24h Le Mans
24 HOURS CENTENARY – PEOPLE and MACHINES ⎮ While a remarkable 40 individual drivers have clinched at least two wins at the legendary race, duos and trios with multiple victories are in a class of their own, a true symbol of the alchemy needed to triumph at Le Mans.
This exclusive group currently counts eight line-ups with 18 drivers for a total of 20 wins. In chronological order: Olivier Gendebien, Phil Hill, Henri Pescarolo, Gérard Larrousse, Jacky Ickx, Derek Bell, Al Holbert, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro, Marco Werner, Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer, Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima boasting a stunning total of 69 victories among them.
Proving the extreme level of difficulty for the same crew to triumph multiple times, and the extraordinary achievement it is, they are only four that have pulled off three wins.
When they first teamed up, Olivier Gendebien and Phil Hill had already taken the start in the race three and four times, respectively. Their association kicked off in triumph in 1958 with Ferrari. They won again as a duo with the Italian marque in 1961 and 1962, becoming the first three-time winning driver line-up in the history of the race.
Gendebien's additional win in 1960 with Paul Frère made him the record holder until 1981. Hill became the first American-born driver (Luigi Chinetti earning citizenship in 1949) to reach the top step at the 24 Hours. In 14 participations, he made it to the chequered flag just three times...as the winner.
Gendebien and Hill won all three runnings they entered together, but Jacky Ickx/Derek Bell achieved equally exceptional success: three victories (1975, 1981 and 1982) and a second place finish (1983) in four joint appearances! Bell won three of his five wins in the duo, and Ickx established a new record in 1981 which he took to six the following year.
After Ickx retired on the heels of a final participation in 1985, Bell formed a winning trio with American driver Al Holbert and German driver Hans-Joachim Stuck for two more victories in 1986 and 1987. He became the most successful Brit ever at the 24 Hours with five wins.
In 2000, 2001 and 2002, Frank Biela (German), Tom Kristensen (Danish) and Emanuele Pirro (Italian) turned in never before seen performances at the race, becoming the first, and only to date, trio to claim the top step three times in a row.
Kristensen went on to set a staggering new record of nine wins between 1997 and 2013. Pirro and Biela earned two addiitional victories in 2006 and 2007 with Marco Werner.
The fourth and last crew to share the record of three wins performed at the top of its game in the early 2010s. Winning in 2011 after a legendary duel with Peugeot on Sunday from 07:00 to the finish line, Marcel Fässler (Swiss), André Lotterer (German) and Benoît Tréluyer (French) triumphed again in 2012 and 2014. The drivers attribute their remarkable success to a perfectly symbiotic relationship based on true friendship.
After French driver Henri Pescarolo's first win (and Matra's), shared with Graham Hill in 1972, he welcomed new teammate and fellow countryman Gérard Larrousse in 1973. In the wake of an intense battle that year, the duo beat the Ferrari of Jacky Ickx/Brian Redman, and won again in 1974.
Larrousse clinched a third victory thereafter as Renault-Alpine team manager in 1978, and Pescarolo became a four-time winner in 1984. He remains to this day the only French driver to win the 24 Hours three years in a row.
The track record and trophy list of the trio who secured Toyota's first two wins at Le Mans is nothing if not impressive.
Drivers for the Japanese marque since its return to the 24 Hours in 2012, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima have not disappointed. The first is a four-time winner seeking a fifth at the Centenary and also became the first Japanese pole-sitter at the race in 2014, the second earned a third consecutive victory in 2020, with Buemi and New Zealander Brendon Hartley.
Fernando Alonso is the fifth Formula 1 world champion to win the 24 Hours after Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Jochen Rindt and Graham Hill, and the only one to triumph more than once.
PHOTOS (Copyright - ACO/Archives): LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 1962-2018 24 HOURS OF LE MANS. From top to bottom: Kazuki Nakajima/Fernando Alonso/Sébastien Buemi (from left to right) formed the last crew to win multiple times; the #6 Ferrari driven by Olivier Gendebien/Phil Hill in 1962 for their third win; Jacky Ickx (at left) and Derek Bell celebrate their third and final shared victory in 1982; Tom Kristensen (#1, here at the wheel) in 2002 on his way to his fourth personal win and third consecutive with Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro; Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer (from left to right), the fourth and last to date three-time winning driver line-up; after his second win in a row with Henri Pescarolo in 1974, Gérard Larrousse (#7) retired from competition and became Renault's sporting director, taking the marque to the top step on the podium in 1978 all while developing turbocharged engine technology in Formula 1; Fernando Alonso/Sébastien Buemi/Kazuki Nakajima's second consecutive victory in 2019.
