How Alonso really got on at Le Mans

Despite what a few naysayers may think, Fernando Alonso's appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours was a huge positive for the race. And so was his victory.

Yes, he stole most of the headlines, but there were more of those headlines because the double Formula 1 world champion was in the classic French enduro. In short, he brought Le Mans and sportscar racing to a wider audience. Traffic on Autosport.com's Le Mans coverage was up 103% compared to 2017 - even though the Toyota versus Porsche LMP1 rivalry had been replaced by the near-certainty of a Toyota walkover.

IndyCar and World Endurance Championship organisers understand the scale of Alonso's appeal, which is why the WEC superseason calendar was changed to avoid the Fuji round clashing with F1. The respect Alonso has shown both the Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans has also been a boost, not only demonstrating his own abilities, but underlining that cracking these events is no easy task, even for a driver of his ability.

Alonso was better during the race than it appeared too. He didn't set the pole time - that went to his co-driver Kazuki Nakajima - and he didn't set fastest lap, which went to the other #8 Toyota pilot Sebastien Buemi. But his race pace was extraordinary, something we've come to expect from F1's Mr Relentless.

If you take the average of the 10 fastest race laps of each Toyota driver, Alonso was third quickest, behind Buemi and Mike Conway.

Average of top 10 fastest laps

1. Buemi 3m18.875s
2. Conway 3m19.104s
3. Alonso 3m19.321s
4. Lopez 3m19.480s
5. Nakajima 3m19.657s
6. Kobayashi 3m19.875s

But taking the top 20 times moves Alonso into second, within 0.12 seconds of Buemi, and he goes to the top in the fastest 30 list. When you expand it to the top 50 fastest times, Alonso is half a second clear of the field.

Average of top 50 fastest laps

1. Alonso 3m20.259s
2. Buemi 3m20.802s
3. Lopez 3m20.838s
4. Nakajima 3m20.891s
5. Conway 3m20.964s
6. Kobayashi 3m21.202s

Given that the drivers weren't all out at the same time and therefore had different track conditions to deal with, it isn't a perfect comparison. But it underlines Alonso's fierce race pace.

When Nico Hulkenberg won Le Mans in 2015, he was fifth-quickest over 50 laps and second-fastest Porsche driver, a scant 0.029s behind co-victor Nick Tandy.

Alonso also managed to avoid penalties (such as Buemi's for slow-zone speeding) or missing his fuel stop, Kamui Kobayashi-style. In short, Toyota team director Rob Leupen was accurate when - in response to an open question about the contribution of all six of his drivers, he chose to begin his answer by saying Alonso's debut was "exceptional".

There were those in the immediate aftermath of the race who felt the need to suggest that Alonso's achievement wasn't worthy of Graham Hill's Le Mans victory in 1972. That success completed Hill's triple crown so - given Alonso's stated aim of also winning the Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500 - comparison was inevitable.

Alonso's race pace was extraordinary, something we've come to expect from F1's Mr Relentless

Quite apart from the fact that any win in the Le Mans 24 Hours is worthy of respect, the circumstances of Hill's win are worth reviewing.

The 1972 race was the first Le Mans under new regulations, with the five-litre Porsche and Ferrari monsters banished and a three-litre limit imposed. Ferrari dominated the world championship that year, but skipped Le Mans - removing several top sportscar drivers from the event.

Matra only concentrated on the 24 Hours, entering four cars, with Hill sharing one of the three new MS670s with Henri Pescarolo.

There were three works Alfa Romeo T33TT3s from Autodelta and some ageing privateer Porsche 908s, but they were no match for the Matras. Jo Bonnier's Lola was rapid, but was never likely to provide a lasting challenge, and the team's race ended in tragedy when the Swede was killed in a clash with a backmarker.

One of the 670s - the fancied car of Matra's F1 driver Chris Amon and Jean-Pierre Beltoise - blew up on lap two, leaving victory to be fought out between the short-tailed car of Hill/Pescarolo and the long-tailed version of Francois Cevert/Howden Ganley.

The two cars ran together, both taking turns to lead, throughout the night. That was when Hill showed Alonso levels of ruthlessness by attacking in the wet, when Matra couldn't control the lap times of its drivers, as it did in the dry.

Cevert and Ganley were nevertheless ahead when they lost time to wet electrics, then Ganley was hit from behind by a Chevrolet Corvette during a rain shower. That lost the duo more than 10 minutes.

Hill and Pescarolo were left to win by 10 laps in a Matra one-two, the Porsche in third being 19 laps behind. Only 18 of the 55 starters were classified as finishers.

Luck is often (always?) required when it comes to winning events as big as Le Mans. It was true for Hill and it was true for Alonso

The winners had kept out of trouble and Hill's performance in the wet was strong, particularly given he had never been the same in single-seaters following his 1969 United States Grand Prix crash, in which he broke both legs.

He'd also proved his co-driver wrong. Pescarolo hadn't initially been pleased to find himself partnered with the 43-year-old double F1 world champion, questioning his motivation, but Hill was instantly quick in the Matra. Like Alonso, he took the challenge seriously. But the entry meant it was more like the 2018 race than '17, or the record-breaking 1971 event.

Road & Track headlined its report 'A Hollow Victory' and asked: "Suppose they built an unbeatable team of prototypes - and nobody came to get beat?" Which sounds rather familiar.

Hill's win was undoubtedly well deserved, but the 1972 Le Mans hasn't gone down as a classic in the event's history. This year's race probably won't either, but that has nothing to do with Alonso's performance.

The point is not to denigrate Hill's fine achievement, more to show that an element of luck is often (always?) required when it comes to winning events as big as Le Mans. It was true for Hill and it was true for Alonso.

The specialisation of motorsport today and the complicated nature of hybrids arguably make the challenge Alonso has set himself harder in the 21st century than it was in the 20th. The 1972 three-litre Matra was very similar to the F1 cars of the day, more so than the Toyota TS050 is to the McLaren-Renault MCL33.

So, fans should rejoice in Alonso's success, particularly as it means he is now even more likely to do the Indy 500 again. If he took some time off from F1 next year, Alonso could find himself a double Le Mans winner, WEC champion, an Indy 500 victor and IndyCar title challenger in 12 months' time.

Achieving just some of that would surely beat another year being wasted in the F1 midfield. And create plenty more headlines for the wider motorsport world.