Le Mans, 14 - 15 June 2014
Germany 2 - Japan 1, no not the FIFA World Cup, but the podium
for the 82nd running of the 24 Heures du Mans, when Audi
triumphed for the 13th time at La Sarthe, bringing two of its three
cars home in the top two positions, whilst Toyota, who had won
the two opening rounds of the FIA World Endurance
Championship, had to be content with 3rd overall. However, it was
not an easy victory for Audi, and particularly their mechanics, as
after the # 1 car was destroyed in a horrific high speed accident in
the Porsche Curves in the Wednesday evening practice session,
whilst being driven by Loic Duval, it was necessary to rebuild
(what was left of) the car into a new tub. Amazingly, and
fortunately, the driver escaped serious injury, but was ruled out of
participating in the race by the medical commission, thus Marc
Gene was drafted in from the LMP2 Jota Sport team, to replace
him, and his place in the # 38 Zytek Z11SN-Nissan was taken by
Oliver Turvey. Another practice accident victim was the # 71 AF
Corse entered Ferrari 458 GT2, which crashed heavily whilst
being driven by James Calado, who was also ruled out of the race
by the medical commission, and who was replaced by Pierre
Kaffer.
Their woes continued in the race, as the # 3 car of Albuquerque /
Bonanomi / Jarvis was a victim of the first of two brief but intense
rainstorms of the race, crashing out after just 25 laps, whilst both
their other cars needed turbos replacing, and the 2nd place car of
Kristensen / Di Grassi / Gene also suffered a puncture and
needed its fuel injectors replacing. Their main rivals in the form of
Porsche and Toyota also had their share of problems, which
allowed Audi to claw back the time lost in unscheduled stops,
and head back to the front of the field before the end of the race.
Another victim of the first bout of rain was the # 8 Toyota of
Davidson / Lapierre / Buemi, which crashed in, what appears
from the video footage, the same accident as the # 3 Audi and the
class pole sitting # 81 Ferrari 458 GT2. It isn’t clear who made
contact first, but the Audi was being passed on the left by the
Ferrari, and the Toyota was on the other side of the Audi, with
poor visibility due to the intense rain and spray, with all ending up
in the barriers and debris littering the track. The Toyota was
eventually able to get back to the pits for repairs, minus its front
body section, and with deranged rear bodywork, losing a lot of
time in the process, but the repair efforts were aided time-wise,
as the safety car was out for around an hour, then a short time
later a second even more intense, but equally brief, rainstorm
swept through, bringing out the safety cars once again.
Fortunately, after these two storms, the remainder of the race
was run in dry conditions.
Turning the clock back to the practice and qualifying sessions on
the Wednesday and Thursday evenings, the three main
protagonists for overall victory, Audi, Porsche and Toyota, were all
vying for the coveted pole position, which although not terribly
important in a race of 24 hours duration, gives a psychological
advantage. In the test day two weeks before the race, it was
Toyota that topped the time charts, so obviously they were hoping
to maintain these positions in the qualifying sessions. At the end
of the Wednesday, shortened due to the clear-up after the Audi
accident, then another involving an Aston Martin, it was the # 20
Porsche 919 Hybrid of Bernhard / Webber / Hartley that topped
the time sheets, ahead on the sister # 14 car of Dumas / Jani /
Lieb, followed by the pair of Toyotas and the remaining pair of
Audis. By the end of the Thursday qualifying session, it was a
Toyota that sat on pole position, the # 7 example of Wurz /
Sarrazin / Nakajima, with the # 14 Porsche of Dumas / Jani / Lieb
alongside it, then the # 8 Toyota of Davidson / Lapierre / Buemi
and the # 20 Porsche of Bernhard / Webber / Hartley, trailed by
the Audi trio in the order # 3 of Albuquerque / Bonanomi / Jarvis, #
2 of Fassler / Lotterer / Treluyer and the # 1 of Kristensen / Di
Grassi / Gene. Thus Audi were the slowest, but as the old saying
goes “To finish first, you first have to finish”.
In the other classes, the LMP2 pole position was won by the # 46
Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier JS P2 of Thiriet / Badet /
Gommendy, the LMGTE Pro class pole went to the # 51 AF
Corse Ferrari 458 GT2 of Bruni / Fisichella / Vilander, and the
LMGTE Am class pole sitter was the # 81 AF Corse Ferrari 458
GT2 of Wyatt / Rugolo / Bird, which was also quicker than all the
LMGTE Pro runners apart from the sister # 51 car.
The race was started by Ferrari F1, and twice World Champion
Driver, Fernando Alonso, who waved the massive French Tricolore
flag at 15.00 on a bright and sunny Saturday afternoon to get
proceedings underway. As expected, the battle between Audi,
Porsche and Toyota was intense, with a spectacle more like a
sprint race than an endurance race, the Porsches being
particularly spectacular through the Ford Chicane, lifting the front
wheel high in the air over the kerb, before pounding up the
start-finish straight. In the other classes battles were equally
intense for position, whilst at around the half hour mark the first
retirement was posted, this being the # 0 Nissan ZEOD RC,
alternative technology car of Ordonez / Riep / Motoyama, which
had transmission problems that couldn’t be resolved after
completing only 5 laps. Another early retirement was the # 37
SMP Racing Oreca 03R-Nissan of Ladygin / Minassian / Mediani,
which stopped with an oil leak after only 9 laps.
The previously mentioned rainstorms, eliminated the # 3 Audi and
the # 81 Ferrari, and seriously delayed the # 8 Toyota, whilst
there were plenty of others who suffered from spins and some tyre
wall and barrier contact, but managed to keep going. The pole
sitting # 7 Toyota maintained the lead through the storms, and
through the first 14 hours of the race the lead swapped between
this car and the # 20 Porsche, before an Audi headed the leader
border, this being the # 2 car, which took the lead a fraction
before 5.00am on Sunday morning. It was briefly headed by the
sister # 1 car, but then that suffered a turbo failure, demoting it to
2nd place, while the pair of Porsches fell by the wayside, the # 14
car eventually making a final lap at the end to be classified, and
the # 7 Toyota was eliminated by a fire just after 5.30am on
Sunday morning, leaving the recovering # 8 Toyota to continue its
eventual recovery to 3rd place overall. It was 5 laps down on the
winning # 2 Audi of Fassler / Lotterer / Treluyer, which was the
trios 3rd Le Mans 24 Hour Race victory and 4th podium finish,
and at the same time bringing Audis total to 13 wins, the last five
being consecutive. Although Tom Kristensen was unlucky not to
get his 10th Le Mans win, he finished 2nd with Luca Di Grassi
and Marc Gene, and increased his podium finish tally to 14.
The LMP2 class was led initially by the # 38 Jota Sport entered
Zytek Z11 SN-Nissan of Dolan / Tincknell / Turvey, which made a
great start and led for the first 6 laps, but managed to keep out of
trouble, and although it didn’t retake the lead until the closing
stages, it was there to pick up the pieces when those around
failed. That is not denigrate a great class win, as it was a great
performance from the whole team, and getting to the end of a 24
hour race is an achievement in itself, and what is heartbreak for
some brings joy to others. 2nd in class was the pole sitting # 46
Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier JS P2 of Thiriet / Badet /
Gommandy, which like the class winner only led the class for a
relatively few laps, in the latter stages. The final podium spot went
to a car that had led the class at various stages through the race,
the # 36 Signatech Alpine A450b-Nissan of Chatin / Panciatici /
Webb.
In the LMGTE Pro class, the # 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Bruni /
Fisichella / Vilander had what one might describe as a dream
weekend, although the team had plenty to occupy them with their
other cars. After claiming class pole position, they led the
opening stages, and proved to be competitive throughout the race
with a trouble free run. This class saw the most lead changes,
with a total of 24, between the # 51 Ferrari, the # 73 and 74
Corvette2, the # 91 and 92 Porsches and the # 97 Aston Martin,
but at the end of the race it was the # 51 Ferrari that was in the
lead, and was also the car that had led most laps during the race.
The # 73 Corvette of Magnussen / Garcia / Taylor took the
runner-up spot a lap down, and the # 92 Porsche of Holzer /
Makowiecki / Lietz, made it three different makes on the podium,
as in the LMP2 class.
The LMGTE Am class witnessed Aston Martin’s first Am class
victory, when the # 95 car of Poulsen / Heinemeier-Hansson /
Thim took a 2 lap victory from the # 88 Proton Competition
Porsche driven by Ried / Bachler / Al Qubaisi. AF Corse took
their 2nd podium spot of the weekend, when their # 88 Ferrari 458
GT2 driven by Perez Companc / Cioci / Venturi finished 3rd.
The battle of the giants, i.e. Audi, Porsche and Toyota, drew vast
crowds, the official figure was 263,300, and this showed in what
was the only real down side to the weekend - the horrendous
traffic jams! I have been to Le Mans I don’t know how many times,
but I have never experienced the virtual gridlock that was prevalent
from around lunchtime on Sunday until well after the end of the
race - gripe over!
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