Plenty of pace but little luck summed up OAK Racing's performance at the 80th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, which also counted as round three of this year's FIA World Endurance Championship, at Circuit de la Sarthe this weekend.

Having run 1-2 and held the LMP2 class lead by two-and-a-half minutes at midnight, the team was left to rue what might have been with a solitary seventh place finish for its Onroak Automotive designed and built #35 Morgan-Nissan 2012 LMP2 driven by Bas Leinders, Maxime Martin and David Heinemeier Hansson.

The trio had been fighting the team's sister car for the class lead after a trouble-free first nine hours before three punctures in as many laps, not to mention a necessary change of electrics, saw it plummet down the order to as low as 13th at one stage.

On the other side of the garage the team's #24 Judd-powered, WEC-registered Morgan had taken control of the class as midnight came and went after Olivier Pla, Jacques Nicolet and Matthieu Lahaye had all spent time at the wheel.

Unfortunately their race would be cut short when a sudden loss of oil pressure necessitated a pitstop. Despite the team's desperate attempts to remedy the issue, it was a problem that ultimately proved terminal.

The team's similarly WEC-entered #15 OAK/Pescarolo LMP1, driven by Franck Montagny, Bertrand Baguette and Dominik Kraihamer, was running ninth in class as dawn broke over Le Mans before also being forced into retirement following engine problems.

Sebastien Philippe, Team Principal: "Of course we are disappointed but I would prefer to think about the positives, one of which was the pace of the Morgan 2012 LMP2 regardless of whether it was running Judd or Nissan engines. The car was very quick. I'm also delighted with everyone at the team. They've been fantastic and have had a great mind-set from the start. We've never been so well prepared and there were no mistakes so the frustration at not scoring a better result is clear. #35 finished seventh but we were expecting much better than that. As for LMP1, I am very disappointed for the drivers who have worked so hard."

Dominik Kraihamer, #15 OAK/Pescarolo LMP1: "Our goal was to finish the race but we couldn't do that because of the engine. Our performance was quite good before the problem and I've gained a lot of experience from racing here, which personally is something positive to take away."