and the Equipe Nationale Belge car of “Beurlys”/”Eldé”. The two remaining Jaguar E-types were next, the British privateers keeping four laps ahead of Briggs Cunningham. In a race-long duel the leading, Herrmann/Barth, Porsche 2-litre GT had been chasing the smaller 1.2-litre Lotus Elite of Hobbs/Gardner. Both had steadily moved up the field through the night and got into the top-10 during the morning. Then the Lotus dropped onto three cylinders allowing the Porsche to overtake it. Finish and post-race Positions remained relatively static for the last four hours, excepting the American Ferrari that slipped to sixth with starter-motor problems. Hill and Gendebien finished a comfortable 5 laps ahead of the Frenchmen. Noblet/Guichet improved from their 3rd-place from the previous year, winning the GT division and finishing a clear 12 laps ahead of the Belgian GTO. The rest of the field has clusters of close finishes: In the last hour, Cunningham's Jaguar finally managed to get past their British rivals and finished 4th. Peter Sargent's car had a broken engine mount then its gearbox got jammed in top gear but were able to nurse the car home. In the end, Herrmann and Barth had a strong finish in the Porsche, despite a failing gearbox, and pushed up to finish 7th, less than a lap ahead of the recovering Lotus. Chapman was thrilled to be able to win the Index of Thermal Efficiency (achieving over 20mpg), sharing the prize with the Dubois/Harris Abarth-Simca. In the battle for the Index of Performance between the French Panhard, Renault and SIMCA, victory went to the sole-surviving CD-Panhard of Guilhardin/Bertaut. In a close finish they just beat two of the new Bonnet-Renault Djets. The ‘old-fashioned’ Morgan soldiered on throughout and after their sole competition Equipe Chardonnet AC Ace retired after only four hours, the finished 13th and claimed the GT 2-litre class win. Even though only four of their 15 starters made it to the finish, the win made Ferrari the most successful marque at Le Mans, with six wins, ahead of Jaguar's and Bentley's five. As it turned out, it would be the last win for a front-engined car. His fourth win made Olivier Gendebien became the most successful driver at Le Mans – until the arrival of the legendary Jacky Ickx at the end of the decade. That success, and the near miss he had at dawn, convinced him to promptly announce his retirement