Le Mans 2011

[Igorionia]

What a race!
Cangratulations to AudiTeam

[Schwalbe]

Epic Win for Audi Sport Team Joest despite all the drama. 
 
Shame on you Ferrari. 

[novass]

If you're not watching the race, do it now. About 30 minutes before, the 3 leading cars were driving within the same second!!! I don't remember a race as close as this. Hope the Audi can maintain the lead until the end. It's gonna be an epic final! (unless another Ferrari goes out of mind and sends the remainig Audi out of race... Five minutes after Novass turns on the TV LOL!)

I watched the last few hours and there were no major incidents 


Great race and a great win by Audi!  Great result for the Corvette too!

[gucom]

Meh!!!!! After having spent 4 friggin hours writing a report and selecting / cropping / adjusting photos, the stupid browser / virus protector somehow turned the TAU page I was writing in, into an error message --> all my text lost! Nearly smashed the computer, but since I'm at my parents' place I managed to control myself

so, here's the abbreviated version of my report.

My dad and I arrived on friday, as usual too late to see the driver's parade or the open pit lane, but at least we got a decent camping spot, and a nice sunset to go with it:


On saturday, after getting groceries, we went to the Porsche curves to see the Mazda 787b's demonstration laps. I borrowed my sister's camera (with 26x zoom ) for the weekend, which turned out really useful, but I was still learning to use it during the Mazda's laps so I only got 1 photo and 1 video out of it. Once I figure out how to post on youtube, I'll post it, although I'm sure there're many vids out there that are much better. Johnny Herbert was doing a nice job hustling it around, I could hear him coming from Mulsanne, which is about 3km from where I was.


After that, we went to the area between the Dunlop Bridge and the Esses. It's a natural theatre, with the cars running down one hill and up another, and hills all around the circuit from where to watch. Every time you change your position, you see things from a completely new perspective so it's a great place to watch.

Things started with the traditional fly-by from the French Airforce, with jet fighters producing a Tricolore in smoke over the start-finish straight.


At 15:00 exactly, the safety car pulled away from the installation lap and the race was started by Jean Todt waving the French flag. The Audi's, having qualified 1st, 2nd and 5th, started to creep away from the Peugeots, which qualified 3rd, 4th and 6th. The Audi's were one or 2 seconds a lap faster.


Behind the diesels, the battle for petrol supremacy was mainly between the (old) Pescarolo Judd and Rebellion Racing's Lola Toyota's.
It was great seeing the Pescarolo team on track again after their horrible year in 2010: team owner Henri Pescarolo, one of the true Le Mans legends, had gone into business with a "businessman", who promptly used his control over the new company to sell the racing team; it turned out he was only interested in the contract to build cars for a driving school. The fact he had said the team would continue racing didn't seem to bother him. Needless to say, Henri Pescarolo was furious but he couldn't do anything about it. At the auction of the team's assets, the owner of Pescarolo customer team OAK Racing bought all the assets and gave them back to Henri Pescarolo, allowing Pescarolo to race his cars again!

Rebellion Racing's Lola Toyota's came about when Toyota offered Swiss team Rebellion Racing (one of the most professional privateer teams out there) an engine and support; it is widely seen as a toe in the water by Toyota Motorsport. The cars have a unique-to-this-team front bodywork that gives them a hint of classic 1970's sport prototypes, I think they were one of the prettiest cars in the field this year:



The Aston Martin AMR-One's both retired after a few laps with a water pump problem of some sort, really disappointing

In LMP2, there was great diversity, with teams using several different chassis and engine combinations. All engines are based on road car engines, and the main battle was between teams using BMW, Honda or Nissan engines.

In GTE Pro, the battle was mainly between the BMW M3, Chevrolet Corvette and Ferrari F458. The Porsche 911 GT3, Aston Martin Vantage and Lotus Evora weren't quite fast enough to keep up with the pace. After a while, the BMW M3's developed some electrical issues which threw them back, but the leading Corvette and Ferrari also hit issues later on, which evened things out. One of the Evora's managed to finish 7th in class, pretty impressive considering that this was only its second race (and much, much better than the Aston Martin LMP1!). It sounds pretty raw, closer to the BMW M3's V8 than a Porsche's flat 6.


GTE Am(ateur) has the same basic rules as GTE Pro, only there must be at least one amateur driver and the cars must be at least a year old. It's a nice mix of cars, with Porsche 911's, a Corvette, Ferrari F430's (the F458 is too new), a Ford GT, an Aston Martin. It was a really unpredictable battle with lots of changes of the lead.

After about an hour, Alan McNish had his horrible accident. We were on the hill that he crashed into, and saw it happen before our eyes. At the run down from the Dunlop Bridge there's always plenty of overtaking but I've never seen a crash there, despite the fact that I've probably spent about 50% of my trackside time at Le Mans by that section. I was surprised and shocked enough already to see the Audi and Ferrari make contact there, but it was scary to see how much speed it was carrying when it skipped over the gravel (the fastest cars do almost 250khp in that section). It then disappeared from our view behind the wall, after which we saw it basically shooting up and exploding up in the air.
It was one of the most shocking and worrying moments of my life, I was really scared there would be dead drivers / marshalls / spectators lying there. When the crowd nearest the crash site erupted in a huge cheer, it was an enormous relief that apparently no1 was seriously injured.
It's an incredible testament to the safety of modern LMP's in general and the Audi in particular that McNish was able to pop open the door and walk away. Also, the protective measures at the track were JUST enough to make sure no one got hurt; one journalist apparently got his phone pierced by debris, he was really lucky! However, this could have gone so incredibly wrong, it's scary to think about it. Here at Le Mans, the deadliest accident in motorsport history occured in 1955, when the engine from a crashed Mercedes flew through the crowd and killed 80 (!!!) people. Thank god the Audi just about bounced back onto the track, instead of over the wall...

During the ensuing safety car period, we had an early dinner and then went to the Esses, a quick left-right sequence of corners before Tertre Rouge, which is the corner that starts the Mulsanne Straight. The exit of the 2nd corner of the Esses is a small hill, and if you stand behind it you see the cars disappearing behind the hill and then pop up over it, like a cat jumping on its prey. The sensation of their speed is incredible since the cars are doing over 200kph there, and they are coming almost straight at you if you know where  to stand. The cars get a little light and unsettled over the bumps, and it's not uncommon to see someone losing it and spinning. If the fastest LMP's didn't have their downforce I think they might get a little airborne...

Amateurs: two 911 GT3 RSR's in the GTE Am class. Still very very fast though! Flying Lizards and Felbermayr are two of the most experienced 911 teams out there.


The brute they call the (whisper it or it'll find you and tear your head off) Audi R18. This is the #2 car that ended up winning the race.


Slightly less brutish but hardly a sweetheart: Peugeot 908. The pink/black car behind it is the OAK Racing Pescarolo BMW (that team's owner was the guy who gave Henri Pescarolo his team back)


My favorite photo, the very photogenic Ferrari F458 Italia, of AF Corse. One of this car's drivers was Giancarlo Fisichella, they finished 2nd in GTE Pro. The 911 in the background finished 5th in class.


BMW M3 taking the first (left-handed) corner of the Esses:


Audi R18 running up the hill at the Esses:


As the night fell, I tried some long shutter speed shots with my own new camera (Samsung EX1). This is the best JPEG result, I haven't had chance to work on the RAW file yet, but I'm not dissatisfied:


A few minutes after I took this shot, Mike Rockenfeller had another horrible crash in the #1 Audi, also after getting a tap by a Ferrari. He crashed at the end of the Mulsanne Straight, but thankfully also escaped without serious injury. His crash did lead to a 2-hour safety car period while the organisation was repairing the guardrails.

This was unfortunate for the Peugeots: ever since Alan McNish's crash, the fastest Audi and 2 Peugeots had been fighting a really close battle, with all of them taking the lead and then giving it up as pit stops were made. The Audi's were slightly faster than the Peugeots, but the Peugeots were doing 1 more lap between pit stops. After about 6,5 hours, the Peugeots had won en entire pit stop on the Audi's, which gave them an advantage. Also, as the night was falling, it was actually the Peugeots that were a little faster. With only one Audi left, it looked like Peugeot might have the edge. Several other shorter safety car periods during the night and early morning meant Peugeot couldn't really extend its lead. One of the crashes leading to a safety car was the #60 Aston Martin Vantage, which left its driver with a punctured lung and broken pelvis. Another was the crash by the Pescarolo Judd, ending Henri Pescarolo's great comeback early.

As the morning came and temperatures rose again in the early morning, the remaining Audi was capable of pulling away a little from the only Peugeot that hadn't run into trouble, the #9 car. The Audi's drivers were doing laps of 3:26 or 3:27 regularly, which is about qualifying pace; this despite doing 4 stints per driver (up to 3 hours and 40 minutes of nonstop driving in difficult conditions). Also, Audi was able to balance some of Peugeot's fuel economy advantage by doing up to 5 stints (over 50 laps, or some 700km) per set of tires!! Imagine doing 2 F1 races and their qualifying sessions on the same set of tires, while setting qualifying pace lap times, and you get the idea how special this is. Peugeot "only" managed about 3 stints or just under 500km per sent of tires.

Later in the morning, and throughout the rest of the afternoon, there were some showers, but nothing to really cause any great problems. We went to the Mulsanne corner, at the end of the Mulsanne Straight, to watch the end of the race.

The #2 Audi kept running strong, and looked like a sure bet for the win. However, a slow puncture in the last hour forced them to pit before Peugeot, allowing Peugeot to respond to Audi's strategy. Peugeot took a gamble and didn't change tires, choosing to run on tires that were older than they had done so far. They came out of the pits 9 seconds behind the Audi, making all the French spectators go crazy with excitement. However, the Audi, on fresh tires, was just about fast enough to hold off the Peugeot, even though Simon Pagenaud drove the nuts off of the old tires and finished only 13.854 seconds behind the Audi. That's the 4th closest finish in Le Mans history, and only a 0.01630472% difference after 24 hours of racing!!!
The best Petrol car was the #12 Lola Toyota of Rebellion Racing; Toyota have really provided a good petrol engine here, but without the development budget of Audi and Peugeot, it still finished 17 laps behind the winners (but only one lap behind the rented old Peugeot diesel of privateer team Oreca).
In LMP2 it was 2 Nissan-engined cars ahead of a Honda-powered car (Greaves Motorsports, Signatech Nissan, Level 5 Motorsports). About Signatech Nissan: one of its drivers was the winner of the original Nissan GT Academy, a competition that started with a lap time on Gran Turismo, on the Playstation!! The class worked out really nicely I think, and not the race of attrition that LMP2 used to be.
GTE Pro was won by the only remaining Corvette, followed by the AF Corse Ferrari and the only remaining BMW M3.
The GTE Pro-winning Corvette:


GTE Am was won by Larbre Competion's Corvette, followed by that same team's Porsche and the Robertson Ford GT.

All in all an amazing race, maybe the best one I've seen so far. Aside from some heavy accidents and safety car situations, the conditions were very good and the pace was very high; this always means a lot of DNF's with mechanical failures, since the Le Mans circuit puts unique stresses on the internals of the cars. This year, 28 out of 56 starters failed to reach the finish, so exactly 50%.

Regarding the difference between petrol and diesel: this isn't my best shot, but I think it shows off the intricate details on the Audi R18. If you see how much thought has gone into the aero design of this car and the Peugeot 908, you realise it can't be just the engine that causes the difference between Audi and Peugeot, and the rest of the field. It's in everything they do: engine, chassis, suspension, aero, strategy, drivers, pit work... everything is flawless.


And finally, for a little romance feelgood story at Le Mans: This is the Robertson Racing Ford GT. It's driven by husband-and-wife Mr and Mss Robertson, and a professional driver. The Robertsons are crazy about Le Mans and have basically made this entire car happen, funding its development by Doran Racing and developing it further through their own racing in the ALMS. They finished third in the GTE Am class on their first appearance at Le Mans, and Mr Robertson arranged for Mss Robertson to take the chequered flag. And the icing on the cake: it was their wedding anniversary! Congrats!

[goodduck]

awesome stuff bart. some really cool up close shots there.


watching the McNish crash i immediately thought of you. I remember that we watched some of the race in 2007 from pretty much the same spot that he nailed. (if i remember correctly / saw it correctly on tv) pretty unreal that you witnessed that crash. it has to be the biggest since the flipping mercs in '99


its a testament to the safety of modern racing but also just pure luck that none of the photogs or marshalls were hurt or killed.

[novass]

Nice report and some awesome photos!

I have to see if I can find some footage of the 787 on youtube or something. 

[Schwalbe]

Thanks gucom for your great report & pix about Le Mans 2011. 
 
I really need to go there one day. 
 
 

[pzgren]

Thx for the report mate, one day i have to see that for real too!
 
what a race... and congrats to Audi - well done

[goodduck]

so lucky that nobody was hurt. would have really been a black mark on the sport / event

http://strassenversion.net/gif/mcnishcrash.gif

its clear that someone could have died.

[bmagni]

Great write up Bart. It's a trip we all want to do someday. The Ford GT story is pretty cool.

[gucom]

unbelievable, the car was basically doing a pirouette on top of the tire wall and ended up just on the right side of it... it's easy to understand what would've happened if the car had flown just a few cm higher, or if the wheels had flown in a slightly different direction...

indeed xander, that's pretty much where we stood and watched the race in '07.

to all of you who think about going there one day: you definitely should! Le Mans is one of the real icons of motorsports, it's part of the Triple Crown of Motorsports together with the Monaco GP and the Indy 500, and the atmosphere is just unbelievable. It still has the mixed character from the old days: part manufacturer's proving ground of technology, part amateur enthusiasts' childhood dream come true (which makes for a much friendlier and more purist atmosphere than F1), and for the spectators a great race and often a great excuse for a week-long party!

[danidmas]

Thanks for the write-up Bart, all my memories from the 2006 came back to me. Such a terrific race, I'd love to go back one day. Sadly, the Rebel Run is too close to Le Mans, so I always end up at the Nordschleife (which I do not regret, BTW) I had no idea about the story of the Ford GT, kinda romantic. I thought this kind of stuff didn't happen in professional racing anymore. I guess it's one of those things that make this race what it is: the best race of the year. 

[gucom]

you'd be surprised by the amount of entries fueled by nothing else than enthusiasm - the JLOC lamborghini entries come to mind; the last few years were nothing to write home about, but in earlier years, the Murcielago Le Mans racing program that was funded by the Japanese Lambo Owners Club was not bad at all (and the car sounded absolutely amazing).

If the Rebel Run ever moves to a date further away from Le Mans, you should definitely go back!

[danidmas]

If the Rebel Run ever moves to a date further away from Le Mans, you should definitely go back!

Indeed!

[gucom]

for those who wanted to see it, a proper vid of the mazda 787b gong round Le Mans. The sound bouncing off the walls when he goes through the start/finish straight... !

Mazda 787B onboard lap with Johnny Herbert at Le Mans 2011