The hard-hitting film that highlights drivers' vulnerabilities

"I was the reason why we lost the race," says Laurens Vanthoor directly to the camera. "It was me. That's the pure, hard fact. That's quite a bit of a mess in your mind to get over."

We've just seen the 28-year-old Porsche factory driver, a Le Mans GTE-Pro class-winner with the marque in 2018, throw away near-certain victory in the 2019 Nurburgring 24 Hours by breezing through a 60km/h 'slow zone' and picking up an eye-watering five-minute penalty for his trouble.

Upon hearing the news that all hope of victory is now lost, team-mate Kevin Estre storms out of the Manthey Racing garage and slams the door. Fresh out of the car, a shell-shocked Vanthoor furrows his brow and slumps into a camping chair, clearly not looking forward to his next conversation with Estre, Michael Christensen and Earl Bamber.

"To go up to your team, to Kev and Michael and Earl and say to their face 'I just probably fucked this up for all of us', that's the hardest thing," Vanthoor (pictured below) admits.

Perhaps the benchmark behind-the-scenes endurance racing documentary in recent times is Truth In 24 II: Every Second Counts, Audi's 2011 follow-up to the original that followed its Le Mans triumph in 2008.

Action movie star Jason Statham's narration can grate at times - although nothing in 'Every Second Counts' is as toe-curling as his opening line in the first film: "It always rains at Le Mans" - but the film has drama and emotion in spades, as first Allan McNish, then Mike Rockenfeller are eliminated in frightening accidents.

The radio exchanges between Andre Lotterer and engineer Leena Gade as he passes the wreck of Rockenfeller's car still bring a chill down the back of your neck watching it all these years later. Lotterer, together with Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler in the sole remaining Audi, then survives an onslaught from Peugeot and successfully nurses a slow puncture to win by just 13s. It's a superb story.

But the recently-released film from Porsche Motorsport, the comparatively unimaginatively titled 'ENDURANCE: The Documentary about Porsche at the Two Toughest GT Races in the World' might be even better, and precisely because of the lack of success of its subjects - and their responses to having two wins snatched away in as many weeks.

"We got a bit angry with Laurens because at that stage of the race it shouldn't happen really. It can, but it shouldn't" Kevin Estre

Following five Porsche figures at Le Mans and the Nurburgring 24 on back-to-back weekends - including drivers Vanthoor, Estre and Matt Campbell, Porsche Motorsport head Pascal Zuhrlinden and race engineer Luca Masse - the film adds another layer to documentaries that merely cover one or the other.

Finishing the film after Le Mans and not showing the Nurburgring would rob the film of its most emotive scenes, while cutting Le Mans would remove a lot of the empathy the viewer builds up for Vanthoor. He is the guest driver brought into the #92 crew from Porsche's IMSA roster to help Estre and Christensen tie up the 2018-19 World Endurance Championship GT title, and is acutely aware of his place in the team.

"We're kind of like three soldiers going to a war, you have to have each other's back," he says forebodingly.

Estre and Christensen get the job done with a ninth place at Le Mans, but there are mixed emotions having led until an exhaust problem struck in the early hours of the morning.

Moments after telling race engineer Adam Hardy that the pursuing Ferrari is "struggling" in the night conditions - "if you want to make a gap with him, it's now" - Vanthoor is watching live footage in the driver's lounge when Estre radios in the problem and a space is hurriedly cleared in the garage.

We see Vanthoor bound down the stairs and rush into the garage to see what's going on for himself, only for the realisation to dawn that he can do nothing to influence things further. He opts to sit out the rest of the race, with all hope of salvaging a result now lost.

"The only thing I could do at that point was screw it for [Estre and Christensen]," Vanthoor says, as we follow him scooting through a deserted paddock out towards the motorhome complex.

"If I would have made one mistake, I would never forgive myself for the next 10 years that I ruined their world championship."

Such disappointments are all seemingly forgotten the following week at the Nurburgring, with Vanthoor's #911 Manthey Porsche holding a comfortable lead at sunrise. All that is needed is to keep the car on the island and avoid the fate of the sister #1 car that Richard Lietz crashed in the night.

But a radio glitch means Vanthoor isn't alerted to a car stopped on the side of the road at Brunnchen and the course cars at the scene. He misses the Code 60 boards and charges past at speed, only realising his mistake too late when he passes another slow-moving car. "I was crying in the corner by myself," he admits afterwards.

Estre's response is raw and unscripted, the act of an ultra-competitive racer who had earlier taken the lead in an high-risk move with two wheels on the grass down the Dottinger Hohe straight.

"I was very angry," Estre says. "I needed some time for myself to calm down, just trying to get out this frustration. What was tough was that we had such a lead in this race that we just had to cruise around, you know?

"Just finish the race, and that's where we got a bit angry with Laurens because at that stage of the race it shouldn't happen really. It can, but it shouldn't."

Soldiers in arms they may be, but it doesn't mean everything is rosy all of the time. Determined to make up for his error - "It's like a child when you fall off your bike, the best thing to forget about it is to get up and start riding again" - Vanthoor is readied for action and gets a pep-talk from Bamber, who informs him of the gap to the new leaders.

"We need 1 minute 20 seconds and I think we can do it," the Kiwi tells him. "Not too crazy, but they'll all cruise now. I've already got a hashtag: 'Make Larry great again!'"

"I was so full of emotions and so angry," Vanthoor recalls. "For that hour I just completely destroyed myself by driving as quick as I can."

It's rare to see a professional racing driver so exposed, vulnerable even - especially in a film endorsed by his employers. It's a reminder that beyond the bravado, racing drivers are real people

But unlike Truth In 24 II, there was to be no fairlytale ending. The Belgian's efforts are in vain and the #4 Phoenix Audi - in which Vanthoor's younger brother Dries was part of the driver line-up - takes the flag first.

To add insult to injury, the #911 is disqualified two weeks later for a BOP infringement, which perhaps unsurprisingly the film doesn't waste time dwelling on.

But where ENDURANCE really does shine is in proving that not everything goes to plan in 24-hour racing. Young Australian Campbell is shown raging after a hairy moment during the night on the Nordschleife where he is forced to take to the grass to avoid a course car while overtaking a Mercedes.

"What a fucking stint, far out," he tells Frikadelli Racing team owner Klaus Abbelen (below). "Fucking idiots. I could have had three massive accidents because they put a yellow out too late or I was too close to the car in front and then they did something stupid."

It's to the film's credit that the drivers aren't censored - and the same goes for engineers too: "Shit, we would have easily had half a minute on the damn Ferrari," one of the crewmen says in the morning at Le Mans.

One of the surprise stars of the show is Italian engineer Masse, formerly of AF Corse, who runs the #91 Porsche to second at Le Mans and is responsible for overseeing the #1 Manthey Porsche at the Nurburgring.

His drivers evidently aren't happy with the aero balance of the car and we see a crisis meeting in which Fred Makowiecki - clearly not bothered by the presence of the cameras - says: "When you try to push with the car you are close to crashing at every corner, but also hairpins at 60km/h."

Masse looks on aghast, and admits in his narration "for me sometimes it's really hard to understand how they can feel a small difference due to the set-up". In the end, the tiny tweaks prove academic when the car is delayed by a puncture which damages the differential, then Lietz is tagged by a slower car and spins into the wall.

"The car is fucked, you can forget it," says Lietz over the radio to a still unbelieving Masse.

"Richard never crashes," he says, by way of explanation.

As Masse puts it, the rollercoaster of emotions in 24-hour racing is akin to having a cold shower, and none experience that more clearly than Vanthoor, haunted on the pitwall at the end of the N24 as his mechanics congratulate themselves on a job well done.

It's rare to see a professional racing driver so exposed, vulnerable even - especially in a film endorsed by his employers. As we see him out for a walk with his wife and young daughter, it's a reminder that beyond the bravado, racing drivers are real people.

"You have highs and you have lows," he says. "If its low, it's tough but you have to move on and be ready 100% for the next chapter. That's a really important part of endurance."

So well done Porsche on a superb film that strikes at the unglamorous heart of endurance racing and reminds us during these unusual times that motorsport isn't only a mechanical endeavour, but a deeply human one too.