How a late pitlane speeding penalty couldn’t blow Inter Europol’s Le Mans LMP2 win
Inter Europol's Nick Yelloly thought a late penalty had blown his team’s chances of victory in Le Mans, only for LMP2 rivals VDS Panis to hit trouble
#34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 - Gibson: Nick Boulle, Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer, Luca Ghiotto
Photo by: Marc Fleury
Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 class winner Nick Yelloly described this year's edition as featuring "more ups and downs than I've ever seen" after a roller-coaster final hour.
Yelloly's #43 Inter Europol ORECA-Gibson 07 he shared with Tom Dillmann and 2023 class winner Jakub Smiechowski had been in an incredibly close battle with the #48 VDS Panis Racing crew of Esteban Masson, Oliver Gray and Franck Perera for much of the race.
The #43 machine regularly enjoyed an advantage of just a few seconds but the Inter Europol racers' efforts looked set to be in vain when Yelloly was handed a penalty for speeding in the pitlane with just over 30 minutes remaining.
However, there was to be one further twist as the #48 car suddenly slowed with a suspension problem and Le Mans debutant Yelloly blasted clear to the tune of almost two minutes by the chequered flag.
Podium LMP2: Race winner #43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 - Gibson: Jakub Smiechowski, Tom Dillmann, Nick Yelloly
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
"We had, as per any 24 hour-race, ups and downs but this was more ups and downs than I've ever seen in a 24-hour race for both cars - with mistakes and little penalties and everything," Yelloly, winner of the 2020 Nurburgring 24 Hours, told Motorsport.com.
"Obviously I've been around a little while and I've won some quite good races so I was pretty pissed off with myself that I'd made a silly error, particularly at such a crucial point.
"I did think our race was over and thought we were going to finish second.
"But then they told me the gap's coming down from 12 seconds I think it was to nine seconds in one sector. I was pushing flat out anyway because, with traffic, you never know how you're going to catch people.
"And then, when I saw them, I saw something dragging occasionally when they were at high speed."
Masson was devastated to miss out after what was suspected to be a front-right toe-link problem.
"I had to push to put on pressure, they got a drive-through because of this - it was the plan," he told Motorsport.com.
"They deserved the win as much as we did today, I think. It was a good fight and, unfortunately, it did not go our way today but we will come back."
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