Post-race scrutineering at Le Mans 2018 has found that no.26 car of G-Racing ORECA team is in breach of technical regulations, thus stripped of its LMP2 class victory. Finished 5th overall, the Oreca 07 Gibson car ran an almost drama-less race with drivers Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and Andrea Pizzitola crossing the finish line two laps in front of its nearest class competitors.
Also in breach on regulations is the no.28 car from TDS Racing team which had finished the race at eight position overall (fifth in LMP2 class).
With the win and positions stripped off, the winner of the LMP2 class is inherited by the Signatech Alpine Matmut team (car 36) driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Pierre Thiriet.
This also means that the trio of Malaysian drivers of car 18 for the Jackie Chan DC Racing team is now eighth overall and fourth in the LMP2 class. The week just got better for Jazeman Jaafar, Weiron Tan, and Nabil Jeffri it seems – fighters all, after a dramatic first few laps which had them claw back positions from dead last following a radiator fault (and the pitstop needed to rectify it)
As for the two disqualified cars, the scrutineers had found the two teams had a non-compliant part in the fuel restrictor. According to the steward’s bulletin, "The technical delegates stated to the stewards that they started their investigation of the competitor's refuelling system following the race when they noted the competitor was able to refuel significantly faster than any of their competitors."
The competitor intends to appeal the decision and has 96 hours in which to confirm his intention to do so. The results of the 24 Hours of Le Mans therefore remain provisional.
Picture of G-Racing Oreca LMP2 from team's Facebook fan page. Picture of Jazeman, Weiron, and Nabil from here.
