1993 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 1993 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 61st Grand Prix of Endurance, taking place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, France, on the 19 and 20 June 1993. The race was won by Peugeot Talbot Sport, with drivers Geoff Brabham, and Le Mans rookies Éric Hélary and Christophe Bouchut completing 375 laps in their Peugeot 905 Evo 1B. At the end of 1992, FISA had cancelled the Sportscar World Championship. This allowed the ACO to create their own regulations. As well as continuing the Group C classes, they opened the race to Grand Touring (GT) style cars for the first time since the 1986 race. It was expected, again, to be a Peugeot vs Toyota contest, each with a trio of cars entered. Philippe Alliot took his third consecutive pole position for Peugeot and from the start of the race, it was Alliot and Eddie Irvine who set the pace. However, both cars lost several laps with engine issues so, going into the evening, it was Thierry Boutsen and Geoff Lees contesting the lead. This ended at 11pm when Juan Manuel Fangio II's Toyota was punted from behind by a GT car missing its braking point.

When Fabi's Peugeot pitted from first at 3.30am with electrical problems, it was the hitherto conservatively-run third Peugeot that inherited the lead they would not relinquish. The other Category 1 cars struggled to make up time, particularly the Toyotas who, for the second year in succession, suffered from transmission issues. When Irvine's Toyota pitted from third at Sunday lunchtime, and lost 10 laps with a gearbox rebuild, the race was won for Peugeot who came home with a 1-2-3 finish. A consolation prize for Toyota was that their privateer teams claimed the Category 2 class-win, beating the Porsches and Courages, finishing 5th and 6th with Irvine's car making it back up to 4th. In the GT class, it was a contest between Porsche (a single works car and a number of customer teams) and Jaguar (three cars run by Tom Walkinshaw Racing). After the works Porsche was delayed, the Jaguars headed the class, with the car of John Nielsen, David Brabham and David Coulthard finishing 15th overall. However, they had been running under appeal for the race for not having catalytic converters as the production car had. A month after the race, they were disqualified, and the class win went to the Monaco Média team Porsche Carrera.