Not only is it the Blue Riband event, the race that all teams and drivers want to win alongside the world championship title, but the 24-hour classic also awards the winners in each class with 50 championship points - double the normal maximum of 25 points for a race win.

The points are doubled all the way down the finishing order in each of the four classes with the second place finishers receiving 36 points instead of 18, third 30 points and so on all the way down to a single point for eleventh place and below.

An additional championship point is available for the drivers and teams setting pole position in each class and this is not doubled, it remains the same single point as in all other WEC rounds.  

While the winners of the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours in the LMP2, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am classes went on to become champions at the end of the season, Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Toyota finished third in last year’s race behind the Audi of Benoît Tréluyer, Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer.  However, Davidson, Buemi and Toyota went onto become world champions proving that while the 50-points awarded at Le Mans is important, you can still win the world title without being victorious in the greatest motorsport event in the world.

Will this be true in 2015?  We’ll have to wait and find out if the team and drivers that reach the chequered flag on the 14th June will also be holding up the championship trophies at the WEC finale in Bahrain in November.