The hard-hitting film that highlights drivers' vulnerabilities

Porsche's recently-released documentary film takes fans behind the scenes of two gruelling 24-hour races in as many weekends last year, at Le Mans and the Nurburgring. That neither goes to plan only makes for a more authentic and rewarding viewing experience

Published Apr 17, 2020, 3:05 PM

"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.

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Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.