The Porsche 991 RSR came good today, winning the GTE-Pro class at the 2013 Le Mans 24-Hours.

The victory came at Aston’s expense, when the number 97 car was held up by a pit lane red light in the final safety car period. 2013 had twelve safety cars: most safety car periods ever.

Aston and Porsche had been neck-and-neck up to that point, and Dumbreck, Turner and Stefan Mucke drove their hearts out, so to be robbed of their chance by something so petty was horrible. But, that’s racing.

Aston’s loss was Porsche’s gain and the Manthey/Porsche AG 991 RSRs took first and second in GTE-Pro. When the safety cars pulled in and Aston’s bad luck was fully revealed, 97 stood no chance of catching the Porsches. The pace settled into a groove to the flag, with only Sebastian Buemi’s move to unlap his P2 Toyota worth mentioning in the last fifteen minutes.

This result bodes well for 2014 and Porsche’s return to LMP. It was good work to run reliably and keep the 911 out of trouble but, were it not for that safety car break, things might not have worked out so well for Stuttgart.

Nevertheless, a win is a win and we should be delighted that the racing 911 is right back on form. On to the next one!

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