24 Hours Le Mans 2014 Part 16

The 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 82e 24 Heures du Mans) was an 24-hour automobile endurance racing event for Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 11 to 15 June 2014 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France. It was the 82nd running of the event, as organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. The race was the third round and the premier event of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship, with half of the race's fifty-five entries contesting the championship. Approximately 263,000 spectators attended the event, the largest crowd since 1989.

The race was won by an Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Swiss Marcel Fässler, German André Lotterer, and Frenchman Benoît Tréluyer, who previously won Le Mans as a trio in 2011 and 2012. This victory was Audi's thirteenth since the company debuted at the race in 1999. The Audi team took the lead after a Toyota TS040 Hybrid came to a stop after leading half the race distance, but were challenged by Porsche when two Audi cars required turbocharger replacements. The second of Tom Kristensen, Marc Gené and Lucas di Grassi finished in second place, three laps behind the race winners, while Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre's No. 8 Toyota recovered from an accident in the first hour to finish in third place.

The (Le Mans Prototype 1-Lightweight) LMP1-L category was won by the Rebellion Racing Rebellion-Toyota of Nick Heidfeld, Mathias Beche, and Nico Prost, the sole finisher in the class. The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class finished with the Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan of Simon Dolan, Oliver Turvey, and Harry Tincknell ahead of the TDS Racing Ligier-Nissan by less than a lap's distance. The AF Corse team fielding a Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) category with drivers Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Toni Vilander, while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Aston Martin Racing's trio of Danish drivers: David Heinemeier Hansson, Kristian Poulsen, and Nicki Thiim.

The result meant Davidson, Lapierre and Buemi remained the Drivers' Championship leaders with 80 points while Fässler, Tréluyer and Lotterer's victory enabled them to move into second on 60 points and di Grassi and Kristensen remained in third place but a further six points behind. Mathias Beche, Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld remained in fourth position on 42 points and Gené's second-place finish moved him to fifth place. Toyota remained the leaders of the Manufacturers' Championship, but their advantage over Audi was now a single point while Porsche maintained third position with five races left in the season.