1995 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 63rd Grand Prix of Endurance and took place on 17 and 18 June 1995 in one of the wettest races in the event's history with about 17 hours of steady rain. The race was won by a McLaren F1 GTR driven by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya, a consecutive win by a GT car. This was McLaren's first win at Le Mans, at its first attempt – only Ferrari had accomplished the same feat, in 1949. What was seen as remarkable was that the cars were untested over 24 hours, yet they led for all bar thirteen laps and at the end filled four of the first five places. Despite a careful Balance of Performance adjustment to try and match the WSC and GT cars, it was expected that the lighter weight and better downforce of the prototypes would prove superior. However, the extensive period of rain proved a bigger equaliser and took pressure off the delicate McLaren drivetrains.

The small, light WRs of the LM P2 class scored a coup by locking out the front row of the grid, ahead of the Courage-Porsche of Bob Wollek. From the start, these three put a gap on the rest of the field. However, when the rain arrived at the end of the first hour the WRs were delayed, and it was the McLarens that came to the fore, with Jochen Mass in the DPR car ahead of the Courage. However, in the fourth hour the race was put on pause when Patrick Gonin, in the recovering WR, aquaplaned off the Mulsanne Straight at speed and somersaulted. He was sent to hospital with several broken bones and the race resumed after a half-hour. Soon after though, Mario Andretti spun the Courage avoiding a backmarker and hit the barriers. Repairs cost 6 laps and dropped them down to 25th. This left McLarens running 1-2-3-5, with the Larbre Porsche in fourth, and a privateer Porsche leading GT2 in 7th. But the weather was taking a heavy toll with engines and causing accidents including those two Porsches and the leading Gulf McLaren. Mass and Nielsen took back the lead and had it for over eight hours until stopped by a broken clutch at 3am. It was the sister DPR car of Wallace and the Bells, father and son, that picked up the lead into the day with the KK McLaren in pursuit. The rain finally eased mid-morning and, finally to show its speed on the drying track, the Courage had got back up to third after hard driving by Wollek, Andretti and Hélary, but two laps down. However, Derek Bell was having to race with a deteriorating gearbox. At the penultimate fuel-stop, a crucial five minutes were lost trying to get the car into gear. Dalmas swept past into the lead and then soon after the Courage got by. Going into the last hour, Wollek got back onto the lead lap but could get no closer and Dalmas brought the McLaren home to win by three-quarters of a lap. The best GT2 car was a privateer Honda NSX, winning a long tussle on Sunday against the Callaway Corvettes. After an engine fire in the race warm-up and losing 6 laps in the second hour of the race, better fuel economy and strong driving had seen the team through.