Larbre Competition team manager Jack Leconte said that the #50 Chevrolet Corvette was lucky to win the Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Am category after the team had to pit on the last lap to change drivers.
The team had to pull Pedro Lamy into the pits at the last moment to put Julien Canal into the car after missing a driver swap due to a pitlane speeding incident earlier in the race.
Larbre had been embroiled in a huge battle with the #67 Imsa Porsche team, which Leconte reckoned would have protested the result but for the driver switch as Canal would have been 13 seconds shy of completing the minimum required track time for each driver. The Imsa car ultimately dropped back with a late puncture.
"We swapped because we worked out that the driving time was compromised," he said. "We thought Canal had done 13sec too little and Porsche were going to protest.
"We had a pitlane speeding issue during the safety car and I was talking and doing other things during the pit stops. We knew that so we were lucky that they had a puncture, otherwise I don't know what would have happened."
Lamy secured the win with a late pass on Imsa driver Anthony Pons, after closing down the Porsche's half-minute advantage in the final stint.
"I overtook him on the track and the team told me that I was passing the Porsche for the lead, so it is nice to win," he said.