24 hours of Le Mans 2016 (Spoilers, just in case)

Did anyone skip the F1 pre race coverage to watch the finale of 24 hours? Superb race between Toyota and Porsche with Toyota having the upper hand and going into the penultimate lap with a lead of 1:30 min only to have the leading car breaking down with 5 mins to go. The Porsche went on to win, the Toyota completed the final lap on battery power but failed to make it in under 6 minutes and was thus classified as DNF. One of the most horrible ends to a race I have ever seen. Does anyone know whether it would have helped to stop before the finish line and cross the line immediately after the winner?
Clip starts half a minute after the troubles begin:

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

n00binio Wrote:
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> Does anyone know whether it would have helped to stop before the
> finish line and cross the line immediately after the winner?

No, it wouldn't. They still would have to do a complete lap under the 6 mn as well (the rule was added after Stommelen stayed in front of the finish line for 20 mn or so in 1979). But it would have helped if they had stopped before the finish line rather than after to reinit the power unit which took them something like 4 mn and the reason why they failed to run the latest lap under the 6 mn.

That was a cracker of a race and an astonishing finish. I feel for Toyota even if I'm not a big fan of them, they didn't deserve that after doing such a good job all race long.

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I see, good point. Thanks for the info. I agree with you, while initially I did not root for Toyota as well it was not nice to see them loosing the race in such a manner.

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld

Yeah I watched it over the F1, just to spite Bernie after his comments that nobody would be watching the end of the 24 hours.

It was horrible. Felt so sorry for them. I don't know if I'd feel worse for a team to go out really early in the 24 hours or in the final 6 hours or so, but not on the second last lap.

Feel so bad for Toyota, they deserved to win.

Ahh man... I couldn't believe it, I don't think anyone could.

This rivals Hildebrand crashing out of the Indy 500 on the last turn gifting victory to Wheldon.

To lose a 24 hour race with mere minutes to go having lead it for hours... devastating.

Ole Martin Brundle did quite well in the Road to Le Mans race as well, pole position and ran in the top 3 in his stint. Not bad for an old man.

It was really gutting, for me it was probably one of the cruellest things I have seen since Brazil 2008. I think it would have been great for the category for Toyota to win with a much lower budget than the others.

However, it was not to be and the mystique of the 787B as the only Japanese winner continues to grow ...

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