Augusto Farfus suffered the highs and lows of the Le Mans 24 Hours. He set the pole position time and had the honour of driving the first stint in the no. 55 BMW M3 GT he shared with Jörg Müller and Dirk Werner. The three drivers battled through the epic event and for several hours their car was lying second in the GTE class. Sadly with just over two hours to go the dream of finishing on the podium ended when the car stopped on the track with a driveshaft related problem.

After the first 46 laps Farfus handed the car over to Müller in second, but then it suffered a puncture and the German had to bring it slowly back to the pits. The car was in the pits for four minutes and this dropped it down to 11th. Ten hours in they were moving up the field and had made it to seventh. On lap 107 Farfus was back behind the wheel to carry on with this fight back.

During the hours of darkness Farfus spent many laps in the car, and by dawn it was back up to fifth and still climbing. After 20 hours the car was in third and back up to a podium finishing position. Farfus was then behind the wheel again, but bad luck struck again and he had to pit with a broken radiator. A ten minute pit stop for repairs then dropped the car back to sixth.

Müller was at the wheel two hours later for the final heart breaking dose of bad luck when he pulled off the track in the Mulsanne corner after making it to fifth. He coasted to a stop and that was it – him, Farfus and Werner were reduced to spectators.

The Brazilian was bitterly disappointed but as usual was still smiling when he said: “That’s motor racing. I am not sure which is worse – retiring two hours into a 24 race or two hours from the end of one! The car was running well and reliably right up to when Jörg started feeling a vibration. Okay we had suffered from some punctures, but this is not surprising when you think about the number of accidents during the race, and the amount of debris around the track that is nearly 14 kilometres long. After finishing sixth last year I was determined we were going to improve on that. I now feel very much I have unfinished business at this race. I want to come back one day and there is just one position I want – the top step of the podium.”

There is, however, always a silver lining to every cloud. For Farfus it was the fact he could start his journey home several hours earlier than expected. His wife, Liri, is in their home town of Curitiba, Brazil where she is about to have their first baby. Farfus is determined to be there with her for this happy event.