The star performers from Le Mans 2017

Sometimes it really doesn't matter what a driver does in the Le Mans 24 Hours - if luck isn't on your side, victory in the famous French enduro will elude you.

Toyota went unrewarded again at the Circuit de la Sarthe, despite standout performances from a quartet of LMP1 drivers representing the Japanese marque. Meanwhile, in LMP2, a crew that stood on the overall podium ended up with a cruel exclusion.

Lady Luck did smile upon some who excelled - and those who did not achieve what they hoped for from the pinnacle of endurance racing may take some solace in making this list of this year's star performers from Le Mans.

KAMUI KOBAYASHI
#7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID
Start: 1st
Finish: DNF

That qualifying lap on the way to a record-breaking pole position was a bit special, ultra-clear track or not. And Kamui Kobayashi continued that form into the race.

There's not much else to say, really. Except that no blame should be laid at his door for the bizarre sequence of events that resulted in the retirement of the leading Toyota TS050 HYBRID.

The #7 Toyota deserved to win Le Mans this year and Kobayashi would have been a key component in that success.

JOSE MARIA LOPEZ
#9 Toyota TS050 HYBRID
Start: 5th
Finish: DNF

This year's Le Mans 24 Hours was, to all intents and purposes, Jose Maria Lopez's LMP1 race debut. That makes his performance on his debut at the Circuit de la Sarthe super-impressive.

The Argentinian bounced back from a difficult start to his Toyota career. Not only did he crash on his fourth racing lap at Silverstone and have to miss Spa with the resulting injuries, but he had another less-publicised incident at his team's shakedown at the Belgian track in May.

Lopez's head didn't drop with his 'downgrading' to the third Toyota and he emerged as the fastest driver in the #9 TS050 HYBRID. And he wasn't far off his more established team-mates in cars #7 and #8.

MIKE CONWAY
#7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID
Start: 1st
Finish: DNF

Kobayashi is going to be in the forefront of everyone's memory when they think back to Le Mans 2017 in years to come, and for multiple reasons. That's probably a bit unfair on Mike Conway, who was outstanding.

The understated Brit once again did his talking out on the track. He was absolutely on a par with Kobayashi during the race.

Conway proved beyond doubt, if indeed there was any, that he's up there among the best drivers in LMP1 at the moment.

SEBASTIEN BUEMI
#8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID
Start: 2nd
Finish: 8th

Sebastien Buemi performed as he always does - at the top of his game. The Swiss doesn't appear to have off days, at least in the World Endurance Championship.

The #8 Toyota wasn't a match for the sister car early doors, but on Sunday morning he flew in pursuit of a smattering of WEC points. He did the same again over the final couple of stints.

Eighth place wasn't what Buemi had been expecting coming into this race and fastest lap set on Sunday was probably no consolation.

TIMO BERNHARD
#2 Porsche 919 Hybrid
Start: 4th
Finish: 1st

It's hard to separate the trio of drivers in the winning Porsche 919 Hybrid. They all flew after embarking on what looked like a hopeless comeback.

Bernhard was, however, the fastest of the three, just shading Brendon Hartley on the averages.

It was another impressive Le Mans performance for a driver who has now joined the ranks of the two-time winners.

THOMAS LAURENT
#38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA-Gibson 07
Start: 9th (3rd in LMP2)
Finish: 2nd (1st in LMP2)

The mandatory silver (or bronze) graded driver that must feature in all LMP2 line-ups plays a critical role, and Laurent was the standout performer from that group.

Although his peak pace in the race fell a little short of that of team-mates Ho-Pin Tung (who set the fastest LMP2 lap) and Oliver Jarvis, his consistency was excellent.

So while he did cost the car time with his minor crash at Indianapolis in the third hour, he also played a central role in hauling it back into contention. His pace compared to his opposite numbers in the two Rebellion ORECAs was crucial.

There is also an honourable mention among the silver drivers for Enzo Guibbert, who set the fastest silver lap of the race in the #40 Graff ORECA but didn't match Laurent's consistency.

JEAN-ERIC VERGNE
#24 Manor ORECA-Gibson 07
Start: 6th in LMP2
Finish: 6th in LMP2

The Frenchman's pace has never been in doubt, and he was extremely fast in the Manor entry. Despite being unable to get a clear lap in to take the pole position that was on the cards, he excelled in the race and led four laps during his opening quintuple stint.

Vergne completed a total of 168 laps in the car, but that wasn't enough to compensate for the fact that team-mates Jonathan Hirschi and Tor Graves weren't able to run at the same level, so the car slipped back.

Looking at a sample set of an average of fastest 30 race laps for each driver (which is a total of three stints' worth), Vergne averaged a 1m31.001s, which was the fourth fastest. Considering the workload and the onus on him to anchor the team, it was a fine performance.

NELSON PIQUET JR
#13 Rebellion ORECA-Gibson 07
Start: 11th (5th in LMP2)
Finish: DSQ (3rd overall, 2nd in LMP2)

No driver covered more laps in the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours than Piquet, who completed 170 on his way to an overall podium. That's 47.2% of the total laps completed by the #13 Rebellion!

No-one was faster over the basis of a comparison of the fastest 30 race laps for each driver either. No wonder Piquet described himself as "pretty exhausted" after the finish.

The only criticism you can make is that Piquet did earn a 10-second penalty for clashing with the #49 Bratislava Porsche on Sunday, but given the laps he was doing that was forgivable.

All of this just gives him the nod over Rebellion stablemate Bruno Senna, who was fast and very consistent throughout the race.

That the car was eventually excluded from third place overall for modifying the bodywork so it no longer complied with the ORECA's homologation does nothing to undermine the quality of Piquet's performance.

ALEX BRUNDLE
#37 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA
Start: 15th (9th in LMP2)
Finish: 3rd (2nd in LMP2)

Given the attention on the winning sister car, Brundle's performances went largely below the radar. But as soon as you look beyond fastest single laps (both Tung and Jarvis set a faster lap), he soon emerges as the most impressive of the team's six drivers.

Given this car had some catching up to do, you could argue that Brundle had more licence to attack as it came back through to third in class, but the 26-year-old showed that he can be relied upon to turn in a consistently quick pace.

That's why it would be wrong to overlook his performance, especially as he was well clear of team-mate Tristan Gommendy, who is no slouch in LMP2 machinery.

DANIEL SERRA
#97 AMR Aston Martin Vantage
Start: 1st in GTE Pro
Finish: 1st in GTE Pro

Darren Turner broke the GTE qualifying record in setting the pole lap in the winning #97 Vantage and it was Jonny Adam who harried Chevrolet's Jordan Taylor over the final stint, forcing the error that opened the door to victory.

So it would be easy to miss the contribution of the driver who laughingly describes himself as "the guy nobody knows".

The son of 1979 British Formula 3 champion Chico Serra got his 'in' at Aston Martin through his role as a Dunlop-contracted test driver. What will keep him there is his sheer pace.

Serra underpinned the efforts of team-mates Turner and Adam to keep the Aston in the hunt for victory over the first half of the race, and it was his blazingly quick dawn double-stint, during which he broke the GTE race lap record twice, that provided the launchpad for the car's comeback after a pitstop delay put it behind the 'wrong' safety car.

Close scrutiny of average best laptimes - to filter out anomalous laps scuppered by slow zones - suggest that Serra was one of the quickest GTE Pro drivers of all this year. It's about time sportscar fans got to know him.

FERNANDO REES
#50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette C7.R
Start: 1st in GTE Am
Finish: 16th in GTE Am

Sometime Aston Martin factory driver Rees managed to frustrate AMR's efforts to secure pole in GTE Am as well as GTE Pro, beating Pedro Lamy's factory Vantage in qualifying by three tenths of a second in the privately run Corvette.

And he did so with very little cockpit time, since he had to vacate the driver's seat so that Larbre's two relatively inexperienced bronze drivers, chiefly Le Mans rookie Christian Philippon, could complete their night laps (and, in Philippon's case, clear the important hurdle of setting a fast enough night lap to be allowed to race).

AMR dropped Rees from its driver line-up after last year's Le Mans, and this weekend offered tantalising glimpses of a wasted talent. Not only was Rees quickest in qualifying, he got in among the tail end of the GTE Pro pack at the start of the race on merit and was pulling away in the opening stint.

If you compare the average of his fastest race lap times with those of his fellow gold-ranked drivers in the GTE Am class, he ranks at the top - despite having little to actually race for once he'd handed over to Philippon and Romain Brandela, two of the least impressive bronzes in the field.

Finishing last was a poor reward for someone who is obviously putting their hand up for a factory drive again, and who is well worth considering.