The Le Mans 24-hour race held annually in June is not merely about the fastest car. It is a race all about endurance. Cars must survive being driven flat out for 24 hours.
The winner this year completed 355 laps of the 13.6 km-long circuit, travelling a total distance of over 4,800 km, at an average speed of about 201 km/h.
Fastest lap was at around 239 km/h and the highest speed recorded on the straight was 339 km/h. Out of 56 starters, only half finished the race, with another 28 retiring as a result of accidents or mechanical failure. Crossing the finishing line at Le Mans is an achievement in itself.
There are four classes: LMP1, LMP2, GTE Pro and GTE Am. The LMPs are pure racing cars designed for the Le Mans series in Europe, America and Asia. They can have open or closed bodywork and compete in the LMP1 or LMP2 categories depending on their technical characteristics, weight and power. Engines can be petrol or diesel.
Barring major upsets, the overall winner is normally an LMP1. The GTEs are derived from sports or supercars, road-going vehicles with petrol engines only. Bodywork can be open or closed. The GTE Pro category is reserved for professional drivers whereas the GTE Am is aimed at amateurs and can have only one professional in the three-driver team of each car.
Hotly-contested battles between two contenders for the top honours have featured prominently in the history of Le Mans and this year was no exception. Audi have won ten times since 2000, losing only to Bentley in 2003 and Peugeot in 2009. Since 2006, winning cars have always been diesel-powered.
In 2007 Peugeot challenged Audi’s supremacy with their 908 diesel, and since then the battle at the top has been between Audi and Peugeot. Despite registering faster times in practice and taking pole position, Peugeot actually only won the race once in 2009.
This has understandably caused frustration in the Peugeot camp and in the run-up this year the rivalry between them and Audi reached an unprecedented level, with overtones of national honour and prestige being dragged in.
The situation became even more acute when Audi finally overcame Peugeot’s superiority in speed in recent years, and secured pole position for the first time since 2006. Encouraged by this, Audi seemed determined to consolidate their speed advantage and set a furious pace even in practice.
Audi entered three R18 TDI cars and Peugeot entered three 908s but a fourth, a 2010 model, was entered by Team Oreca Matmut. Competition among Audi and Peugeot drivers was very keen and the pressure on drivers was immense. During practice, both Romain Dumas (Car No. 1) and Tom Kristensen (Car 3) crashed, wrecking their Audis.
Danish Kristensen is a highly experienced driver and a winner no fewer than eight times at Le Mans, seven of them with Audi. Both cars were rebuilt and were at the start.
Pole position was taken by Audi No. 2, which started the race with Benoit Treluyer at the wheel. Beside him on the front row was Audi 1 driven by Timo Bernhard, followed by Peugeot 9 (Sebastien Bourdais), Peugeot 8 (Franck Montagny), Audi 3 (Allan McNish), Peugeot 7 (Alexander Wurz) and Team Oreca Matmut’s Peugeot (10).
After just one hour, approaching the fast curve after the Dunlop Bridge, Bernhard in Audi 1, who was closely followed by McNish, backed off slightly because ahead of him the Ferrari 458 (GTE Pro No. 58) driven by Anthony Beltoise was tackling the curve. McNish promptly overtook his team-mate Bernhard and in a decidedly risky manoeuvre also tried to overtake Beltoise on the curve. By then Beltoise was committed to his racing line and could not change course without going off track.
The two cars collided and the Ferrari spun onto the gravel but remained with all four wheels on the ground, stopping just short of the tyre barrier. The Audi flew up into the air, rolling and somersaulting and hit the tyre barrier with its nose pointing at the sky.
Fortunately it did not topple over the barrier where there were marshals and photographers.
The car was a wreck and a grim sight. All feared the worst and were extremely relieved to see McNish walk out of the car unattended. Later that evening he was released from hospital without injuries. No one else was hurt.
After only one hour, one of the three Audis was therefore out of the race. For many hours afterwards the Audis and Peugeots fought a ding-dong battle, but approaching the end of the eighth hour the situation changed dramatically. Mike Rockenfeller (Audi 1), then lying fourth and battling constantly with Simon Pagenaud (Peugeot 9), lost control while overtaking a slower car on the very fast approach to the Indianapolis corner and crashed into the barrier almost head-on at around 270 km/h.
The impact was tremendous and again everyone feared the worst but Rockenfeller was able to get out of the car on his own, though he then fainted. The rigidity of the Audi’s driver compartment undoubtedly saved his life, and a hospital examination showed only minor injuries. It took nearly two and a half hours for the guardrail to be repaired. Accidents this year brought the safety car out for a total of four hours and 53 minutes.
Resumption of racing after Rockenfeller’s accident restarted the prolonged Audi-Peugeot contest. The Audi still in the race was No.2 driven by Marcel Faessler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer, the least fancied before the race.
All three were relative newcomers, younger and considerably less experienced than team-mates Kristensen, Capello, McNish or Rockenfeller, but unlike their team-mates none of these drivers made mistakes, and Audi 2 held first place for two-thirds of the race. Treluyer had gained pole position with a lap of three minutes and 25.738 seconds, and during the race, he also made the fastest lap in three minutes and 25.289 seconds.
The Audi had a speed advantage but the Peugeots were more economical on fuel, managing one lap more than the Audi on a full tank. The Audi was hounded relentlessly by Peugeots 9, 8 and 7 but while 8 and 7 eventually dropped back, No. 9 (Bourdais-Pagenaud-Lamy) remained on the same lap and took the lead a few times.
The Audi was also harassed by the palled Peugeots who made it difficult for the Audi to overtake, and towards the end the pressure on Lotterer, driving the final stint in the Audi, was immense. His lead was at one point reduced to only seven seconds, but he kept his cool throughout and concluded a magnificent drive by going on to win the race, a triumph for Audi and its sole survivor but a great disappointment for Peugeot despite placing second, third, fourth and fifth.
Aston Martin also suffered a rather humiliating disappointment when their two AMR-One LMP1s both retired after only four laps, but the Lola Aston Martin LMP1 (22) entered by Kronos Racing placed a creditable seventh overall. One of its drivers was Vanina Ickx, daughter of renowned former racing driver, Belgian Jacky Ickx.
The LMP2 class was won by Greaves Motorsport’s Zytek Nissan (41) placing eighth overall, six laps ahead of the second-placed Oreca 03-Nissan (26) entered by Signatech Nissan which was ninth overall.
In the GTE Pro class the lead was initially contested by the Corvette C6 ZR1s, Ferrari 458 Italias and BMW M3 GTs but eventually Ferrari 458 No. 51, of which Italian former F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella was one of the drivers, took the lead and held it for five hours.
Electronic malfunctions then reduced its top speed by nearly 20km/h, and two hours before the finish it was overtaken by Corvette 73, which won the class (an excellent 11th overall) with the Ferrari second (13th overall).
Third was BMW No. 56 (15th overall). The winner in the GTE Am class was another Corvette C6 ZR1 (50) which placed 20th overall, followed by a Porsche 911 RSR-997 (70), both entered by Larbre Competition of France.
Le Mans past and the future
The Le Mans Legend is a separate race held on the Saturday before the main race. This is a 45-minute race for cars built between 1949 and 1965, divided into Sports Cars, Sports Racing Cars and Grand Touring Cars and further subdivided by age and engine size.
This is a bonanza for classic car fans. Apart from well known makes like Aston Martin, Jaguar, Ferrari, MG, Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Austin Healey and Lotus, there were rare marques like AC, Lister, HRG, Bizzarrini, Morgan, Triumph, TVR, Allard and Frazer Nash. Competing in a Porsche RS61 was Sir Stirling Moss, and after the race, at the age of 81, he announced his final retirement from racing.
In which direction will future Le Mans cars develop? At the top end, diesels have definitively ousted petrol engines – the best-placed petrol car was Rebellion Racing’s LMP1 Lola B 10/60 Coupe-Toyota, sixth overall but 27 laps behind the leading diesel Audi.
There are different forecasts but a move towards hybrid power sources, energy recovery systems and other technological innovations seems likely. Interestingly, the Le Mans organisers have reserved in next year’s race a special 56th place for a technologically innovative car to participate ‘outside the classifications’.
Some of the biggest names in American motor sport have therefore joined forces to showcase a unique concept vehicle capable of extreme performance with half the weight and horsepower of a traditional racingcar, by greatly reducing fuelconsumption and aerodynamic drag. Certainly a fascinating prospect.