tough for us, as they had a bit more pace than we did. We led for long
\n stretches of the race, but in the end, second place was the maximum we
\n could achieve after the safety car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Ren\u00e9 Rast (BMW M Team WRT, #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8, 2nd
\n place): \u201cIt\u2019s a bittersweet podium. On the one hand, it\u2019s a
\n great achievement to be on the podium at Le Mans. The team and we as
\n drivers did everything right, I would say. But unfortunately, Le Mans
\n didn\u2019t choose us as winners this time. We led for long phases of the
\n race, but the last safety car threw our strategy off a bit and when
\n you\u2019re so close to victory, of course you want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Sheldon van der Linde (BMW M Team WRT, #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid
\n V8, 2nd place): \u201cAt first, I don\u2019t really know whether to
\n laugh or cry. When you finish just ten seconds behind the winner after
\n 24 hours, it\u2019s not easy to accept at first. But if we look at the past
\n two years and see the huge progress we\u2019ve made, we can be very proud.
\n The team gave everything to put us in this position. Of course, you
\n never know if you\u2019ll get another chance to win Le Mans, but we\u2019ll
\n definitely try again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Kevin Magnussen (BMW M Team WRT, #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, DNF):
\n \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t our race. A few things went wrong, but that\u2019s
\n also Le Mans. Luckily, our sister car made up for our bad luck and
\n scored a fantastic podium. That\u2019s ultimately a great success for all
\n of us. As for us in car #15: We\u2019ll come back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Augusto Farfus (Team WRT, #32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 7th place
\n LMGT3): \u201cFirst of all, congratulations to the Hypercar crew
\n on the podium. It was a great fight and a deserved result. Our race
\n was tough. We did everything right, had no technical problems, and
\n nailed every pit stop. Unfortunately, it just wasn\u2019t enough to fight
\n for the podium. We simply didn\u2019t have the pace. Still, it\u2019s always a
\n great honour to be on the grid here at Le Mans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Dan Harper (Team WRT, #69 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, DNF): \u201cI
\n had imagined my first Le Mans, just like Parker and Anthony,
\n differently. But you also have to see it this way: I was here for the
\n first time at this very special event, and it was an honor to be part
\n of it. Hopefully, there will be many more Le Mans appearances to come!
\n This time, unfortunately, we didn\u2019t have the pace to run at the front.
\n Then came the gearbox problem. Nevertheless, we can be proud of what
\n we achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Le Mans. On its third attempt, BMW M Team WRT celebrated its long-awaited first major success at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20955],"tags":[24302,6213,21879,21881,32123,25040,27531],"class_list":["post-36341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw","tag-24h-races","tag-bmw","tag-bmw-m-motorsport","tag-customer-racing","tag-fia-wec","tag-gt-racing","tag-lmdh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}