The Russians made it to the podium in the marathon "24 hours of Le Mans"

18 June 2019

Российские пилоты стали бронзовыми победителями в классе LMP1 в престижнейшем марафоне «24 часа Ле-Мана» сезона 2018-2019

It is gratifying that among the record number of 62 teams at the 87th marathon "24 hours of Le Mans", held on 15-16 June in France in the world championship on races on endurance FIA WEC under the"superstone" 2018-2019 "bronze" in the overall classification for the first time in history took the Russian pilot Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin of a second private crew team SMP Racing No. 11 prototype BR BR1 Engineering of the prestigious LMP1 class (Le Mans Prototype 1), a partner of which was a Belgian pilot Stoffel Vandorn.

The Russian-Belgian team SMP Racing for the first time in history on a pedestal "Le Mans"

The crew of No. 11 wound 379 laps on the race of Le Mans.

Absolute winner of the 87th "Le Mans" became the crew of the No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid prototype in the LMP1 category with 385 laps (in 12/24-hour races, the winner is not measured by time, and the number completed in the allotted race time laps) as part of the Swiss Sebastien Buemi, Japanese Kazuki Nakajima and the Spaniard and two-time world champion in F1 Fernando Alonso. Thus, the Spaniard for the first time in the history became the champion in both the European Championships in F1 and the WEC body.

The Champions of the "24 hours of Le Mans" season 2018/2019  – (left to right) F. Alonso, S. Buemi, K. Nakajima    

Second place overall went to the crew No. 7 also on the Toyota TS050 Hybrid consisting of Englishman Mike Conway, Japanese Kamui Kobayashi and the Argentinian Jose Maria Lopez, and "seven" has missed a victory literally at the doorstep of the finish because of the dual sensor's actuation of a puncture (the first time about reporting not punctured wheel) which is long in the lead, the crew was forced twice to get back to the pits and missed almost the former in the hands of victory. In turn, the Russians and a Belgian, from the 11th crew did not miss the dropped them a chance because of the problems of rivals from their own team SMP Racing and team Rebellion.

The crew of No. 11 prototype BR BR1 Engineering's most prestigious LMP1 leads race

A former pilot of Formula 1 Vitaly Petrov at the presentation of the racing team SMP Racing before the start of the 87th marathon "Le Mans" 

Russian pilot SMP Racing Mikhail Aleshin holds "bronze Cup" for the 3rd place in the "24 hours of Le Mans"

Congratulations to the Russian pilots with a bronze pedestal in the most prestigious race on the planet!