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FLASH REPORT: Mazda wins Petit Le Mans as Derani, Nasr claim DPi title
The No. 55 Mazda of Harry Tincknell, Jonathan Bomarito and Oliver Jarvis, in its final race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, came from three laps down to win the 2021 Motul Petit Le Mans, narrowly beating the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac of Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani and Mike Conway.
However, it was Derani and Nasr who took the DPi championship over Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, who finished third in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Acura with Alexander Rossi.
The championship fight came to a head on the final lap when Taylor launched down the inside of Nasr, who was heavily defending into Turn 10A. Taylor cut the corner and emerged in front of Nasr, but Nasr had the momentum and crossed the finish line first.
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Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia had already won the final GTLM title when the No.3 Corvette became the first of the GTLM competitors to leave the race in a multi-car crash on a restart. When the No. 4 Corvette retired with suspension damage after contact with the Mazda DPi in the closing minutes, that left Kevin Estre in the No. 97 WeatherTech Porsche clear in front. However, he let the No. 79 WeatherTech Porsche of Cooper MacNeil, Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell through at the end so the full-season car could claim the victory.
The GTD championship was virtually sealed for Laurens Vanthoor and Zacharie Robichon when the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini struck trouble early in the race and went 13 laps down. Still, they and Lars Kern put up a fight to the end for the victory. However, it was Ian James, Roman De Angelis and Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin that claimed the victory.
The LMP2 fight came down to a battle between the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA of Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen and Scott Huffaker and the No. 8 Tower Motorsport ORECA of Gabriel Aubry, John Farano and James French. Keating and Jensen had already clinched the championship, and apparently won the race. But the No. 52 received a post race drive-through equivalent time penalty for contact in the closing minutes and the No. 8 was handed the win.
The No. 74 Riley Motorsports Ligier of Gar Robinson, Felipe Fraga and Scott Andrews won LMP3 in both the race and the championship for Robinson.
Richard S. James
Richard James is motorsports journalist living in Orange County, Calif, who has been involved in the sport to some degree for three decades. He covers primarily sports car racing as a writer and photographer, with occasional forays into off-road and other forms of racing. A former editor of the SCCA’s publication, SportsCar, he has a special love for the grass-roots side of the sport and participates as a driver in amateur road racing.
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