Hartley says Le Mans win owed to Porsche mechanics

Hartley shared the victory with Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber, but said the speed of his mechanics’ work was key to their success.

“They worked their arses off to get the car back out there,” said Hartley. “If it had taken five minutes more, [the win] wouldn’t have happened.

“There’s not a scratch on that car too!”

Bernhard, who previously won at Le Mans with Audi in 2010, said the targets of the #2 Porsche shifted constantly as it came back into the reckoning after its hour-long early delay.

“It can be the cruellest race or the best race ever,” said Bernhard. “Yesterday, after four hours, it looked bad but the guys were so quick to repair the car, they really speeded it up. At the end, you saw every lap counted – every second mattered to get back to P1.

“You can never foresee what’s going to happen, so in the end the spirit in Le Mans is flat-out racing. It was our only chance.

“At the beginning, our focus was manufacturers’ points, then it shifted to WEC driver standings, and then this morning we realised we could do a little bit more. Maybe the podium, and then – unfortunately what happened to the sister car, we feel for them – but that is why we kept pushing.”