After his first foray into commentating last year, three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner with Audi Benoit Tréluyer decided to put his expertise to good use for Eurosport France. Along with journalist Adrien Paviot and French legend Henri Pescarolo, the Frenchman - now a development and reserve driver with Audi - was glued to the battle behind the Toyotas in the LMP1 class, and applauded the outstanding duels in LMGTE Pro.

Benoit Tréluyer: "Given what happened during the free practice, and the results of qualifying with the two Toyotas closely matched by the private teams, I expected the private teams to pose more of a threat. That having been said, we've seen incredible efforts by both the teams and the drivers."

Several of Tréluyer's driver colleagues caught his attention. "I found Gustavo Menezes just remarkable. We also saw a great Stoffel Vandoorne who immediately understood the intricacies of Le Mans. Nathanaël Berthon, after a tough go of it early in the race, blew me away with the impressive stints he did around dawn. There were great efforts made by the teams as well, especially SMP Racing who really gave it their all. If Egor Orudzhev had not had that incident, the team might have finished closer to the Toyotas. ART Grand Prix, who runs the programme, really did top notch work, extremely professional and perfectly managed. It was a bit more complicated in the Rebellion camp because the team adopted a different strategy. SMP favoured speed in the straights and a 'lighter' car in the fast turns, whereas Rebellion clearly had more aerodynamics. Maybe too much in my opinion even though in the end the times were pretty close. The SMP Racing cars were faster near the end of the race thanks to better track conditions, allowing them to make up for the lack of grip from the choice of aerodynamics. As a whole, in terms of car preparation, pit stops, organisation, there were two private teams who should be proud of their performances against the factory Toyotas, with once again, a special mention for SMP Racing!"

His other "mention" is for the LMGTE Pro competitors who helped make this 87th 24 Hours of Le Mans truly a thrilling show.

Leaving his commentating booth, he had this to say: "What madness, what a cutthroat race start, I think every superlative applies to the LMGTE Pro class. It's too bad the safety cars cooled the action during the night."

Nonetheless, he watched a magical night unfold on his screens "free of all the stresses of the race." Benoit Tréluyer will be back in Le Mans in 2020, that's a certainty...but, at the microphone or at the wheel?

PHOTO: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES DU MANS, 2019. This year, Benoit Tréluyer's 2019 teammates were commentators Adrien Paviot and Henri Pescarolo.