LM24: Hulkenberg says win "greatest of my career"

Hulkenberg, Tandy and Bamber took control of the 2015 race during the night in the #19 919 Hybrid, pulling away from their Porsche teammates and the leading Audis to take the German manufacturer's first overall win in the race since 1998.

Le Mans 24 Hours race report

Force India F1 driver Hulkenberg, who has one grand prix pole position to his name and has not won a race since his title-winning GP2 campaign of 2009, said his Le Mans debut had been a dream.

"Today is a great achievement, the greatest of my career," said the 27-year-old. "It's right after the win, so it's still tough to realize, and I think it will come to me in the next few days.

"It's an amazing experience for me, coming from the F1 environment and to see a race like Le Mans. I'm really happy I've done it, and even more happy that I've won it straight away with these two guys who are now legends."

Hulkenberg believes the key to his car's victory was the fact that both Porsche and the #19 car's drivers did not put a foot wrong.

"For our car it was a flawless race," he said. "We had great pace, we were mistake-free, with a good flow, a good rhythm.

"I'd like to thank everybody for pushing like hell for the last couple of months without much sleep – today is the payback and the reward for that."

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Tandy, the only driver in the winning car to have competed in the race before (in the GTE division), believes the night conditions allowed the #19 Porsche to seize the initiative.

"The conditions came to suit the way our car was working, handling wise, compared to the other cars," said the Briton. "The air temperature helps a lot with the turbo, and when everything is working as one it comes easily to you.

"It was clear that those cooler conditions into the morning suited how our car and our drivers were working. The track came to us when dusk started to fall – our car just switched on and we were able to keep a high performance across a quadruple stint on the tires, which was key to our victory."

Bamber expressed his gratitude toward Porsche for calling him up to its third car for the biggest race of the year.

"It's been an amazing 12 months for me - 12 months ago I was driving for Timo [Bernhard, second-place finisher]'s Carrera Cup team in Germany," he said. "I have to say a huge thank you to Porsche for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to race here.

"It's beyond my wildest dreams to come here and win Le Mans at the first attempt."

Originally on Autosport.com