Sébastien Buemi: The turn for the better 🎥
EXPLANATIONS OF THE HATTRICK Since Sunday, Sébastian Buemi has been a three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, just like Marcel Fässler. As in the previous year, luck was involved, which long ago compensated for the giant misfortune of 2016. The 10-minute highlights - with engine sound only and no commentary - reflect the course of the race in 2020. It was a collective shock [...].
The 10-minute highlights - with engine sound only and no commentary - reproduce the racing action from 2020.
It was a collective shock in the world of motorsport when the Toyota TS050 Hybrid driven by Kazuki Nakajima rolled out of Le Mans a few minutes before the end of the 24th hour on June 19, 2016. Until then, the Japanese team, which operates from TMG headquarters in Cologne and is supported by the French racing company Oreca, seemed to have finally beaten its big German rivals Audi and Porsche.
Neel Jani instead of Buemi
Tears were shed in the Toyota camp, and also by many fans. And Sébastien Buemi was just a pile of misery afterwards. From a Swiss perspective, the drama was at least only half as bad.
Neel Jani unexpectedly took victory with Porsche at the last moment. Not undeservedly, after the man from Biel and his two teammates Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb had chased the Toyota into disaster for hours and in the end according to plan.
Goosebump feeling: The Toyota film reproduces the drama of the 2016 race in five minutes.
Waiting for the Porsche decision
But luck and misfortune often balance each other out, and not just in sports. Jani's Porsche 919 Hybrid retired without warning with engine failure at the start of the 21st hour the following year. The lead at that point was a galactic 13 laps, or the equivalent of almost 45 minutes.
Because Porsche withdrew from LMP1 at the end of 2017, the team from Lake Constance has won only one race so far. It has long been no secret that the Stuttgart-based company is considering a return to Le Mans with a sports car based on the new regulations.
The Board of Management must decide on this soon. This could be the next chance for revenge for Neel Jani, who has been involved in the development of the 919 from the very beginning.
Change of fate for the better
Sébastien Buemi received and used it several times. The now 31-year-old from Vaud took a long time to digest the sporting blow of 2016. After putting himself under psychological pressure as the 2014 World Endurance Champion without a triumph at Le Mans until then, he has since taken each race as it comes.
And it came in a big way for him. With no real rivals other than his own team, Buemi finally won the big classic in 2018 with Nakajima and Fernando Alonso, who has since retired.
Goddess Fortuna meant well for the trio. In June 2019 it doubled up while the actually faster teammates had victory in sight and lost it as a result of a late puncture on the 379th of 385 laps - after 339 lead laps compared with just 46 for the Buemi-Toyota.
Problems with both Toyota
It was a similar story last weekend. In the first quarter of the race, the Toyota #7 of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, which started from pole position, led all but ten laps. The trio extended this to a one-lap lead by the halfway point.
Shortly before 3 a.m. in the night, Kobayashi noticed a drop in performance that forced the former Sauber F1 driver to make an unscheduled pit stop. In around 30 minutes, a broken exhaust manifold had to be replaced, dropping this team back to P4. It caught up with one of the two Rebellions in the closing stages.
Buemi and his partners took the lead, although they had previously lost time themselves due to a puncture and a brake air supply damaged by collected fragments. After the final lead change on the 194th of 387 laps completed, the trio controlled the 88th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Rare hat trick
Kazuki Nakajima crossed the finish line first after 5273 kilometers. For the New Zealander Brendon Hartley, it meant the second victory after 2017 with Porsche, for Buemi and the Japanese the third in a row with Toyota.
Together with Nakajima, the Frenchman now belongs to the exclusive circle of seven drivers who have achieved this feat in the 97-year history of the endurance classic. But hand on heart: the competition was not as strong as in the three successes of Marcel Fässler with Audi in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
But this should not diminish Buemi's success. The Frenchman felt great afterwards, but is well aware of how much luck was involved.
Sébastien Buemi: "This race showed once again how quickly the tide can turn. At the beginning I had the feeling that everything was against us - slow zones (sections under yellow, red.), a slow puncture and the problem with the brake cooling. But suddenly everything was going well and we were soon leading by five laps. Le Mans 2020 proved once again that you never know what's going to happen until the end of the race."
