At the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours, Nissan-powered cars finished in first and second place for a stunning victory. Olivier Lombard took the chequered flag as LMP2 winner in the Zytek Nissan of Greaves Motorsport. In second place was the Oreca 03 Nissan of the Signatech Nissan team of Lucas Ordonez, Franck Mailleux and Soheil Ayari.
This year's race was full of drama, with even the top drivers and teams failing to finished the grueling endurance race. The race is also notable because Nissan's Lucas Ordonez went from winning a video game competition just three years ago to taking a podium position at the toughest race in the world.
"This is the best feeling I have ever had," said a very emotional Ordonez after the race. "The team is amazing. We had a few problems but they managed it perfectly and now we are on the podium at Le Mans! There was a second when I thought it was all over and that was a difficult moment but we recovered and made it to second place. This is going to take some time to sink in!"
Driving the Signatech Nissan car in the final hours of the race, Franck Mailleux, suffering from its second puncture with three hours to go and then soon after that Tom Kimber-Smith had an off into the gravel in the Greaves car when it began to rain.
“The on-off rain made it pretty tricky,” said Tom. “I went out with a dark vizor so I couldn't see the clouds coming and then going into turn one I locked the rears and spun into the gravel. Fortunately we had such a strong lead so I was able to pit for intermediate tyres and not lose position. We stuck to our own game plan; we knew that if we went steady we would be up there at the end of the race.”
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