The best LMP1 drivers of 2016

The World Endurance Championship was at its most competitive in 2016 since the rebirth of the series five years ago. Porsche took a clean sweep of all the big prizes, but rivals Toyota and Audi can look back on a season of missed opportunities.

Porsche won the drivers' title and the Le Mans 24 Hours with one of its line-ups, while the other took more wins that any one else over the course of the season.

Yet it didn't dominate: Audi had the car to win the championship and Toyota should have won Le Mans. Such close competition makes judging the performances of the drivers harder than ever.

10 MIKE CONWAY
Team: Toyota Gazoo Racing
Starts: 9
Wins: 1
Championship position: 3rd

This was Conway's best season yet since he joined Toyota in 2014, but then it is easy to forget that it was only his second full season in LMP1. The Brit quite correctly is getting better year on year.

Conway played a key role in the #6 Toyota's unlikely championship challenge together with team-mates Kamui Kobayashi and Stephane Sarrazin. He was strong at the Le Mans 24 Hours, particularly impressive in Mexico City and then Shanghai, and solid everywhere else.

He eradicated the mistakes that had previously been part of his game and seemingly has a bright future in LMP1.

9 KAMUI KOBAYASHI
Team: Toyota Gazoo Racing
Starts: 9
Wins: 1
Championship position: 3rd

Kobayashi made an immediate impact in the LMP1 ranks with Toyota in 2016 in the way he didn't in his first foray into sportscars in GTE with Ferrari in 2013. The fact that he was driving a pure-bred racing car undoubtedly had something do with it, but you also had the feeling that he'd got F1 out of his system with a fruitless year at Caterham in 2014.

Le Mans provided the high and arguably the low of his season. Kobayashi starred as he and his team-mates battled with the #2 Porsche at the top of the leaderboard, but it was his clash with GTE car that took the car out of contention and probably cost the Japanese manufacturer Le Mans victory.

Kobayashi was impressive on the way to the trio's only victory of the season on home ground at Fuji. The real stars that day were the strategists on the pitwall at Toyota Motorsport GmbH, but their man out on track had to exploit their tactics to the full. And Kobayashi proved equal to the task.

8 ANDRE LOTTERER
Team: Audi Sport Team Joest
Starts: 9
Wins: 0 (best result 2nd)
Championship position: 5th

Lotterer didn't have his best season in what turned out to be his final year with Audi. There were no race wins - once he and Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer had lost their Silverstone victory in the scrutineering bay - and perhaps even some off days, too, though he was part of a trio that had to play second fiddle to their team-mates in the sister car during the championship run-in.

That said, Lotterer still pulled out some mighty performances. He was impressive in Austin, but perhaps his best race was Mexico City. The German hauled the #7 Audi back into contention in mixed conditions and would probably have been rewarded with an unlikely victory together with Fassler (Treluyer was out injured at the time) but for an issue with the brakes late on.

7 LOIC DUVAL
Team: Audi Sport Team Joest
Starts: 9
Wins: 2
Championship position: 2

It would be wrong to say that Duval had a poor 2015 season in the wake of his monster accident at Le Mans the previous season. But the Frenchman definitely performed at a higher level 2016, even if he was shaded by team-mate Lucas di Grassi.

Austin and Mexico City were probably his best races of the season, though neither yielded the victories he deserved together with di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis. The bad luck in North America ultimately cost them the championship.

Duval undoubtedly had an impressive second half of the season, but perhaps most significantly, he was back at the top of his game at Le Mans. And that, understandably, wasn't the case in 2015.

6 MARK WEBBER
Team: Porsche Team
Starts: 9
Wins: 4
Championship position: 4th

This was Webber's best season of what turned out to be a three-year stint with Porsche in the WEC. It wasn't because he was any better over the cut-and-thrust of the six-hour races that make up the bulk of the series, but because he conquered Le Mans for the first time.

If there were any doubts about the Australian's motivation around the Circuit de la Sarthe - and there had been after the previous two years - he well and truly buried them over the course of a fight back from an early delay.

It was a hopeless task really, but Webber was quicker than all his team-mates bar Jani.

5 TIMO BERNHARD
Team: Porsche Team
Starts: 9
Wins: 4
Championship position: 4th

There's not much to say about Bernhard's season except that he did exactly what we expected of him. The German was quick, consistent, a team player and a key member of the best line-up in the championship.

There were some top drives along the way, Le Mans, Shanghai and Bahrain included.

Bernhard - the driver, not the man - actually proved he was human in 2016 with a rare mistake. Not that anyone held a little off in mixed conditions in Mexico City against him.

4 BRENDON HARTLEY
Team: Porsche Team
Starts: 9
Wins: 4
Championship position: 4th

There's a certain expectation now when Hartley climbs aboard his Porsche. You know you might be in for something that extra bit special.

The Kiwi cemented his place among the LMP1 elite in 2016, but would undoubtedly have been higher in this list but for one mistake that had big implications.

It might seem unfair to hark on about a split-second error of judgement lapping a slower car that put the #1 Porsche out of a commanding position at Silverstone way back in April.

But it was an error nonetheless and one that if you do the maths ultimately cost Hartley and his team-mates the championship.

3 NEEL JANI
Team: Porsche Team
Starts: 9
Wins: 2
Championship position: 1st

Making judgements on the eventual champions' season of two halves isn't easy, except to say that Jani stood head and shoulders over team-mates Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas.

For all their difficulties over the post-Le Mans leg of the WEC, the Swiss driver did little, bar failing to win races, to dissuade anyone of the opinion that he's one of the world's top LMP1 drivers.

When the car was up to the job, Jani performed. The Fuji round in October was a case in point: after a change of nose transformed the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid, Jani was the quickest Porsche driver on the averages.

Ditto Le Mans, where Jani notched up a second consecutive pole position and then posted his most impressive race performance of the season.

2 SEBASTIEN BUEMI
Team: Toyota Gazoo Racing
Starts: 9
Wins: 0 (best result 3rd)
Championship position: 8th

There were no wins for the 2014 WEC title winner in what on the face of it looks like an abject season for Buemi and his team-mates in the #5 Toyota. Yet the Swiss was back to his best in 2016 with a car that was competitive - at least at times - under him once again.

Buemi was outstanding at Le Mans once he got the bit between his teeth. His drive would have been deserving of the ultimate prize in sportscar racing, but it wasn't to be.

The bad luck that deprived Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima of victory in France with five minutes to go was ever present through the season. It explains why they have but one piece of silverware to show for their efforts in 2016.

1 LUCAS DI GRASSI
Team: Audi Sport Team Joest
Starts: 9
Wins: 2
Championship position: 2nd

Di Grassi took another step as a sportscar driver in 2016. Maybe it was the fact that he was now in his third full season with Audi's LMP1 squad or maybe that the new R18 e-tron quattro suited his driving style. Or maybe a bit of both.

Whatever, there were occasions when the Brazilian put in some blinding performances that took some believing.

Le Mans was one. Di Grassi flew in the #8 Audi on Sunday morning as the car came alive once again, though even he admitted that the traffic seemed to part for him like the Red Sea.

And in Bahrain he was extra special in both qualifying and the race as he signed off as a full-time WEC driver.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

If Anthony Davidson's season hadn't been interrupted by injury and illness, he'd probably have made it deep into the top 10. He played a key role in the #5 Toyota's run to within a lap and a bit of Le Mans victory, so the shame was that he didn't get the chance to repeat that kind of performance after a big crash in testing at Magny-Cours ahead of the Mexico City round.

Rene Rast (pictured above) was the standout driver in LMP2, both for his one-lap pace in qualifying and race stints aboard the Jota-run G-Drive ORECA. There's little doubt that he had the best car under him - Jota got more out of the ORECA-Nissan 05 package than anyone else - but the German certainly made the most of it. It was a travesty that Rast finished the season with only one class win to his name.

Will Stevens deserves a mention, too. The sportscar rookie proved to be a worthy replacement when Rast wasn't available to G-Drive and played a key role in securing the first two-thirds of its end-of-season hat-trick.

Gianmaria Bruni was perhaps even better than ever at the AF Corse Ferrari squad after being pushed hard by a new team-mate in James Calado. The Brit was also impressive in his third season with the Italian manufacturer.

Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell are two drivers at different ends of their careers, but both proved something with the Ganassi Ford squad with a pair of victories over more fancied team-mates Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke at the end of the season: Priaulx that there's something left in the tank at the age of 42 and Tincknell that he has a big future ahead of him in the sportscar ranks.