Keating stripped of Le Mans win after disqualification

Keating Motorsports has been stripped of its GTE-Am class victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after its #85 Ford GT was disqualified following two rule breaks found in post-race scrutineering.

The #85 Ford GT shared by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga dominated the second half of the weekend's race in GTE-Am to take class victory, marking a first for a customer Ford GT at Le Mans.

However, the stewards found after the race that the team had failed to meet the minimum refuelling time of 45 seconds during the race, instead being recorded at 44.4 seconds.

This infraction was converted into a time penalty that would have dropped the car to P2 in class, only for a subsequent ruling for exceeding the maximum fuel capacity on the car to result in its disqualification.

As a result, Team Project 1's #56 Porsche 911 RSR driven by Joerg Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsey and Egidio Perfetti becomes the GTE-Am class winner at Le Mans, with the trio adding the accolade to their FIA World Endurance Championship class title victory that was clinched on Sunday.

The factory-run #68 Ford GT in GTE-Pro was also disqualified following post-race checks when it too was found to have exceeded the maximum fuel capacity during the race.