Triple Crown of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Championship. Although aware of the bad accident, Hill was only told of Bonnier's death after the race and was deeply affected. They were former teammates, close friends and had been the “senior statesmen” of the Formula One grid in the early 1970s. Nine laps further back in third was the unheralded Porsche 908LH driven by Reinhold Joest, Mario Casoni and Michel Weber. It was then a close flurry for the minor places: The sole remaining Alfa Romeo, of Vaccarella and de Adamich finished just a lap ahead of the French Ferrari of Ballot-Léna/Andruet. Charles Pozzi's car was first GT home and also won the Index of Thermal Efficiency doing about 6.75 mpg. A late-race spin for the NART Ferrari cost it time to repair, finishing two laps further back. In a strong performance, five of the nine Ferraris finished, with Mike Parkes’ Filipinetti car just overhauling the Belgian car in the last hour. All the other GT manufacturers had bad races with a number of engine problems. Chevrolet, De Tomaso and Porsche only had a single finisher each. Three months after the race, Porsche unveiled its new 911 customer model: the 2.7-litre Carrera RS to even up the competition in Group 4. The advent of the Group 2 Touring Cars was successful, with two of the Ford Capris finishing, in 10th and 11th. René Ligonnet's private entry Lola T290, coming home in 14th became the first Lola to finish at Le Mans. Official results Finishers Results taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO Class Winners are in Bold text. 'Note *: Not Classified because insufficient distance covered. Did Not Finish Did Not Start Class Winners Note: setting a new class distance record. Index of Thermal Efficiency For Group 2 and Group 4 cars. Statistics Taken from Quentin Spurring's book, officially licensed by the ACO Fastest Lap in practice –F.Cevert, #14 Matra-Simca MS670 – 3:42.2secs; Fastest Lap – G. van Lennep, #8 Lola T280 – 3:46.9secs; Winning Distance – Winner's Average Speed – Attendance – ? International Championship for Makes Standings As calculated after Le Mans, Round 9 of 11 Note: Only the best 8 of 11 results counted to the final Championship points. The full total earned to date is given in brackets Citations References Armstrong, Douglas – English editor