Nasamax records two firsts at Le Mans.

After a dramatic and incident-packed Le Mans 24 Hours, the Nasamax DM139-Judd crossed the line in 17th of the 26 finishers with Robbie Stirling at the wheel, but notched up two notable firsts along the way.

Simply crossing the line at 4pm local time on Sunday gave the team the honour of becoming the first to take a wholly-renewably fuelled car to the finish at Le Mans, while doing so with the only new-specification LMP1 prototype in the field.

The Astek-supported DM139 was running on bio-ethanol, an alcohol fuel distilled in northern France from local sugar beet and potatoes. The aim of the project is to use motorsport to showcase renewable fuel's potential, and the Le Mans 24 Hours was chosen as a severe test, as well as being the world's most famous and highly visible race.

The green-and-black car dropped to 47th on the leaderboard after ten laps, while investigations were carried out in the pits for the source of an engine misfire. Once returned to the fray, the team rose steadily through the ranking, until a half-hour stop to change the starter motor slowed its momentum. However, the team again turned the car around and, with Stirling, Werner Lupberger and Kevin McGarrity taking turns at the wheel, it again started to gain places in the final few hours.

"We lost time trying to find the misfire and, eventually, we had to just get on with it," said team manager John McNeil, "It's frustrating as we know what lap time we could have had, and we know it would have put us safely in the top ten - even the top six.

"However, these were the usual setbacks any car could have in racing, and we have still shown that this fuel can be competitive in the top level of international motorsport. To do so with a new racing car to completely new regulations is also a major achievement for the whole team. We will be back next year."