Le Mans, France, 13 – 14 June 2009
In the 77th running of the Le Mans 24 Hour Race, it was third time
lucky for the Lion of Peugeot, when they finally overcame the
dominance of the four rings of Audi, to take a strong 1-2 win in the
epic endurance race battle at La Sarthe. In their previous two
encounters, in 2007 and 2008, Peugeot have proved to have the
edge in terms of speed, but have lacked in luck and reliability, but
in 2009 it all came good for them, although it wasn’t an easy run
to victory. During the course of the race both the major players
suffered a variety of problems, some self induced, but at the end
of the day the cards fell the way of Peugeot.
The Wednesday evening free practice sessions were blighted by
rain, but the Thursday qualifying sessions showed that Peugeot
once again held the advantage in terms of outright speed, and this
year this translated into victory. Both the Peugeot and Audi works
teams had three car entries, plus Peugeot had a Pescarolo run
example of the 908 HDi-FAP as a back up, whilst Audi had the
pair of Kolles run R10 TDIs to back up their R15 TDIs. With a total
of nine diesel entries, and the current equivalency formula, this
left the petrol engine runners to pick up the crumbs in the LMP1
category. These were headed by a trio of works Lola Aston
Martins, Speedy Racing Sebah’s Lola Aston Martin and Lola
Judd, a pair of Oreca AIMs and a single Pescarolo Judd, within a
healthy twenty car LMP1 entry. At the end of the qualifying
sessions, it was the # 8 Peugeot of Sarrazin / Montagny /
Bourdais that annexed pole position with a time of 3min
22.888secs, which was 0.762sec ahead of the quickest # 1 Audi
of Capello / Kristensen / McNish, followed by the # 7, # 17 and #
9 Peugeots in that order. The # 2 and # 3 Audis were next up,
followed by a trio of Lola Aston Martins, the quickest of the petrol
engine machines, although the fastest # 007 example of Charouz
/ Enge / Muecke was 4.292secs and around 5kph off the pole
winning time. Theoretically, at that rate the pole winning Peugeot
would be 120kms, or nearly nine laps, ahead of the Aston Martin
by the end of the race.
The LMP2 group consisted of twelve cars, and the times were
headed by a pair of Porsche RS Spyders, the Team Essex
example of Elgaard/Collard/Poulson beating the Navi Team Goh
example of Ara/Kunimoto/Maassen to the class pole by
0.082sec. The LMGT1 class had the least number of entries, with
six cars taking the grid, a quartet of Corvette C6.Rs, an Aston
Martin DBR9 and a Lamborghini Murcielago. The pair of works
Corvettes were the quickest in the class, with the example of
O’Connell / Magnussen / Garcia a fraction under half a second
quicker than the sister car of Gavin / Beretta / Faessler. The
LMGT2 class comprised of seventeen cars, ten of which were
Ferrari F430 GTs, along with five Porsche 997 GT3 RSRs, and
singleton entries for Aston Martin and Spyker. The class pole was
won by the Flying Lizard Porsche of Neiman / Law / Bergmeister,
0.030sec ahead of the Felbermayr Proton example of Lieb / Lietz
/ Henzler, followed by the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GTC of
Melo / Kaffer / Salo.
The official race starter was Luca de Montezemolo, President of
Ferrari SpA, who gave a press conference prior to the start, with
Amadeo Felissa and Stefano Domenicali also in attendance, plus
ex-Ferrari F1 driver, Jean Alesi also put in an appearance.
Naturally the focus from journalists was more on the F1 budget
proposals for 2010, and Ferrari’s threat to withdraw if they are
mandated. Luca de Montezemolo was adamant that Ferrari
wouldn’t accept the proposals as they stand, and that he felt that
there too many changes being made too quickly without proper
consultation. When asked whether there was a chance of seeing
a works Ferrari at Le Mans next year, there was a prolonged
silence and glances towards his colleagues, before a brief “why
not”! He added that he didn’t think that a Ferrari could beat the
diesels within the current regulations. Ferrari haven’t entered
endurance races as a works team for over thirty years, so does
the appearance of three such high profile figures at Le Mans
herald the start of a new era, or is it gamesmanship with the FIA?
The race started promptly with a rolling start at 15.00 on a very
hot (28degC) Saturday afternoon, and to the delight of a large
partisan crowd the pole sitting # 8 Peugeot went into an
immediate lead, and started to pull away from the pursuing # 1
Audi. There was even greater delight and a tremendous roar,
when the # 7 Peugeot passed the Audi to take 2nd place. The
GT1 Lamborghini, lasted only one lap before retiring with engine
maladies pictures of that in action are going to be rare, whilst the
JetAlliance Aston Martin went into the pits at the end of lap 1 with
electrical problems, rejoining after a lengthy stop. Towards the
front of the field the # 3 Audi driven by Alexandre Prémat was in
trouble after only nine minutes, when he went off and hit the tyre
wall at Indianapolis, returning to the pits after extrication from the
gravel trap. Peugeot encountered a problem after 45 minutes, at
the first round of pit stops, when their # 7 car was released into
the path of the # 17 Pescarolo entered example, the two colliding,
puncturing the rear tyre of the # 7 car, which had to do a
complete lap, while the tyre flailed the bodywork to shreds around
the track, necessitating the deployment of the safety car whilst
the debris was removed. Upon eventually returning to the pits, the
team changed the turbo, the FAP particle filter and oil radiator,
and rebuilt the left rear corner of the car, all in around 20 minutes.
Not long after it was Audis turn again or damage problems, when
the # 1 car had to pit for a new nose after hitting somebody or
something!
Worse was yet to come for Audi, as their # 2 car driven by Lucas
Luhr crashed heavily in the Porsche Curves just after quarter
distance, causing immediate retirement, after having been
swapping 3rd and 4th places with the sister # 1 car for much of
the race up to that point. Meanwhile the # 9 Peugeot was
smoothly dictating the race from the front. Just over an hour later
the # 1 Audi had to make an unscheduled stop, which cost it
almost a lap, and allowed the # 8 Peugeot to take over its hard
fought 2nd place. Shortly afterwards the # 8 Peugeot collided with
a GT2 Porsche, and had to pit to change the nose, handing 2nd
place back to the # 1 Audi. With the retirement of the # 2 Audi
and the earlier accident for the # 3 Audi, this was the only one
with a chance of victory, but Peugeot still had three cars in
contention for the win, so the odds were stacked against the
Audi.
Around 4.00am the # 17 Pescarolo Sport entered Peugeot, driven
by Benoit Treluyer, had a massive accident at the Esses de la
Chapelle, which slightly redressed the Audi/Peugeot balance.
This didn’t last for long as during the safety car period for this
accident the # 1 Audi started to suffer from an overheating turbo,
and had to pit to resolve the problem. Although the Capello /
Kristensen / McNish trio pushed hard, they continued to suffer
from overheating in the turbo system, so had to pit regularly to
clear out the dust, gravel, rubber, carbon, etc which were blocking
the ventilation holes. This problem, together with steering wheel
problems later in the race, effectively ended any chance of victory,
unless the Peugeots failed completely. They didn’t, and the # 9
car of Gené / Wurz / Brabham led the sister # 8 car of Sarrazin /
Montagny / Bourdais across the line at 3.00pm on Sunday
afternoon, with the final spot on the podium being the reward for
the # 1 Audi of Capello / Kristensen / McNish. The # 007 Lola
Aston Martin of Charouz / Enge / Muecke was the best petrol
engine finisher in 4th overall, 9 laps behind the winner.
In the LMP2 category it was a race between the Porsche RS
Spyders of Team Essex and Navi Team Goh, which raged for the
best part of the race. That was until the Navi Team Goh example
crashed out at the Playstation chicane with 75 minutes
remaining, whilst lying 2nd in class, virtually destroying the car on
the spot, but the driver, Seiji Ara, was able to walk away from the
scene unaided. This handed 2nd place to the Speedy Racing
Sebah entered Lola Judd of Kane / Leuenberger / Pompidou,
which finished 14 laps behind the class winner, with the OAK
Racing Pescarolo Mazda of Nicolet / Hein / Yvon a further 18 laps
back to take the final podium spot.
In the small GT1 group, victory went to the # 63 Corvette of
O’Connell / Magnussen / Garcia, with the sister car of Gavin /
Beretta / Faessler being a late race retirement with transmission
problems. 2nd in class was the similar # 73 Corvette C6.R
entered by Luc Alphand Aventures of Clairay / Jousse / Maassen,
with the JetAlliance Aston Martin DBR9 of Lichtner-Hoyer /
Mueller / Gruber overcoming numerous problems to take the final
podium slot, and to be the only other class finisher. In the GT2
division ten FerrariF430 GTs started and nine finished, the only
retirement being the Hankook-Farnbacher example, which retired
with overheating problems. The same could not be said for the five
Porshes in the class, as four retired and the fifth didn’t cover the
mandatory 70% of the winner’s distance to be classified. The
Spyker made it through to the chequered flag in 5th place, but it
was an all Ferrari GT2 podium, with the # 82 Risi Competizione
example of Melo / Kaffer / Salo giving the team its second
consecutive Le Mans GT2 class victory. In 2nd place was the #
97 BMS Scuderia Italia example of Malucelli / Ruberti / Babini,
with the final podium spot going to the second Risi Competizione
# 83 car of Krohn / Jonsson / Van de Poele, after the JMW entry
suffered late race problems to finally finish 4th in class after a
strong early performance. At the end of the day, 32 of the original
55 starters were classified as finishers, it was a race packed with
incidents, seven safety car periods, with mechanical and on track
problems taking their toll in the hot conditions, but that is what Le
Mans is all about.
Keith Bluemel
06/2009
Results
9 Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP - GENE Marc/WURZ
Alexander/BRABHAM David 1st OA 1st LMP1
8 Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP SARRAZIN Stephane/MONTAGNY
Franck/BOURDAIS Sebastie - 2nd OA 2nd LMP1 - 1 Lap
1 Audi R15 TDI - CAPELLO Rinaldo/KRISTENSEN Tom/MCNISH
Allan 3rd OA 3rd LMP1 - 6 Laps
007 Lola Aston Martin - CHAROUZ Jan/ENGE Thomas/MUCKE
Stefan 4th OA 4th LMP1 -9 Laps
11 Oreca AIM - PANIS Olivier/LAPIERRE Nicolas/AYARI Soheil
5th OA 5th LMP1 -12 Laps
7 Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP - MINASSIAN Nicolas/LAMY
Pedro/KLIEN Christian 6th OA 6th LMP1 -13 Laps
14 Audi R10 TDI - LOTTERER Andre/ZWOLSMAN Charles 7th
OA 7th LMP1 -13 Laps
16 Pescarolo Judd - TINSEAU Christophe/JOUANNY
Bruce/BARBOSA Joao 8th OA 8th LMP1 - 14 Laps
15 Audi R10 TDI - ALBERS Christian/BAKKERUD
Christian/MONDINI Giorgio 9th OA 9th LMP1 -22 Laps
31 Porsche RS Spyder - ELGAARD Casper/COLLARD
Emmanuel/POULSEN Kristian 10th OA 1st LMP2 - 25 Laps
12 Oreca Judd - RAGUES Pierre/MAILLEUX Franck/ANDRE
Didier 11th OA 11th LMP1 -38 Laps
33 Lola Judd - Sebah KANE Jonny/LEUENBERGER
Benjamin/POMPIDOU Xavier 12th OA 2nd LMP2 -39 Laps
008 Lola Aston Martin - DAVIDSON A/TURNER D/VERSTAPPEN
Jos 13th OA 11th LMP1 -40 Laps
13 Lola Aston Martin - Sebah BELICCHI Andrea/JANI
Neel/PROST Nicolas 14th OA 12th LMP1 -40 Laps
63 Corvette C6.R - O CONNELL Johny/MAGNUSSEN
Jan/GARCIA Antonio 15th OA 1st LMGT1 - 40 Laps
73 Corvette C6.R - D Alphand Aventures CLAIRAY Yan/JOUSSE
Julien/MAASSEN Xavier 16th OA 2nd LMGT1 -46 Laps
3 Audi R15 TDI - BERNHARD Timo/DUMAS Romain/PREMAT
Alexandre - 17th OA 13th LMP1 -49 Laps
82 Ferrari F430 GT - MELO Jaime/KAFFER Pierre/SALO Mika
18th OA 1st LMGT2 - 53 Laps
97 Ferrari F430 GT - MALUCELLI Matteo/RUBERTI Paolo/BABINI
Fabio 19th OA 2nd LMGT2 -55 Laps
24 Pescarolo Mazda - NICOLET Jacques/HEIN Richard/YVON
Jean-Francois 20th OA LMP2 -57 Laps
23 Ginetta Zytek - WATTS Danny/LEVENTIS Nick/HARDMAN
Peter 21st OA 14th LMP1 -57 Laps
83 Ferrari F430 GT - KROHN Tracy/JONSSON Nic/VAN DE
POELE Eric 22nd OA 3rd LMGT2 -59 Laps
92 Ferrari F430 GT - BELL Robert/KIRKALDY Andrew/SUGDEN
Tim 23rd OA 4th LMGT2 -62 Laps
4 Creation Judd - CAMPBELLWALTER Jamie/ICKX
Vanina/IANNETTA Romain 24th OA 15th LMP1 -63 Laps
85 Spyker C8 Laviolette - CORONEL Tom/JANIS
Jarek/BLEEKEMOLEN Jeroen 25th OA 5th LMGT2 - 63 Laps
78 Ferrari F430 GT - BRUNI Gianmaria/COMPANC Luis/RUSSO
Matias 26th OA 6th LMGT2 -65 Laps
84 Ferrari F430 GT - EHRET Pierre/MANSELL Leo/RUSINOV
Roman 27th OA 7th LMGT2 -68 Laps
32 Zytek 07S BARAZI Juan/MOSELEY Stuart/BENNETT Phil
Zytek 07S 28th OA 4th LMP2 -76 Laps
99 Ferrari F430 GT - Christophe/LEBON Yvan/RODRIGUES
Manuel 29th OA 8th LMGT2 - 78 Laps
81 Ferrari F430 GT - DEMPSEY Patrick/FOSTER Joe/KITCH Don
Jr 30th OA 9th LMGT2 -81 Laps
66 Aston Martin DBR9 - LICHTNER-HOYER Lukas/MULLER
Alex/GRUBER Thomas 31st OA 3rd LMGT1 - 88 Laps
96 Ferrari F430 GT - McINERNEY Michael/McINERNEY
Sean/VERGERS Michael 32nd OA 10th LMGT2 -102 Laps
87 Aston Martin Vantage - COCKER Jonny/DRAYSON
Paul/FRANCHITTI Marino 33rd OA 11th LMGT2 - 110 Laps
75 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - O YOUNG Darryl/HESNAULT
Philippe/KRALEV P 11th LMGT2 -193 Laps NC
2 Audi R15 - LUHR Lucas/ROCKENFELLER Mike/WERNER
Marco Audi R15 LMP1 dnf Lap 104 NC
5 Porsche RS Spyder - ARA Seiji/KUNIMOTO
Keisuke/MAASSEN Sascha Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 dnf Lap
339
6 Ginetta Zytek - MOORE Nigel/DEAN Richard/TOMLINSON
Lawrence LMP1 dnf Lap 178
10 Oreca AIM - ORTELLI Stephane/SENNA Bruno/MONTEIRO
Tiago LMP1 dnf Lap 219
17 Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP - BOULLION
Jean-Christophe/PAGENAUD Simon/TRELUYER B LMP1 dnf Lap
210
25 Lola Mazda - ERDOS Tommy/NEWTON Mike/DYSON Chris
LMP2 dnf Lap 273
26 Radical AER - Bruichladdich Bruneau BRUNEAU
Pierre/GREAVES Tim/ROSTAN Marc LMP2 dnf Lap 91
30 Lola Judd - BIAGI Thomas/BOBBI Matteo/PICCINI Andrea
Lola Judd LMP2 dnf Lap 203
35 Pescarolo Mazda - LAHAYE Matthieu/AJLANI
Karim/MOREAU Guillaume LMP2 dnf Lap 208
39 Lola Mazda - Hideki/DE POURTALES Jean/MARSH Matthew
LMP2 dnf Lap 261
40 Ginetta Zytek - AMARAL Miguel/PLA Olivier/SMITH Guy
LMP2 dnf Lap 46
41 Zytek - OJJEH Karim/GOSSELIN Claude-Yves/PETER Philipp
LMP2 dnf Lap 102
009 Lola Aston Martin - HALL Stuart/KOX Peter/PRIMAT Harold
LMP1 dnf Lap 252
64 Corvette C6.R - GAVIN Olivier/BERETTA Olivier/FASSLER
Marcel LMGT1 dnf Lap 311
68 Lamborghini - APICELLA Marco/YOGO A/YAMAGISHI Yutaka
LMGT1 dnf Lap 1
70 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - FELBERMAYER Horst
Jr/FELBERMAYER Horst Sr/LECOURT LMGT2 dnf Lap 102
72 Corvette C6.R - ALPHAND Luc/GREGOIRE S/GOUESLARD
Patrice LMGT1 dnf Lap 99
76 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - PILET Patrick/NARAC
Raymond/LONG Patrick LMGT2 dnf Lap 265
77 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - LIEB Marc/LIETZ Richard/HENZLER
Wolf LMGT2 dnf Lap 24
80 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - NEIMAN Seth/LAW
Darren/BERGMEISTER Jorg LMGT2 dnf Lap 194
89 Ferrari F430 GT - SIMONSEN Allan/FARNBACHER
Dominik/MONTANARI Christi LMGT2 dnf Lap 183
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