"Turns and burns out..." "Narrator:" "Thousands stand by..." "Poised for action." "Knowing that every second counts." "Always vigilant..." "Trying to save lives.." "While letting the race run." "Announcer 2:" "Yellow zone..." "Narrator:" "Le Mans is a car race like no other." "It's an endurance test for drivers and cars that literally takes 24 hours to complete." "55 cars will start, but many fewer will reach the checkered flag." "With unprecedented access to six of the teams and the event itself, this is the story of a race that pushes technology to the limit but where the ghosts of the past are never far from the present." "Announcer 1:" "Well, for those of you just joining the race," "Audi have been hit by a few problems." "Andre Lotterer in the number 7 car is still struggling to get back out front after he suffered a puncture just after he took the lead." "And as for the number 8 Audi..." "Well, this might look a total write off, but the rules of the race say if you can get back to the garage under your own power, you can repair it and get back in the game." "The 24 hours of Le Mans, possibly the only race in the world where you can crash and still have a chance of winning." "Audi brought three cars here to give themselves the best chance of victory." "Now, I expect the mechanics at Audi to get the number 8 back on track but with the time that's been lost you've gotta say, it's advantage Porsche." "Announcer 2:" "So as things stand, it's Porsche in first and second place, with the number 17 of Brendon Hartley looking to stretch his advantage at the top of the leaderboard." "And if he's to stay up there, he's going to need to rely, not just on his own skills but the large team behind him, and most importantly his chief engineer who is in many ways the brains of the car." "We can see absolutely everything that's happening to the car." "Tire pressures, tire temperatures, brake temperatures, engine rpm." "Brendon Hartley:" "I'm in my own little world, just with me and Kyle," "I mean he's, he's on the radio speaking back to me..." "It's my only point of contact with..." "with the outside world." "We've got engine adaption engineers, gearbox engineers, aerodynamic guys, suspension guys, engine guys..." "They'll be analyzing this data live which I then pass back to the drivers to make setting changes on the car." "On the steering wheel itself we've got lots of different switches, and these can change all sorts of things on the car." "We can change engine mappings, we can change hybrid mappings." "These fully optimize the car to make sure it's running in the sweet spot." "If you put any normal person in the car and asked them to do the amount of switch settings that we ask, there'd be a total meltdown." "Announcer 1:" "Further back, Nissan seem to be emerging from their nightmare." "Jann Mardenborough in the 23 heroically battling his way back up the field." "Remember, he started 15 minutes behind everyone else when the car stopped on the starting grid." "He's still down in 40th position, though." "Everyone's been very, very professional in the garage." "This team of guys in there deserve a finish in one of these cars and that's what we're going to try and do." "It's a 24 hour race, we keep saying it, but um, we just gotta keep plugging away and see what happens." "Announcer 2:" "Well that's the state of play with the cars fighting for overall victory, but as we've said it before, one of the extraordinary things about the 24 hours of Le Mans is that it's not just one race," "but several races going on at the same time." "And outside of the Le Mans prototypes, there's something of a battle taking place for the lead in the Grand Touring Pro category." "Announcer 1:" "It's a proper tussle out front now, between the leading Corvette and the rather psychedelically painted" "Aston Martin, the 97 car." "Dan Sayers:" "LMP1 and LMP2 are very much bespoke racing cars, whereas the GT obviously is heavily based on a road car and that's where the value comes in for Aston Martin, so you can see Aston Martin racing at Le Mans" "and on Monday morning you can go and buy one in the showroom if you like." "Announcer 1:" "Aston Martin have a great history in this race," "They've been on the podium nine times since they came back here in 2005." "The last few years have been rather difficult particularly for the number 97 car." "Mechanical problems have scuppered their chances year after year." "Announcer 2:" "So that 97 coming in now for a driver change, and getting ready is Darren Turner." "I can't talk for every driver, but I'm presuming most drivers think similar to how I think." "'Cause we're pretty sort of uh, same type of guys." "Same sort of aggression and competitiveness and desire to beat the next guy." "Occasionally your mind wanders, your brain thinks about something that's completely irrelevant from driving the race car." "So this our new wee man, Dylan, who's a week old and doing pretty well at the moment." "I was already really proud of our little daughter and now, got a little man as part of our team." "Yeah we can settle in now to having our family life hopefully, so..." "But only for a couple of days because..." "You're going." "Yeah, two more days and I'll be off to Le Mans." "I'm obviously not looking forward to Darren." "You all right, sweetie?" "You all right?" "Um..." "Yeah, it will be hard and, and, funny enough, when having a boy one of my friends said to me," ""Oh your going to have another, your gonna have another little racing driver on your hands."" "and I just thought, "Oh my God."" "I've had to go through it with my husband, there's no way I could go through it with my son as well." "I'd never tell him not to race, ever dream of it, because that's, that's who he is, that's the person I fell in love with." "What happened a couple of years back, that was just such a..." "a big shock." "How they carried on that year, I have no idea." "Announcer 1:" "I'm not sure what's happened there." "Simonsen has spun out and got hit from behind as he was rolling forward." "That looks very worrying." "Announcer 3:" "This is a huge blow for the Aston Martin team." "Announcer 4:" "Everybody, shaken by this accident for Allan Simonsen, class leader in the world endurance championship has passed away because of his injuries sustained in the early goings here at the 24 hours of Le Mans." "He was a champion driver and he would have been 35 years old next week." "Our hearts and our prayers go..." "The accident with Allan happened very early on, less than twenty minutes into the race, and it's bizarre because we're driving past it, and my mind was only thinking about how I can sort of," "keep pushing for the lead of the race." "We were probably the last guys to know because we were out on track and we didn't pit until" "3 hours into the race." "The team had already made the decision that we're going to carry on and complete the race, and that was on the back of the wishes of allan's family." "And then it was a case of, we need to try and win this race and dedicate it to Allan." "It wasn't to be." "I don't look at the dangers in our sport because they're just there." "There are always gonna be those dangers and it's part of the appeal." "The idea of pushing to find the maximum of yourself, you know, that's what most driver are out there doing is trying to find where their limit is." " Announcer 1:" "Oh and a spin!" " Announcer 3:" "Darren Turner spins!" "Aston spins out to second," "Darren just having to, I think, get off the brakes." "That's exactly right, John..." "Exactly right." "If you knew when your checkout time was, and you was having the best time right up to it, you'd take that as an option." "[ speaking French ]" "John Hindaugh:" "Racing at Le Mans has always been a dance between the organizers' desire for safety and the competitors' unbridled desire for speed and victory." "And it's gone back all the way through to 1923 when the race started." "Over the years there have been 22 fatal accidents here." "The biggest and most infamous in 1955." "The French driver Pierre Levegh ploughed into the grandstand," "83 spectators lost their lives." "Well, ever since then, modifications have been made to the race regulations in a bid to control the speed of the cars through the most perilous sections of the circuit." "The track itself has evolved to minimize the risk of serious injury." "Straights have been shortened so the cars have less chance of getting into the air over the crests, and chicanes have been added to bring down the overall top speeds." "Announcer 1:" "Oh my goodness me." "Allan Simonsen's fatal accident in 2013, brought in new regulations and we're seeing them this year." "To keep the race moving once an accident has happened, slow zones have been introduced around the wreckage with strict speed limits enforced." "And to warn drivers of any accident, the Marshall's put out boards and wave yellow flags, and when they are out, it's forbidden to overtake anyone else, and anyone who does so receives a heavy penalty." "Announcer 2:" "And we've got another driver change taking place just down in the pits." "Announcer 5:" "Well, it's the moment we've all been waiting for, Mark Webber is getting ready to get into the Porsche number 17." "Announcer 2:" "Nine Time F1 Grand Prix winner Mark Webber waiting to get into the car there." "Once you're in the car, then that's your job." "That's the window that we enjoy you know, being in the car, we have immense power with the 919 hybrid, fastest car in the world on the straights." "Announcer 5:" "Mark Webber is in the race for the first time." "Porsche has saved their ex-Formula 1 ace for the stint that's going to take them from dusk to night." "Announcer 2:" "Mr. Webber into the lead of this race, the 17 Porsche, Mark Webber leads Le Mans." "Being in the car at night, just got the headlights, clearing the back markers... and you can see the fans in the grandstands, and you can smell the barbecues coming alight." "It doesn't happen at any other race." "It's an incredible experience for a driver in the cockpit." "Announcer 1:" "Well, it's pretty close to full darkness here." "Most of the teams on their second driver change, no doubt their teammates trying to catch just a few winks before getting back into the driver seat." "* There's a place *" "* There ain't nobody crying *" "* Ain't nobody worried *" "* Ain't no smiling faces *" "* Smilin' at the races *" "Announcer 2:" "In GT Pro, Rob Bell has taken over from Darren Turner and is just two seconds behind the leading Corvette." "* I take you there *" "* Come on, everybody *" "Announcer 1:" "Not such good news for Nissan, two cars in the garage including that of Jann Mardenborough." "Gotta say, they look set for a long, hard night." "* Take you by the hand *" "* I'll take you there, yeah *" "Announcer 1:" "The Toyota number 1 of Sebastien Buemi, behind the 8th placed Rebellion." "* Take you by the hand, Dear God *" "* I'll take you there *" "* Everybody *" "Announcer 2:" "Still at the head of the race," "Mark Webber coming in now for a quick refuel in the red Porsche." "* Everybody *" "* I'll take you there *" "Announcer 1:" "Hot on his heels the number 7 Audi," "Marcel Fassler driving." "The gap, 22 seconds now, between first and second." "* Ain't nobody crying *" "* Ain't nobody worried *" "Announcer 1:" "Ooh!" "Big problems for one of the Ferrari GT drivers!" "They'll need to get him out of that car pretty quickly." "Fire marshals are in attendance." "Looks like they've had some kind of a fuel spill." "Announcer 2:" "Maybe this'll help out our friends in the Aston Martin." "* Yeah, yeah * [ speaking German ]" "* There's a place *" "* Ain't nobody worried *" "Announcer 1:" "Down in 4th position, the black Porsche number 18 has been going well but, oh dear, oh dear, that looks like a driver error." "Announcer 3:" "Yeah, he just missed the turn completely and, well, now that means Porsche is down to just two bullets in their gun to battle for the overall race." "Announcer 1:" "Seeing more mistakes now as fatigue sets in." "Oh, that's an LMP2 car crashing out." "Well, we knew it was going to be a tough race this year, we're down to 48 cars out of the 55 that started." "Rob?" "Oh shit!" "Announcer 3:" "And we've got er, one of the, perhaps," "Aston Martin's has stopped?" "Rob Bell behind the wheel." "Announcer 4:" "Number 97 Aston, it is, it's the, uh... it's the multicolored one." "Darren Turner's car." "Huge disappointment." "Effectively, we're game over, and we're not even halfway in the race and you just wanna, you just wanna get to that point and then, you know that you've at least had a, a good run at it." "But, you know, effectively we're sort of out before we've really got going and uh, that's the bitter disappointment." "We've now had three years on the bounce, where our car 97 has had a, sort of a technical problem, and I really thought this year, we'd have all the luck in the world," "and we'd be in good shape and be able to get to the end." "And it's just not to be." "It's just, it's just devastating." "Yeah, I've had a chat with Katie, she's always very wise with her words." "And it's nice, you know, you're pretty low after getting the news that you're out of the race and having a phone call from Katie." "It would have been nice having her here because she would have given a lot more support, but, you know, that phone call meant a lot at the time." "Dan Sayers:" "The whole team is disappointed." "When it's all running perfectly, then a split second, the smallest thing in the shortest of times can go and that's difficult." "Announcer 2:" "Well, remember now, Porsche's car was the fastest in qualifying, but I tell ya, Audi, in spite of their problems are not giving up." "There's only one second now between Mark Webber and the Audi number 7." "Announcer 4:" "We have got big news, a one minute stop and go penalty for car number 17 for overtaking under the yellow." "Announcer 5:" "And that of course is the Mark Webber car, the number 17 Porsche which currently sits at the top of the screens so, that's going to throw a very big cat amongst these pigeons." "We're going to see a stop and go penalty, that's half a lap and more." "Announcer 4:" "This is going to balance it back out, this is going to be advantage Audi." "Announcer 2:" "And we're actually hearing that that penalty was given to Brendon Hartley for overtaking under the yellow before Webber got in the car." "So Mark Webber is serving a penalty for his teammate's mistake." "I was trying to prove to the team that I could do a good job, and I was getting so frustrated with the traffic." "We had to talk a lot with Brendon just to keep him up because he was the one causing the penalty." "I'm at a point where, I just want to get it home." "Gap to Porsche 25 seconds." "I was giving it all, but I don't know, our car is somehow a bit slow." "Anybody who has studied warfare will tell you that the best time to attack is during the night." "We're having some problems..."