Le Mans Racing 77 - English version by Le Mans Racing

A full rep o r t o f th e 2012 L e M a n s 24 Hou rs

July-August 2013

速 77

The magazine of the legend lem ans-rac in g .c o m

24 He ur e s d u M a n s

WE C

ELMS

A L MS

Le Mans 24 Hours

Au d i a t h o m e !

LM P1 PRiVATEERs Honda beats Toyota

LM P2

A Morgan one-two

LM GTE

Porsche doubles up

fIa golden rules

I Want to Be safe I PromIse To Belt uP all passengers are my responsibility

resPeCt tHe HIgHWaY Code rules are there to protect us all

oBeY tHe sPeed lIMIt my car is made of metal, pedestrians and children are not

CHeCK MY tYres both for wear and for correct inflation, including the spare

drIVe soBer when I am drunk or on drugs, I am a danger on the road

ProteCt MY CHIldren keep them safe in car seats

PaY attentIon calling and texting make me dangerous

stoP WHen Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;M tIred getting there late is better than not at all

Wear a HelMet motorbikes and bicycles donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t protect my head

Be Courteous and ConsIderate respect other drivers

The FIA supports the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety

Facebook.com/fiaactionforroadsafety www.fia.com/campaigns

July-August 2013

I Editorial

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Editorial: 33 (0)2 43 47 06 80 E-mail : redaction@lemans-racing.com Publication director _Jean-Phillippe Moutti Chief editor _François Hurel Artistic direction _Agence Vif-Argent Contributors DPPI, Julien Hergault, David Legangneux, Guillaume Lopez, Patrick Martinoli, Guillaume Nédélec, Gilles Vitry. Translation David Waldron

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A race of mixed emotions e no lasting memory. ld have been one of those that leav The 90th anniversary event cou e. Fortunately (and i’s utter domination during practic It looked like the case given Aud Toyota put on a much the case. As has often happened unfortunately), it was not to be fight to its German lf than in qualifying, and took the stronger showing in the race itse n continuous rain the execrable conditions. Worse tha rivals throughout the 24 hours in stressed the nerves e to time and in different places drizzle that wet the track from tim of one of them, Allan the limit! It also led to the death of drivers and team managers to Hours was full of by a kerb. This year’s Le Mans 24 Simonsen, who was caught out en for a long time many emotions, which were hidd pitfalls and it also brought out so the time came to share nt itself, only to reappear when during the excitement of the eve ticularly intense for Tom e pressure had fallen. It was par out the awards once the extrem McNish and Loïc Duval. ner of the race, alongside Allan Kristensen, now the 9-time win Danish supporters who diminishing the pain of the many This success went some way to bers as is the case every year. trooped to the Sarthe in large num Many of you gave us in the Le Mans Racing boutique. There was also a lot of emotion r favourite magazine sed your pleasure at seeing you tokens of your support and expres lve years and that’s r undying loyalty over the past twe reappear. We never doubted you . Thank you so very much! why we’re still here thanks to you m at Le Mans Racing

François Hurel and the whole tea

Photo couverture : DPPI Édito et Sommaire : DPPI

Contents

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www.lemans-racing.com I6

77 I Contents

52 72

Portfolio - Endurance Lifestyle Warm up - Porsche LM P1 Paddocks - News Forum - Bruno Vandestick

06 12 14 18

Le Mans 24 Hours

20 28 32 36 40 48 52 60 70 72

- Analysis - Scrutineering - Practice - Pre-race - Fight for the win - LM P1 - LM P2 - LM GTE - Results Technical round-up - 56th garage

Interview - Vincent Beaumesnil

76 80 82 89 98

Asian LMS 90th anniversary Summary - ALMS - WEC - ELMS World Tour - results 7I

Endurance Lifestyle 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship

Proud Vikings The Danish flag flew for the best and the worst in the ragged Le Mans sky. Allan Simonsen and Tom Kristensen met with very different fates.

Road-holding 8 showed excellent road-holding and reliability, but to beat Audi higher straight-line they need more straight-line speed. The Toyota TS030 IHybrids

Fervour With 245 000 spectators, Le Mans, with Indianapolis, is the greatest race in the world. Despite the safety restrictions the magic still works.

Endurance Lifestyle 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship

Big hearts André Lotterer (standing) and Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler failed to clinch their hat trick, but they put on a good show in the Drivers’ Parade and gave their all in the race.

NIGHT CLUB Going out at night Iat10 Le Mans is always a challenge especially when such execrable weather conditions await you round every corner. But there’s no choice, you have to go out onto the track - and stay there!

Team spirit Derived from the ALMS, the new presentation of teams and drivers got a good reception. It provides the opportunity to remind everybody that endurance is a team sport in which everybody plays an important role.

Night watchmen â&#x20AC;&#x153;Life is at the circuit, the rest is just waiting!â&#x20AC;? The mechanics are always on alert ready to jump into action as soon as the team manager gives the order.

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Lifestyle 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship

As dawn is breaking Arnage: for 90 years the drivers have been taking this right-angled corner which boasts a stop sign for the rest of the year. Finding the right line isn’t always easy !

OPTIMISM Almost 45 minutesI 12 to change the alternator. Dr Ullrich hadn’t foreseen that! Never be too optimistic, above all at Le Mans.

Awesome! Cunning, luck, speed, reliability: Porsche and Manthey Racing had all the right ingredients to make a victorious return to the Sarthe. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be difficult to achieve the same feat with the LM P1 !

Teaser Oak Racing had already got the buzz going before the start of the Le Mans 24 Hours with the Art Car created by Fernando Costa. It was just a teaser before the Imain dish 13 a double in LM P2

Warm up

I Porsche Porsche is determined to score fresh victories in the race that made its reputation.

PoRsCHE LM P1

And in the meantime, back at Weissach By Julien Hergault / Photos Porsche Motorsport

If Porsche’s heart beats at Le Mans as the advertising campaign would have us believe, the brain is back in Germany. While Audi and Toyota fine-tuned the tiniest details in their preparation for the Sarthe, the Stuttgart manufacturer was quietly getting a step ahead of its rivals.

I 14

here was an announcement on 30th June 2011. And then not a dicky bird! When the test day arrived the huge posters on the back of the pits were reassuring. Porsche was indeed returning in 2014 - and not by the back door either! The major victories on the posters raised a question: was the latest brainchild from Stuttgart going to flirt with the limits of the regulations like the 917 (1969), the Dauer (1994) and the 911 GT1 (1996)? “We still have the same approach to racing,” said Helmut Kristen. “We look and see what’s the best answer to a given set of rules. Unfortunately, our recent experience in endurance has obliged us to adapt our

way of working. Today, it’s better to bet on a solution that has a lot of in-built development potential rather than a technology that’s quick straight out of the box, but with little room for improvement.” Without stating it clearly the competitions manager is referring to the diesel engine which, since its introduction by Audi in 2006, is progressing more quickly than the ACO has foreseen. That’s the overall philosophy. For the concrete aspect we had to wait until Wednesday 12th June and a few photos on the internet. Thus, the questions posed during the Le Mans week were often swept aside with “all we can say is in the press release,” or “we’ll tell you more later on.” Porsche has got its communications

Porsche I

Warm up

“The hybrid system is probably fitted at the front” down to a tee with an arabesque-like paint job and veiled official photos that discourage the paparazzi who might unlock a few secrets. Strangely enough, all the shots show just the front of the car. So what’s in the flanks and at the rear? We won’t find out straight away, all the more so as the test team isn’t exactly in a hurry to run the car anywhere else than Weissach. And why not? Although the factory test track isn’t all that wide, it has a succession of quick corners and slow sections as well as a 1-km long straight. It’s the make’s benchmark circuit on which much of the development of the RS spyder was carried out between 2005 and 2007. In addition, it’s surrounded by high concrete walls!

An R18 disguised? So what can we learn from these photos? First of all that the car’s up and running and that’s maybe the most important thing knowing that its rivals won’t start to test their 2014 weapon before the autumn. Porsche isn’t behind schedule. “We’re two weeks in advance on our timetable,” confirmed Kristen. “The engine’s been running since August 2012.” Which engine? “We could have designed a diesel as we have one in our range, but it’s important for us to tug at the public’s heartstrings. We’ve chosen a petrol motor and as the tendency is downsizing it’s a little turbocharged power

At present the Porsche is camouflaged in every sense of the word. The final version will probably be different.

unit.” That’s all he said. Maybe it was a better idea to ask its rivals for their opinion? Didn’t this Porsche look a bit like an Audi? “Maybe they’re inspired by what they’ve seen in the VAG family,” answered Wolfgang Ullrich with an amused grin. “I think it’s a development car, which has nothing to do with the one they’ll use next year.” Doctor, don’t say that it’s a disguised R18 for the moment? “No, there’s no official exchange between us (silence). It’s the toughest competition we’ve had.” Later on an engineer from another make gave us his opinion. “As on the Audi the hybrid system is probably fitted at the front as you can see a slot for cooling in the nose.” It’s logical as the restitution of energy on the front wheels won’t be forbidden under 120 km/h next year. The keenest observers also saw a little bump on the roof of the cockpit, a clever

“It’s important for us to tug at the public’s heartstrings” (H.Kristen) interpretation of a point in the regulations that requires the windscreen to be 300 mm wide at its upper edge (950 mm high). The ACO wants to make the seating position more upright to give the driver better visibility.

Jani and Webber as back-up We already know the identity of four drivers. It came as no surprise that Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas were the first ones named followed by Neel Jani and Mark Webber. For the others the door is still open as the decision to enter three cars for Le Mans will not be taken till the end of the year. All the factory drivers told us they believe in their chances. From Bergmeister to Long as well as Lieb, Lietz, Pilet or Vernay Porsche doesn’t lack serious candidates. Those who don’t make the P1 adventure can always fall back on a second official programme in the new American Championship (United SportsCar) with the 911 RSRs.

Fritz Enzinger (projet chief), Wolfgang Hatz (R&D director) and Mathias Müller (Porsche’s boss) are expecting a lot from their latest brainchild.

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PADDOCKS

I News

SNIPPETS

 Morgan Art Car

The real one didn’t race

_The 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours will take place on 14-15 June and the test day on 1st June. _245 000 spectators attended the 2013 race, 5000 more than in 2012. _Hugues de Chaunac received the 26th Spirit of Le Mans. _The ESCRA Prize for the best technical assistance went to the Signatech alpine mechanics: Michaël Bimont, Pierre Gaches, Benoît hamel and Denis Motot. _The Communications Prize was awarded to Stéphanie Val (oak Racing). _The ACO and the LMEM (the subsidiary entrusted with looking after the WEC and the ELMS) have signed a 3-year contract with Eurosport. _Lord Paul Drayson beat the world speed record for electric cars of under 1000 kg at the wheel of his Lola B12 69/EV equipped with special Michelin tyres. he exceeded 328 km/h on a British aerodrome runway. _Max Welti has been named director of Squadra Corsa (the new Lamborghini Competitions department). The entry of the Gallardo GTE developed by Reiter Engineering is a possibility. _The Bentley GT3 developed by M-Sport could make its debut in December in the abu Dhabi 12 hours. _TDS Racing will enter a BMW Z4 for the Spa 24 hours

he official Morgan Art Car, the work of French sculptor Fernando Costa, of the 90th anniversary of Le Mans was unveiled on 9th June, the test day, in the Welcome on the Le Mans circuit. To make his sculpture the artist had to rivet a steel skin (120 kg) onto the carbon fibre bodywork to enable him to weld on the decoration of the car, bits of road signs (250 kg). In all around 1000 rivets were placed and 20 000 welds were made in two months of intensive work in the sculptor’s Workshop. Thus equipped the weight of the Morgan increased from 900 to 1300 kg approx and its aerodynamics were upset by excrescences of various kinds. Thus, there was never any question of racing it at least at high speed, so a light version took part in the event. Thanks to the technology of the Dassault studio’s design systems and the know-how of the Hexis company, the LM P2 was covered in an adhesive film faithfully reproducing Costa’s work. The original was on display in the village at the circuit during the Le Mans 24-Hours week. It gave the spectators a better idea of Costa’s design, which represented a lap of the circuit (starting from the front of the car). Fernando was born in Sarlat in 1970 and is a true Le Mans fan. After working in the hotel trade for several years he revived his artistic ambitions in 1992 and soon made an international name for himself. His work joined the long tradition of Art Cars begun by Hervé Poulain in 1975 who was himself inspired by the psychedelic long-tailed Porsche 917 and the famous Pink Pig!

for Beche-Badey-hassid. _Tatuus entered a works PY012 in the Dijon VdeV round for Maisano-Merchan in which Norma scored a triple. _Lucien Monté was one of the assistants of Morand Racing at the Le Mans 24 hours. _Piers Philipps, the former Strakka Racing team manager, is now the Level 5 Motorsports track engineer. _Tim Holloway is the Jota Sport technical director. _Tim Sugden was the JMW Motorsports team manager for the Le Mans 24 hours.

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 Le Mans Racing boutique

Etrenel’Le Mans reconnaissants

t scrutineering for the Le Mans 24 Hours Le Mans Racing organised a competition at its boutique. We gave the book, Eternal Le Mans, to a person born on 25th or 26th June 1949 dates of the first post-war Le Mans 24 hours whose story is told in the book. The winner is Patricia Sizaret born 25th June 1949 in Bonnétable (72). Our friend Michel Bonté has given her one of those dedications of which only he has the secret! Enjoy your read.

News I Paddocks

 Rebellion

With Oreca in 2014

ebellion is becoming a constructor in its own right and will compete in the 2014 WEC with a new, closed LM P1 developed by Oreca. The French firm has been dreaming of building this type of car for a long time without having had the resources to do so. Rebellion Racing is looking for a new weapon to replace its aging Lolas in 2014. The men from the Var and the Swiss reached agreement and Oreca will have the job of designing the Rebellion R-One. Christophe Guibbal will be the project manager of this new venture designed around the Toyota engine. The design study has already begun and three cars should be built. An evolved version of the the V8 Toyota RV8KLM, whose characteristics will be announced soon (no hybrid), will power the Rebellion. The importance of this programme has led to Rebellion reducing its involvement in the ALMS (only Road America and the Petit Le Mans are still on the calendar), which hands the title to the Luhr-Graf HPD.

 Jean-Pierre Jaussaud

A major operation

n the Tuesday evening before the Le Mans 24 Hours a conference on the history of Alpine-Renault at Le Mans was held in the Le Mans museum. Jacques Cheinisse and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud were the main speakers. At the end of the conference the 2-time winner of the race collapsed. He was hospitalised in the Caen CHU where he had a major operation on a ruptured aorta. As we go to press Jaussaud is still in hospital. “It’s a bit better and our hopes are rising as Jean-Pierre is a fighter, but it’s a miracle he’s still alive,” said his wife comforted by the many messages of support and friendship sent to her. If he continues to progress at the same rate he will soon be able to go to a rehabilitation centre in Trouville for treatment. The whole of the Le Mans Racing team (and I’m sure all our readers) wish the popular Frenchman victory in this tough battle. (F. Hurel)

 Perrinn Limited

 Autonewsinfo.com

A new LM P1 project

A site on the up!

utonewsinfo.com is the site run by the very enthusiastic Gilles Gaignault and his team of experienced journalists devoted 100 per cent to motor sport. On it you will find information, snippets and articles presenting the major motor sport events as well as dossiers and flashes. With Autonewsinfo.com you won’t miss a moment of what’s happening in the world of the motor car throughout the season. Whether it’s paddock patter, news of teams and drivers, the life of the circuits as well as the motor car through the economy, ecology, book fairs, magazines, etc, Autonewsinfo.com will be your 24/24 hour link. Every weekend and during the week 7/7 you’ll have all the information about the motor car at your fingertips whether it’s endurance, rallies, single-seaters, DTM and Rally Raids without forgetting historic events like the Tour Auto or Le Mans Classic. All this will be illustrated by fantastic photographs taken by Bernard Asset, Bernard Bakalian, Gilles Vitry, Jo Lillini, Max Malka, Thierry Coulibaly and Patrick Martinoli. The Autonewsinfo.com site also deals with motor bike racing. We strongly recommend that you have a look.

icolas Perrinn, a former Courage and Pescarolo engineer, recently presented an LM P1 project which he hopes to race in 2014. The conception of prototypes is increasingly being done by private design companies. Adess penned the LM P2 Lotus and Oreca will do the same with the Rebellion LM P1. Directed by a young French engineer Perrinn Limited has come up with a turn-key project for whoever wants to finance it and give it his name. Various engine solutions are possible ranging from the V6 turbo (including future F1 engines) to the more traditional normally aspirated V8. Hybridisation is also a possibility. Perrinn is both ambitious and determined and hopes that his LM P1 will be on the grid for the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours.

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PADDOCKS

I News

 Renault

A V6 turbo in 2016?

 Adess LM P1

On the lookout for an exclusive client

dess, the Munich-based company, responsible for the design of the Lotus T128 also has a separate LM P1 project on its books. Stéphane Chosse is on the lookout for an exclusive partner in the same style as Oreca with Rebellion. The Adess LM P1 designed in the wind tunnel and with CFD will be developed around one engine and won’t be available in a client version. A hybrid system can be fitted, but not early on.

enault recently unveiled the 1600 cc V6 Turbo hybrid complying with the new F1 regulations that come into force in 2014. Knowing that these engines have to cover almost 5000 km without a change (5 engines per season will be allowed compared to 8 at present) you do not need to be a rocket scientist to deduce that they can be used in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Carlos Tavares has already been approached by various potential clients and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of supplying engines in 2016 once the V6 turbo has proved its reliability in F1. Alpine isn’t thinking about designing an LM P1, which means that this engine won’t be seen in a chassis bearing the make’s name, as the LM P2 motors have to be derived from a series production block. On the other hand, the new road-going Alpine that will go on sale in 2016 could provide the base for a GT.

 Caterham

Gascoyne looks to the future

aterham’s decision to become involved in the Le Mans 24 Hours as a partner with Greaves Motorsport was a last-moment one. It is not a one-off as the pursuit of this collaboration is on a long-term basis. Mike Gascoyne was present at Le Mans with four engineers to lend a hand to Greaves and also to think about the future. The man in charge of the make’s Technology and Innovation branch has not ruled out the design of completely new bodywork that could be adapted to the Zytek chassis. This would require a new homologation, unless the make decides to wait until 2016 as the development of the LM P2 has been frozen for three years to cap costs. Caterham is also interested in the GT category and its future car could find itself in competition with Alpine as the two vehicles share the same technological platform.

 Tiga

Soon back in LM P2?

he make founded in 1975 by drivers Tim Schenken (TI) and Howden Ganley (GA) was bought by Mike Newton. The former RML driver is thinking of rehomologating the WF01 chassis that raced in 2008 and 2009 under the Embassy colours. The updated LM P2 would be available for privateers and Newton is targeting the American market in particular. The WF3 homologated in CN should also be rebadged to race in the Speed Euroseries. Among the other activities of Tiga is the restoration of the make’s Group C cars, which shone in the 80s.

 Michelin

A roundup and testing

ike Audi Michelin attracted a lot of attention at the test day. Between the inauguration of the classification tower and tests in view of 2014 the French manufacturer was present on several fronts! The no. 4 Audi R18 e-tron quattro covered 42 laps twelve of which were used to develop the new slick tyres for 2014 in LM P1. On the damp track the car driven by Marco Bonanomi was shod with wet tyres from the Clermont manufacturer’s already-existing range. It was a provisional solution validated beforehand to equip a car of the power and weight of an LM P1, whose aim was a first run in case of bad weather. The development of the LM P1 wet tyres will begin later on in the year. Thus Michelin’s partners will have a range consisting of three specifications for rain, a hybrid tyre for running on a drying track and two wet tyres. Although the test was reduced to just over an hour, the run on slicks gave the firm the opportunity to test two different types of tyre because of their internal structure. Serge Grisin, the Michelin Car Competitions manger pointed out: “After our tests at Monza in April and Motorland Aragon in May, the hour we spent on the Le Mans 24-Hours circuit was a big help. Michelin now has information about live runs on this circuit, which isn’t accessible during the year.”

 Handisportauto - 2013 driving courses

or the first time in France Handisportauto offers driving courses on a circuit in a Porsche Carrera 996 adapted for people suffering from reduced mobility. Handisportauto is specialised in training, baptisms and advanced driving courses for companies and private individuals. These different activities come in the form of courses looked after by monitors with state diplomas, and they use certain cars equipped for and adapted to certain types of handicaps (accelerator in the steering wheel, handbrake, accelerator with the left foot, etc.) 2013 training courses: 10-11 August, 28-29 September, 02-03 November 2013 Contact: www.handisportauto.com I 18

News I Paddocks

 Motul

In the second part of the Ford chicane for three years

 Concours

Sarthe Endurance Photos Competition

he 4th Sarthe Endurance Photos Competition is now open. Up till December you can send in three photos (format Jpeg, maximum 1000x750 pixels, maximum weight 500 ko) taken at the Le Mans 24 Hours and also during the seven events counting for the WEC. The idea is to portray emotions, beauty and the very particular endurance ambience. The winner of the professional category reserved to holders of a press card will receive 3000 euros in prize money. For the amateur category there are VIP places to be won, professional accreditations, overflies in a helicopter, cameras, etc. More than 20 winners will be given prizes. The 2013 innovation will be the prize from the public on line. More details on www.endurancephotos.sarthe.com

ubricants manufacturer Motul has been involved in the Le Mans 24 Hours for a long time, and the company wanted to leave its mark on the 90th anniversary event by signing the grandstand in the second part of the Ford chicane. A 3-year contract has been agreed between the ACO and Motul. Romain Grabowski, the Motul Motorsport Coordinator, is very enthusiastic about this project. “Le Mans and Motul have been linked for many years. So for us it seemed the obvious thing to do to celebrate this anniversary by boosting our visibility. I’m happy that our name and our colours are visible around the circuit through our partner teams, clients, fans of the event and the spectators present in the second part of the Ford chicane.”

 Pierre Yver

30 years’ racing

 Eternel’Le Mans (Washington Photo)

The human adventure of the Le Mans 24 Hours

ierre Yver hasn’t really been around for several years, nothing new given his self-effacing character! The driver from Saint-Loïs has raced in the event 22 times and scored a top-3 finish (2nd in a Porsche 962 C) in 1987, so he deserves recognition. One of his faithful supporters Jean-Loup Leteissier has written this simple, unpretentious little book (325 pages!). It follows the chronological history of Pierre Yver’s career intercut with comments from the driver himself. It is well written with a sense of pleasure and many anecdotes. In addition to the race Yver talks about his personal life and in particular about his daughter who died too young. The book lacks a complete set of results at the end and better photos (in particular the captions), but the essential is to be able to plunge into the story of a nice bloke whose career as a driver, including hill climbs, the Dakar and Formula Renault, is more eclectic that at first glance. Format: 15x21, 325 pages 40 photos, 18 euros: available by email: jean.loup.leteissier@wanadoo.fr

ritten by Michel Bonté in his own inimitable style and translated by Jean-Philippe Doret this eagerly-awaited bi-lingual work is mainly a photographic one. The reason is that Nicole Pecoraro of Washington Photo (former Studio Lafay) put her archives at the disposal of the author. Given the volume of the material to be sorted the wise decision was taken to deal with the period 1949-1959, which means that a second volume may be in the offing! It deals with this period through different themes, a varied choice of photos, short texts, the quality of the print, a tasteful layout and this book of black and white photos gives a wonderful account of the Le Mans 24 Hours as they were in the 50s. We can see the cars and the places, the decors, the transporters, men, women and children. It reminds that above all else Le Mans is a human adventure. Not to be missed!

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Forum

I Vandestick

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Vandestick I

Bruno Vandestick

Le Mans 24-Hours commentator 20 years already!

993-2013: That makes two decades that I’ve enjoyed the role of commentator on this monument of motor sport, the Le Mans 24 Hours. I’d like to take advantage of this column in Le Mans Racing to thank the Automobile Club de l’Ouest for having put its trust in me over all these years. Jean-Marc Desnues and Jean-Pierre Moreau were the two managers of this great club in 1993 when it was undergoing a sea change, and they agreed to give me free rein. I’d always dreamed of being the Le Mans 24-Hours commentator. It would take me a whole book to express my thanks. I’m going to give in this temptation briefly by mentioning the public. Besides the really touching messages I’ve received for my twentieth anniversary, I’d like to say to what extent I really admire all the spectators without whom nothing would be possible. An incredible number of you save up all year to buy your tickets, without mentioning those who take a part of their holidays or days off to be able to come to the Le Mans 24 Hours. This is why, taking advantage of this column, I’d like to say to everybody not only thank you, but also that you have all my respect.

Forum

Hours for Bikes in April. He was given the job of reading out the ads. Some advertisers must have been delighted to hear their message read out far more times than originally agreed! That was the first concrete example of his generosity! Vincent has daring, talent and a big, big heart. He’s my brother in fact. I also feel very strong ties of friendship with Philippe Debarle who was already in the commentators’ cabin in the old pits when I arrived for the first time in 1988. I would have liked to let you have a look at this cabin – the most fantastic in the history of the 24 Hours!! Among the questions frequently asked about the role of Le Mans commentator are: n What keeps you going? Coffee (we have a coffee machine permanently bubbling away) ginger tea with honey (homemade!) energy drinks, water and Solupred (cortisone). n How do you prepare? All year by reading everything I can… n How many hours do you sleep? Three or so during the night of Saturday/Sunday. n How much time does it take to recover? 2013, at least two weeks.

By Bruno Vandestick / Photos Gilles Vitry (autonewsinfo.com)

In this new column called the Forum we give a person linked to the Le Mans 24 Hours and the world of endurance free rein to express what they think. To kick off we’ve chosen Bruno Vandestick for an obvious reason – this year he celebrated his twentieth anniversary behind the mike!

Other temptations I’d like to give into: The most beautiful car in 20 years? My top 3: the Mercedes-Benz CLK/CLR of 1998/99, the Peugeot 908 and the 2013 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, which is a fantastic racing car. The greatest year? I enjoyed commentating on the opening hours of the 1999 race. And the 2011 event was another unforgettable experience. Drivers/friends: A special mention for Emanuele Pirro and Yannick Dalmas and of course, Henri Pescarolo whom I admire a lot. I’m also a great fan of Dr. Ullrich’s. The greatest human adventure: Just a name and a Christian name: Vincent Cerutti and that’s it in a nutshell. The ‘kid’ as we called him in 1996 has always shown real courage. That’s his major strength. I’ll never forget his first words in the Le Mans 24

And what about 2013? The 90th anniversary event of the Le Mans 24 Hours will remain etched in my memory: a reference to Allan Simonsen’s fatal accident. Like you all I keep thinking about his family. Motorsport is dangerous as we are reminded by each of the badges handed out at the start of the event. This drama was the unfortunate illustration. Death isn’t part of the game but once it pokes its nose in, I think that the best way of answering it is to organise an even-better event the following year. The announcement of Mark Webber being taken on by Porsche was the kickoff – en route for 2014! Let’s do it together and hope we’ll be able to read Le Mans Racing as often as possible. I’m really delighted to see this magazine back on the newspaper stands. See you soon with the same sincere, spontaneous enthusiasm as 20 years ago! Bruno Vandestick

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Le Mans 24 Hours

I Analysis

LE MAns 24 HouRs

A realistic dream By François Hurel / Photos DPPI, François Hurel, Audi Motorsport

Toyata is still dreaming about victory at Le Mans. Audi racked up its twelfth thanks to ‘golden oldies’ Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish reinvigorated by the speed of Loic Duval! However, the Japanese manufacturer fulfilled its contract by bringing its cars home in second and fourth places.

“

’m dreaming, I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming…!” On Friday at the Toyota press conference the last question put to Yoshiaki Kinoshita concerning the victory chances of the Japanese make elicited this highly unusual reply from the man in charge of this major team! It was unusual but sincere. Better than anybody Kinoshita knew exactly where his team stood and his enigmatic reply did not reassure those present who feared yet another Audi walkover. Nonetheless, the man from the Land of the Rising Sun had very reason

I 22

to dream as throughout the race Toyota never gave up and hung onto the no. 2 Audi in the hope that some kind of failure would hit the German car – which never happened unlike its stable mates. It was almost like a dream seeing Nicolas Lapierre and Anthony Davidson, back from his big shunt in the 2012 race, taking the fight to the Audis in the opening laps. The intensity of this unexpected duel was in keeping with impact of the dreadful blow that fell: Allan Simonsen’s accident on lap 3; the long neutralisation period

that ensued and then the sad news. The show had to go on, above all for Aston Martin. It was a race marked by cold, wet and unpredictable weather. The rain fell on ten or twenty occasions in either small or large quantities. The drivers had to adapt from one lap to the next, from one corner to another to overcome the many pitfalls without ever knowing what awaited them. Difficult to find worse conditions than those in the 81st event for drivers and team managers. Many of them finished this race totally exhausted both physically and mentally.

Analysis I

Le Mans 24 Hours

23 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I Analysis

The winners show a lot of emotion as well as restrain: Tom Kristensen had promised this victory to his recently deceased father.

The rain fell on ten or twenty occasions in either small or large quantities

I 24

Record number of neutralisations These extreme conditions, which lasted all week, led to a raft of records: those of red flags in practice (6 counting the warm-up) and neutralisations in the race (11 for a total of 5h27m). The arrival of the WEC Race Director Eduardo Freitas alongside Daniel Poissenot may have played a role in this escalation, but could it have been otherwise? The sides of the track soaked by the rain made the rail posts more vulnerable, and Simonsen’s fatal accident could only have led to a more cautious approach. The fact, though, has to be acknowledged that neutralising the race also implies risks, as Andrea Belicchi found out to his cost when he broke his ribs after his Lola-Toyota hit the guardrail on the exit from the Michelin chicane on a restart. While the weather played havoc with the race it was also mainly responsible for the intensity of the duel between Audi and Toyota. In practice it was easy to see that the Japanese cars were more at home in the greasy/wet conditions as they proved in the race. As soon as the track dried out the Audi were quicker, in particular thanks to superior power after 120 km/h when their hybrid system cut in. On many occasions a Toyota seemed to have an advantage in a corner and then be promptly repassed a few moments later.

Performance decided the outcome of the race and Toyota was found lacking in this department. The additional 3 litres of fuel allocated after Spa didn’t change the problem as Audi intelligently based its race on Toyota’s in terms of fuel consumption. “We asked our drivers to drive as if they had to pay for the fuel,” quipped Dr. Ullrich! By covering one or two laps more the Toyotas had four or five fewer stops than the winning Audi, but to no avail. The Ingolstadt car also snatched victory in the Michelin Green X Challenge from under the nose of its rival, an illustration of the German manufacturer’s fuel consumption mastery. Tyre wear didn’t have much influence on the classification, all the more so as rain upset even the best-laid strategies. The no. 2 Audi managed to do quadruple stints and used a total of 16 sets: there too the R18 made a big step forward.

An Achilles’ Heel nonetheless Even the strongest teams have their Achilles’ heel as proved in the seventh hour of the race. At the very moment when Toyota pulled back a stint thanks to its bigger fuel tank (and not lower fuel consumption – do not confuse the two), two of the three Audis were in trouble. No. 3 of Di GrassiGené-Jarvis did almost a lap on three wheels after a puncture, which dropped it back a lap. Although

Analysis I

Le Mans 24 Hours

Early on in the night a collective Audi disaster seemed a possibility Rain was Toyota’s unexpected ally.

this dashed its victory hopes, it fought its way up to third where it was when the incident occurred. At the same time no. 1 driven by Fässler-LottererTréluyer fell victim to a defective alternator. This is such a rare occurrence that the car was not designed for a quick change of this part. The result was almost 45 minutes lost for the 2-time winners of the event, who then made a fantastic comeback with the aim of preserving their hopes in the world championship. Early on in the night the possibility of a collective Audi disaster began to take shape – like Peugeot in 2010 – and a Toyota double looked on the cards. As is often the case at Audi when things go wrong there is always one car spared. This time it was no.2 driven by Duval-KristensenMcNish who took advantage of no. 1’s problems to go into first place. However, they still had to fight off the pursuing TS030s, which they did in a calm, cool manner as illustrated by the choice of putting on rain tyres at the critical moments while Toyota took the risk of continuing on slicks or hybrids (intermediates).

Toyota’s bullet-proof reliability Buemi-Davidson-Sarrazin formed a quick evenlymatched driver line-up, and they drove their hearts out to keep up the pressure on the leading Audi. Finally, they lost out by just a lap, little more than 3m 30s, after a great showing. The no. 8 Toyota spent 4 minutes less than the Audi at its pit so the difference in overall performance could be estimated at two laps – a country mile by current criteria! The positive aspect was the impeccable reliability of the TS030s (which did not seem to be the case early on in the season or in qualifying), apart from the brief cutout that hit Nicolas Lapierre on Saturday evening. The Frenchman blotted his copybook 1h 18m from the finish when he was pushing to hold on to third, which was coming under threat from the no. 3 Audi. In the end Nico and his team-mates came out of it well with fourth place, which rounded off the overall excellent display by the Japanese cars. Toyota, though, shouldn’t get carried away with this result. Without the glitches that hit two of the three German cars

the result would have been an Audi triple, as they were quite simply quicker due to the fantastic work in every area carried out at Ingolstadt during the winter. Michelin too deserves to be associated with this success as the French manufacturer scored its twenty-third win at Le Mans, and the sixteenth on the trot, which says everything about its domination. The hybrid slicks designed for light rain showed their suitability in these special conditions, and allowed André Lotterer in particular to ring rings round his rivals at certain moments.

Strakka crushes Rebellion Racing Rebellion Racing and Strakka Racing supplied the three cars in the so-called LM P1 privateer category. Against all expectations the Anglo-Swiss team didn’t exercise the same domination as in the two previous years. The Lola-Toyotas suffered from porpoising after making a promising start to the race behind the Audis. This phenomenon caused a lot of problems on no. 12 in particular as an oil leak in the gearbox played hell with the clutch. No. 13 driven by Beche-Belicchi-Cheng looked like it would fill the gap until the Italian was caught out on the restart in the eighteenth hour. While the two Rebellion Racing cars pitted to wait for the finish to score precious points in the world championship, the Kane-Leventis-Watts HPD clinched a great sixth-place finish after a practice session cut short by a shunt. It was Strakka Racing’s second success in the Sarthe after their victory in LM P2 in 2010 with the same drivers. Let’s hope that this result will encourage Honda to invest in endurance in a more direct manner.

Oak and Morgan’s deserved double!

The change of grip flags were often waved this year.

The LM P2 category was as hotly disputed as ever and Morgan and Oak Racing came out on top. Pole position, always at the front and a double, Jacques Nicolet’s team’s domination was complete and rewarded an involvement that has increased in strength over the years, and which deserves admiration. Olivier Pla set pole and was head and shoulders above his

25 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I Analysis

Strakka Racing gave the lie to the forecasts in the privateers’ category.

Record number of red flags in practice.

rivals early on: he fully deserved to be on the topmost step of the podium as did the very quick Alex Brundle. David Heinemeier Hansson put a foot out of bed after a restart, and then a few unfavourable safety car interventions settled the decision in favour of their sister car driven with brio by Bertrand Baguette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Martin Plowman. After the no. 26 G Drive OrecaNissan was excluded third place went to the Zytek in the hands of Mardenborough-OrdonezKrumm whose mixture of youth and experience worked wonders. The Pecom Racing Oreca had to make do with fourth place and the Dunlop triple, which has been a faithful supplier of the

The first safety car intervention effectively decapitated the GTE race category, deserves a big hand, all the more so as it was the tyre manufacturer’s development team that triumphed. A media feeding frenzy followed Alpine’s much publicized return. The A450 showed promise early on before it all went wrong after various race incidents (crash, puncture). In this context Panciatici-Ragues-Gommendy’s fourteenth place (8th in P2) was encouraging. Even if PR operations were in full swing there didn’t seem to be a lot of popular enthusiasm for the blue car. It’s proof that Alpine needs to remind older people of its glorious past, and make youngsters sit up and take notice. To raise enthusiasm a real Alpine and results are what are needed!

The Day of Glory arrived for Jacques Nicolet and his men. I 26

Analysis I

Over the past few years the very nature of the Le Mans 24 Hours has undergone a radical change

Alpine did the job.

Porsche back with a bang! The GTE Pro category promised a great race with five manufacturers all supposed to be on a level playing field after the BOP was modified again after the test day. This did not achieve the desired aim as there were two categories in one because the American cars were a step below the rest. And as if that wasn’t enough, the first safety car intervention effectively decapitated the race by separating most of the field from the first three and eliminating Ferrari as a potential victory contender. Thus, Bergmeister-Pilet-Bernhard, leaders of the second group, deserve praise for being on the podium, which would not have been the case had it not been for the cruel blows of fate that hit Aston Martin, in particular Makowiecki’s shunt when no. 99 seemed to have done the hardest part of the job!

Le Mans 24 Hours

Allan simonsen one of the best GT specialists On lap 3, Allan Simonsen was already pushing hard. What he perhaps wanted to prove more than just winning in LM GTE Am, which he had already done at Silverstone and Spa, was that he was as good as the best. He was leading his category and the two works Corvettes at the time of the accident. The on-board images from one of these cars, visible on the internet, shows a first twitch of the Aston Martin in the Tertre Rouge Esses, which doesn’t seem to worry the driver as he maintains the gap to his pursuer. On the exit from the Tertre Rouge corner, which it’s very important to exit as quickly as possible as it dictates the car’s speed on the straight, the Aston goes a bit wide and clips the blue kerb in the place where a few seconds earlier both Franck Mailleux and Toni Vilander had spun. We went to have a look at the kerb the day after the race and there’s nothing dangerous about it it’s part of painted tarmac. Every driver knows that the first drops of rain are the most treacherous. What then happened is very ordinary. The rear breaks away, he corrects and then the car snaps sideways sending it into a spin in the opposite direction to the race. The Aston hits the guardrail on the right-hand side and the left-hand door is blown off in the impact. The intact front of the Vantage shows that it was not a frontal impact. Was Simonsen distracted by seeing Vilander spinning? We think that no is the answer as the first reflex of an experienced driver in such a situation is to do nothing to see in which direction the out-of-control car is going. Allan was simply caught out by a kerb that was more slippery than the track, on which the drivers maintained a high speed. The next day Fred Makowiecki was victim of the same phenomenon on the exit from the Forza chicane also in an Aston Martin, but this doesn’t mean any conclusions can be drawn. A bit later on Belicchi’s Lola suffered the same fate. Allan was born in Odense in Denmark on 15 July 1978. He cut his teeth in karts in 1989 after which he raced in Formula Ford ten years later. He went on to compete in different championships in single-seaters and saloons in Europe and in Australia. Over the years he built up a good reputation in GTs winning the Australian Championship in a Ferrari in 2007 and the LMS Asian Championship in 2009. His Le Mans debut was in 2007 and he scored a top-3 finish in GT2 (3rd in the Autorlando Porsche), followed in 2010 with second place in the Hankook Ferrari. He leaves behind with Carina and their one-year-old daughter. The Danish Federation has launched an appeal to help them open to all those who want to contribute. (details on the site www.youngdriver-amr.com. To his family and all his friends Le Mans Racing wishes to express its sincerest condolences.

Thus the battle for victory boiled down to a scrap between Dumbreck-Mücke-Turner and DumasLieb-Lietz. The outcome was decided 1h 15m from the finish when Lietz and Mücke found themselves locked in combat on a track soaked by a sudden shower. By luck or by inspiration (it was a brave move whatever the case) the Austrian continued on slicks for another lap while the German came in to fix a loose flat bottom. Again the safety car gave Porsche a decisive advantage. The 911 scored a headline-grabbing double on the

27 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I Analysis

Narac-Bourret-Vernay were able to cope with the gap in the railings.

50th anniversary of the model, and Olaf Manthey still has a 100 per cent success record at Le Mans after his victory in 1999 (LM GT). The Corvettes were never a threat due to a lack of top speed and they just played walk-on roles. It was the same story for the Vipers, which at least fulfilled their mission by finishing the race on their comeback. The Ferrari case is trickier as unlike the Corvettes the Italian cars were on the pace in qualifying. With a bit more luck and fewer errors on the part of their drivers they could also have been victory contenders. As usual the GTE category provided the best and the worst. The worst had to happen to the benchmark driver in the category, Allan Simonsen, who set pole after great performances at Silverstone and Spa. Once the favourite had been eliminated on lap 3 it was a question of

avoiding errors, which the driver line-up in no. 76 achieved to perfection. Thanks to Raymond Narac, Christophe Bourret and Jean-Karl Vernay, Imsa Performance was back in the winners’ circle in the Sarthe and Porsche racked up its 100th category victory in the Sarthe since its debut in 1951l

41 classified finishers – a record! Another record was beaten, namely: the number of classified finishers - 41. Counting the excluded Oreca and the HPD, which had not covered enough distance, the total number of finishers was 43! Thus, 13 retirements were recorded and only six were due to mechanical failure. The rain and the neutralisations don’t explain everything. Over the past few years the very nature of the Le Mans 24 Hours has undergone a radical change because of the improved reliability of the cars, and also because of the regulations whose aim is to give everybody a level playing field in each category.

Olaf Manthey: two participations, two victories!

These two factors combined mean that it is no longer worth counting on the retirements of one’s rivals to gain places, thus the slightest incident takes on enormous proportions. The drivers are obliged to push from start to finish with all the risks that it entails, leading to more and more shunts that are increasingly violent as proved by injuries last year to Davidson and Moreau (test day for the latter) and this year to Belicchi without even talking about the unfortunate Simonsen. And the longer a car runs, mathematically it has more chance of having a crash. On the other hand accidents due to mechanical failure are on the wane so well designed and prepared are the cars. It is one of the many paradoxes of a race unlike any other in which danger is ever-present as at Indianapolis and Monaco. And that is what makes the greatness of these events!

In GTE Pro, the battle for victory raged between the no. 97 Aston Martin and the no. 92 Porsche.

Did you know? If this year there have never been so many classified finishers (the previous record was 33 in 2008 and 2012), it does not beat the percentage of 1923 in which 30 out of the 33 starters saw the flag! I 28

29 I

Le Mans 24-Hours

I scrutineering

sCRuTinEERinG

spectators flock to Place de la RĂŠpublique!

The no. 32 Lotus was repaired.

I 30

crutineering was held on the Place de la RĂŠpublique for the second year running, an area that was probably too cramped to accommodate the Sunday crowd. All 56 cars were present even those that had had big accidents at the Sunday test day. The no. 51 Ferrari crashed at Mulsanne by Giancarlo Fisichella and the no. 32 Lotus, which went off in the right-hand section of the Karting Esses driven by Dominik Kraihamer, were all repaired. The Ferrari, according to AF Corse, had gone back to Italy to have a new front end grafted on. On the Tuesday before scrutineering the teams

were allowed to race on the Bugatti circuit. Alpine, Level 5 and Audi took advantage of this to do some running on a wet track. Jacques Laffite tested the no. 76 Imsa Performance Matmut Porsche for a report on Eurosport for which he is a consultant. Scrutineering kicked off with the two Imsa Performance Porsches on Sunday 16th and ending on Monday 17th June with the two works Porsche RSRs to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 911 in the style it deserved. As is usually the case some of the liveries had evolved since the test day starting with the no. 45 Morgan, which wore the final version of the

scrutineering I Le

Mans 24-Hours

By François Hurel / Photos DPPI, Gilles Vitry (autonewsinfo.com)

Scrutineering took place in front of a bigger crowd than in previous years to the point that it became difficult to see the cars in an enclosure covered with grills, banners and various structures.

decoration designed by Fernando Costa: the French sculptor’s work of art was on display in the village. The no. 97 Aston Martin had also undergone a sea change as it had a livery designed by Jonathan Wesley in Kettering (GB) who won a competition. The asymmetrical decoration evoked the change from daytime to nighttime so typical of a 24-Hour race. The no. 66 Ferrari in Dunlop colours had already been seen at the test day in its new livery penned by Mikael Guyot from Le Mans who won the design competition held by the tyre manufacturer. Technically speaking the two Toyotas had different air intakes. Pascal Vasselon explained that as neither of the two solutions had proved

better than the other at the test day it was simpler to leave things as they were. Only one driver change was announced. Frédéric Fatien was unable to do his ten obligatory laps at the wheel of the Gulf Racing Middle East Lola and was replaced by the experienced Philippe Haezebrouck. A quick aside: as Brendon Hartley missed his plane his brother posed for the team photo!

The last-minute BOP On 14th June (two days before scrutineering opened) the Endurance Committee informed the GTE teams about the new Balance of Performance following measurements taken at

A brief respite for the outgoing winners and their engineer, Leena Gade.

31 I

Le Mans 24-Hours

I Scrutineering

Belicchi-Beche-Cheng ready to roll!

Aston Martin: the centenary armada.

the test day. The main victim of this tweak was the Aston Martin Vantage, which was handed 10 kg of ballast in GTE Pro and 20 kg in GTE Am to reach a weight of 1225 kg in both cases. In addition, the Corvettes in Pro had to carry an extra 10 kg (1260 kg) and the Viper had its weight reduced by 10 kg (1245 kg). The Viper also had its fuel tank capacity increased by 5 litres (95 litres). It is regrettable (yet again) that the press wasn’t informed of these changes - unless you asked - on the pretext that they didn’t interest the general public! That is hardly the case for our readers who are all pretty clued up.

Infos-Course’s statistics _ There were 35 entrants representing 16 nationalities as well as 14 makes from 6 countries. SRT (Viper) was the only debutant make, Alpine and Lotus were making their comeback while Pescarolo, Dome, DeltaWing and Norma were missing. Ferrari with 8 cars was the best represented manufacturer in front of Oreca and Porsche (7). There were 33 different nationalities among the drivers with 40 for France and 25 for Great Britain. _ Back was Natacha Gachnang so Keiko Ihara wasn’t the only woman driver in the field of 168! _ There were 11 former winners at the start led by record-holder Tom Kristensen who was hoping to clinch his ninth victory. The most experienced was Frenchman Christophe Bouchut back for the twentieth time followed by fellow-countryman Emmanuel Collard with 19. The most experienced driver line-up was the one in no. 2 with 33 participations between them. 18 drivers had already raced in Formula 1 and the no. 8 Toyota trio was the only 100% F1 line-up – like last year. _ There were 41 rookies, and the driver line-ups in the no. 40 Oreca, the no. 47 Morgan and no. 54 Ferrari were all newcomers. Youngest driver was rookie Cooper McNeil (20) in the no. 70 Corvette while the oldest, also a rookie, was Jack Gerber (68) in the no. 61 Ferrari. _ Also racing was Bruno Senna (Ayrton’s nephew), Nicolas Prost (Alain’s son), Alex Brundle (Martin’s lad), Marino Franchitti (Dario’s brother) Marc Gené (Jordi’s brother), Maxime Martin (Jean-Michel’s son), Kazuki Nakajima (Saturo’s son) Jordan and Ricky Taylor (Wayne’s sons), Olivier Lombard (Jean Messaoudi’s son), Natacha Gachnang and Sébastien Beumi (cousins and George Gachnang’s grand children) and Nelson Panciatici (Jacques’ son). Ricardo Gonzalez is the son of Roberto (3rd in the 1976 Sebring 12 Hours) and the brother of Roberto Junior (Champ Car driver in 2003/2004). Bill Auberlen is Gary’s son winner of his class at Sebring in 1985), and Tommy Kendall, making his comeback is Charles’ son, the latter being a former IMSA driver. And completing the list was Archie Hamilton, Duncan’s grandson!

Philippe Mondolot’s helmet matched his car! I 32

33 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I Practice

Practice

Duval stuns his rivals! By François Hurel / Photos DPPI

Audi dominated practice despite the treacherous weather and the host of red flags that were hung out. Loic Duval loves chasing pole and he duly clinched it after beating his fastest time on the test day. The others who came out on top in their respective categories were Olivier Pla (LM P2), Fred Makowiecki (LM GTE Pro) and Allan Simonsen (LM GTE Am).

he test day run mostly on a wet track except for the last two hours gave Loïc Duval the opportunity to show his mettle. He went off in the morning when he was already the quickest driver on the track, and then banged in a stunning lap in the late afternoon in 3m 22.787s beating the 2012 pole position time set by Lotterer in 2012 in 3m 23.787s. As the gap to the first Toyota was 5 seconds slower the times predicted a walk-over for the Audis. On Wednesday, violent storms soaked the track and even if the sun came out when free practice kicked off at 16h00, there were still traces of damp. Once again Audi set the pace as André Lotterer improved the fastest times to break the 3m 30s-barrier before McNish hit back in 3m 28.538s, which

I 34

remained the benchmark for most of the session. Oliver Jarvis spun without damage on the run down to La Chapelle just after he’d left the pits. The no. 13 Lola-Toyota also had a moment in the new section without consequences, which wasn’t the case for Eric Lux’s Zytek which snapped left under braking for the Michelin chicane and smote the guardrail a hefty blow bringing out the red flag at 17h00 with Audi still at the top of the time sheets. McNish, Jarvis and Lotterer were well in front of the Toyotas, which seemed to be afflicted with understeer problems and no. 7 almost got bogged down in the Indianapolis gravel trap.

Black skies and red flags! During the interruption it started raining again and when the light went green Toyota racked up a lot of laps unlike Audi. The sun returned and dried the tarmac and at 18h19 Tréluyer got round in 3m 26.669s after which Duval improved twice to set a benchmark time of 3m 25.415s at 18h43. It was to remain the fastest lap in the free session, as at 19h17 Tracy Krohn’s Ferrari shot off the track on the run down to La Chapelle and slammed backwards into the tyre barriers and guardrail putting a premature end to the session. The two Toyotas were some four seconds behind the Audi trio. Bertrand Baguette’s black and pink Morgan-Nissan was fastest in LM P2, while in GTE Pro Patrick Pilet confirmed the pace of the works Porsches, and Rui Aguas led the GTE Am contenders in the 8 Star Ferrari F458 Italia GTC. Drivers that wanted to set a time went for it right from the start of the first qualifying session (22h00-midnight) because of the threat of rain the next day. Once again the fastest man on the track was Loïc Duval who found a clear lap after 11 minutes, and showed his talent with a time of 3m 22.349s beating his test day best despite a slower track. “Maybe

tomorrow it’ll be wet so that’s a good job done,” said the Frenchman to the commentator. Toyota seemed unable to fight back, and at 22h39 Buemi pulled off the track just beyond Arnage after being told to do so by his team because of a broken first gear. And again the session was brought to a premature halt when Pierre Thiriet pulverised his Oreca-Nisssan after losing control under braking for the Michelin chicane and thumped the guardrail. Thus, Duval finished the evening in front of Marc Gené (3m 24.349s), Lotterer (3m 25.474s), Nakajima (3m 26.676s), Heidfeld (3m 30.423s), Sarrazin (3m 30.841s), Belicchi (3m 32.167s) and Danny Watts (3m 36.547s). In LM P2 it was the turn of John Martin’s Oreca to top the time sheets with a lap in 3m 39.535s from Franck Mailleux and Olivier Pla in their Morgans. In GTE PRO and Am Aston Martin dominated thanks to Makowiecki in the former and Simonsen in the latter.

Pla and Makowiecki midnight heroes! On Thursday a heavy shower left the track very wet before the start of the second qualifying session so the drivers were not exactly falling over one another to take to the circuit! While Audi opted for caution Toyota again took advantage of the weather to test the varied conditions in view of the race. Davidson and Wurz fought for the fastest time without being able to break the 3m 40s barrier. Just as the track was starting to dry out down came the rain again and that put the kybosh on the drivers’ hopes, all the more so as the no. 40 Oreca of Matt Downs went off on the very fast section between Mulsanne and Indianapolis. To compensate for this premature halt the second part of qualifying was given the green light half-an-hour before the scheduled time on a track that was still shiny with rain. Not until 22h40 did Kristensen get below 3m 40s and then at 22h52 Davidson broke the 3m 30s barrier. At 22h57 the inevitable red flag was

Lotus The legal wrangles Following a compliant made by Adess in the Le Mans court some of the Lotus team’s equipment was impounded on Tuesday around 17h00. Although the seizure was cancelled the following day it hindered the preparation of the T128s as they went out to practice late on Wednesday evening. In revenge Kodewa took action against Stéphane Chosse and his companies Adess AG and SCE Solutions. Watch this space!

35 I

24 H du Mans

I Essais

The Lola-Toyota B12/60s put on a good show and were not far behind the TS030s!

Ups and downs!

Patrick Dempsey continues learning.

Free practice (Wednesday): Only one of the two Lotuses ran, no. 31, which was two hours late going out. The no. 74 Corvette had paddle shift problems and the HPD Strakka was afflicted with electrical gremlins. The no. 42 Zytek crawled back to its pit after Jann Mardenborough spun in the Forza chicane. At 18h05 Al Faisal in the JMW Motorsport Ferrari F458 had a big shunt in the second part of the Ford chicane going off backwards. Among those who spun was Nakano in the no. 25 Oreca, Patterson’s no. 48 Oreca, Ihara’s no. 28 Lola, Jani’s no. 12 Lola, the no. 96 Aston Martin, Perazzini and Blank in the nos 61 and 54 Ferraris, and Patrick Dempsey in the no. 77 Porsche. Q1 (Wednesday): Philippe Dumas had a slight off in the no. 70 Corvette in the second part of the Ford chicane. Belicchi spun coming out of the Dunlop chicane. The brakes on the no. 73 Corvette overheated. Minassian in the no. 49 Oreca-Nissan damaged the front end of his car either by hitting debris or an animal. At 22h57 the no. 32 Lotus finally made an appearance, six minutes before the premature end of the session. The following had harmless spins: Lieb, Pilet and Ruberti in their Porsches, Mücke’s and Simonsen’s Aston Martins and Coici’s Ferrari.

Allan Simonsen was head and shoulders above his rivals in GTE-Am.

Tracy Krohn (right) has understanding team-mates!

I 36

Q2 (Thursday): TDS had to build up a car around a new monocoque so it didn’t manage to run its Oreca. Krohn, on the other hand, went out at the end of the session with a car constructed around a chassis sent from Italy. Nick Heidfeld (no. 12 Lola), Ricky Taylor (no. 50 Corvette), Kevin Weeda (no. 31 Lotus) and Rui Aguas (no. 81 Ferrari) all had trips into the gravel traps. The following spun: Westbrook in the no. 74 Corvette, Burgess’s no. 30 Lola, Marino Franchitti in the no. 33 HPD, Tung’s no. 47 Morgan, Gerber in the no. 61 Ferrari, Auberlen in the no. 98 Aston Martin, Brandela’s no. 39 Lola and Eric Lux in the no. 41 Zytek in Caterham colours.

Pratcice I Le

Mans 24 Hours

Thanks to Olivier Pla, Morgan confirmed its competitiveness.

hung out when Bourret went off on the exit from La Forza chicane, the first one on Les Hunaudières. However, the interruption didn’t last long, but soon the safety cars - which had a very busy weekend – came out again when Jonny Kane crashed the Strakka Racing HPD in the Michelin chicane. Stéphane Sarrazin was in attack mode and dislodged his teammates from fourth spot on the grid although the Frenchman wasn’t able to do anything about the Audis. Duval’s pole on Wednesday was never under threat and the gap between the German and Japanese machines was over 4 seconds a lap! Andre Lotterer was the quickest of the Ingoldstadt cars and knocked no. 3 off the front row after Di Grassi had a moment in the Dunlop chicane. Fastest of the privateers was Neel Jani whose time in his Lola-Toyota wasn’t too far off that of the Toyotas! There were a couple of exploits at the very end of the session on a dry track with Olivier Pla giving Jacques Nicolet’s Morgan-Nissan pole in LM P2 in 3m 38.621s from J.Martin, Turvey, Mailleux and Nakano. In GTE Pro Fred Makowiecki racked up his second pole on the trot beating the fastest lap in the category in 3m 54.635s after fighting off team-mate Stefan Mücke. Lieb’s Porsche in third was in front of the first of the Ferraris, and the quickest Corvette (Gavin) was over 4 seconds off the pace! Allan Simonsen drove home his advantage of GTE Am by beating his own quickest time in 3m 57.776s.

Second consecutive pole in GTE Pro for Fred Makowiecki.

37 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I Pre-race

PRE-RACE ACTiViTiEs

Toyota ups the pressure! By FranĂ§ois Hurel / Photos DPPI, Gilles Vitry (autonewsinfo.com)

In the dull weather conditions, Nicolas Lapierreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fastest time in the warm-up was a tiny ray of sunshine as it hinted that the race might not turn into the expected Audi walk-over.

Lindsay Owen-Jones, Jean Todt and Michelle Yeoh. I 38

A new Ferrari for Tracy Krohn.

Amato Ferrari and the AF Corse squad.

Pre-race I Le

Mans 24 Hours

aturday 09h00: The warm-up started under threatening skies but the track remained dry. The Thiriet by TDS Oreca went out after the team had done a great job rebuilding the car. Duval was the quickest early on in the session. The Frenchman handed over to Kristensen who tagged Gibon’s Porsche trying to go round him on the outside in the Indianapolis left-hander. The no. 2 Audi spun and crawled back to its pit where a few strips of adhesive tape were put on after which McNish rejoined and improved the quickest time with a lap in 3m 26.730s. Shortly afterwards, Lapierre caused a stir as he went to the top of the time sheets with a time of 3m 26.277s! Forty-one minutes into the warm-up the red flag was hung out after Tor Graves went off backwards in the Porsche corners in the no. 25 Oreca, and Lapierre who was just behind couldn’t avoid running over the debris. Before that Philippe Dumas had damaged the front of his Corvette in the Dunlop chicane. Briscoe (HPD) went straight on at Arnage, and the no. 40 Oreca spun in the Forza chicane emulated by the no. 30 Lola and the no. 38 Zytek in the Dunlop chicane. Quickest in the categories were the no. 26 Oreca (LM P2), the no. 71 Ferrari (LM GTE Pro) and the no. 77 Porsche (LM GTE Am). The nos 97 and 99 Aston Martins didn’t set a time.

The Ford Mk2 attracted a lot of attention.

Mr and Mrs Tony Burgess.

Bent bodywork on the no. 70 Corvette.

39 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I Pre-race

Alex Buncombe won the Le Mans Legend race in his Lister Costin despite Caron’s Cobra Daytona.

The Le Mans Legend race began in a drizzle, which didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the hard-chargers! Alex Buncombe in his Lister-Costin dominated the race winning with 43 seconds in hand over Jon Minshaw in the Knobbly Lister. An all-fired up Gary Pearson took third in his D-Type Jaguar just in front of Roger Wills in his Iso. Into fifth came Shaun Lynn’s AC Cobra while Frenchman Ludovic Caron at the wheel of his Daytona Cobra coupe rounded out the top 6. Monteverde stopped his Ferrari LM on the first lap and into forty-ninth came the Alpine of S. Stepak-Bourdin. Georges Gachnang’s Cooper Monaco didn’t make the start. Next event was the Ferrari Challenge and the drivers poured out of the pits onto a track that had dried out. Victory went to Sergey Chukanov from the Ukraine from Brit Alexander Martin and Benedetto Marti from Italy. Then it was time for the 11 cars of the legend to do a demonstration run led by the Porsche 917K in the hands of Gérard Larrousse. The Minister of Youth and Sports Valérie Fourneyron was invited by Jacques Nicolet to slip into the seat of the Art Car, while François Fillon walked down the pit lane with Jean-Paul Driot who is preparing DAMS’s comeback to endurance. The ACO President was with Jean Todt and Lindsay Owen-Jones. At 13h40 taking advantage of the absence of the drivers posing for the group photo, the track marshals began to chat up the grid girls who were petrified with cold. Maybe they wanted to give them a quick warm-up! At 14h18, the cars of the legend drove up the pits straight escorting the Le Mans 24-Hours Trophy. The teams lined up in front of the cars, which got a big laugh from Kamui Kobyashi who wasn’t used to this kind of ritual – not very common in F1! At 14h22 the 56 cars began the starting procedure as a few scattered drops of rain reminded everybody that the threat of a shower hung over the circuit. At 14h38, Henri Pescarolo received a great welcome when he got out of the Audi R8 in which he was going to lead the field on the formation lap. On the grid the teams started to get a bit jumpy

Dumas and Luhr happy as larry! I 40

Philippe Streiff and Paul Belmondo.

when it came to choosing the tyres. We asked Yannick Dalmas, advisor to the Clerk of the Course, for his opinion. “As it is at the moment, I’d start on slicks,” replied the 4-time winner of the race. The rain was too light to justify putting on wet weather rubber.

Parade des Pilotes Friday’s big event The start of the Drivers’ Parade, organised as usual by Classic Automotive, was brought forward to 17h00. It was the main event on Friday, the day before the race. This year Porsche led the parade in which homage was also paid to Chenard & Walcker and Alpine. Some 230 dream cars were on the streets of Le Mans plus the 56 driver line-ups plus bands and Brazilian dancing girls. As expected Patrick Dempsey was a big hit with the crowd!

Le Mans is mind-blowing!

Grid girl... and boy!

lmr 77

41 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I the fight for the win

FiGHT FoR THE Win

Audi through hell and high water!

I 42

the fight for the win I Le

Mans 24 Hours

By FranĂ§ois Hurel / Photos DPPI, David Legangneux

The 81st race, marked by a fatal accident, unpredictable weather and a record number of neutralisations, will go down in history as a classic thanks to Toyotaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fantastic battle with Audi, winner for the 12th time.

43 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

1st

hour

I the fight for the win

(15h-16h)

Accident

and safety cars

14h54: Helped by Philippe Peu (the lucky spectator drawn by lot), Daniel Poissenot unleashes the 56 cars for the formation lap in a drizzle. A large number of drivers did not qualify in the correct manner because of the large number of interruptions during practice and the organisers showed a certain understanding by allowing everybody in, while the 21 cars in question were sent to the back of the grid. The main victim was Danny Watts’s HPD that had to start from 36th place after setting the 8th –quickest time in qualifying. 15h00: While the Audi R8 driven by Henri Pescarolo plunges right towards the pits and Jim France drops the French flag, Lotterer outdrags McNish and passes him on the outside in the Dunlop curve. After the footbridge a very incisive Lapierre slices past Di Grassi. And that isn’t all as the Toyota overtakes McNish in the Forza chicane to the cheers of the spectators who are able to follow all the action on the many giant screens. McNish tried to fight back at Mulsanne but the Frenchman brakes late! In front of the pits the drizzle stops while Davidson hustles past Di Grassi in the Ford corner. At the end of the first lap the order is Lotterer and Lapierre who have opened up a tiny gap over McNish, Davidson, Di Grassi, Heidfeld and Belicchi. Pla, in eighth place, has pulled away slightly from the LM P2 field in which a battle worthy of an F. Ford race is raging!

Lotterer, Lapierre and Davidson provided the early-race action.

15h08: at the start of lap 3, Franck Mailleux, 10th and 3rd in P2, spins in Tertre Rouge and loses around 10 places 15h09: On the exit of Tertre Rouge Vilander’s Ferrari spins as does Simonsen’s Aston Martin. The Aston oversteers on the blue band, snaps left into the guardrail at high speed and then bounces back into the middle of the track. Out come the three safety cars to enable the driver to be evacuated and the damaged guardrail replaced. At the end of the third lap in which Danny Watts is up in 13th place, it’s evident that the second safety car has come out behind the first three in GTE Pro giving a considerable advantage to Turner, Lieb and Bell!

McNish-Di Grassi duel at Mulsanne.

15h04: On lap 2, Davidson passes McNish at Mulsanne, but the Scot gets back in front before Indianapolis, while Lapierre is all over Lotterer at Arnage. In the Toyota camp the team is all smiles while at Audi, Dr Ullrich remains impassive! Seeing the Rebellion Lolas following the R18s without problems indicates that they have not yet unleashed all their fire power. A few more drops of rain begin to fall calling for caution.

The Rebellion Lolas made a good start. I 44

16h: The first hour finishes with the race still neutralised after 10 laps have been covered in the following order: Lotterer, Lapierre, Davidson, McNish, Di Grassi, Heidfeld, Belicchi, Pla, Imperatori and Watts, the last named having taken advantage of early stops by the Delta ADR Oreca and the Alpine.

Di Grassi-Gené-Jarvis finished third.

the fight for the win I Le

Mans 24 Hours

The track marshals also had a very tough race.

16h26: A lap later Lapierre and Davidson refuel and rejoin behind the 3 Audis. McNish passes Di Grassi in the Forza chicane but the Brazilian hits back in the second one (Michelin). 16H30: Once refuelling has been completed Lotterer is 25s in front of Di Grassi-McNish and 33s ahead of Davidson. 16h37: McNish has retaken 2nd place from Di Grassi. The gaps between the leaders are fairly stable.

2 nd-3rd

Audi

hours

(16h-18h)

ups the pace

16h07: The leaders’ race begins again at Arnage on a completely dry track. McNish has a tank slapper in the second part of the Ford chicane, and Lapierre looks like he’s in big trouble. Davidson passes him at Mulsanne imitated by McNish before Indianapolis. After Arnage, Di Grassi also gets past no. 7 which loses 3 places on lap 12. 16h15: While Lotterer improves the fastest lap to 3m23.313s, McNish is the first of the leaders to refuel after 13 laps. He restarted slowly, which cost him a place when Di Grassi pits next time round. 16h18: 14 laps covered by Lotterer, who also refuels, letting Davidson into first place.

16h54: A lap after McNish, the other two Audis refuel just as it starts raining again, but not enough to justify putting on grooved tyres. Davidson ends the hour in the lead, which does not appear in the official classification stopped three minutes later during his refuelling stop. 17h05: Lapierre and Lotterer are at it hammer and tongs controlling the slides of their cars on a track that’s very wet in places. The Toyota takes the lead after Mulsanne just before pitting for fuel and falling back to 5th place. Di Grassi shoots through the gravel trap on the left before Indianapolis without damage. A little later Lapierre puts 2 wheels off the track on the exit from the second part of the Ford chicane. 17h32 : Just when the rain stops, Lapierre grinds to a halt on the exit from the Forza chicane, and then restarts after a few seconds. “Fuel pressure,” says Vasselon who doesn’t seem too worried! 17h37: Lotterer refuels and stays in front as Davidson has lost over a minute. 17h49: As it begins to rain again, Davidson refuels, rejoins slowly and lets Lapierre past in the Dunlop chicane. 17h57: Bruno Vandestick announces the sad news that Allan Simonsen has died in the circuit medical centre. 18h: After 3 hours racing Lotterer leads McNish by 46s, Di Grassi by 50s, Davidson by 1m 21s, Lapierre by 2m08s and Heidfeld by 3m03s. Next up is the HPD a lap down after its great comeback in front of the second Lola-Toyota. The two Morgans round out the top 10.

Buemi-Davidson-Sarrazin did their best.

45 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I the fight for the win

Nicolas Lapierre pushed very hard.

4th-5 th

hours

Toyota

(18h-20h)

loses touch

18h18: Driver changes at Audi: a lap after Duval, Tréluyer and Jarvis get in for their first stint. André Lotterer sums up the tricky track conditions in the commentator’s mike: “You have to take it easy.” Brief showers follow one another and the Dunlop Curve gravel trap is transformed into a second track! 18h25: Having reduced Tréluyer’s lead to 20s, Davidson cuts the Dunlop chicane. 18h30: The excellent Nick Heidfeld spins inTertre Rouge. He comes in to change the rear bonnet and hands over to Jani. At the end of the hour n°12 is still 6th but a lap behind. 18h38: Under pressure from Duval, Lapierre stops and hands over to Wurz, as Davidson did a lap earlier with Buemi. The Audis bunch up at the front with 48s betweenTréluyer and Duval.

The Lola-Toyota spent too much time in the pits. I 46

18h58: The Audis refuel one after another. Jarvis, who went down the escape road in the Forza chicane after locking up his brakes, changes tyres. Buemi slips by into 3rd place. 19h17: Jarvis repasses Buemi who refuels. 19h25: Front bonnet change on the no. 12 Lola/Rebellion, which holds on to 6th spot. 19h35: Tréluyer refuels. For the first time the three Audis stay in front of the Toyotas after refuelling. 19h53: Kane’s HPD passes Cheng’s Lola/Rebellion in the Michelin chicane to take 7th place.

the fight for the win I Le

Mans 24 Hours

22h05: The new leader, Duval, is 3.08s in front of Sarrazin: the writing is on the wall! Wurz and Jarvis separated by 52s fall back a lap. The no. 13 Lola is 3 laps in front of the HPD and its sister car. 22h11: Tom Kristensen starts his first stint after 7 hours waiting! 22h26: Just as a shower wets parts of the circuit Fässler rejoins in 24th place, 11 laps behind the leader. 22h34: On a dicey track Sarrazin hits the loud pedal and closes the gap to Kristensen to 2m 44s. Nakajima is 3m17s behind. 22h50: Safety-cars after Graves (no. 25 Oreca) crashes in the Porsche corner. 22h55: Gené’s Audi goes into its garage for 8 minutes for bodywork repairs due to Jarvis’s mishap. 22h59: Sarrazin refuels and changes tyres letting no. 7 into second.

Track conditions never stopped changing.

6th

Audi

8th

hours

(20h-23h)

trips up

20h02: Buemi refuels losing almost 3 minutes to the leader. Wurz comes in next time round. 20h07: 2nd neutralisation due to debris in Tertre Rouge from Gommendy’s Alpine following a tyre blow-out. 20h12: A lap after Duval, Tréluyer refuels and changes tyres. 20h21: Green light. 9th overall and leader in P2, Heinemeier-Hansson is caught out by his tyres that have cooled and goes head on into the wall in the Virage du Pont. Shortly afterwards, the no. 32 Lotus loses its rear bonnet leading to the 3rd neutralisation. The time lost by the Toyotas means they can’t take advantage of it and they have to stay behind the second safety-car.

The leaders hit an alternator problem.

9 th

12th

Toyota

hours

(23h-3h)

loses a lap

20h32 Green light just as Jarvis refuels. The order next time round is Tréluyer, Duval 43s behind, Jarvis 1m43s, Buemi-Wurz 2m11s, then Cheng. Kane and Jani (who has just refuelled) a lap down.

23h05: Green light. Di Grassi goes back out in the no. 3 Audi still in 4th place.

20h50: While the three Audis are lapping in 3m24s, the Toyota are getting round in 3m30s, 3m31s.

23h22: Kristensen goes straight on the Forza chicane, which explains his stunning time of 3m25.9s, one he does not repeat in the following laps!

20h53: Duval adds salt to the wound with a 3m23.269s, new lap record. 21h: The two leading Audis refuel. 21h35: Audis refuel again at the same time as the no. 8 Toyota, which means that the Japanese car has pulled back a stint. Tréluyer seems to have problems restarting. 21h40: Jarvis stops in the Dunlop chicane with no tyre on the L-H rear wheel after tagging a slower car. He takes 7m to cover a lap and hands over to Gené. 21h45: The leaders’ Audi is pushed into its garage with a defective alternator. The stop lasts more than 40 minutes. Duval takes first place and Toyota’s chances receive a sudden boost. 21h50: Nakajima starts his first stint in 3rd. 21h57: The no12 Lola goes into its garage and loses 5 laps.

23h30: After catching Nick Leventis at 20s per lap Prost takes 6th place. 23h50: Gené gets between Sarrazin and Lapierre battling for 2nd spot, but he’s a lap behind the Toyotas. 23h55: 5th neutralisation after Tracy Krohn’s off in the Kart Esses. 0h10: Green light. 1h08: Davidson back in the no. 8 Toyota. 1h34: McNish relays Kristensen in the leading car. Jarvis and Lotterer are also soon back behind the wheel. 2h17: Tony Burgess has a big shunt in the no. 30 Lola in the Kart Esses bringing out the safety cars again. 2h40: Green light: Lotterer pulls back a lap on McNish and goes wide at Mulsanne.

47 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I the fight for the win

André Lotterer shone during the night.

2h47: Jarvis hassles Lapierre and takes third from him before the Porsche corner. 3h: André Lotterer back in 9th spot sets the fastest lap of the race in 3m22.746s. At half distance the no. 2 Audi leads the 2 Toyotas by a lap with no. 8 1m 04s in front of no. 7. The OakRacing Morgans still dominate in LM P2 and are in the only P2s in the top 10 with no. 35 in front of no. 24. In GTE, the three cars that made the break in the first hour are still in the lead!

13th-18th

hours

Rebellion

(3h-9h )

sinks

3h03: After Blank’s Ferrari goes off in the Tertre Rouge Esses the race is neutralised once again. As it starts to rain half-an-hour later the safety cars stay out till 04h08m - over an hour! 4h11: Buemi and Lapierre are battling for 2nd place 2m33s behind Duval. Lotterer on hybrid tyres is lapping 10s quicker than the Frenchman who has opted for caution with wet weather rubber. Although on different tyres the 2 Toyotas are on the same pace and are having a good scrap: Lapierre (rain tyres) overtakes Buemi (on hybrids), who repasses his team-mate in front of the pits!

The Buemi-Davidson-Sarrazin Toyota kept up the pressure.

led the HPD, is in its garage with the front bonnet removed. Jani rejoins in front of Kane and holds on to his 6th place for 30s ! . 5h: Only 2.06s between Duval and Buemi. 5h19: The no. 1 Audi loses 1m30s in its garage the time it takes to remove the covering on the brake pedal which was coming off. Tréluyer takes over from Lotterer in 8th position. Up front, Duval pushes and opens up the gap to no. 8 again while going a lap up on no. 7. 7h11: Kristensen relays Duval. 7h40: Slow puncture for Tréluyer, who hands over to Fässler. No. 1 has got into seventh in front of the HPD. 8h: 3m13s between Kristensen and Sarrazin: Audi’s position is a fragile one. 8h07: 8th neutralisation to mop up the oil dropped by Auberlen’s Aston Martin. Again Lady Luck doesn’t smile on Toyota as no. 8 has to refuel and wait for the second safety car to go past. The clutch is being changed on the no. 12 Lola gifting 6th place to Fässler. 8h36: On the restart Belicchi trips up on cold tyres and hits the guardrail on the exit from the Michelin chicane. Despite fractured ribs he manages to bring his car back to its pit under the safety car as the rails have to be repaired! 9h: The leading Audi again has a lap’s lead and no. 1 is now fifth. In the privateer battle Rebellion is sinking fast and Strakka Racing profits from this.

Andrea Belicchi overdid it.

4h47: Duval and Gené put on slicks again while Lotterer has the windscreen wiper blade changed. The Toyotas are back on slicks. 4h56: Jonny Kane is bogged down in the Ford corner gravel trap. He is pulled out by the tractor and immediately pits. The no. Lola n°12, which The Leventis-Kane-Watts HPD, first privateer. I 48

the fight for the win I Le

Mans 24 Hours

Wurz-Lapierre-Nakajima hung on to their 4th place.

11h37: No. 12 comes back in for a suspension check. Ten minutes later no. 13 joins it in the Rebellion garages. 12h02: Jarvis breaks into the top 3. 12h15: Kristensen replaces Duval: adhesive tape is put on the righthand rear.

19th-24th

Audi

hours

(9h-15h)

in control

9h14: Green light! McNish, who has just rejoined the battle, quickly relegates Nakajima to two laps. 9h50: A nasty little drizzle decides McNish to shod rain tyres unlike the Toyotas. A few moments later Makowiecki (no. 99 Aston Martin) goes off on the exit from the Forza chicane causing the 10th neutralisation. 9h56: Prost rejoins in 27th position in the no. 12 Lola.

13h40: Rain tyres fitted on the leading Audi. 13h42: Lapierre spears off in the Porsche corner in his Toyota and the car ploughs into the tyres barriers. He gets out of the TS030, takes off his hemlet and walks away. It looks like he’s giving up – but! 13h47: 11th and last neutralisation caused by Badey’s shunt in the no. 46 Oreca after Arnage. Lapierre realises that his Toyota isn’t as badly damaged as he first thought, gets back in and brings it back to his pit at 13h50: The Rebellion Lolas are stationary in the pits awaiting the finish.

10h27:Slicks are put on n°2, which loses part of the advantage gained over n°8. However, the gap is still a lap as the green light is given before the passage of the second safety-car unleashing Duval earlier than expected.

14h21: Lapierre rejoins still in 4th place!

10h30: More rain and Nakajima spins in the Dunlop chicane after crossing the gravel trap.

14h51: Buemi lets Kristensen back in front to avoid doing an extra lap.

11h04: Cheng goes back out in 32nd place in the no. 13 Lola.

14h36: Buemi gets back on the same lap as Kristensen after a daring overtaking move between the Kart Esses and the Ford chicane.. 15h: Tom Kristensen takes the chequered flag to win the race for the ninth time with Buemi just behind! A mere lap separates the Audi and Toyota: who would have reckoned on such a small gap after qualifying?

An exact lap separated Audi and Toyota at the flag.

49 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I LM P1

Sébastien Buemi “It was a very difficult race what with the rain, a dry track and then one drying out at night. We tried to base our race on Audi’s. At the end I was following right behind no.2 to make sure I didn’t have to do an extra lap!” Anthony Davidson “It was incredibly difficult to drive in these conditions. Not until the rain stopped did we see the true potential of the Audis. You really had to stay concentrated on driving after we learned of Simonsen’s death. I too had an accident last year and I went over the same kerb in the same corner. It could have happened to anybody.” Stéphane Sarrazin “Audi did a fantastic race. We made some good strategic choices; we didn’t make any mistakes; we were just that little bit too slow, but I really enjoyed myself. We’ve already got a good base set up and we’ll be back!”

8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid dAvidSOn-BueMi-SARRAzin Apart from Lapierre’s charge in the opening laps, the no. 8 Toyota always looked like the one most likely to upset the Audi applecart. It led the race briefly on two occasions as refuelling stops intervened. It didn’t have any problems or off-course excursions; it was spared mechanical glitches and was a constant threat to the no. 2 R18 without being able to get really close. Sarrazin’s morning fight back was ruined by a refuelling stop under a safety car neutralisation. Even so Audi was just that little bit too strong.

2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro duvAl-KRiSTenSen-McniSH For once Allan McNish made a cautious start letting Lotterer past. Once the Toyota attack had been blunted, no. 2 installed itself in second place in the third hour before taking the lead in the seventh after no.1 hit trouble. It never left first place despite coming under heavy pressure from the Toyotas. The trio suffered no technical glitches and avoided all the pitfalls of a particularly challenging Le Mans. After this eventful race Tom Kristensen scored his ninth victory in the Sarthe, McNish his third and Duval his first after dominating qualifying.

LM P1

Victories to Audi and Honda I 50

LM P1 I

3 Audi R18 e-tron quattro di gRASSi-gené-JARviS Lucas Di Grassi won the best rookie award for his performance in qualifying, and he confirmed his potential in the race with third place shared with Oliver Jarvis to clinch their first top-3 finish at Le Mans. Marc Gené provided a steady hand for the young Audi drivers who had a few frights after being in fifth place in the early stages of the race. They were lying third when Jarvis suffered a puncture in the Dunlop chicane and he had to cover almost a full lap at low speed. They never managed to make up the time lost, and were not helped by a stop to secure the bodywork a little later on. No. 3 held fourth place for a long time and then managed to get the better of the no. 7 Toyota on Sunday morning to give Audi a one, three success after a race without mechanical problems. On top of that, it won the Michelin Green X Challenge.

Le Mans 24 Hours

Lucas Di Grassi “It was my first outing at Le Mans and I found the circuit incredibly difficult to learn and understand. I was very surprised by the race’s ambiance and the efforts made by all the teams, Audi in particular. It wasn’t easy although I learned a lot.” Marc Gené “We lost a lot of time with that puncture but thanks to the safety car we could repair it and only lose a lap. I’d like to congratulate Oliver and Lucas who both did a great job in the very difficult conditions.”

7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid Oliver Jarvis “We had to drive flat out in the last eighteen hours! The weather changed constantly and we never knew what to expect in a corner. It’s the most difficult race I’ve ever taken part in.”

WuRz-lAPieRRe-nAKAJiMA Nicolas Lapierre made a fantastic start to the race overtaking Di Grassi and McNish and then hassling Lotterer. His restart was less successful and he lost three places in a lap. A sudden drop in fuel pressure occurred in the Forza chicane after 2h 32m racing. He stopped for a few seconds and then got going again. No.7 oscillated between third and fifth places due to refuelling stops, and found itself locked in battle with its sister car for second place as night was falling after the Audis had run into problems. The TS030 didn’t manage to maintain consistent speed: after two slows punctures and a spin Nakajima was caught and passed by the no. 3 Audi. Frenchman Lapierre was caught out by a shower in the Porsche corner as he was trying to snatch back third, and went straight into the tyre wall with 1h 18m to go to the finish. He initially thought about retiring, but then pulled himself together and brought the car back to its pit where the 30 minutes’ repairs allowed no. 7 to hang on to fourth place instead of what had looked like a top-3 finish.

By François Hurel / Photos DPPI, David Legangneux

Toyota took the fight to Audi but in the end the German make won again. While the Japanese manufacturer has every reason to be happy with second place, it failed to win the prize for the first privateer after the Rebellion Debacle. And to add insult to injury arch-rival Honda triumphed!

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Le Mans 24 Hours

I LM P1

Wolfgang Ullrich “On no. 1 we had an alternator problem. Our car isn’t designed for alternator changes as we’ve never had this kind of failure in testing, which just goes to prove that technology is never 100 per cent reliable. This time it was the car that had won the last two Le Mans that had all the problems. Luckily, our three driver line-ups are very strong. Toyota put us under a lot of pressure and we had to give our maximum.”

1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro Fässler-Lotterer-Tréluyer André Lotterer made a superb start and put no. 1 into the lead. Apart from short periods during refuelling it held on to first place until a defective alternator in the seventh hour dashed its drivers’ hopes of a third consecutive victory. The car rejoined in twenty-fourth place, 11 laps behind the leaders, and the 2011 and 2012 winners pushed like crazy to bag the points for fifth place. Which they achieved despite a few minor glitches (windscreen wiper, pedal surface detached, slow puncture). During this flamboyant comeback Lotterer set the fastest lap of the race at nighttime.

12 Lola-Toyota B12/60 Prost-Jani-Heidfeld The two Lola-Toyotas made an impressive start to the race in the wake of the Audis and Toyotas with Nick Heidfeld in sixth place in front of Andrea Belicchi. The first hitch came when the German spun in Tertre Rouge, which required a bonnet change, but did not lose him his sixth spot. Although unable to match the pace of the works cars, no. 12 looked on course to scoring its third honorific win of best privateer until the fourteenth hour, when the clutch began to slip because of an oil leak from the gearbox caused by heavy vibrations. It was the beginning of the end for a car, which dropped so far down the time sheets, that Rebellion Racing decided to make it wait for the finish to ensure the points in the championship. Its lowly fortieth place was a huge disappointment for the Swiss team.

Loïc Duval “Le Mans is always a very exciting race: you always invest three times more in this event. It was my first Le Mans with Tom and Allan and I remembered what Tom said to me last year at the finish, namely: that it would be good for us to drive together. I tried to stay calm so as not to start crying! It was a difficult race. We lost one of ours so you have to put things in perspective.” I 52

Allan McNish I have to say that at the end I was pretty happy that Tom was in the car. In these kinds of track conditions 5% extra pressure on the accelerator can make all the difference between going forward and ending up in the wall!”

Tom Kristensen “I’ve got mixed feelings. My father, who died in March, asked me to win for him. I drove with this aim in mind and I’d like to dedicate this victory to him.”

LM P1 I Le

Mans 24 Hours

21 HPD-Honda ARX 03c Leventis-Watts-Kane Jonny Kane’s off in practice did not help the English team’s race preparation as two of its drivers couldn’t qualify. Despite the fact that Watts set the eighth-quickest time, the HPD had to start in thirty-sixth place behind the teams that had qualified all their drivers. Watts had fought his way up to thirteenth place when the race was first neutralized, and in the second hour he snuck in between the two Rebellion Racing Lolas. He got out of the car with pains in his hips that made him suffer throughout the event. Leventis, who was a tad slower than his team-

mates, kept the car on the island during the most difficult periods of the race unlike Kane who was caught out around 05h00 at the entry to the pit road. This incident did not stop the Strakka Racing HPD (suffering defective water pressure) from keeping its main rivals, the Lola-Toyotas under constant threat. And when the latter ran into problems no.21 inherited victory in the privateer battle although it was unable to fight off the no. 1 Audi. The only repairs to the HPD were a nighttime puncture and a revision of the electronics at the end of the race.

13 Lola-Toyota B12/60 Belicchi-Beche-Cheng No. 13 followed its sister car like its shadow early on in the race until passed by the HPD in the second hour with which it swapped sixth place in the hours that followed. Due to no. 12’s early problems it occupied sixth place in the sixth hour and then fifth 60 minutes later. Always under threat from the HPD it led the privateers until the nineteenth hour when Belicchi tripped up in the Michelin chicane after a restart. Like Simonsen and Makowiecki the car snapped sideways into the guardrail, but the Italian managed to make it back to his pit without its front bodywork although he suffered a broken rib ending his race. He was transported to a hospital in Le Mans where he stayed under observation for three days. No. 13 rejoined briefly in the hands of Cheng before waiting for the finish, which it achieved in forty-first place.

Nicolas Lapierre “Unfortunately, I made a mistake, which ruined my race for a top-3 finish. We had to push to get into the first 3 and it didn’t work: we finished fourth. It’s a disappointment but when I got the car back to the garage I was so proud of the mechanics. They did a really great job.”

Yoshiaki Kinoshita “We had to fight for this result. We never gave up or lost sight of our objective even in difficult circumstances. To have two cars at the finish and one on the podium is a very satisfactory result. I’ll always remember that determination, and the work carried out by the team,

shown by everybody after no. 7 was damaged. It was very moving for me and it proves our team spirit. I’m happy with this result but my dream is to win Le Mans. I’m a fighter and we’ll come back even stronger next year!”

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LM P2

Heart of oak! The oak is a symbol of solidity, strength and longevity, all characteristics and qualities that are at the core of endurance racing. They also drive Jacques Nicolet. Since he took over Saulnier Racing in 2006, this Le Mans enthusiast has armed himself with patience, courage and determination. He has overcome many setbacks including the one on 3rd June 2012 when one of his cars sent his spiritual son, Guillaume Moreau, to hospital. He could have called it a day. On the contrary he never stopped believing in his dream, and he knew that eventually his team’s hard work would pay off. He overcame all the stumbling blocks without complaining about an unfair equivalence or a partner who didn’t respect his undertakings, and he progressed slowly but surely. To tell the truth we ended up believing it would never happen thinking that even by surrounding himself with guys like Sébastien Philippe, Olivier Quesnel and Charles Morgan or even Jean Todt, there would always be a starter that would break before 15h00 on Sunday afternoon. We were proved wrong! Over the 24 Hours the nos 35 and 24 Morgans never missed a beat. Luck didn’t really play a part in this dominant victory and double: it was the kind of exploit achieved

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by those who have covered all possible contingencies. Just one mistake on the track, not a mechanical hiccup, decided the outcome between the two driver line-ups in nos 24 and 35. It was a great battle with no team orders. This triumph marks the start of a new era for Onroak Automotive in which it will a question of LM P1, a partnership with a manufacturer and, of course, more victories!

Two revelations Behind the uncatchable Morgans the expected ding-dong battle took place. With 22 cars and 66 drivers we were expecting blood, sweat and tears - and winners! And we weren’t disappointed! Young endurance specialists like Alex Brundle, John Martin and Franck Mailleux confirmed their talent. F1 hopes Oliver Turvey and Alexander Rossi showed that one doesn’t become a McLaren or Caterham test driver by accident. And above all the 2013 race revealed Matt Howson and Jann Mardenborough (3rd), two young chargers whom nobody expected to shine. We reckon they have a long, successful career in endurance ahead of them.

LM P2 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

By Julien Hergault / Photos DPPI, David Legangneux

The LM P2 Morgan (origin Pescarolo), which has had a reputation for unreliability, came good in the Sarthe rewarding Oak Racing with an historic double! Overall, most of the cars lasted the distance giving some young drivers the opportunity to impress in the treacherous conditions.

24 Morgan - Nissan PlA-HeineMeieR HAnSSOn-BRundle Olivier Pla showed his skills by setting the fastest time on the test day in P2 in 3m 38.621s, pole position in 3m 38.621s and fastest lap in the race in 3m 38.059s. He did not make any mistakes so does he have to win to make people sit up and take notice? Hopefully the answer is no as the man from Toulouse did not see the flag in first place due to a slight contact with the wall in the Porsche corners by Heinemeier Hansson. Thus, the four minutes lost on Saturday evening made the difference at the chequered flag on Sunday afternoon at 15h00.

35 Morgan - Nissan BAgueTTe-gOnzAlez-PlOWMAn The driver line-up did a brilliant job and compensated for its two seconds a lap handicap compared to no. 24 by never putting a foot wrong. Or almost as Bertrand Baguette aquaplaned after Arnage on Sunday afternoon at the same time as Badey, nearly losing everything, but was a tad luckier! The Belgian, who was the architect of the carâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s win, exploited the regulations to the limit by spending 11h 40m at the wheel. Ricardo Gonzalez, on the other hand, was in the car for only 4h 30m. Over the whole race the no. 35 Morgan spent 44 minutes in its pit, three less than the winning Audi!

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Zytek Z11SN - Nissan

Morgan - Judd

Mardenborough-Ordóñez-Krumm A rare fact: the amateur and debutant of the trio was the best performer! Jann Mardenborough learned the ropes on a games console and then confirmed his speed in the first meeting of the British F3 Championship in England (top-3 finish in race 3). He showed real talent in endurance. “I’d never tried something like this,“ he said. “I felt that I was carried along by the crowd.” On the other hand, this budding Lewis Hamilton didn’t really like nighttime driving. “It’s got a touch of magic about it,” he admitted, “but not being able to see the track limits handicapped me a lot.” This visibility problem was the cause of the the Zytek’s impressive leap over a kerb when he was at the wheel! In fact, the team lost time not because of mechanical faults, but due to the luck involved in the neutralisations.

Gachnang-Mailleux-Lombard The Morand Racing Morgan-Judd, which was not among the pre-race favourites, made an impact right from the start when Franck Mailleux moved up to third place until he spun in Tertre Rouge, in the same spot and a few seconds before Allan Simonsen. In the early morning a fall in fuel pressure necessitated the replacement of a fuel filter although this quick repair didn’t lose the team any places. The Morgan finished nine laps behind the winners, the highest-placed car not powered by Nissan.

49 Oreca 03 - Nissan Perez Companc-Kaffer-Minassian “We really suffered in these difficult weather conditions,” explained Pierre Kaffer at the finish. “We were quick in the dry but it was more difficult in the rain,” meaning that the Michelin tyres did not provide the advantage hoped for by Pecom Racing (AF Corse), a viewpoint shared by Signatech Alpine and Level 5 Motorsports who were also equipped with French rubber. The car finished four laps in arrears due mainly to Perez Companc’s spins, a penalty for speeding in the pits and several unfavourable neutralisations.

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Oreca 03 - Nissan

Zytek Z11SN - Nissan

Hartley-Patterson-Chandhok Brendon Hartley confirmed his talent on his second outing in the Sarthe. Unfortunately, despite driving flat out for almost half the race the young New-Zealander, ex Red Bull protégé, was unable to compensate for the delays accumulated by his team-mate, Mark Patterson. Karun Chandhok was the quickest man on the track in LM P2 during his nighttime stint. In the first half hour the Irish-entered car fell back to fifty-second place due to an electronic calculator problem. It was again delayed by a number coming loose, but the trio managed to fight their way back up to twelfth position overall.

Dolan-Turvey-Luhr In the unofficial competition for the best amateur, Simon Dolan was beaten only by Jann Mardenborough who will not be in the silver category for much longer. The drivers in no. 38 made a cautious start to the race, and gradually worked their way up the time sheets. They had just broken into the top 3 early on Sunday morning when they suffered a suspension breakage in the Dunlop chicane, the worst place on the circuit! After crawling round the remaining 13 kilometers, the 20-minute repairs dashed the last hopes of a podium finish for the trio who drove an impeccable race. On his Le Mans debut, McLaren F1 test driver Oliver Turvey put on a fantastic performance. His team overused him as he exceeded the four hour maximum behind the wheel allowed by the regulations earning the Englishman a 10-second penalty.

36 Alpine A450 - Nissan Panciatici-Ragues-Gommendy Tristan Gommendy will not have great memories of this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. The Frenchman, who didn’t take part in the 2011 and 2012 races, ploughed straight on into the Mulsanne gravel trap in the early evening damaging the alternator belt on his Alpine. He rejoined after 13-minutes’ repairs and promptly went off in Tertre Rouge due to a puncture. As the blue car was making its way slowly back to the pits its left-hand rear wheel damaged the bodywork badly resulting in the race being neutralised. The Signatech mechanics changed the extractor, the wing and the complete rear drive train (transmission, brakes) in less than 19 minutes, but all hopes of a top-3 finish had already evaporated.

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40 Oreca 03 - NISSAN

Downs-Dagoneau-Younessi The gamble of bringing together three amateur debutants in the same driver line-up wasn’t a sure thing. However, without being among the front-runners they managed to avoid all the pitfalls of a particularly challenging race. The result was a deep sense of satisfaction for two Americans and the fulfillment of a dream for Thomas Dagoneau from Le Mans (backed by the SO24 association). Held up on two occasions by starter problems the Boutsen-Ginion Racing Oreca finished 29 laps behind the winners.

Oreca 03 - Judd Frey-Niederhauser-Bleekemolen Jeroen Bleekemolen was dropped by Rebellion Racing and he gave the little Race Performance squad the benefit of his experience, which proved very useful. “I had the biggest scare of my life” the Dutchman confirmed, after his first nighttime stint. “The right-hand rear tyre punctured at 300 km/h and I tagged an Audi trying to get the car back under control as it was sliding about all over the place.” Later on Patric Niederhauser ended up in the Mulsanne gravel trap so seeing the chequered flag became the team’s only aim.

41 Zytek Z11SN - Nissan Kimber Smith-Lux-Rossi Although the second Greaves Motorsport entry was repainted on the eve of the test day the only Caterham connection was the name. Mike Gascoyne, the ex-technical director of the in-house F1 team, had his first Le Mans 24 Hours in the company of a small group of 4 experts from the world of single-seaters. It was obvious that the full potential of the green Zytek wasn’t used as debutant Eric Lux was far off the speed of his rookie team-mate, Alexander Rossi. In the early morning no. 42 was delayed by a suspension problem and it saw the flag 22 laps behind the winners.

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39 Lola B11/40 Judd Porta-Raffin-Brandela “We’re probably the oldest and slowest in the category,” quipped Olivier Porta before the race. “We’re amateurs but the passion that’s driving us is so strong that we succeed like real professionals!” His team-mate Stephen Raffin was saying the same thing on Sunday morning as the finish approached. “We’re not out to set the track on fire. We know our limits, but one thing’s certain, we’re still here and we’ll make it to the finish.” They won their bet despite a few tank slappers, and the three friends were classified finishers at the wheel of the ex-Pecom Racing Lola.

HPD ARX-03b - Honda

Oreca 03 - Nissan

Tucker-M.Franchitti-Briscoe Scott Tucker was back to try and score his first Le Mans win with two topclass team-mates. In qualifying, however, the American saw that his HPD was ten seconds off the pole time! In the race, however, the gap narrowed and the Honda was in the running for a top-3 finish until a puncture intervened in the fifth hour. It was the start of a succession of glitches. Throughout the night the team had to keep topping up the radiators with water to stop the V6 turbo’s chronic overheating. Finally, the car spent the last five hours in its pit and rejoined at 14h49 to be an unclassified finisher. Then began another race as the HPD had to be at Lime Rock ten days later.

Thiriet-Badey-M.Martin As a result of the accident in qualifying on Wednesday evening the TDS mechanics had built up a complete car around a new monocoque. “We had to reconstruct a car in twenty-four hours and that obviously had an effect on everybody, especially in terms of fatigue,” explained Xavier Combet on Saturday evening. “We lacked running time to optimise the setup.” Even so the team was up in sixth place until the final shower at 13h45 caught out Ludovic Badey on the exit from Arnage breaking the steering and leading to the car’s retirement.

45 Morgan - Nissan Nicolet-Merlin-Mondolot The no. 45 Morgan Art Car was in the wars with an electrical problem, a ruptured suspension wishbone and finally an accident followed by another electrical glitch that prevented the car from restarting. It will go down in history because of its livery devoted to road safety.

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47 Morgan - Nissan Imperatori-Tung-Howson The Chinese team was one of the more impressive surprises in the race. The driver line-up was very evenly matched and amateur and Le Mans rookie Matt Howson set some excellent times. The Morgan started in sixth place in its class and actually led the category for a few laps. A problem with the brake balance and then vibrations held it up until it was eliminated by a fuel leak after nineteen hours’ racing – a pity!

32 Lotus T128 T.Holzer-Kraihamer-Charouz Th only new LM P2 in the field was on the pace in the race (3m 43.389s set by Kraihamer) and it showed excellent top speed on Les Hunaudières with 307 km/h, the quickest in its category along with the no. 47 Morgan. It ran into a lot of teething trouble in the race, which eventually caused its retirement (left-hand door badly closed twice, loss of the rear bonnet, engine overheating).

30 Lola B12/80 - Nissan Mowlem-Burgess-Hirschi Those who weren’t asleep on Sunday morning at 02h15 will always remember the horrific images of the Lola coupe cut in two in the new section of the circuit with the engine/gearbox separated from the tub. The survival cell did its job and Tony Burges got out unscathed. Before the accident the blue car was way down the P2 classification despite the efforts of Jonathan Hirschi and Johnny Mowlem.

25 Oreca 03 - Nissan Graves-Nakano-Hamilton It was a day to forget for the team. The OrecaNissan had a crash on Saturday morning and it then ran into gear selector problems (paddle shift) in the opening minutes of the race. After half-an-hour lost for repairs no. 25 didn’t have the time to fight its way back up the time sheets. It was in forty-ninth place at 22h50 when Tor Graves hit the same wall as in the morning warm-up!

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28 Lola B12/80 - Nissan Giroix-Haezebrouck-Ihara The Lola suffered from heavy vibrations and the car covered only 22 laps. The team from Dubai worked till midnight to find the cause of the problem – in vain!

31 Lotus T128 Weeda-Rossiter-Bouchut For the twentieth anniversary of his victory and his 20th start Christophe Bouchut was probably hoping for better. On Saturday after a chaotic week in which the two Lotuses were impounded, the Frenchman’s race stopped on lap 17 when his team-mate Kevin Weeda went off in the Michelin chicane.

Oliver Turvey An endurance grand prix The day after the Le Mans 24 Hours Oliver Turvey flew to Spain where he was doing aero testing for McLaren. After that he went to the factory in Woking for two days on the simulator for the British Grand Prix. Only then did he manage to rest. And he needed it. During the night of Saturday/Sunday the Jota Sport rookie did a five stinter for a total duration of 4h 15 m (more than the time allowed by the regulations) setting a time of 3m 39.016s, the third fastest lap in the category. “It’s just fantastic,” he laughed when he got out of his Zytek.“ I’ve often followed Le Mans on TV; when you’re here it’s something else! I raced in the dark at Spa but here the night isn’t the same as elsewhere.” Go on Ollie, tell Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh all about it!

26 Oreca 03 - Nissan Rusinov-Martin-Conway Morgan’s toughest rival was excluded from third place because the capacity of its fuel tank did not comply with the regulations. Roman Rusinov is one of the most sought-after amateurs in endurance as in addition to the backing of G-Drive (the premium fuel of the Gazprom petrol company) the Russian is quicker than several professionals! The three drivers in no.26 were the only ones to lap at an average of under 3m 40s! In the race they were quicker than their rivals without making any errors. However, the Le Mans 24 Hours are won on the track and lost in the pits! Before being excluded the quickest of the Orecas finished nine minutes behind the winning Morgan having spent 16 minutes more at its pit, six due to faulty lighting of its race number!

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dreams and nightmares Few would have dared to predict the outcome of the battle in GTE, which began on a tricky circuit that did not pardon mistakes as it was still wet from a shower. After only three laps Allan Simonsen went off after Tertre Rouge on the run down to the Hunaudières straight: his Aston Martin slammed into the guardrail and then bounced back into the middle of the track where it stopped. Immediately the race was neutralised as the medical intervention team extracted the driver from the car after which the guardrail had to be replaced. This took almost an hour during which the field trundled round the circuit at low speed. This period favoured three cars in particular: the nos 97 and 99 Aston Martins and the no. 92 Porsche behind the first safety car while the rest of the pack was stuck behind the second one at the other end of the circuit. This was one of the first twists of the race. Nobody knew the state of the Danish driver’s health until 17h50 when Race Control announced his death. On the request of the Simonsen family Aston Martin allowed its cars to continue in the race with the hope of winning to honour the passing of its driver.

“A magic, tragic race!” The Le Mans 24 Hours got under way again punctuated by long neutralisation periods (some 5h 30m in total, a record). At the front of the GTE category the two Aston Martins and the Porsche went at it hammer and tongs lapping within a tenth of a second of one another. In this highspeed chase no. 99 was the first to go when Makowiecki went off on the

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exit from the first chicane on Les Hunaudières. Once again the slippery track was the reason for the accident. There was no let up in the pace even if Porsche now only had a singleton Vantage V8 to beat. Not until the final hour did one car get the upper hand and ultimately it was another downpour that helped decide the outcome. Lietz claimed with a grin (!) that he missed the pit entry and stayed out on the soaking track on slicks while Mücke came in to put on wet weather tyres. Thus he won the category. “I have to admit that at the end of the race I was a bit lucky. I didn’t come in to shod wet weather tyres because I’d already passed the pit entry!” What was even worse for Aston Martin was that the no. 91 Porsche also got in front of Mücke-Turner-Dumbreck. A few seconds later the safety car came out, and this decided the outcome. In GTE Am the end of the race held less suspense. Since the middle of the night JeanKarl Vernay had done a great job and taking advantage of the problems that hit the Proton Competition Porsche, he had built up a comfortable lead for the no. 76 Imsa Performance Matmut 911 GT3 RSR. The team from Normandy was well ahead of the AF Corse Ferraris that filled second and third places. On the podium Romain Dumas summed up the race weekend as follows: “In some categories it was fairly soon obvious who was going to win, but in ours it went down to the wire because of the exceptional level of competition in GTE Pro. It was tough as much from the weather as from the pressure of our rivals. It was a magic, tragic race!”

LM GTE I

Le Mans 24 Hours

By Guillaume Nédélec / Photos DPPI, David Legangneux

In GTE all the right ingredients were present to make the 90th anniversary running of the Le Mans 24 Hours a fabulous race. A terrible accident, almost non-stop neutralisations, and difficult conditions made this category, which was the stuff of dreams, into a nightmare.

92 Porsche 911 RSR duMAS-lieB-lieTz Porsche’s official return to the GTE category made a huge impact on everybody as its Le Mans performance was rewarded by a double. Right at the start the no. 92 911 found itself behind the right safety car and it then hung on to the nos 97 and 99 Aston Martins. The latter pulled out a lead in the early morning before it crashed, and the Porsche then had a great scrap with the remaining Vantage V8. The only hiccup was a spin by Lieb after tagging the no. 61 Ferrari. As already seen the turning point came in the final downpour that hit the circuit. Lietz stayed out while the Aston pitted. The Stuttgart car saw the flag in sixteenth place overall and its victory was a reward for a very special race, by Lietz in particular. “I thought about the death of a colleague and the battle for the tenths of a second and positions took a back seat. We were lucky with the rain, but we needed difficult conditions. As much as we’re happy and proud of our victory, our thoughts are elsewhere.”

“Throughout the whole race the gap between the two Aston Martins and us was never more than a minute.” (Romain dumas)

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91 Porsche 911 RSR Bergmeister-Bernhard-Pilet No. 91 was second at the finish although it was never really in the hunt for victory in GTE Pro. The second works Porsche was fourth in the first neutralisation. Although it was behind the second safety car and well behind the two Aston Martins and its sister car, the trio never gave up trying to finish in the top 3. Towards 03h00 just when it looked like they had won their bet no. 91 was pushed into its box for a brake change. So they had to do it all over again. Taking advantage of the retirement of the no. 99 Aston Bergmeister-Bernhard-Pilet got up into third place, and an hour from the end overtook the Mücke-Turner-Dumbreck Vantage V8 to give Porsche a double!

97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE Dumbreck-Mücke-Turner The Aston Martin team members will regret for a long time the Aston’s stop at its pit at 03h19 on Sunday morning for a brake change. Like the no. 99 Aston Martin and the no. 92 Porsche the Mücke-Turner-Dumbreck Vantage V8 profited from a half-lap lead over all the other cars in GTE. It was involved in a scrap that lasted till the end of the race with these two cars and then with the Porsche (after no. 99’s retirement). Around midday Mücke overtook the 911 and looked on course for victory. The rain helped Porsche turn the tables on the Aston when a heavy shower hit the circuit around 14h00. In came the V8 Vantage, out stayed the 911! Out went the safety car and it was game over. No. 97 saw the flag in third place behind the two Porsches.

73 Corvette C6-ZR1 Garcia-Magnussen-Taylor Compared to previous results the yellow car’s fourth place in the category was not really what Corvette was expecting. It was, however, not as a big a disappointment as it might seem at first glance: it was a real achievement! This year the C6 ZR1s were handicapped by the balance of Performance and the Americans were never in the hunt. The drivers believed in their chances of scoring a good result as Antonio Garcia underlined. “We did the best we could. Maybe we were not racing 100 per cent but at least 99 percent so we can be proud. Before the race we knew we wouldn’t be in a position to fight for victory.” Overall, it was a good performance by Corvette and it won’t be long before the bellowing US cars will be fighting at the front again.

71 Ferrari F458 Italia Beretta-Kobayashi-Vilander The balance of performance hit Ferrari particularly hard. Without it they would have been much better placed. The second AF Corse F458 had an almost incident-free race apart from a slight contact with the no. 91 Porsche on the pit lane on Saturday. No. 71 spent a long time behind its sister car and finally eked out a decisive advantage on Sunday morning after the latter had to pit because of problems. Despite the Finn going off at Mulsanne BerettaKobayashi-Vilander came home fifth overall.

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51 Ferrari F 458 Italia Bruni-Fisichella-Malucelli In practice it was already obvious that the Ferraris lacked the raw pace to take the fight to the Astons and Porsches. The fact that they were unlucky enough to end up behind the wrong safety car didn’t help matters. Like its team-mate no. 51 tried to hang on to the no. 91 Porsche before the latter pulled away. At 09h50 came the first incident that hampered its race when it caught fire at its pit during refuelling, after which it collided with the no. 45 Morgan when leaving its pit. Malucelli also went off at Mulsanne dashing its drivers’ last hopes and the red car finished sixth in GTE Pro.

74 Corvette C6-ZR1 Gavin-Milner-Westbrook No. 74 led the Corvette charge for most of the race and played an intelligent waiting game. It was behind the two Ferraris for a long time and it then took advantage of their mishaps to move up the time sheets. Unfortunately, a mechanical problem forced Gavin to pit when the yellow car with in fifth spot. “We didn’t want to take any risks and see the car going up in flames because of an exhaust problem. It wasn’t worth it and we pitted to cool it.”

53 SRT Viper GTS-R Dalziel-Farnbacher-Goossens The no. 53 Viper spearheaded the STR attack but was unable to match the pace of the Ferraris, Corvettes, Aston Martins and Porsches. So the team decided to follow its game plan from thirty-fourth on the grid. The American car got up to thirtieth spot just behind the second works Corvette before going into a gravel trap at 19h15. This dropped it back to forty-seventh and it saw the flag in twenty-fifth place overall and ninth in LM GTE Pro after being slowed by a puncture just after midday. It was an encouraging performance for the future.

76 Porsche 911 GT3-RSR Bourret-Narac-Vernay Race preparation got off to a bad start for no.76 when a misunderstanding between Bourret and the driver of a prototype sent the car flying into the guardrail in the first chicane in the dying minutes of qualifying on Thursday. The 911 GT3 RSR was badly damaged and repairs took all Friday. The drivers made a cautious start to the race and got into the top 3 in the fourth hour. During the night Vernay put in a series of stunning stints to propel the car to the front. In the early morning it was firmly established in first place in GTE Am: it went on to score victory in the category and finished twentysixth overall. It was Imsa Performance Matmut’s second win in the Sarthe after that of 2007 in LM GT2.

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55 Ferrari 458 Italia Perazzini-Case-O’Young This AF Corse Ferrari stared from fiftieth place on the grid and it was in the top 3 in GTE Am in the second hour of the race where it stayed apart from a brief period late on Saturday evening. Its sister car, no. 61, got ahead of it briefly and no. 55 was back in front after a neutralisation around 20h30. After that it had difficulty fending off the Porsches, and around midnight it was in second spot after the nos 77 and 88 911 GT3 RSRs ran into trouble. The drivers racked up the laps and drove on to a well-deserved second place finish.

61 Ferrari 458 Italia Cioci-Gerber-Griffin The no. 61 Ferrari entered by AF Corse was one of the potential victory contenders in LM GTE Am as it showed in the first five hours of the race before starting to fall back. It was slowed by a few spins including one in the Ford chicane around 20h00 involving no. 72 that could have had terminal consequences. The rest of its race was fairly uneventful apart from an incident at 08h30 on Sunday morning when it tagged the no. 92 Porsche in the Dunlop chicane after missing its braking. The drivers’ efforts were rewarded by third place after a race in which they suffered from bad luck during the neutralisations.

77 Porsche 911 GT3-RSR Dempsey-Foster-Long This car was another potential winner/top-3 finisher in GTE Am. The American squad was very consistent and made an impeccable start to the race taking the category lead around midnight. Dempsey, who was at the wheel, was unable to fend off the return of Vernay in the no. 76 Porsche. Worse was to come when the American actor was hit by an LM P2 prototype in the Dunlop chicane, which dashed no. 77’s hopes of a top-3 finish. Dempsey said he was satisfied with fourth place in the category: “We were just so close to the podium. It was an unbelievable experience to be at Le Mans with Porsche. I’m very proud to have been part of this project.”

50 Corvette C6 ZR1 Bornhauser-Canal-R.Taylor The Larbre Competition Corvette, 2-time category winner, was never in the hunt. “We were 12 km/h slower on the straight,” Canal explained. “It was like we were stopped on Les Hunaudières.” All the three drivers could do was to go hell for leather to limit the gap to their rivals and take advantage of possible mishaps. “We really pulled out all the stops during the 24 hours. I honestly think we did a great job. Not an error, no mechanical problems and we were pushing all the time.” Overall their fifth place was an achievement in itself even if it was not what they were hoping for.

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Aston Martin V8 Vantage GTE

SRT Viper GTS-R

Campbell Walter-Goethe-Hall No. 96 was the slowest of the Aston Martins at Le Mans. It started in the midfield pack in GTE Am, and had a consistent uneventful race apart from a missed braking point in Tertre Rouge at 17h50 in the rain that could have ended its Le Mans 24 Hours. Things calmed down after that, but the three drivers were unable to fight off the no. 50 Corvetteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comeback Sixth place rewarded a trio who quite simply were not quick enough to hope for better.

Bomarito-Kendall-Wittmer The driver line-up in the second of the SRT Vipers wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t one of the fastest in the field. Even so the three North-Americans settled down to the task of bringing the car home to the chequered flag. They drove a prudent race and were in front of their team-mates in the fourth hour. They were slowed by a stop and go penalty for jumping the red light at the end of the pit road, and then electronic problems with the rear lights in particular followed by an off at Mulsanne handicapped no. 93. It saw the flag in ninth place in GTE Pro.

67 Porsche 911 GT3-RSR Gibon-Holzer-Milesi The second Porsche entered by Imsa Performance had a very different race to no. 76. It was in the top three in the category early on until slowed by a puncture just after 18h00. During the night it slipped back to the bottom of the classification. Just after 13h00 on Sunday when it was in sixth place in front of the no. 96 Aston Martin it began to lose parts at the rear, which required a stop. It finished seventh in GTE Am.

66 Ferrari F458 Italia Al Faisal-Al Qubaisi-Bertolini The JMW Ferrari was the tail-ender in GTE Pro and yet again the only reason it made any impact was because of its livery. It was way off the pace with what was basically an amateur driver line-up whose main exploits in the race were a number of trips into the gravel traps! It finished thirty-fifth overall and last in GTE Pro. In GTE Am it would have come home eighth!

67 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I LM GTE

88 Porsche 911 RSR Ried-Ruberti-Roda No. 88 was the second Porsche entered by Proton Competition and looked like it had every chance of scoring a good result. At the start of the race the trio was slightly behind the leaders, but by 22h00 no.88 was in first place in the GTE Am category. Alas, Roda’s off into the gravel trap on the run down to La Chapelle at 04h00 cost it first place after which Ruberti was also delayed at this spot after a misunderstanding with the no. 39 Lola. It fell back to eighth in the category where it finished.

75 Porsche 911 GT3-RSR Collard-Crubilé-Perrodo With two debutants in the car a finish was far from being a foregone conclusion for the ProSpeed team. However, it avoided mistakes in the rain and helped by the experience of Manu Collard the Porsche 911 saw the flag in ninth place in its category. It was a good performance by the team, which had almost no problems except for an off into the Dunlop gravel trap at 18h20 on Saturday.

Ferrari F458 Italia

Corvette C6 ZR1

Aguas-Bright-Potolicchio This car didn’t have an easy race which it started with high hopes. It was among the mid-field runners in GTE Am at the start, and it worked its way up to the front of the very hotly-contested category until Bright had to come in with a puncture at 20h25. The car suffered severe damage in the incident and it was stationary in its garage for a long time. It then moved up places due to retirements, but didn’t manage to overtake the no. 70 Corvette. It finished thirty-eighth overall and tenth in category.

Ph.Dumas-MacNeil-Rodrigues This year the second Larbre Competition Corvette wasn’t there to fight for a top-3 finish, but to see the chequered flag. Saturday got off to a bad start when Dumas went off in the warm-up. In the race itself no. 70 was at the back of the field. Around 01h30 McNeil put the car into the Kart Esses gravel trap damaging the clutch in the process, which the team had to replace. A few additional offs slowed the Corvette’s progress and it finished last in forty-second place overall having covered 268 laps.

I 68

LM GTE I Le

Mans 24 Hours

99 Aston Martin Vantage V8 GTE Bell-Makowiecki-Senna In terms of sheer performance the no. 99 Aston Martin was the quickest car in the race in LM GTE Pro. It started from pole after Makowiecki set a stunning time on Thursday evening confirming its role as favourite in the category. It pulled away in the first hour after the first safety car period. During the night the Aston was locked in battle with the no. 92 Porsche and its sister car no. 97. Despite a brake pad change at half distance it gained the upper hand. At 09h55 on a track made slippery after a shower Mako went off in the first chicane and hit the guardrail at the exit head on. He was unhurt but the car’s race was over. It was the last retirement in GTE.

98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 GTE Auberlen-Dalla Lana-Lamy The no. 98 Vantage was the third professional Astron Martin outfit in GTE Pro but was slower than nos 97 and 99. It ran at its own pace and despite a spin at 20h00 it stayed in contact with its rivals. It then fell behind by the early morning and spewed its oil on the second part of Les Hunaudières after the engine blew. It was the only retirement in GTE due to mechanical failure.

“The engine failure on the no. 98 Aston Martin was the only retirement for mechanical reasons in GTE.”

Ferrari F458 Italia Bachelier-Blank-Mallegol The no. 54 Ferrari was another AF Corse entry and it was in the hands of three gentlemen drivers whose aim was to finish. The Franco-American trio battled with the no. 70 Corvette for a long time to avoid last place in the category, and took advantage of retirements to move up to tenth place in GTE Am. Howard Blank crashed at the start of the twelfth hour ending no. 54’s race.

69 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I LM GTE

57 Ferrari F458 Italia Krohn-Jönsson-Mediani Tracy Krohn won’t have great memories of the 90th anniversary Le Mans 24 Hours! In free practice on Wednesday evening the American destroyed his Ferrari after slamming into the tyre barriers at the bottom of the run down from La Chapelle. The mechanics managed to rebuild the blue and green car, which came out briefly just before midnight on Thursday. In the race it started from the back of the grid and fought its way up to thirty-ninth place before falling back to fiftieth. At midnight Krohn had his second off of the week in the Kart Esses with terminal consequences.

Jean Karl Vernay “I wanted to show Porsche what I can do.” At the start of 2012 JKV was one of the indirect victims of Peugeot’s brutal decision to pull the plug on to its endurance programme. Although he was left high and dry, he managed to bounce back in the Porsche Carrera Cup with Sébastien Loeb Racing winning the championship. This performance caught the eye of the Porsche Competitions Service, which is backing him in the Supercup this season. The driver from Villeurbane near Lyon was taking part in his first Le Mans 24 Hours this year with IMSA Performance and he made the most of it. He was very quick and made a fantastic comeback during the night. Vernay won at Le Mans on his maiden appearance. “I had a lot to prove this week. We had to win the race. I tried to be consistent and quick. I didn’t make any mistakes and the car was really great.” This remarkable performance will certainly impress the powers that be in Stuttgart. “Porsche is backing me this season in the Porsche Supercup,” explained the Frenchman. “Here at Le Mans I wanted to prove that it was right to put its trust in me. I think I managed to do that.” And the cherry on the cake was winning the Jean Rondeau Prize, which rewards a young French driver every year!

I 70

95 Aston Martin Vantage V8 GTE Nygaard-Poulsen-Simonsen The no. 95 Aston Martin with Allan Simonsen on board dominated practice in LM GTE Am, thus the car driven by the Danish trio was the hot favourite for victory. Early on in the race Simonsen went off after Tertre Rouge on the run down to the Hunaudières straight. The right-hand side of the car slammed violently into the guardrail. The driver was extracted from the Aston and died of his injuries in the circuit’s medical centre. The sad news was announced by the ACO around 18h00.

71 I

Le Mans 24 Hours Starting

I Results

Hourly Positions

grid

1h 2h 3h 4h 5h 6h 7h 8h 16h 17h 18h 19h 20h 21h 22h 23h

2 Lotterer - Fassler - Treluyer 1 McNish - Kristensen - Duval Pole udi n°2 - 3’22’’349 Audi n°1 - 3’23’’696 A 4 Davidson - Buemi - Sarrazin 3 M.Gene - Di Grassi - Jarvis Toyota n°8 - 3’26’’654 Audi n°3 - 3’24’’341 6 Prost - Jani - Heidfeld 5 Wurz - Lapierre - Nakajima Lola n°12 - 3’28’’935 Toyota n°7 - 3’26’’676 8 Pla-Heinemeier Hansson-A.Brundle 7 Belicchi - Beche - Cheng - 3’38’’621 Lola n°13 - 3’32’’167

1st M P2 organ n°24

10 Dolan - Turvey - Luhr 9 Rusinov - J.Martin - Conway Zytek n°38 - 3’40’’459 Oreca n°26 - 3’39’’535 12 Graves - Nakano - Hamilton 11 Gachnang - Mailleux - Lombard Oreca n°25 - 3’40’’925 Morgan n°43 - 3’40’’741 14 Hartley - Patterson - Chandhok 13 Imperatori - Tung - Howson Oreca n°48 - 3’41’’569 Morgan n°47 - 3’41’’042 16 Baguette - Gonzalez - Plowman 15 Panciatici - Ragues - Gommendy Morgan n°35 - 3’41’’854 Alpine n°36 - 3’41’’654 18 Mardenborough - Ordonez - Krumm 17 Perez-Companc - Kaffer - Minassian Zytek n°42 - 3’44’’421 Oreca n°49 - 3’43’’420 20 Frey - Niederhauser - Bleekemolen 19 Kimber-Smith - Lux - Rossi Oreca n°34 - 3’45’’244 Zytek n°41 - 3’44’’621 22 Nicolet - Merlin - Mondolot 21 Holzer - Kraihamer - Charouz Morgan n°45 - 3’48’’196 Lotus n°32 - 3’45’’274 24 Mowlem - Burgess - Hirschi 23 Tucker - M.Franchitti - Briscoe Lola n°30 - 3’49’’805 HPD ARX-03b n°33 - 3’48’’597 26 Dumbreck - Mücke - Turner 25 Bell - Makowiecki - Senna 1st Pro ston Martin n°99 - 3’54’’635 Aston Martin n°97 - 3’55’’445 A 28 Bruni - Fisichella - Malucelli 27 Lieb - Lietz – R.Dumas Ferrari n°51 - 3’55’’909 Porsche n°92 - 3’55’491 30 Bergmeister - Bernhard - Pilet 29 Beretta - Kobayashi - Vilander Porsche n°91 - 3’56’’573 Ferrari n°71 - 3’56’’471 32 Gavin - Milner - Westbrook 31 Nygaard - Poulsen - Simonsen 1st Am ston Martin n°95 - 3’57’’776 Corvette n°74 - 3’58’’644 A 34 Dalziel - Farnbacher - Goossens 33 Magnussen - Garcia - J.Taylor SRT n°53 - 4’00’’802 Corvette n°73 - 3’59’’526 36* Leventis - Watts - Kane 35 Bomarito - Kendall - Wittmer HPD ARX-03c n°21 - 3’36’’547 SRT n°93 - 4’03’’461 38* Weeda - Rossiter - Bouchut 37* Thiriet - Badey - M.Martin Lotus n°31 - 3’47’’920 Oreca n°46 - 3’43’’494 40* Auberlen - Dalla Lana - Lamy 39* Giroix - Haezebrouck - Ihara Aston Martin n°98 - 3’56’’336 Lola n°28 - 3’49’’096 42* Downs - Dagoneau - Younessi 41* Porta - Raffin - Brandela Oreca n°40 - 3’57’’139 Lola n°39 - 3’56’’905 44* Campbell-Walter - Goethe - Hall 43* Ried - Roda - Ruberti Aston Martin n°96 - 3’59’’805 Porsche n°88 - 3’58’’889 46* Gibon - Milesi - Henzler 45* Gerber - Griffin - Cioci Porsche n°67 - 4’00’’503 Ferrari n°61 - 3’59’’997 48* Dempsey - Foster - Long 47* Collard - Perrodo - Crubile Porsche n°77 - 4’00’’916 Porsche n°75 - 4’00’’682 50* Potolicchio - Aguas - Bright 49* Narac - Bourret - Vernay Ferrari n°81 - 4’01’’934 Porsche n°76 - 4’01’’713 52* McNeil - Rodrigues – P.Dumas 51* Perazzini - Case’ - O’Young Corvette n°70 - 4’04’’512 Ferrari n°55 - 4’03’’966 54* Bertolini - Al Faisal - Al Qubaisi 53* Bornhauser - Canal - R.Taylor Ferrari n°66 - 4’05’’417 Corvette n°50 - 4’04’’873 56* Krohn- Jonsson - Mediani 55* Mallegol - Bachelier - Blank Ferrari n°57 - 4’16’’233 Ferrari n°54 - 4’09’’064

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56

1 7 8 2 3 12 13 24 47 21 28 35 49 41 42 34 32 33 46 43 30 31 28 97 92 99 45 91 51 74 73 98 71 53 93 77 67 61 66 76 75 96 40 55 57 54 36 26 39 48 81 70 88 50 25 95

1 7 8 2 3 12 21 13 38 35 24 41 46 49 33 34 26 36 32 42 30 97 92 99 43 45 91 51 71 98 74 48 61 73 67 53 55 75 57 93 39 77 66 76 88 50 40 81 96 54 47 70 25 31 28

1 2 3 8 7 12 21 13 24 35 33 46 26 38 49 41 34 42 32 36 43 97 99 92 91 30 48 71 51 53 98 73 74 61 45 55 67 77 75 93 88 40 50 47 96 76 81 57 39 66 25 70 54 28 31

1 2 8 3 7 12 13 21 24 26 35 46 49 34 33 38 42 32 43 97 99 92 91 48 51 30 73 98 71 74 53 61 47 45 55 67 93 25 88 77 96 76 81 40 36 50 75 57 41 39 66 70 54 28 31

1 2 3 7 8 12 21 13 24 26 35 46 38 49 34 33 42 32 43 99 97 92 91 30 71 73 74 98 45 25 51 48 61 47 93 36 55 76 41 96 88 77 81 67 40 50 53 75 66 39 57 70 54 28 31

1 2 3 7 8 13 21 12 26 35 38 46 24 34 42 49 33 43 32 99 97 92 91 74 71 98 30 73 47 51 48 45 41 55 88 93 76 77 61 67 53 40 50 96 75 66 39 36 25 70 57 54 81 28 31

2 8 7 3 13 21 1 12 26 35 38 49 46 24 42 43 34 32 33 99 92 97 91 47 30 71 51 74 73 48 98 45 41 88 55 76 77 93 53 61 50 40 67 75 25 96 36 66 39 70 57 54 81 28

2 7 8 3 13 21 12 35 24 42 38 26 46 49 43 34 32 99 92 97 1 47 91 33 30 71 51 74 98 48 73 41 45 88 77 76 55 61 93 40 53 50 36 75 67 96 66 39 25 70 57 54 81 28

9h 10h 11h 12h 13h 14h 15h 16h 17h 18h 19h 20h 21h 22h 23h 24h 0h 1h 2h 3h 4h 5h 6h 7h 8h 9h 10h 11h 12h 13h 14h 15h 2 8 7 3 13 12 21 35 24 42 38 26 46 49 43 1 32 34 99 97 92 47 33 91 30 48 51 74 71 98 73 45 88 77 76 55 61 36 93 41 40 75 50 53 96 67 66 39 70 57 54 81 28

2 8 7 3 13 12 21 35 24 38 42 26 46 49 1 43 32 47 33 99 92 97 91 30 48 74 51 71 98 73 45 34 36 55 76 77 41 61 93 88 40 50 75 53 96 66 67 39 70 54 81 57 28

2 8 7 3 13 12 21 35 24 38 42 1 26 46 49 43 33 32 47 99 92 97 48 30 91 51 71 74 98 73 34 45 36 41 76 55 61 93 77 40 88 53 96 50 75 67 66 54 39 81 70

2 8 7 3 13 12 21 35 1 24 38 42 46 26 49 43 47 32 33 99 92 97 91 48 51 71 74 73 98 34 36 41 45 76 93 55 61 77 88 53 40 96 75 50 67 66 54 81 39 70

2 8 7 3 13 12 21 1 24 35 42 38 46 49 26 43 47 32 33 92 99 97 48 91 51 71 74 73 98 41 36 34 45 76 93 55 61 77 88 53 96 40 75 50 67 66 81 39 70

2 8 7 3 13 12 21 1 35 24 38 42 46 26 49 43 32 33 92 99 48 47 97 91 51 71 74 36 41 34 73 98 45 76 93 55 61 77 53 88 96 75 67 50 40 66 81 39 70

2 8 7 3 13 12 21 1 24 35 42 26 46 38 49 43 32 33 48 47 92 99 97 91 51 36 71 41 74 34 73 98 45 76 55 61 77 53 67 75 50 40 96 93 66 88 81 39 70

2 8 7 3 13 12 21 1 35 24 42 26 46 49 43 38 33 48 47 99 92 97 91 51 36 34 71 41 74 73 32 76 55 98 61 77 53 67 50 40 93 96 66 75 88 45 81 39 70

2 8 7 3 13 12 1 21 35 24 42 26 49 46 43 38 33 48 47 92 99 97 36 91 51 34 71 74 73 76 55 98 53 77 61 41 32 50 67 93 96 40 66 75 88 81 45 39 70

2 8 7 3 1 13 21 35 24 42 26 49 12 46 43 38 48 33 99 47 91 97 92 36 34 51 71 74 73 76 55 53 77 61 41 50 67 93 40 96 66 75 88 81 45 39 70

2 8 7 3 1 21 35 24 42 26 49 46 43 38 48 13 92 97 36 91 34 99 71 74 51 73 12 76 53 55 41 77 61 33 93 50 96 67 40 66 75 88 81 45 39 70

2 8 7 3 1 21 35 24 26 42 49 46 43 38 48 92 36 97 91 34 71 51 74 73 12 76 53 41 55 13 77 61 50 93 67 40 96 66 75 88 81 33 45 39 70

2 8 7 3 1 21 35 24 26 42 49 46 43 38 48 36 92 97 34 91 71 74 51 73 41 53 76 55 61 77 12 13 50 93 67 96 66 40 75 88 81 45 39 33 70

2 8 3 7 1 21 35 24 26 42 49 46 43 48 38 36 34 97 92 91 71 74 73 51 41 53 76 55 61 77 50 67 96 93 40 66 88 75 12 81 13 39 45 70 33

2 8 3 7 1 21 35 24 26 42 49 46 43 48 38 36 92 91 97 34 73 71 74 51 41 53 76 55 61 77 50 93 96 67 40 66 88 75 81 12 13 39 70 33

2 8 3 7 1 21 35 24 26 42 49 43 48 38 36 92 91 97 34 73 71 51 74 41 53 76 55 61 77 50 96 93 40 67 66 88 75 81 39 12 13 70 33

LM P1 manufacturers – LM P1 privateers – LM P2 LM GTE-Pro – LM GTE-Am The category leaders are in colour.

In bold type the driver taking the start, in italics the driver who set the qualifying time. * Entrants sent to the back of the grid for not complying with the qualification criteria.

Successive

leaders

From 1 to 13 lap: Audi n°1 From 14th to 15th lap: Toyota n°8 From 16th to 23rd lap: Audi n°1 From 24th to 25th lap: Toyota n°8 From 26th to 99th lap: Audi n°1 From 10th to 348th lap: Audi n°2 st

Evolution of the fastest lap A.Lotterer (Audi n°1) in 3m4.143s on lap 1 N.Lapierre (Toyota n°7) in 3m33.374s on lap 2 A.Lotterer (Audi n°1) in 3m25.866s on lap 12 A.Lotterer (Audi n°1) in 3m23.313s on lap 13 L.Duval (Audi n°2) in 3m23.269s on lap 86 A.Lotterer (Audi n°1) in 3m22.746s on lap 170 I 72

Neutralisations: 11– Total duration: 5 hours 27 minutes Cause

Start End Duration

No. 95 Aston Martin’s accident in Tertre Rouge.

15h07

15h57

0h50m

Debris on the track from the no. 36 Alpine

20h07

20h21

0h14m

Recuperation of the rear bonnet of the no.32 Lotus.

20h24

20h32

0h08m

No. 25 Oreca’s accident in the Porsche corner

22h49

23h05

0h16m

No. 57 Ferrari’s off in the Karting S

23h54

0h19

0h15m

No. 30 Lola accident in the Karting S.

02h18

02h40

0h22m

No. 54 Ferrari’s accident in the Forest S + rain.

03h03

4h08

1h05m

Oil on track from no. 98 Aston Martin’s engine failure.

08h07

08h36

0h29m

No. 13 Lola’s accident in the Michelin chicane.

08h38

09h14

0h36m

No. 99 Aston Martin’s accident in the Forza chicane.

09h51

10h21

0h30m

No. 46 Oreca’s accident after Arnage.

13h47

14h30

0h43m

Results I Le

results

of the

Pos. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

drivers T.Kristensen – L.Duval – A.McNish A.Davidson - S.Buemi - S.Sarrazin M.Gené – L.di Grassi – O.Jarvis A.Wurz – N.Lapierre – K.Nakajima M.Fässler – A.Lotterer – B.Tréluyer N.Leventis - D.Watts - J.Kane B.Baguette – R.Gonzalez –M.Plowman O.Pla – D.Heinemeier-Hansson – A.Brundle R.Rusinov – M.Martin – M.Conway J.Mardenborough - L.Ordoñez - M.Krumm L.Perez-Companc - P.Kaffer - N.Minassian N.Gachnang - F.Mailleux - O.Lombard B.Hartley - M.Patterson - K.Chandhok S.Dolan - O.Turvey - L.Luhr N.Panciatici - P.Ragues - T.Gommendy M.Lieb - R.Lietz - R.Dumas J.Bergmeister - P.Pilet - T.Bernhard P.Dumbreck - S.Mücke - D.Turner M.Frey - P.Niederhauser - J.Bleekemolen J.Magnussen - A.Garcia - J.Taylor O.Beretta - K.Kobayashi - T.Vilander G.Bruni - G.Fisichella - M.Malucelli O.Gavin - T.Milner - R.Westbrook T.Kimber-Smith - E.Lux - A.Rossi R.Dalziel - D.Farnbacher - M.Goossens R.Narac - C.Bourret - J.-K.Vernay P.Perazzini - L.Case’ - D.O’Young J.Gerber - M.Griffin - M.Cioci P.Dempsey - J.Foster - P.Long P.Bornhauser - J.Canal - R.Taylor J.Campbell Walter - R.Goethe - S.Hall J.Bomarito – T.Kendall – K.Wittmer M.Downs – T.Dagoneau – R.Younessi P.Gibon – P.Milesi – W.Henzler A.Bertolini – A.Al Faisal – K.Al Qubaisi C.Ried – G.Roda – P.Ruberti E.Collard – F.Perrodo – S.Crubile E.Potolicchio – R.Aguas – J.Bright O.Porta – S.Raffin – R.Brandela N.Prost – N.Jani – N.Heifeld A.Belicchi – M.Beche – C.F.Cheng C.McNeil – M.Rodrigues – P.Dumas

cat. P1 P1 P1 P1 P1 P1 P2 P2 P2 P2 P2 P2 P2 P2 P2 Pro Pro Pro P2 Pro Pro Pro Pro P2 Pro Am Am Am Am Am Am Pro P2 Am Pro Am Am Am P2 P1 P1 Am

n° 2 8 3 7 1 21 35 24 26 42 49 43 48 38 36 92 91 97 34 73 71 51 74 41 53 76 55 61 77 50 96 93 40 67 66 88 75 81 39 12 13 70

2013 le MAns 24 hours car Audi R18 e-tron quattro Toyota TS030 Hybrid Audi R18 e-tron quattro Toyota TS030 Hybrid Audi R18 e-tron quattro HPD ARX-03c Morgan Nissan Morgan Nissan Oreca 03 Nissan Zytek Z11 SN Nissan Oreca 03 Nissan Morgan Judd Oreca 03 Nissan Zytek Z11SN Nissan Alpine A450 Nissan * Porsche 911 RSR Porsche 911 RSR Aston Martin Vantage GTE Oreca 03 Judd Corvette C6.R ZR1 Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Corvette C6.R ZR1 Zytek Z11SN Nissan SRT Viper GTS-R Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Corvette C6.R ZR1 Aston Martin Vantage GTE SRT Viper GTS-R Oreca 03 Nissan Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Porsche 911 GT3 RSR Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Lola B11/40 Judd Lola B12/60 Toyota Lola B12/60 Toyota Corvette C6.R ZR1

chassis 301 13-02 304 13-03 303 01 14 18 16 08 15 15 11 09 06 ZDS199903 ZDS199904 002 01 005 2874 2876 006 07 GTSR2C01 ZCS799917 2822 2848 ZBS799911 003 005 GTSR2C02 07 Z9S799915 2808 Z9S799918 Z8S799928 2846 B11/40 HU02 B10/60 HU01 B09/80 HU01S 001

Team Audi Sport Team Joest Toyota Racing Audi Sport Team Joest Toyota Racing Audi Sport Team Joest Strakka Racing Oak Racing Oak Racing G-Drive Racing Greaves Motorsport Pecom Racing Morand Racing Murphy Prototypes Jota Sport Signatech Alpine Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche AG Team Manthey Aston Martin Racing Race Performance Corvette Racing AF Corse AF Corse Corvette Racing Greaves Motorsport SRT Motorsports IMSA Performance AF Corse AF Corse Dempsey Del Piero-Proton Larbre Compétition Aston Martin Racing SRT Motorsports Boutsen Ginion Racing IMSA Performance JMW Motorsports Proton Competition Prospeed Racing 8 Star Motorsports DKR Engineering Rebellion Racing Rebellion Racing Larbre Compétition

Unclassified (insufficient distance covered, < 244 trs) P2 33 S.Tucker – M.Franchitti – R.Briscoe

HPD ARX-03b

Retirements P2 Pro P2 P2 Pro P2 P2 Am Am P2 P2 P2 Am

Oreca 03 Nissan Aston Martin Vantage GTE Morgan Nissan Morgan Nissan Aston Martin Vantage GTE Lotus T128 Praga ** Lola B12/80 Judd Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Ferrari 458 Italia GTC Oreca 03 Nissan Lola B12/80 Nissan Lotus T128 Praga ** Aston Martin Vantage GTE

°° 005 17 16 003 001 B12/80 HU06 2862 2840 ° 10 B12/80 HU02 002 004

46 99 45 47 98 32 30 54 57 25 28 31 95

Mans 24 Hours

P.Thiriet – L.Badey – M.Martin R.Bell – F.Makowiecki – B.Senna J.Nicolet – J.-M.Merlin – P.Mondolot A.Imperatori – H.-P.Tung – M.Howson B.Auberlen – P.Dalla Lana – P.Lamy T.Holzer – D.Kraihamer – J.Charouz J.Mowlem – A.Burgess – J.Hirschi Y.Mallegol – J.-M.Bachelier – H.Blank T.Krohn – N.Jönsson – M.Mediani T.Graves – S.Nakano – A.Hamilton F.Giroix – P.Haezebrouck – K.Ihara K.Weeda – J.Rossiter – C.Bouchut C.Nygaard – K.Poulsen – A.Simonsen

Tyres M M M M M M D D D D M D D D M M M M D M M M M D M M M M M M M M D M D M M M D M M M

nl 348 347 à 1’55’’ 341 338 332 329 328 327 à 1’07’’ 325 320 319 à 4’01’’ 317 315 à 2’10’’ 314 à 1’27’’ 312 à 1’56’’ 311 309 307 306 à 1’51’’ 305 à 1’26’’ à 2’51’’ 302 301 à 1’58’’ 300 à 32’’3 à 51’’7 à 1’28’’ 298 294 280 275 à 1’27’’ 268

Best lap. 3’23’’269 3’25’’151 3’24’’293 3’25’’718 3’22’’746 3’30’’884 3’40’’272 3’38’’059 3’38’’807 3’40’’100 3’40’’992 3’41’’696 3’40’’434 3’39’’016 3’40’’909 3’55’’453 3’55’’323 3’55’’791 3’41’’983 3’57’’061 3’56’’338 3’56’’630 3’57’’377 3’39’’615 3’57’’460 3’59’’057 4’00’’227 3’58’’365 3’57’’990 4’01’’863 3’59’’091 3’59’’006 3’51’’191 4’00’’154 4’00’’056 3’58’’585 4’03’’071 3’57’’422 3’53’’019 3’29’’328 3’31’’808 4’01’’188

Max S 325,8 325,8 326,8 324,9 330,8 318,2 300,5 302,2 299,7 299,7 296,4 300,5 296,4 298,8 297,2 293,2 292,4 290,0 300,5 289,3 292,4 294,8 289,3 299,7 286,9 289,3 290,8 294,0 292,4 283,2 288,5 285,4 294,0 290,0 294,0 294,0 291,6 292,4 287,7 310,9 312,7 286,2

nPS (TSP) 34 47’15’’ 30 43’20’’ 30 46’17’’ 29 1h08’00’’ 32 1h29’38’’ 29 49’03’’ 30 44’03’’ 31 49’49’’ 32 1h01’47’’ 28 45’00’’ 29 44’40’’ 28 53’11’’ 29 1h03’44’’ 29 1h11’42’’ 32 1h13’43’’ 22 31’17’’ 24 36’25’’ 24 41’09’’ 32 1h10’32’’ 23 38’49’’ 23 33’12’’ 23 45’21’’ 25 48’10’’ 31 1h34’09’’ 28 49’55’’ 23 38’10’’ 24 42’24’’ 23 38’45’’ 24 39’08’’ 25 38’44’’ 26 48’14’’ 26 58’57’’ 29 1h11’37’’ 22 42’55’’ 26 56’34’’ 23 54’26’’ 23 46’01’’ 25 1h22’15’’ 31 2h09’03’’ 26 5h30’08’’ 29 5h24’21’’ 21 2h43’37’’

Level 5 Motorsports

242

3’42’’639

298,8

24 6h38’34’’

Thiriet by TDS Racing Aston Martin Racing Oak Racing KCMG Aston Martin Racing Lotus Racing HVM Status GP AF Corse Krohn Racing Delta ADR Gulf Racing Middle East Lotus Racing Aston Martin Racing

D M D M M D D M M D D D M

310 248 246 241 221 219 153 147 111 101 22 17 2

3’42’’207 3’54’’639 3’51’’029 3’42’’285 3’56’’556 3’43’’389 3’48’’258 4’08’’616 4’03’’651 3’43’’063 3’53’’188 3’53’’344 4’00’’626

295,6 290,0 299,7 307,3 290,8 307,3 294,0 286,9 289,3 298,8 295,6 304,7 292,4

(1) 13h43 9h49 11h38 9h19 8h02 7h36 2h14 3h00 23h49 22h45 1h24 17h03 15h08

(2) 13h47 9h51 13h15 9h20 8h53 7h36 2h30 3h31 1h04 23h40 1h26 20h30 15h10

(3) Accident Accident Electronic pbs Fuel leak Engine Gearbox Accident Accident Accident Accident Vibrations Electronic pbs Accident

* car rebadged, identical to other Oreca 03s ** V8 Judd HK engine rebadged ° Replaced chassis 2844 crashed on Wednesday °° Chassis 04 damaged in practice was replaced for the race The WEC entrants are in blue. The no. 26 Oreca was excluded because of an oversized fuel tank. The team has appealed. As this suspends the results they are provisional, The winners covered 4742,9 km in 24h 01m.1.436s at an average speed of 197,4 km/h. The record for the event is 5410,7 km in 2010 (1h10m neutralisation).

81st

rAce

- 22

23 June 2013 - 13,629

kM circuit

Présents: 56, starters: 56, finishers: 43 (76,8 %). Weather: variable, alternantion of wet and dry track. Attendance: 245 000 spectators

Wec clAssificAtions

1: time of last passage over the finishing line (start given at 15h00). 2: Official time of the retirement. 3: Reason for the retirement. NL: Number of laps NPS: Number of pit stops - TSP: Time spent in pit MaxS: Maximyum speed over the whole week.

LM P1 Drivers: 1.Duval-Kristensen-McNish, 94 pts; 2.Fässler-Lotterer-Tréluyer, 64 ; 3. Buemi-Davidson-Sarrazin, 63... Manufacturers: 1. Audi, 102 pts; 2. Toyota 67. Private teams: 1. Rebellion, 86 pts; 2.Strakka, 68. LM P2 Drivers: 1. Baguette-Gonzalez-Plowman, 77 pts; 2. Brundle-Heinemeier Hansson-Pla, 73; 3. Kaffer-Perez Companc-Minassian, 61... Teams: Oak n°35, 77 pts; 2. Oak n°24, 73; 3. Pecom n°49, 65... GTE-Pro Manufacturers: 1. Porsche, 118 pts; 2. Ferrari, 116; 3. Aston Martin, 105. Drivers: 1. Lieb-Lietz-Dumas, 72 pts; 2. Turner-Mücke, 68; 3. Kobayashi-Vilander, 57... Teams: 1. Porsche n°92, 74 pts; 2. AMR n°97, 71; 3. AF Corse n°71, 60... GTE-Am Drivers: 1.Narac-Vernay, 64 pts; 2. Bornhauser-Canal, 57; 3. Bourret, 56... Teams: Imsa n°76, 64 pts ; 2. Larbre n°50, 63 ; 3. 8 Star n°81, 56...

73 I

Technical round-up

I 56th garage

innoVATion AT THE LE MAns 24 HouRs

The best is yet to come! By Patrick Martinoli / photos Patrick Martinoli, Nissan

The withdrawal of the GreenGT left the 56th garage empty this year (in terms of innovative vehicles). Nissan, however, already involved in the DeltaWing project in 2012, has announced that it will be back in 2014 with a car powered by an innovative engine using electricity!

I 74

n 2011, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest announced that the 56th garage would be reserved for an innovative car racing outside the overall classification. The DeltaWing project backed by Don Panoz was the first to take advantage of this initiative for the 2012 race. Technical partnerships with Michelin for the tyres and Nissan for the little turbo-charged 4-cylinder engine lent credibility to the project, and the extraordinary-looking black car demonstrated the benefits of downsizing and impressed the pundits on the Sarthe circuit. It was firmly installed in the mid-field of LM P2 as expected when Kazuki Nakajima had a moment of brain fade and punted it into the wall in the Kart Esses after only 6 hours’ racing. So we will never know if the car would have finished the 24 Hours using half the amount of fuel of the LM P2s and only four sets of tyres. However, the DeltaWing’s excellent fifth place in the Petit Le Mans at the end of the season proved that it might well have won its bet.

56th garage I Technical

round-up

75 I

Technical round-up

I 56th garage

Does the Nissan ZEOD RC prefigure an electric LM P1?

GreenGT hasn’t thrown in the towel The GreenGT project was selected for the 2013 race. It is a real state of the art technology vehicles as it has electric engines for power and a fuel cell fed by hydrogen for the current. Unfortunately, even though the car was presented in 2012 and it ran in the spring Jean-François Weber’s team withdrew a few weeks before the event. “We ran into a few delays,” pointed out Weber, “and we were able to run the car only on short circuits. For me there was no question of putting it on the track at Le Mans without having carried out high-speed testing beforehand. As we wanted to demonstrate the performance of the fuel cell I didn’t want to send the car out to do ten laps and then retire ignominiously. We’ve solved our cooling problems and we’re restarting our test sessions. The advantage of not having done Le Mans is that the Green GT is intact.”

La GreenGT may reappear in the WEC. I 76

At Dunlop, the tyre partner in this challenge, the firm is obviously disappointed but continues to believe in the project. “Working on such innovations comes at a price. We paid it by missing the Le Mans 24 Hours. We were just about to start the interesting phase: how to deal with the torque, whose maximum power is available immediately, to make the tyre work in the best possible way,” explains Jean-Felix Bazelin. If the 56th garage is no longer an option for the GreenGT the car should appear on some circuits to continue its fettling-in process. The rumour going round the paddock is that neither the ACO nor the WEC management would be against it making an appearance at the end of the year. Watch this space!

Nissan back in 2014 In February Carlos Ghosn, wearing his Nissan hat, announced that a car capable of reaching 300 km/h powered by an electric engine would be in the 56th garage in 2014. The ACO confirmed this almost immediately and Nissan unveiled the ZEOD RC on the Friday before the Le Mans 24 Hours. And it was a real jaw-dropper! First of all the car, which is an evolution of the DeltaWing, looks like a coupe! Ben Bowlby was kept on by Nissan as a consultant for the design of the chassis and the aerodynamics, reversing the 2012 partnership in which Nissan was only the DeltaWing’s supplier. “We learned an awful lot about energetic density and its management through the DeltaWing,” explained Jerry Hardcastle, the project manager at Nissan. “We’re going to reapply a lot of things here, in particular the aerodynamic principles with the front wheels together, the ground effect and the absence of wings. The chassis will be 100 per cent new and will have no parts in common with the DeltaWing.”

56th garage I Technical

round-up

Already involved with the DeltaWing project, Michelin remains Nissan’s partner.

On request The engine chosen also stunned the pundits. Although people were expecting a purely electric motor the car is in fact called a ZEOD (Zero Emission on Demand)! “You can’t do 24 hours on batteries alone; it’s impossible to recharge them in reasonable time, and changing them would be too complex,”’ said Hardcastle. “We have to find an energetic mix which allows us to cover twenty-four hours. So we’re going to have three engines: electric, batteries and thermal! We’re currently working on the best way to spread the use of these different engines over a lap and the race.” In other words, the car can be powered either by its thermal engine, its electric engine or both at the same time depending on the places on the circuit and the different phases of the race: hence the term ‘On Demand’. They will also be able to run at 300 km/h on electricity only on the straight respecting the promise of Carlos Ghosn, but they will still use fuel to last the 24 Hours. “In reality, we’re currently working on determining the best combination of the system to run at zero emission for as long as possible. So we’re just at the design phase. We’ll tell you more about it as soon as the decisions have been taken and the car is up and running.”

occupied by a classic car this year, the idea innovation at Le Mans won’t have been a waste. Quite the opposite in fact as technology buffs will be able to enjoy the GreenGT between now and the end of the year and the Nissan ZEOD in 2014!

Michelin will again be one of the project’s partners as Pascal Couasnon explains: “We learned a great deal with the previous project. In addition this orientation, which consists of improving the tyre’s efficiency while using less energy, is in keeping with the times. We’re going to be able to work on the three parameters of the tyre: its architecture, the chemistry for the rubber and the shape, the camber and the tread. Although the 56th pit was

77 I

Interview

I Beaumesnil

VinCEnT BEAuMEsniL

“The FiA understands the Le Mans spirit and respects it” By François Hurel / Photos DPPI

siNce you Took up The JoB iN 2009 The eNDuraNce laNDscape has uNDerGoNe a sea chaNGe.

hoW WoulD you suM up These

four years?

Vincent Beaumesnil, the ACO Sports Manager, is one of the key people in the current evolution of endurance racing. We asked him a wide range of questions to give him the opportunity to clarify the vision of the Sarthe club. I 78

“First of all, I had to continue in the same vein as my predecessors to build on their achievements, retain the confidence of the manufacturers and ensure that the circuit safety is as good as it can be. We also had to forge strong links with the FIA for the Le Mans 24 Hours to remain the lynch pin of the system, and for the race to keep its powerful and legendary image. This is the context in which we began to introduce major changes to adapt to the evolution of the situation. We created the world championship as it was becoming increasingly difficult for the major manufacturers to justify a budget for the 24 Hours alone. We had to provide the elite in endurance a tool that was in keeping with their ambitions over twelve months even if the Le Mans 24 Hours was still the summit. This gives manufacturers the opportunity to carry out promotional operations

in countries like Brazil, China and Japan and gain increased media fallout. The other big job we had to tackle was the 2014 technical regulations in keeping with our determination to adapt to a changing world. The challenge for the manufacturers is to obtain high energetic performance while reducing CO2 emissions and the use of fossil fuel. The general perception of motor sport is all wrong: it’s described as noisy and polluting whereas the exact opposite is the case. This is why we had to go even further to show our fans and partners that we know how to adapt, and that the ACO remains a leader in terms of innovation. And finally, the summary of these four years is also the development of activities at the circuit, in particular the official Porsche driving school and the new kart track. The circuit’s become a living environment for the fans throughout the year, and it’s also by developing these activities that we ensure the long-term survival of the Le Mans 24 Hours.”

Beaumesnil I Interview

have The 2014 reGulaTioNs BeeN siGNeD off? “Yes. There are still a few details to be worked out and a set of regulations is never totally finalised, but now the construction phase of the cars had begun. We started discussions at the beginning of 2010. After three years we’ve come up with a revolutionary set of regulations, which will allow manufacturers to showcase their know-how in the area of sustainable development, while retaining the link with road-going cars. Our other preoccupations were safety, cost capping and the defense of private teams. That’s not really all that new for us, but we’ve kept these factors in mind and emphasized them. I’m really looking forward to what’s going to happen in 2014 as the regulations have excited a lot of interest. If Porsche has decided to return it’s because they trust us, and Nissan’s also expressed its intention to come back into LM P1 after its exploitation of the 56th garage. Up to now we’ve seen petrol and diesel power units with a lot of freedom concerning the architecture of engines and hybrid systems. We’ve made provision for other types of systems but they’ll have to be tested beforehand.”

The aco NoW has To Work WiTh The fia. hoW’s iT GoiNG? “Very well. What I like is that right from the start we were all pulling in the same direction. The 2014 regulations are an example of this joint effort that took place in total harmony. The FIA understands and respects the Le Mans spirit.”

so Who DeciDes The reGulaTioNs aND accorDiNG To WhaT proceDures? “With the creation of the WEC the procedures became slightly more complicated although this helped us to put in place rigorous and reassuring methods. The ACO and the FIA are represented on an equal basis. There are two working groups, sporting and technical. The Endurance Commission validates and submits the regulations to the FIA World Council. At the base, the ACO has its own Sports Committee made up of members of the Steering Committee and influential members of the club. This Sports Committee defines the strategy and the guidelines of the ACO, which are debated in the working groups also made up of representatives from the FIA, the manufacturers and privateers. We progress in gradual steps with the aim of keeping what already exists while bringing in evolutions according to needs. There is also a specific working group for the 2014 regulations, and another that’s studying the convergence between GTE and GT3 as the end result we want to achieve is a single set of regulations in the world, or at least a single platform for sprint racing and endurance, professionals and amateurs.”

soMe people are aGaiNsT This revisioN, areN’T They? “We’ve reached agreement on the fact that costs have to be reduced. The aim is 2016, still to be confirmed, but it won’t call into question the current crop of cars. There’ll be a transition phase during which they’ll be able to race.”

hoW are privaTeers represeNTeD iN The DiffereNT Groups aND coMMissioNs?

“Let me give you a few examples. Jacques Nicolet is present in the sporting group like Pascal Vasselon for Toyota and Jürgen Klauke for Porsche. Oak Racing is also represented in the technical working group like Signatech. In the endurance commission they’re represented by Christian Ried from Proton.”

“the perception of motor sport is all wrong” iN heNri pescarolo’s iNTervieW iN our free issue prior To le MaNs he caMe Back To The proBleM of The Diesel-peTrol equivaleNce. you Were NoT persoNally iNvolveD aT The sTarT BuT if you haD To BeGiN all over aGaiN…

The Measures To reDuce The Gap BeTWeeN The privaTe TeaMs aND MaJor MaNufacTurers DoN’T seeM To have haD The DesireD effecT: Will They Be DiffereNT iN The fuTure?

“Up to now nothing in the regulations says that privateers should be on the same footing as the factory teams. It’ll be different in 2014. For 2013 we made a certain number of modifications to the regulations, but we’ve realised that the factory squads did a lot of work. At Spa, Rebellion Racing matched the times of the 2012 Audis, but the latter were two seconds quicker! Because of their limited resources the privateers have concentrated their efforts on 2014. The engineers know how to make the most of the regulations, and if we see projects like those from Rebellion, Dome and Perrinn it’s because they’ve understood they have a chance. The current regulations have reached the end of their development and the new ones will give privateers a chance. It’ll be a new start!”

“When the diesel arrived it was totally new and Pescarolo wasn’t that far off in terms of performance. After that the ACO kept on reducing the potential of the diesel, but in parallel Audi continued development and progressed. It should not be forgotten that the diesel engine has much more scope for development than the petrol one, which was mastered a long time ago. Both Audi and Peugeot made great progress and then when Toyota arrived in 2012 it showed that it could win races with a petrol engine. Pescarolo, whose team I consider as being on the same level as Joest’s, did a great job, but he didn’t have the resources to take the fight to Audi. Remember that in 1999 with a level playing field for everybody the gap between the factories and the privateers was six or seven seconds a lap. You can’t say we‘ve done a bad job. The problem is the gap between the factories and private teams, and that’s what we’ve revised for 2014 as the private teams will have the capacity to go for the win.”

Bringing together 56 cars of this level is no easy task.

79 I

Interview

I Beaumesnil

“Up to now nothing in the regulations says that privateers should be at the same level as the factory teams. It’ll be different in

2014.”

During the past few years the BOP (Balance of Performance) and the adjustments during the season have multiplied in GTE and also in LM P2. Is this new method official and irreversible? “We’ve got no intention of changing anything in LM P2 for the time being. The fact that several makes of chassis, engines and tyre manufacturers can win proves that the category is well balanced. GT is something else as we have to deal with very different designs that result in very different performances on the road. Our role is to give everybody a level playing field. Rather than the stop watch our procedure is based on the technical data supplied by the manufacturers that are then matched up with ours. We’re looking for a compromise between power, drag, maximum speed, fuel consumption, tyre wear, etc. Everybody accepts it even if those to whom we’ve given an extra ten kilos aren’t very happy!”

Even so isn’t a change two days before scrutineering a bit late? Even so isn’t a change two days before scrutineering a bit late?

Today we see that the Morgans, Alpines and Caterhams have no parts from the make in question. Isn’t that going a bit too far? ‘We need fifty-six cars and when a team tells us that it’s found a partner that’ll help it race for the whole season we listen very carefully. In common agreement with the manufacturer of the car we can rename it as we already do with the engines. This enables makes to come back into endurance and then maybe go on to the next stage.”

I 80

In 2014, Rebellion Racing is hoping to fight on a level playing field with the works teams.

Let’s talk about the 56 garage. The DeltaWing didn’t really amount to much and the GreenGT withdrew. Is it a difficult choice? “For us the 56th garage is a laboratory for avant-garde tests, a way to show what will be done tomorrow and after tomorrow. It’s up to those who designed the DeltaWing to decide its future; we’re under no obligation to write specific regulations for it. Nissan is now going to help us bring a new type of engine to Le Mans to test it in view of LM P1. And it’s not a marketing coup! As for the Green GT, it’s run and it works. It’s not the fuel cell that poses problems but its environment. The team didn’t have enough time to cross all the hurdles necessary for a race as demanding as the 24 Hours. When we gave our agreement a year-and-a-half ago, we hoped it would race this year but you can’t foresee everything. We don’t regret our choice. The team’s aim is to do a demonstration before the end of the year and then examine the possibility of racing in a round of the WEC.”

Not for a long time has a driver been eliminated in qualifying. Are the criteria now too easy? “Quite the opposite, in fact! We made them tougher in 2012 by reducing the qualifying percentage. We can’t raise them anymore, otherwise half the field couldn’t race. We’re at the limit.”

Let’s talk about the ALMS Grand-Am merger. Is the ACO still in a position to influence American racing? “Of course! We’ve signed an agreement with the new organisation and we’re part of the body that’s defining the balance between the LM P2s and Daytona Prototypes. The GTE category will comply 100% with the ACO-WEC regulations, so our influence is very strong.”

“We believe in the Asian Le Mans Series; we’ve just got to get it up and running.” Has the idea of allowing the Daytona Prototypes to race at Le Mans been discussed? “We haven’t talked about it.”

The Asian Le Mans Series is getting off to a slow start. What’s missing to get the right mix? “We believe in it; we’ve just got to make sure it starts, get it up and running. It’s more complicated in China than in Japan. But you can see that a team like KCMG is on the same level as a European one. The other teams needed time and we took the right decision by not starting till August. The context is different as there are a lot of GT3 cars in Asia, and the local promoters know the teams well. We’ve now got all the right ingredients in place.”

To conclude. When can we race on the new kart track? “Its homologation is due in July and the aim’s to organise a European Championship there followed by a world championship. We’ve invested in kart racing because it’s the base of the system and the site has what it takes to host such events.”

A NE PAS MANQUER !

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Tél. : Mail : Le Mans Racing - ZI du Panorama 2 - 15, rue Alain Gerbault - 72100 Le Mans

81 I

AMBITION

I asian

AsiAn LE MAns sERiEs

The sun rises on endurance racing in the East! By Guillaume Nédélec / photos DPPI

Since 2009, the ACO has been trying to create an endurance Championship in Asia. In 2013, a fresh attempt is being made with the launch of the Asian Le Mans Series at Inje in South Korea on 4th August.

he emerging Asian market is a future gold mine for all motor car manufacturers. They have to try and show a population with little motor car culture the interest of buying a car of their make even if it isn’t yet known in the region. In 2009, the ACO organised the Asian Le Mans Series consisting of two 3-hour races at Okayama won by Sora Racing (Pescarolo) in LM P1, Oak Racing in LM P2, JLOC in GT1 and Hankook Farnbacher in GT2. It was more or less a one-off as the arrival of the ILMC followed by the World Endurance Championship put the Asian championship on the back burner. In its press conference at the 2012 Le Mans 24 hours the ACO again brought up the subject of the Asian Le Mans Series, and the club announced its determination to get the series up and running with a 6-race calendar.

Building the base Rémy Brouard, who has since joined Oak Racing, got the show on the road and then Mark Thomas, now the manager of the Asian Le Mans Series, took over and the idea is to offer an appealing championship. “We’ve tried to organise and promote a competition, which offers a high profile for participants and spectators alike. The backing of Total as the official fuel supplier shows that we’re on the right track.”

Daniel Poissenot will be the Race Director. I 82

Michelin is also involved in the project by becoming the official tyre supplier to the series. However, creating the championship has not been an easy job as the calendar has gone from six to four races in South Korea, Japan, China and Indonesia. Daniel Poissenot, who will fill the

Asian I Ambition

“We’re planting the right roots for the future.” (D.Poissenot)

KCMG confirmed its status at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

role of Clerk of the Course for the whole championship, talks about these problems: “Unlike Japan where the motor car culture is firmly installed, motor sport is almost non-existent in the rest of Asia. So we have to create a whole new world almost from scratch, and as difficult as it may seem we’re on fertile ground. We’re planting the right roots for the future.” Exactly what the ACO wanted to do by associating itself with the Japanese Super GT Championship. The idea is based on accepting the GT300 category under the name GTC to attract local teams without them having to buy new cars. The same step was taken in relation to GT3, already well installed in the region, as in ELMS cars complying with these regulations are eligible for GTC. However, the lack of entries in GTE forced the ACO to abandon this category.

“On the right track” If the new series seems to have no problems with GTs, there is still a lot of work to be done for the prototypes. Leaving the FIA World Endurance Championship for the LM P1s, the Asian Le Mans Series will be run for LM P2s and LM PCs. “It’s difficult to bring prototypes to Asia,” comments Rémy Bruard. “It’s completely unknown as a category, only GTs are fairly widespread.” Even so the emerging market has attracted the eye of some constructors like Jacques Nicolet, the Oak Racing president. “We’ve been involved in Asia since the first Asian Le Mans

Series in 2009. To be perfectly clear we were the first team to enter a Chinese driver for Le Mans in 2008 in which he finished third in LM P2. We would very much like to set up shop in the region. Part of our future will be played out there. In addition, the fact that KCMG, the first Chinese team to start the Le Mans 24 Hours, bought a Morgan constructed in our workshops shows that we’re on the right track. Now it’s important to set up a bridge between France and Asia.” Oak Racing backed by Total for its entry in the Asian Le Mans Series is not taking this challenge lightly. Concerning drivers the French squad is optimistic with guys like Cong Fu Cheng, who raced for Rebellion at Le Mans, Ho-Pin Tung, one of the drivers in the KCMG Morgan, and David Cheng winner of the LM PC category at Sebring. The latter is optimistic about the development of motor sport in China. “From year to year the interest of the Chinese for motor sport is increasing. I think that within a few years it’ll be a popular form of competition.” Tung and David Cheng are sharing the wheel of the Oak Racing Morgan in this year’s Asian Le Mans Series, which should generate interest among the Chinese population. The 2013 Asian Le Mans Series will be a very important one for the implantation of endurance racing in the region. In addition to putting on a championship that appeals to the local population, it will also have to be attractive to both GTs and prototypes. The first race in South Korea on 4th August will provide further information on the evolution of the situation. The 2013 Asian Le Mans Series calendar 4th August: Inje 3 Hours – South Korea 22nd September: Fuji 3 Hours – Japan 13th October: Zhuhai 3 Hours – China 8th December: Sentul 3 Hours – Indonesia

Cong Fu Cheng (left) and Ho Pin Tung: two trailblazers in Chinese motor sport.

83 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I 90th anniversary

90TH AnniVERsARY

A quick round-up of the festivities! By François Hurel / Photos DPPI, François Hurel, Gilles Vitry (autonewsinfo.com)

From the election of the cars of the legend to the reconstitution of the Pontlieue hairpin without forgetting the Hall of Fame, the ACO went the whole hog to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hours in style. A quick round-up of the festivities!

Hall of Fame The Hall of Fame, one of the pillars of American racing (Indianapolis in particular) and in other areas like Rock n’ Roll, is a kind of ultimate recompense for those who are still alive. The ACO decided to induct the doyen of the local drivers having taken part in the Le Mans 24 Hours. Thus, so Eric Thompson was inducted at Silverstone in Great Britain followed by Freddy Rousselle at Spa (Belgium) and Robert Manzon (France) at Le Mans, who decided that he wasn’t up to making the trip to the Sarthe. In addition, all the drivers having won the Le Mans 24 Hours on four occasions or more were inducted into the Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris on 31st May where Pierre Fillon gave a blazer made by Alain Figaret to six of the seven drivers present as Jacky Ickx had excused himself.

The MaGNificeNT seveN! Tom KrisTensen (9 vicTories: 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2013). JacKy icKx (6 vicTories: 1969, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982). dereK Bell (5 vicTories: 1975, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987). FranK Biela (5 vicTories: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007). emanuele Pirro (5 vicTories: 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007). Henri Pescarolo (4 vicTories: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1984). yannicK dalmas (4 vicTories: 1992, 1994, 1995, 1999).

I 84

90th anniversary I Le

THE 11

CARS ELECTED 20s: Bentley Speed Six (2 victories in 1929 and 1930).

30s: Alfa Romeo 8C (4 victories in 1931, 1932, 1933 and 1934).

40s: Ferrari 166 MM (1 victory in 1949).

50s: Jaguar D (3 victories in 1955, 1956 and 1957).

60s: Ford GT40 (4 victories in 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969).*

70s: Porsche 917 K (2 victories in 1970 and 1971).

80s: Porsche 956 (6 victories de 1982 à 1987). **

90s: Peugeot 905 (2 victories in 1992 and 1993).

Mazda 787 B (1 victory in 1991).

Mans 24 Hours

The cars of the legend On 1st February when the list of entries for the Le Mans 24 Hours was announced, the ACO also gave the names of the 11 cars of the legend elected by a specialist jury as well as some 20 000 surfers, whose choice counted for one vote. One car per decade was supposed to be chosen but an exception was made for the 90s adding up to a total of 11 cars. They were all on show in an exhibition hall in front of the former museum during the Le Mans 24-Hours week. On Friday they were lined up on the track on the slope leading up to the Dunlop chicane in a specially decorated setting: they then did a lap of the circuit before the race itself.

The Michelin Tower Michelin tyres are the undisputed benchmark in endurance racing (16 consecutive victories at Le Mans since 1998). The French company celebrated the 90th anniversary of the 24 Hours with the construction of a classification tower bearing its name. This monument is at the pit exit and it keeps the spectators up to date of the classifications in all the categories. By doing this Michelin and the ACO have revived the tradition of the leader board!

REJoiGnEZ LA CoMMunAuTÉ 2000s: Audi R10 TDI (3 victories in 2006, 2007 and 2008).

2010s: Audi R18 e-tron quattro (1 victory in 2012).

* All models combined: Mk2 (66), Mk4 (67) and Mk1 (68 and 69). ** All models combined: 956 (82 to 85) and 962 C (86 to 87).

LE MAns RACinG suR FACEBook... ...EnCoRE PLus d’inFos...

85 I

Le Mans 24 Hours

I 90th anniversary

Rudge-Whitworth Cup The company making detachable wheels was involved in the creation of the Le Mans 24 Hours and gave its name, the Rudge-Whitworth Cup, to the event so a mini replica of the famous cup was integrated into the centre of the Le Mans 24-Hours Trophy. For the first time the latter was protected by a specially-made Louis Vuitton travelling case.

The posters on show! The official Le Mans 24-Hours posters are works of art in their own right, and for the past 90 years they have achieved almost cult-like status for collectors. In partnership with the Sarthe General Council a presentation tour of the posters was held between 2-16 June in the markets in various towns in the department. It ended with the exhibition of all the posters in the Abbaye de l’Epau between 16-23 June.

Chenard & Walker The Chenard & Walker that won the first race in 1923 driven by de Lagache-Léonard was on show at Pontlieue.

Cinéma Every evening there was a film show on the church facade on place de la République, an opportunity to see some rare colour images.

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90th anniversary I Le

Mans 24 Hours

Yojiro Terada (left) was the wheel of the Bentley, which got a bit hot at the finish. The old lady wasn’t really prepared for the outing.

A cheerful ambiance reminded people of the early days of the 20th century. The party organised at Pontlieue on the Tuesday before the race fulfilled expectations.

The Pontlieue hairpin The Pontlieue hairpin was part of the original Le Mans 24-Hours circuit layout from 1923 to 1927, after which it was bypassed by the rue du Circuit (which still exists). Pontlieue brought the track into the Le Mans suburbs via the Laigné road before the cars headed off towards Tours along the rue Georges Durand so the Mulsanne straight was much longer than today. On Tuesday 18th June the hairpin was reconstituted in its original form

with period advertising hoardings, fencing and a footbridge as well as the local café. Cars of the era with Romain Dumas, Emmanuel Collard and Yojiro Terada at the wheel, a guingette (dance hall) and period costumes recreated the ambience of the roaring twenties in which the race was born! The Morgan Art Car was also on show as well as a few machines that had raced at Le Mans pre-war!

87 I

LE MANS RACING BOUTIQUE BoB wollek, on The CusP oF gloRY by Jean-Marc TEISSEDRE Bob Wollek, who died eleven years ago, was made in a different mould. He was a top-class sportsman and he first made a name for himself in skiing as he was part of the French team that included such great aces as Killy and Périllat. He was not selected for the Grénoble Olympics so he turned to motor racing, his second passion, in which he made his debut in 1967. It was the start of a career that lasted 34 years in which he became one of the greatest international endurance specialists winning at Daytona, Sebring, Brands Hatch, Silverstone, the Nürburgring, etc – everywhere except Le Mans where he was the victim of incredible bad luck! Format: 21x29.7, 326 pages plus unpublished photos and documents. It was published in June 2012 in a run of 2500 hardback copies - French/English.

10 € instead of 39.90 euros

PROMO

OUT OF PRINT

l’enCYCloPÉdie des 24 heuRes du mans Christian MOITY, Jean-Marc TEISSEDRE, Alain BIENVENU, Michel BONTÉ Since 26th May 1923 almost 3000 cars have taken part in the Le Mans 24 Hours writing one of the greatest chapters in the history of motor sport. From the series production cars in the first events to the current crop of LM P1 diesel-powered prototypes, the whole evolution of this form of transport has been show-cased the Sarthe where prestigious car manufacturers have flocked to show off their know-how. In the Le Mans 24-Hours encyclopedia you will find the greatest car manufacturers in the world: Chenard & Walcker, Peugeot, Lorraine Dietrich, Bentley, Alfa Romeo, Lagonda, Bugatti, Delahaye, Ferrari, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, Ford, Porsche, Matra, Mirage, Renault, Rondeau, BMW and Audi. Using the race as a test bed for technology is still as true today as it was 90 years ago. Engines, headlights, gearboxes, brakes, direct fuel injection are all components that have been tested in the greatest endurance race in the world whose global reputation gives the winner incredible media fallout at every level. The aim of this encyclopedia is to provide a photo of every car that has taken part in the race, from the most prestigious to the most humble, entrusted to the legendary names in motor racing, those of lesser renown – and sometimes complete unknowns! Published in December 2010, 1536 pages in 3 volumes in French/English – 4500 photos and illustration most of which have never been published.

100 € instead of 300 euros For further information please contact us.

PResTige VeRsion

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instead of 300 euros

Sold without its aluminium slipcase: for additional information please contact 33 (0) 2 43 47 06 80 or clientele@lemans-racing.com For further information please contact us.

il ÉTaiT une Fois…les BollÉe by Gérard BOLLÉE and Michel BONTÉ Starting with their smelting works founded by Ernest Sylvain Bollée in Le Mans in 1842, and the AB piston rings born from the imagination of his son Amedée just after WWI, the Bollées invented many things: cars, steam and gas-powered vehicles as well as hydraulic rams, wind pumps, acoustic measuring instruments and other calculating machines.

200

E X . O N LY

sPoRT & PRoToTYPes FeRRaRi au mans 1968-1999 by François HUREL

By unveiling the family archives to the public Gérard Bollée and Michel Bonté have added their contribution to the Sarthe’s motor car heritage.

When Le Mans was red! This book is as rich in information as it is in photos. Sport & Prototypes Ferrari au Mans 1968-1999 will delight all the fans of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Prancing Horse.

Format: 21x29.7, 260 pages, unpublished photos and documents - French only

2000 copies: format 21x28, 144 pages, 200 photos French only

10 € instead of 39.90 euros

39,90 €

I 88

BRADERIE

les 72 au dÉPaRT by Michel BONTE Since 1923, the Le Mans 24-Hours race has always vaunted the fact that it has attracted the best drivers of every era. But it should not be forgotten that right from the very start, this race inspired the dreams of a number of local adolescents. Since the origin of the race and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest around forty have fulfilled their dream and have tackled the legendary Hunaudières (Mulsanne) straight.

PROMO

Published in 2008, 2000 copies. Format 27x20 cm. 200 pages, preface by Jacky Ickx - French only.

PoRsChe 956, skeTChes oF PeRFoRmanCe by Reynald HEZARD and David LEGANGNEUX

*72 is the number of the Sarthe department.

5 € instead of 30 euros

After ‘917 Sketches of Success’ which was universally acknowledged as a triumph both in terms of graphics and documentation, Reynald Hezard decided to tackle another ‘monstre sacré’, the Porsche 956, which he explored in his own inimitable style. This time David Leagangneux collaborated with him, and plunged into the archives of the era to come up with a rich vein of information. Over 500 documents retrace the history of all the chassis built backed up with contemporary photos, an individual history per car and reports on all the races in which it took part - all the ingredients that made the first book such a success!

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Jean Rondeau, une hisToiRe d’hommes de Michel BONTE

the age of 39 Jean Rondeau was killed in an accident in exeOUT OF Atcrable PRINT weather, but he has left an indelible mark on his era.

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Published in 2010, format 32x25 cm, prefaces by Norbert Singer and Jürgen Barth. 400 pages French/English over 500 original illustrations and photos, 3000 copies.

To date, the stubborn, demanding Le Mans inhabitant is the only driver to have won the Le Mans 24 Hours at the wheel of a car he designed himself. Published in 2010, Format 27x27 cm. 2000 copies, 192 pages and more than 200 photos most of which have never been published before – in French only. Preface by François Fillon

5 € instead of 30 euros

10 € instead of 49 euros

le mans RaCing ColleCToR’s BindeR You can classify your collection of magazines – up to 11 magazines per slip case: price 15 euros + postage.

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89 I

2013

I Summary

ALMS – WEC - ELMS

Summary

I 90

Summary I

91 I

2013

ALMS

I 2013

Sebring 12 Hours Audi’s swansong?

In 2014, the ALMS and Grand-Am will merge into a single series called United SportsCar Racing from which the LM P1s will be excluded. Audi didn’t pass up the opportunity to score its last (?) victory at Sebring leaving Rebellion Racing and Muscle Milk to battle for the ALMS title. The 2013 version of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro didn’t really show its superiority over the 2012 car as it was delayed by a puncture and then a penalty after a collision. At the end of the race Benoît Tréluyer took advantage of a shorter pit stop to keep Tom Kristensen behind, and the Frenchman helped by Marcel Fässler and Oliver Jarvis took the flag in first place. Audi scored another double and its eleventh victory at Sebring in 14 outings on the Florida circuit. Into third came the Heidfeld-Jani-Prost Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota followed by the Pickett Racing HPD with Romain Dumas at the wheel. Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graff took their revenge on the Rebellion car by winning the next two rounds of the ALMS at Long Beach and Laguna Seca.

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2013 I ALMS

93 I

WEC

I 2013

Silverstone 6 Hours McNish blows them away!

Toyota entered a brace of 2012 TS030s for the first round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship as the 2013 version wasn’t ready. The Japanese cars started from the front row. However, Toyota could do nothing about Audi and the Ingolstadt make scored a double. Dr. Ullrich did not give any team orders so his drivers were able to go head to head and the result was victory for Kristensen-McNish-Duval from Tréluyer-Fässler-Lotterer. The lure of winning the legendary Tourist Trophy inspired Allan McNish, who snatched first place from Benoît Tréluyer in the last five minutes of the race, helped by the fact that the Frenchman was handicapped by a defective hybrid system.

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2013 I WEC

_Although the Rebellion Racing Lolas managed to get involved in the ToyotaAudi duel, they finished behind their hybrid-powered rivals in fifth and sixth places winning the privateer category in LM P1 with Heidfeld-Jani-Prost beating Beche-Belicchi-Cheng.

_Despite John Martin’s off in the rain when he was leading the category the Delta ADR team won the LM P2 category with its second Oreca-Nissan in the hands of Tor Graves, Antonio Pizzonia and James Walker (the latter two were making their debut in prototypes).

_Aston Martin dominated in GT. Not only were Mücke-Turner-Senna unbeatable in the Pro category, but Nygaard-Poulsen-Simonsen also crushed their rivals in GTE Am and got mixed up in the battle for the top places in GTE Pro.

_Kamui Kobayashi made a promising debut in endurance, and helped by Toni Vilander the Japanese ex-F1 driver finished second in GTE Am.

_The Porsche 911 RSRs made a quiet start to their world championship campaign: one was delayed by steering problems and Lieb-Lietz-Dumas finished fourth in GTE Pro.

1. Duval-Kristensen-McNish (no. 2 Audi R18) 2. Fässler-Lotterer-Tréluyer (no. 1 Audi R18 n°1) 3.462s behind 3. Buemi-Davidson-Sarrazin (no. 8 Toyota TS010) 1 lap behind 4. Lapierre-Wurz (Toyota TS010 n°7) 1 lap behind 5. Heidfeld-Jani-Prost (no. 12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota B12/60) 4 laps behind (1st privateer) 7. Graves-Pizzonia-Walker (no. 25 Oreca-Nissan 03/Delta ADR) 13 laps behind (1st LM P2) 14. Mücke-Turner-Senna (no. 97 Aston Martin Vantage) 26 laps behind (1st GTE Pro) 19. Nygaard-Poulsen-Simonsen (no. 95 Aston Martin Vantage) 28 laps behind (1st GTE Am)

95 I

WEC

I 2013

Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours Toyota’s tough weekend

_Audi scored an impressive one, two, three and Fässler-Tréluyer-Lotterer were back in the winners’ circle in the WEC despite a fluffed start and a puncture. They won the race by over a minute from Duval-Kristensen-McNish and two in front of the long-tailed version of the R18 e-tron quattro of Di Grassi-Gené-Jarvis.

_The Kane-Leventis-Watts HPD saw the flag in seventh place after its Silverstone retirement behind the two Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyotas, which scored another double in the privateer category with Heidfeld-Jani-Prost followed home by their team-mates.

The Toyotas were unable to match Audi in terms of outright performance and also suffered reliability problems. The 2013 version of the TS030 (no.7 driven by Wurz-Nakajima-Lapierre) was eliminated by hybrid system failure when it looked a possible victory contender. In no. 8, the 2012 model, Davidson-Buemi-Sarrazin conceded three laps to the winning R18 e-tron quattro!

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2013 I WEC

_Michelin was back on top in the LM P2 category as victory went to the Minassian-Kaffer-Perez Companc Oreca-Nissan despite a puncture at the end of the race. A safety car period helped the trio in no. 49 to open up a gap.

_Morgan and Oak Racing scored another top-3 finish thanks to BrundleHeinemeier Hansson-Pla who were always among the front-runners. All the French team needs to win is a helping hand from Lady Luck!

_LM GTE Pro was the theatre of a fantastic scrap with the Bruni-Fisichella Ferrari F458 Italia getting the better of the Bell-Makowiecki-Senna Aston Martin helped by two stop and go penalties! Ferrari also won in GTE am thanks to Aguas-Malucelli-Potolicchio (8 Star Motorsports).

1. Fässler-Lotterer-Tréluyer (no. 1 Audi R18) 2. Duval-Kristensen-McNish (no. 2 Audi R18) 1m05.815s behind 3. Di Grassi-Gené-Jarvis (no. 3 Audi R18 n°3) 1 lap behind 4. Buemi-Davidson-Sarrazin (no. 8 Toyota TS010) 3 laps behind 5. Heidfeld-Jani-Prost (no. 12 Lola-Toyota B12/60/Rebellion) 3 laps behind (1st Privateer) 8. Kaffer-Minassian-Perez Companc (no. 49 Oreca-Nissan 03/Pecom n°49) 11 laps behind (1st LM P2) 15. Bruni-Fisichella (no. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia) 19 laps behind (1st GTE-Pro) 21. Aguas-Malucelli-Potolicchio (no. 81 Star 8 Motorsports Ferrari 458 Italia) 21 laps (1st GTE Am)

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ELMS

I 2013

ELMS Thiriet continues, Alpine makes its comeback The European Le Mans Series is now run by the same organisers as the WEC and it has undergone a renaissance with races whose duration is 3 hours. Jota Sport and Thiriet by TDS scored the early victories and Signatech-Alpine is hoping to break its duck soon!

Jotaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s red flag victory! The Silverstone event was hit by increasingly heavy rain and it was neutralised for a long period before being red flagged. Victory went to Oliver Turvey-Simon Dolan (Jota Zytek) who had started from pole.

Thiriet-Beche take their revenge! On the other hand, there were glum faces in the Thiriet by TDS camp because the team stopped at the wrong moment just when Thiriet-Hirschi were leading the race! The French squad took its revenge at Imola where the reigning championship duo Pierre Thiriet-Mathias Beche were back together again. Thiriet got the better of Simon Dolan and put himself in a position to retain his title.

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2013 I ELMS

From dreams to reality Carlos Tavares has made a dream come true – Alpine is back at Le Mans! The A450 is in fact a Nissan-powered Oreca identical in all aspects (apart from the headlight fairings) to the Thiriet by TDS car. However, the important thing was to bring back a name that not that many people under twenty remember – or if so, only a small number. After a difficult debut in the soft, refreshing English rain (!), the Alpine scored its first top-3 finish in Italy thanks to Pierre Ragues and Nelson Panciatici. An encouraging result and there’s more to come!

Scotland never gives up! Ecurie Ecosse is still run by Hugh McCaig, the man behind the team’s revival in the eighties, and the famous Scottish outfit has started a third life with the backing of Barwell Motorsport. After running an Aston Martin in the Blancpain Series, the Scottish squad has moved up another step by joining the ELMS this season in which it has entered a BMW Z4 in the GTC category. Their efforts have been crowned with success as after a victory at Slverstone and third at Imola, Ecurie Ecosse leads their category, another step on the road to their return to Le Mans in 2014.

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WORLD TOUR

I Results

In this revival issue, we thought that it would be a good idea to bring you up to date on the results since the start of the season. unable to double up, and on Sunday the victory went to Ulric Amado and Grégoire Demoustier (ART Grand Prix).

GRAND-AM 27/1 : Fifth Daytona 24-Hours win for Chip Ganassi and Scott Pruett with Juan-Pablo Montoya, Charlie Kimball and Memo Rojas in their Riley-BMW. They finished in front of the Max Angelelli, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Jordan Taylor Corvette. The third-placed Riley-Ford’s engine (Negri-Pew-Wilson-AmbroseAllmendinger) was found to be illegal. Michael Shank Racing lost its points and bonuses but retained its third place! Audi won in GT thanks to Albuquerque-Jarvis-Mortara-Von Moltke (AJR), and David Donohue’s Porsche Cayman came first in GX. 2/3 : In Austin, Gurney-Fogarty started from pole and gave the Bob Stallings Racing Corvette its first victory. They finished ahead of the Starworks Riley-Ford of Dalziel-Popow, who were handed a 3-point penalty in all championships due to a technical infringement on their refuelling equipment. AuberlenDalla Lana won in GT in their Turner BMW M3. 6/4 : The Corvette of Angelelli-J.Taylor won the 3rd round at the Barber Motorsports Park despite pressure from GurneyFogarty. In GT, victory went to the Edwards-Liddell Stevenson Camaro.

19/5: At Imola, the Sofrev ASP Ferraris scored a double. The winners on Saturday were Fabien Barthez and Morgan MoullinTraffort, and on Sunday Soheil Ayari and Jean-Luc Beaubelique.

Aston Martin was unbeatable at Silverstone. Sims-Dusseldorp, the McLaren leading home the JRM Nissan GT-R entrusted to Luhr-Kane-Dumbreck. In the championship Ramos-Rigon-Zampieri still lead.

FIA-GT 31/3 : The Loeb-Parente McLaren MP4-12C won the first round of the FIA GT Championship at Nogaro. The next day, Sébastien Loeb was penalised for undoing his seat belt too soon letting the Audi/WRTs led by Sandström-Stippler score a triple.

15/6: Mid Ohio saw a new winner: Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa in the Action Express Racing Corvette from the other Corvette of Potolicchio-Valiante and the Dalziel-Popow RileyFord. In GT, the Auberlen-Dalla Lana BMW scored its second victory.

VdeV 24/3 : Now officially badged by the FIA and backed by Michelin, the VdeV Series began in Barcelona. Mondolot-ZollingerFargier won in their Norma/Palmyr in Prototypes and in GT victory went to the Pagny-Bouvet-Perrier Visiom Ferrari. 21/4: At Mugello, Wolf won on home turf thanks to Ivan Bellarosa and Alessandro Latif. In GT, the Collard-CrubiléPerrodo Porsche came home first. 2/6: A Norma triple at Paul Ricard, Accary-Delafosse (CD Sport) from Capillaire-Bourdin and Mondolot-Zollinger. In GT, the Imsa Porsche of Belloc-Gibon finished first.

20/4: At Road Atlanta, Pruett-Rojas were back in the winners’ circle from Dalziel-Popow and Gurney-Fogarty. The Ganassi team leads the championship. In GT, the Edwards-Liddell Camaro came first again. 1/6: On the streets of Detroit, Angelelli-J.Taylor scored another victory in their Corvette from the one driven by BarbosaFittipaldi and the Dalziel-Popow Riley. They took the lead in the championship from Pruett-Rojas, eliminated on lap 1 in a collision. In GT, 3rd success on the trot for the Stevenson Motorsports Camaro.

9/6: At Spa, the Speedcar Audi R8 LMS scored its first win driven by Dino Lunardi and Vincent Abril. In the rain victory in the second race went to the Pro GT Porsche of Franck Perrera and Philippe Giauque.

30/6: Accary-Delafosse scored another win at Dijon ahead of Capillaire-Cavailhes and Mondolot-Zollinger, all in Normas. In GT, Gibon-Belloc led home Crubilé-Perrodo. Kox-Rosina winners at Zolder. 21/4 : At Zolder, the Kox-Rosina Reiter Lamborghini won succeeding the Ortelli-Vanthoor Audi/WRT, victorious the previous day.

SUPER GT 7/4 : The Super GT kicked off at Okayama. Honda emerged on top thanks to Izawa-Kogure, while Mercedes won for the first time in GT300 with Wirdheim-Hiranaka. Fred Makowiecki finished fifth on his Japanese debut. 29/4 : Kazuki Nakajima and James Rossiter headed home a Lexus one, two, three, four in the Fuji 500 km. Makowiecki finished tenth.

Accary-Delafosse won at Dijon.

Miscellaneous 12/1: Victory in the Dubaï 24 Hours went to the Black Falcon Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 driven by Jeroen Bleekemolen, Sean Edwards, Khaled Al Qubaisi and Bernd Schneider. 10/2: The Bathurst 12 H race was won by the Erebus Racing Mercedes SLS GT3 in the hands of Thomas Jaeger, Alex Roloff and Bernd Schneider. 19/5: After being stopped in the night because of rain and fog, victory in the Nürburgring 24 H went to the Black Falcon Mercedes SLS of B.Schneider-J.Bleekemolen-N.Thiim-S. Edwards.

Two wins for Barbosa-Fittipaldi. 30/6: Same result in the Watkins Glen 6 Hours: FittipaldiBarbosa beat Potolicchio-Valiante-Sarrazin in the final sprint and took the championship lead. Another top-3 finish for Starworks, this time with Hartley-Kaffer-Mayer. Their teammates Bourdais-Dalziel-Popow led briefly and finally finished eighth following a penalty. In GT, 4th victory for EdwardsLiddell.

BLANCPAIN 14/4: At Monza, 60 cars turned up for the first round of the Blancpain Endurance Series won by the Kessel Racing Ferrari F458 of Ramos-Rigon-Zampieri from the Leclerc-ParisySoucek (ART) and Carroll-Verdonck-Bell (Gulf) McLarens.

Nakajima-Rossiter, leaders of the Lexus armada. 16/6 : Nissan won at Sepang thanks to Matsuda-De Oliveira. The Honda of Yamamoto-Makowiecki came home fourth. .

GT TOUR 28/4 : McLaren double on the launch of the GT Tour on the Bugatti circuit. Winners on Saturday in the Sébastien Loeb Racing colours, Anthony Beltoise and Laurent Pasquali were

2/6: Aston Martin won at Silverstone thanks to MakowieckiMücke-Turner whose V12 Vantage dominated the race. The WRT Audis just picked up the crumbs with Ortelli-Vanthor-Rast in front of Stippler-Sandström-Mies. 30/6: The Marc VDS BMW Z4 came first at Paul Ricard driven by Maxime Martin, Bas Leinders and Yelmer Buurman. Hexis Racing scored its first top-3 finish of the year with ParenteAbril-Lunardi gave Speedcar its first win in the GT Tour.

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