Why Le Mans 2014 was almost a classic

One can get blase about the reliability of the cars that emerge from mega-buck factory racing programmes. We've become so used to LMP1 machinery being driven flat-out through the entire duration of the Le Mans 24 Hours without delay that we somehow expect the frontrunners each and every year to have trouble-free runs from green light to chequered flag.

Audi Sport boss Wolfgang Ullrich was talking in those terms in the run-up to the race, in the knowledge that his R18 e-tron quattro wouldn't have the speed of Toyota's TS040 HYBRID.

"Le Mans is not just about having the fastest car," he said. "The level of competition is that high this year that there is really no place for small errors."

Ullrich turned out to be correct, I think, on his first point: the R18 didn't have the speed of the TS040, even if there was evidence to the contrary during the night. But he was miles off when he suggested a clean run would be essential to win the race.

The tension broke when electrical woes brought Toyota's charge to a halt © LAT

The 82nd edition of the 24 Hours was, in fact, won by the car that had the cleanest run. Both the R18s that made it beyond the second hour were hit by delays over the course of the race and Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer ultimately prevailed over team-mates Tom Kristensen, Lucas di Grassi and Marc Gene because they spent the least time in the pits.

Toyota was already out of the game by the time the Audis ran into turbo problems, one car having retired with a freak electrical failure and one languishing down the order courtesy of a major shunt in the second hour. And the Porsche 919 Hybrid didn't have the speed to hang onto its lead after the Audis' problems.

That suggests that Le Mans 2014 wasn't the kind of thriller to which we have become used to over the years. I'm not saying that this year's race was a classic to rival the Audi versus Peugeot battles of 2008 or '11, nor the Audi versus Audi fight of 2012, but to my mind it still made for an exciting race.

The comeback from time spent in the pits is so much a part of Le Mans history. Jacky Ickx had already won the 24 Hours three times before 1977, but it was his amazing drive for Porsche after switching cars in '77 that secured his status as a legend of Le Mans.

The fight back from the winning Audi — with Lotterer at the forefront — wasn't as dramatic as Ickx's all those years ago, yet it was amazing to watch nonetheless. The German's consistency of pace as he strove to make up for lost time was impressive, and he lowered the fastest lap of the race he'd already set during the night. (For the record, he has now set fastest lap in three of the past four years.)

Porsche made a strong comeback after a 16-year break © LAT

Fassler played a big part, too, and I'm glad that the Swiss finally got to make a major contribution to a Le Mans victory this year. He wasn't on the pace of his team-mates back in 2011 and in '12 circumstance and the way the stints worked out meant he was the junior partner in the win, a role filled by Treluyer this time.

Imagine if the #20 Porsche shared by Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley had been that little bit quicker - and it would have been but for a handling imbalance - and not retired with engine issues with two hours to go. Those are two big ifs, I know, but then we would almost certainly have had a race to the flag between the 919 and the chasing Audi that ultimately prevailed.

Had that happened, we'd now be proclaiming this year's Le Mans to be an all-time classic. And we'd probably be putting Lotterer up on a pedestal alongside Ickx.

My point is that we don't need the frontrunners to run straight through the 24 hours to make for a great race. The delays encountered by the Audis added to the drama this year, rather than detracting from it.

There was one irony of Le Mans this time, something that was not lost on Toyota technical director Pascal Vasselon: "There was only one factory car that completed the 24 Hours without a technical problem. That is the paradox."

That car was the third-placed Toyota, which lost all its time - 11 laps in total - courtesy of its shunt in the driving rain on the Mulsanne Straight. The paradox explains Vasselon's post-race comment: "Don't talk to me about podiums."