Le Mans, June 23, 2013
The 90th anniversary of the first running of the Le Mans 24 Hour
Race in 1923 was marred by the death of the Danish driver Allan
Simonsen, who succumbed to injuries received when his Aston
Martin Vantage hit the barriers at high speed at the Tertre Rouge
corner, on the 3rd lap of the race. He was extricated from the
wreck, reportedly conscious, and was rushed to the circuit
medical centre, but died shortly afterwards, despite the best
efforts of the medical team. At the request of his family, knowing
his passion for motor sport, the Aston Martin team continued the
race with their remaining four entries. It was a subdued mood
throughout the paddock, almost one of disbelief, as apart from
being a talented driver, he had been a well liked and popular
competitor.
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The accident left the car in the middle of the track, and there was
heavy damage to the guardrails, which brought out the safety
cars, whilst the stricken car was removed and the barriers
repaired for the security of the other competitors. From video
footage from a following Corvette, it appeared that the car rode
the, still wet from a rain shower, painted kerbs and seemed to get
a bit loose, but then suddenly veered sharp left off the track and
into the Armco barriers, which it hit with such force that the car
was thrown back onto the track. The constantly changing weather
was a factor which affected everybody, it remained cool for the
duration, with short and sharp rain showers throughout the race,
making conditions difficult to predict. This made tyre choice a bit
of a lottery, particularly as sometimes it was dry on one part of
the circuit and soaking wet on another, prompting many incidents
and spins, fortunately none with the serious consequences as
that of Allan Simonsen. Given the nature of the conditions, and
despite there being eleven safety car periods, it is a tribute to the
skills of the drivers, and hard work of the teams, that 42 of the 56
starters were classified as finishers, albeit that a number looked a
little “second hand” at the end, all covered in grime, and many
with hastily taped repairs to the bodywork.
It was an hour before the race resumed, and immediately the
Audis and Toyotas were once again locked in battle for
supremacy at the head of the remaining 55 cars in the field, just
as they had been prior to the safety car period. The trio of Audi
R18 e-tron Quattros had dominated the qualifying sessions,
locking out the top three positions on the starting grid, in the
order of # 2 Kristensen / McNish / Duval, # 1 Lotterer / Fassler /
Treluyer and # 3 Gene / Di Grassi / Jarvis, with the quickest of the
Toyota TS030-Hybrids, the # 8 example of Davidson / Buemi /
Sarrazin some 4+secs off the pole position time in 4th place on
the grid. However, maybe they had been sandbagging to lull Audi
into a false sense of security, because the performance of the
Toyotas under race conditions was definitely a closer match for
the Audis, and the duel for overall honours continued for the
duration.
Audis cause was not helped by technical problems on the # 1
and # 3 cars, which lost them time in unscheduled pit stops,
particularly the former example which had an alternator failure and
then brake problems, which meant that it was 10 laps behind the
winner at the end of the race. Both of the other Audis suffered
from punctures, but fortunately for # 2 car of Kristensen / McNish
/ Duval that was their only problem during the race on their way to
overall victory. The Toyota team weren’t without their problems,
mainly with the # 8 car of Lapierre / Wurz / Nakajima, which was
running in a strong 4th place closing down the # 3 Audi in the
22nd hour of the race for 3rd place, when one of the many rain
squalls swept in, and Nicolas Lapierre went off the track and into
the tyre wall in the Porsche Curves, taking the front bodywork off
the car. He managed to get it back to the pits for repairs, but lost
7 laps in the process, but still brought the car home in 4th
position, still 3 laps ahead of the delayed # 1 Audi. Thus Audi
took their 12th win in 14 years, with Tom Kristensen taking his
record breaking run of wins to a total of nine, which he tearfully
dedicated to his late countryman Allan Simonsen on the podium.
For co-driver Allan McNish it was Le Mans win number three, and
for Loic Duval a maiden victory. The # 7 Toyota of Davidson /
Buemi / Sarrazin, finished 2nd, and managed to get back on the
lead lap in the closing stages, but allowed the winning Audi to re-
pass, so that it didn’t have to complete another lap when the flag
fell. The # 3 Audi of De Grassi / Gene / Jarvis filled out the
podium, which was a very restrained affair, with Jacky Ickx giving
a moving eulogy to Allen Simonsen, followed by Tom Kristensen,
prior to the presentation of the trophies.
The best LMP1 privateer finisher was the Strakka Racing HPD
ARX-03C of Leventis/Kane/Watts, which finished 6th overall, after
its only LMP1 rivals, the pair of Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota
B12/50s had a variety of problems that saw them finish well down
the order. In the strongly supported LMP2 group, 23 starters,
victory went to the # 35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan of Baguette /
Plowman / Gonzales ahead of the sister # 24 example of Pla /
Brundle / Heinemeier Hannsson, with the # 26 G-Drive Racing
Oreca-Nissan 03 of Martin / Conway / Rusinov taking the final
podium position.
In the two GT classes, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am, qualifying
had shown that it was likely to be a battle between Aston Martin
and Porsche for victory in both classes, as they seemed to have
the legs on their Chevrolet, Dodge and Ferrari opponents. This
proved to the case, although Aston Martin lost the # 95 LMGTE
Am pole sitting car in the horrific accident on lap 3, and later lost
the # 99 LMGTE Pro example driven by Frederic Makowiecki,
who crashed out while leading the class, another victim of the
changing conditions. This left the two Porsche AG Team Manthey
Porsche 911 RSRs to win the LMGTE Pro class, the # 92
example of Lieb / Lietz / Dumas leading home the # 91 example
of Bergmeister / Pilet / Bernhard, both a lap ahead of the # 97
Aston Martin of Turner / Dumbreck / Muecke. In the LMGTE Am
class it was the # 76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911
RSR of Vernay / Narac / Bourret that took the win, a lap ahead of
the # 55 and # 61 AF Corse Ferrari 458 GT2s of O’Young /
Perazzini / Case and Cioci / Griffin / Gerber in that order.
Despite the miserable weather forecast, which proved to be
accurate for once, some 245,000 spectators descended on Le
Mans over the weekend, unfortunately the majority going home
more with a memory of a horrific accident, than a great motor
race.
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