Le Mans, 16 – 17 June 2012

The 80^th running of the fabled Vingt Quatre 24 Heures du Mans took place over the weekend of 16 – 17 June, with a full grid of 55 cars plus the “Garage 56” Nissan DeltaWing concept sports prototype. This technically innovative and radically different looking proposal for the sports racing car of the future, was permitted to run in the race on race number 0, but as it didn’t fully comply with any current class regulations, it was ineligible for points or race position. The latter became academic, as it retired after a crash on the Saturday evening, but not before giving the crowds a taste of what the future might hold.


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Despite variable weather during the week leading up to the race, with rain blighting the driver’s parade on the Friday evening, there were the usual massive crowds, both around the streets of the town for the parade, and at the circuit for the race itself. The official attendance figure was 240,000 people, and the race provided them with plenty of excitement and many twists and turns as it unfolded. The rain that swept in on Friday evening abated, but then became heavy during the night and continued into Saturday morning, meaning that the two support races, one an Aston Martin Challenge, and the other for Group C sports racing cars, were both held in miserable conditions. At lunchtime on Saturday it had lessened, but the skies were still leaden, so I was surprised during a chat with Emanuele Pirro in the Audi hospitality unit at around that time, to hear him state that it would be a completely dry race! My response was “how can you be so sure given the current conditions”, he said (with a wink) “the information came from Michelin, and they should know!” Sure enough they were right, by the time of the start at 15.00, the skies had cleared and although a few black clouds hovered overhead occasionally during the course of the next 24 hours, there was no discernable precipitation.

The battle for overall victory was always going to be between the quartet of Audis, two hybrid R18 e-tron quattros and two regular diesel R18 Ultras, and the pair of hybrid Toyota TS 030s, with the regular petrol engine LMP1 runners having to be satisfied with the crumbs. During the practice sessions and qualifying these six cars regularly swapped fastest laps, but at the end of the day it was Audi that claimed pole position with their # 1 R18 e-tron quattro of last year’s winning driver line-up of Fassler / Lotterer / Treluyer with a lap of 3min 23.787secs, some 2secs quicker than their  2011 pole position time in a R18 TDI. The # 3 R18 Ultra driven by Bonanomi / Jarvis / Rockenfeller was 2^nd quickest, 0.291sec adrift, with the # 8 Toyota TS 030 of Davidson / Buemi / Sarrazin 3^rd quickest. The fastest of the petrol engine runners was the Strakka Racing HPD ARX 03a-Honda of Leventis / Kane / Watts, but was 5.835secs off the pole setting time. Unfortunately they had a problem on the starting grid, and the car had to be pushed back to the pits for remedial work, eventually starting from the pit lane. Although the # 8 Toyota was only 3^rd quickest in overall lap time, it was the fastest car through the speed trap at 335.2kph (209.5mph), which was 4.1kph quicker than the fastest Audi, the # 4 R18 Ultra.

The Pescarolo team normally perform well at their home circuit, but 2012 was an awful year for them, starting with a crash for their new 03-Judd in the first practice session, and then the car didn’t make the grid, starting later from the pit lane, but only completed 20 laps in the race before retiring. Things were only slightly better for their second entry, the Dome-Judd, which spent a lot of time in the pits, and actually sat there for the latter hours of the race, before making a token reappearance just before the finish to complete one slow lap and take the chequered flag, although it hadn’t completed enough laps to be classified as a finisher.

In the other classes, the LMP2 class pole position was won by the # 25 ADR-Delta entered Oreca 03-Nissan of Martin / Charouz / Graves, with the LMGTE Pro class pole being taken by the # 59 Luxury Racing entered Ferrari 458 Italia of Makowiecki / Melo / Farnbacher, and the LMGT Am class one being won by the # 79 Flying Lizard Motorsports entered Porsche 911 RSR of Nieman / Pilet / Pumpelly.

From the time that the field was released from behind the pace car at 15.00 on Saturday afternoon for the rolling start, it was an immediate battle between the quartet of Audis and the pair of Toyotas, as they pulled away from the rest of the pack, regularly swapping places during the opening hours into the evening. Approaching 20.30 the then leading # 8 Toyota, driven by Anthony Davidson, was passing the # 81 Ferrari 458 Italia, which apparently didn’t realise that the Toyota was there, and moved over to take his line, collecting the Toyota in the process, which resulted in a horrific looking accident. The Toyota cartwheeled across the gravel trap and into the tyre barrier, with the Ferrari following a similar trajectory to end up on its roof alongside the Toyota. Anthony Davidson was taken to hospital, where it was determined that he had damaged two vertebrae in his spine, causing enormous pain, but the prognosis is good for a full and relatively speedy recovery. This incident caused a lengthy safety car period, as the crash barriers had been damaged, and needed to be repaired. A little later it was the turn of the # 7 Toyota to hit trouble, as it sideswiped the Nissan DeltWing while overtaking a gaggle of cars, putting the DeltaWing into the barriers and out of the race, and necessitating a pit stop for the Toyota to effect repairs to the body damage. Its challenge didn’t last much longer, as it was officially retired at 01.37 on the Sunday morning, with the reason being given as “engine”.

This left the four Audis to fight amongst themselves for overall victory, and if one looks at the results, it was a straightforward full podium for Ingolstadt, but that was far from the case! Amongst the variety of woes suffered by the team on the way to victory, the # 4 car suffered from recurring electrical problems, which thwarted steady running, the # 1 car had a trip across a gravel trap and glanced the barrier avoiding a spinning Corvette, and the # 3 car had two accidents, each taking most of the front bodywork off the car. The second of these happened within minutes of the # 2 car crashing with just 3 hours to go, that car also suffering from front body damage. So the hard worked Audi mechanics had two damaged cars in the pits at the same time! All credit to the strength of the cars, and the valiant efforts of the team, that they were both quickly repaired and out on the track again. The # 2 Audi also had a trip across a gravel trap whilst trying to overtake the # 1 car, so it can be seen that although it was a display of supremacy at the end of the day, the overall podium lockout didn’t come easily. When the chequered flag fell at 15.00 on the Sunday afternoon, it was the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of 2011 winners Fassler / Treluyer / Lotterer that took the win, one lap ahead of # 2 example of Capello / Kristensen / McNish, with the R18 Ultra of Bonanomi / Jarvis / Rockenfeller taking the final podium slot, three laps down on the winning car. The two accidents for the # 3 R18 Ultra dropped it to 5^th place, with the # 12 Rebellion Racing Lola B12 / 60-Toyota of Prost / Jani / Heidfeld taking 4^th spot, and the best of the petrol engine runners. This was Audis 11^th win at the Le Mans 24 Hour Race, and the first victory for a hybrid car, so despite all the problems during the race the Audi team had good reason to celebrate.

The LMP2 class win went to Le Mans rookies Starworks Motorsports from the USA, after a number of the more seasoned teams fell by the wayside, with the # 44 HPD ARX 03b-Honda of their drivers Potolocchio / Dalziel / Kimber-Smith standing on the top step of the podium. The other podium places were filled by Oreca 03-Nissans, the # 46 Thiriet by TDS Racing example of Bache / Thiriet / Tinseau finished 2^nd, and the # 49 Pecom Racing example of Perez Companc / Ayari / Kaffer was 3^rd. This was the largest class and had the highest rate of attrition with eight out of the twenty starters retiring.

In the LMGT Pro class, victory went to the # 51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Fisichella / Bruni / Vilander, which was some compensation for their late race defeat in 2011, when brake problems caused Fisichella to have an accident when leading in the closing stages, resulting in a 2^nd place class finish. Even this year the win wasn’t without problems, as Fisichella crashed the original car in the Wednesday practice session, necessitating it being rebuilt into another chassis for the race. The 2^nd spot on the podium went to the class pole sitting # 59 Luxury Racing example driven by Makowiecki / Melo / Farnbacher, with the # 97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 of Fernandez / Mucke / Turner taking the final podium place. In the LMGT Am class, the #67 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 RSR of Armindo / Narac / Pons, had a lengthy battle with the # 50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette of Bornhauser / Canal / Lamy, and was narrowly leading in the dying minutes of the race when it suffered a puncture, handing the class win to the Corvette, but survived to take 2^nd place on the podium. After only starting 10^th in the class, the # 57 Krohn Racing Ferrari 458 Italia of Krohn / Jonsson / Rugolo had a steady run to take 3^rd in class, as more fancied runners hit a variety of problems.

Keith Bluemel         
06 / 2012


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