Le Mans, June 12 - 13, 2010
After the Lord of the Rings was soundly trounced by the Lion in
the 2009 running of the Le Mans 24 Hour Race, the tables were
turned in the 2010 edition, with Audi filling the podium, and all the
Peugeots failing. The Peugeots were certainly the fastest cars on
the track, both through the qualifying sessions and during the
race, with Sebastian Bourdais claiming pole position with a lap in
3mins 19.711secs, in the # 3 Peugeot 908 HDi that he shared
with Pedro Lamy and Simon Pagenaud. In fact the Peugeots
locked out the top four places on the starting grid, comprising of
the three works cars and the Team ORECA Matmut entry. The
quickest of the Audis in qualifying was the # 9 R15-plus TDI of
Mike Rockenfeller, who was still just over 2secs off the
benchmark time set by the # 3 Peugeot. The quickest of the
petrol engine runners was the # 007 Lola-Aston Martin B09/60
driven by Stefan Mucke, just ahead of the sister # 009 example in
the hands of Darren Turner, but they were over 6secs off the pole
sitter’s pace, so unless the diesels failed things didn’t look too
promising for the petrol engine entries.
In the LMP2 class the battle for pole position was between the
pair of HPD ARX-01c cars of Highcroft Racing and Strakka
Racing, with Danny Watts taking the class pole for Strakka. This
surprised many in the pit lane, as the Highcroft Team is the
Honda Performance Development’s works development team in
the ALMS series, and has plenty of experience with car, plus a
strong driver line-up of David Brabham, Marino Franchitti and
Marco Werner. The small LMGT1 category comprising of only
eight cars, was headed by the Aston Martin DBR9 of the Young
Driver AMR team, which was fractionally quicker than the Marc
VDS Racing Ford GT and the similar car of Matech Competition.
It was announced prior to the race that there wouldn’t be a class
for GT1 cars in 2011, so this was to be their last outing at La
Sarthe. The initial LMGT2 class pole sitter was the # 82 Risi
Competizione Ferrari F430 GTC of Bruni/Melo/Kaffer, but in post
qualifying scrutineering the gurney plate on the rear wing was
found to be 13mm instead of 15mm in height, and it was
relegated to the back of the grid. This elevated the pair of Corvette
Racing Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1s to the front of the LMGT2
qualifiers, with the # 96 AF Corse Ferrari F430 GT of
Alesi/Fisichella/Vilander next quickest. The second AF Corse
Ferrari made it no further than qualifying, when Matias Russo had
a big accident that demolished the right rear of the car, rendering
it hors de combat!
Come 3 O’clock on a clear and dry Saturday afternoon and the 54
car field screamed across the start line with the Peugeot quartet
leading the way through the Dunlop Curves and under the famed
Dunlop Bridge. The race was only fifteen minutes old when the
safety car came out for the first time, due to Nigel Mansell having
a high speed accident due to a slow puncture. After this had been
cleared the Peugeots relentlessly went about their business of
pulling away from their pursuers. All was going fine for them for
the first two hours, then the # 3 car of Lamy/Bourdais/Pagenaud
pitted with a suspension problem, and it was found that the a front
wishbone mounting plate had pulled out of the carbon fibre
monocoque, which was irreparable, so the car was retired. Their
next problem was with their # 1 car which suffered an alternator
failure in the seventh hour, then the Team ORECA Matmut
example suffered a drive shaft failure in the early hours of Sunday
morning. These problems were repaired and the cars sent on their
way, but it did let Audi back at them with a fighting chance.
However, Audi had their own heart stopping moment when their #
7 car of McNish/Capello/Kristensen, in the hands of the latter,
came across the BMW M3 GT2 “Art Car” driven by Andy Priaulx
in the Porsche Curves, which was travelling slowly on the racing
line with a puncture, and he was left with the choice of hitting it or
taking to the gravel trap. He chose the latter and ended up
spinning into the wall, damaging the tail. He was extricated and
made it back to the pts for a new rear body section, losing three
laps in the process, which effectively ruined their race strategy.
The next major assault on Peugeots stranglehold on the race
came in the 17th hour, when their # 2 car of
Montagny/Sarrazin/Minassian suddenly emitted a wall of flame
from the right side, promptly expiring with a blown engine, two
down and two still running! It wasn’t only the Peugeots that were
having problems, as there was quite a high rate of attrition through
the field, the normally bulletproof Risi Competizione Ferrari F430
GTs both retired, the # 82 example with gearbox problems, and
the # 83 one not long afterwards with engine failure. One of the
Kolles Audis crashed out, as did the Signature Plus Lola-Aston
Martin BD09/60, the JMW Aston Martin Vantage, the # 13
Rebellion Racing Lola-Judd B10/60 and the Marc VDS Ford GT.
Others fell foul of various engine and transmission problems,
including the much fancied contenders for GT2 honours, the pair
of Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvettes, which both retired with
engine failure. When the chequered flag fell at 3.00pm on Sunday
there were only 28 out of the original 54 starters still running, and
the last of these, the # 11 Dyson Racing Lola-Judd B09/60 of
Drayson/Cocker/Pirro was unclassified as it had covered
insufficient laps after having to resolve numerous time
consuming problems.
The # 1 Peugeot, having been delayed by its alternator change,
was coming back hard on the Audis when the team suffered its
second engine failure of the race, the same fate as the # 2 car
some 96 laps earlier. The only Peugeot now remaining was the
Team ORECA Matmut entry, and almost unbelievably that only
lasted 9 laps more than the last works entry, before that also
suffered an engine failure, handing the race to Audi on a plate.
The # 009 Aston Martin was running 4th as the best of the petrol
engine cars with just 50mins to go when its engine let go,
handing the “petrol division” spoils to AIM Team ORECA
Matmut’s ORECA-AIM-01, driven by Ayari/Andre/Meyrick. In the
LMP2 class the Strakka Racing HPD ARX-01c of
Watts/Leventis/Kane maintained its qualifying form to take a
strong class win, and also to finish 5th overall, a full six laps
ahead of the next finisher in the class. The GT1 class’ eight car
entry was decimated to two finishers, with the Larbre Competition
Saleen S7R of Gardel/Canal/Berville taking the last ever LMGT1
class spoils at Le Mans. After the retirement of the Risi Ferraris
and the Corvettes, and a Sunday morning accident for the AF
Corse Ferrari due to brake problems, the LMGT2 class win was
taken by the # 77 Team FelbermayrProton Porsche 911 GT3-RSR
of Lieb/Lietz/Henzler, who finished two laps clear of the Hankook
Team Farnbacher Ferrari F430 GTC driven by
Farnbacher/Simonsen/Keen.
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