24h Le Mans
When competitors speed past on the track, fans and racing professionals rely on the cars’ race numbers to identify them in an instant. We have taken those numbers and put together 24 snapshots of the 2017 season. This first instalment looks at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 2017 World Endurance Championship.
2 - 2017 marked the 85th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Winners Earl Bamber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley were also crowned world endurance champions at the wheel of the Porsche 919 Hybrid.
7 - Kamui Kobayashi broke a new speed record in the Toyota TS050 Hybrid when he took pole at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at an average of almost 252 km/h.
38 - LMP2 class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Oreca 07-Gibson driven by Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent and Ho Pin Tung (Jackie Chan DC Racing) finished the race second overall.
37 - At the wheel of the second Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca, Alex Brundle, David Cheng (team co-owner) and Tristan Gommendy finished third, making it two overall podium spots for the Chinese team.
97 - Just seconds before embarking on the final lap of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Aston Martin Vantage piloted by Jonny Adam, Darren Turner and Daniel Serra overtook the #63 Corvette of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Jordan Taylor to clinch the LMGTE Pro class win.
84 - Rob Smith, Will Stevens and Dries Vanthoor gave JMW Motorsport’s Ferrari 488 GTE its first LMGTE Am class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
8 - With five victories in 2017, Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima recorded the highest numbers of wins for any LMP1 team in a single season.
31 - Le Mans native Julien Canal and Brazilian Bruno Senna (Vaillante Rebellion) took the LMP2 FIA Endurance Trophies for Teams and Drivers in the World Endurance Championship, after a long battle against the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car, class winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
51 - At the wheel of their Ferrari 488 GTE, Italian Alessandro Pier Guidi and Brit James Calado took the first ever FIA World Endurance Championship title for LGTE Drivers. This replaces the World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers awarded from 2012 to 2016.
98 - At the end of their third season together at the wheel of the Aston Martin Vantage, Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda finally took the FIA Endurance Trophies for LMGTE Am Drivers and Teams.
36 - Having taken the drivers and team titles in LMP2 in the 2016 World Endurance Championship, Signatech Alpine Matmut finished third in the FIA Endurance Trophy in the same class this year, with a victory at the Circuit of the Americas.
61 - Based in Singapore and having risen through the ranks in the Asian Le Mans Series, Clearwater Racing started on a high with a win in the LMGTE Am class at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, its first ever World Endurance Championship race.
Photo: Sporting #50, French team Larbre Compétition’s favourite number, the Corvette ‘Art Car’ took pole in the LMGTE Am class at this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans.
