Event Features
2007 24 Hours of Le Mans Race Report: Hours 1-12
By Text: Jim Sykes
Jun 16, 2007, 12:32

In the weeks building up to the 75th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, all anyone could talk about was the battle between the reigning champs - Audi and the new diesel boys on the block, Peugeot. Through the first practice sessions and qualifying, Peugeot showed everyone they were here to compete and ended beating out Audi for the pole position and setting the stage for a real battle when the green flag dropped on Saturday afternoon.

So far, through twelve hours the epic battle hoped for has not taken shape. Audi holds the top two spots at this point comfortably with the #2 Audi having completed 184 laps, its #1 sister car in second completing 182 and the third place #7 Peugeot completing 179 laps. While it is a definitive lead, Audi has a long way to go before it can really feel comfortable. Here is how we arrived at where we are now.

As the green flag dropped, the Peugeot of Sebastian Bourdais jumped quickly into the lead, however, he would only hold that position until turn two as he went too hot into the chicane before the Dunlop Bridge and took a trip through the gravel. Audi's Dindo Capello was able to take advantage and get past the Peugeot, a lead that he would hold for some time. In the next few laps, the other two Audis driven by Frank Biela and Lucas Luhr were able to also get by the Peugeot and put Audi solidly into the top three positions. Audi would hold those positions through the first hour, closely followed by the two Peugeots.

In P2, the battle was also intense. The Barazi Epsilon Zytek, driven by Adrian Fernandez took the early lead ahead of the Quifel-ASM Lola of Warren Hughes and the other Barazi Epsilon car driven by Michael Vergers. The three battled for some time swapping positions as Vergers moved up, but then he made a mistake trying to out brake his teammate and ended up spinning, leaving Hughes and Fernandez to battle it out. Hughes eventually took the lead and held it after the first hour and subsequent round of pit stops.


The two Team Aston Martin Racing DBR9s took the lead in GT1 and would stay there over the first hour, followed by the Larbre Competition Aston Martin and the #63 Corvette Racing C6R.

GT2 standings after the first hour were the IMSA Performance Porsche followed by the Flying Lizard Porsche and the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 430.

As the second hour began, so did the rain. Some heavy precipitation and the deployment of the safety car caused many cars to pit for wet tires and the field started to get shaken up. The most notable occurrence was with the #3 Audi driven now by rookie Mike Rockenfeller. Going into Tertre Rouge, Rocky got caught out by the slippery conditions and put the Audi into the wall causing considerable damage to the car. He would get out and try to see if he could fix it enough to return to the pits, but this was not to be and the car would be retired from the race. The course barriers would also need to be repaired leading to a fairly lengthy yellow flag period.

Rockenfeller was not the only driver to be caught out by the conditions. The Bruichladdich Radical driven by Tim Greaves also had an off and ended up returning to the pits with significant damage to the rear of the car. After inspection it was decided it was too great to fix and the car was retired.

Several other cars had trouble throughout the field. Tom Kristensen took a trip through the gravel in the Dunlop Chicane, but managed to continue, though #5 Swiss Spirit car was not so fortunate as it spun in the gravel left by the Audi and ended up in the gravel trap. The #9 Creation Autosportif Judd was pulled into the garage to be worked on and the #35 Saulnier Racing Courage was given a stop and go penalty. Additionally, Liz Halliday in the Noel Del Bello Courage clipped the Barazi Epsilon Zytek driven by Fernandez, in the pit lane, though neither car seemed to be damaged. Lastly, the #64 Corvette, driven by Oliver Gavin at the time stopped out on course with, what was thought to be, a driveshaft problem. Surprisingly and uncharacteristically for the Chevrolet team, the car would eventually be retired.

Due to the rain, the pit stops and the safety car, the entire field was bunched up much of the second hour. At the end of the hour, the #2 Audi of Capello, McNish and Kristensen was still in the lead but the Pescarolo Sport of Collard Boulliion and Dumas had fought their way back into second place and the #8 and #7 Peugeots followed in third and fourth respectively. In P2, the #40 Quifel Lola remained in the lead, but the #25 Team RML Lola was now running second and the #33 Barazi Epsilon car was now running third in class. In GT1, the cars were very close with the #009 Aston Martin still leading, but now with the #63 Corvette right behind it and the #007 Aston Martin running on the Corvette’s tail in third place. In GT2, the Autorlando Sport Porsche made its way into the top position followed by the Panoz of Team LNT and the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 running in third.

The rain showers continued through the third hour and it took over an hour to repair the damage done at Tertre Rouge due to the Audi accident. When the course finally went green again just after the end of the third hour of the race, the Audi lead the two Peugeots and the #16 Pescarolo in fourth, which used the safety car time to do work on the car under yellow and retain that fourth position. After a pit stop though it took a position in fifth behind the #1 Audi that took over the fourth spot.

The track dried out over the next period of time and Kristensen used it to his advantage as he tried to stretch out his lead over the Peugeots. Biela in the other Audi also started putting in quick times to close the gap between him and the Peugeots in front of him. At the end of the fourth hour, Tom Kristensen and the #2 Audi was able to turn that lead into a two and a half minute one over the #8 Peugeot. Biela was able to catch the #7 Peugeot and take over the third spot, now running a lap down to his teammate.

Hughes in the Quifel Lola was able to maintain his first place position in P2, the #33 Barazi Epsilon Zytek had worked its way back into second position after Andy Wallace had on off in the RML Lola right before the end of the hour and the Noel Del Bello Courage was now running third.

The GT1 battle was heating up as the leaders swapped positions after the restart. Eventually, the #009 Aston found its way back around the Corvette that took the lead on the restart and eventually the #007 Aston also got by the Corvette to make it an Aston Martin 1, 2 at the end of the hour followed by the #63 Corvette.


In GT2 the Autorlando Sport Porsche remained at the top of the leader board followed by the Risi Competizione Ferrari now driven by Mika Salo and the IMSA Performance Porsche had worked its way back into the third position.

Over the next several hours, Audi continued to lead the race with the #2 car. The #1 sister car had eventually worked its way back into second position during the fifth hour and it was an Audi 1, 2 and the remaining R10s would run in that order all the way up to the end of the twelfth hour and the halfway point of the race. The only real scare came on lap 105 when the #1 Audi of Biela came together with the #63 Corvette and had to pit to repair damage to the rear bodywork. The work was done without issue and he returned to the race to continue to run in second.

The #8 Peugeot that had been running in the top three had its first mechanical issue and had to pit for repair. The car would soon rejoin the race but was now running down in eighth position.

The #17 Pescarolo also had a major mechanical issue, which turned out to be an oil leak. They would eventually track down the leak and return to the race shortly before midnight.

There was a short safety car period around the end of the seventh hour as the #9 Creation Autosportif car had an incident that put it into the tire wall and caused them to spend significant time in the pits to repair the car.

In P2 the lead was swapped several times. After the end of the seventh hour, the #33 Barazi Epsilon car was holding the lead, but after the eighth it was the Quifel car again in the lead and then they had a wheel fall off the car while on track and so after the ninth hour, the #33 car had taken the lead again. The #31 Binnie Motorsports Lola took the lead during the tenth hour and it would remain there till the halfway point.

GT1 had turned into an Aston Martin show over the next few hours. After seven hours it was the two Aston Martin Racing cars running 1, 2, with the #007 in front of the #009 car. The only competition had been from the #63 Corvette now running in third. It would remain that way through the twelfth hour of the race, with two more Astons running in fourth and fifth and the two Oreca Saleens rounding out the top seven.

Also during the seventh hour, Risi Compeitizione took the lead of GT2 in their Ferrari F430. Everyone expected them to be a force in this event considering their extremely strong performances in the American Le Mans Series. Risi had started slow, but now took over the lead, which they would keep all the way up to the twelfth hour. Behind them the Autorlando Porsche, IMSA Performance Porsche, Flying Lizard Porsche and the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari would all do battle with the Autorlando and Scuderia Ecosse cars both swapping their second and third position places through the tenth hour. During the eleventh hour the IMSA Performance car made a run into the second position followed by the Autorlando and Scuderia Ecosse teams. Before the end of the twelfth hour the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari passed the Autorlando Porsche for third where they would stand till the halfway point with the Ferrari of Risi Competizione in first, followed by the IMSA Performance Porsche.


So while the race has certainly had its fair share of excitement and racing through the first half, it hasn’t quite turned out to be the Audi/Peugeot battle that many expected or hoped to see. The R10s have just proven to be too fast and too reliable at this point for the newcomer Peugeots to contend with. However, we are only halfway through a long event at this point and as Le Mans has always shown, anything can happen at any time. It’s not over yet.

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