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From speedarena.com Event Features As the second half of the running of the 75th 24 Hours of Le Mans started, Audi Sport had shown their might yet again with their R10 TDI, diesel powered sports cars. The #2 Audi took the lead before they even reached the Dunlop Bridge and has not relinquished it since. The #1 Audi fought their way through the field during the early part of the event to land itself in the second position during the fifth hour and has stayed there ever since. Only one small hiccup for the #1 car has slowed its advance when it had a coming together with the #63 Corvette and had to pit to change some bodywork. The only thing that has kept Audi from running the perfect race was the accident that retired the #3 Audi early in the race. Caught out by the rain, Mike Rockenfeller put the Audi hard into the wall at Tertre Rouge and left the Audi with too much damage to get back to the pits. The car was retired and Audis one, two, three finish were gone.
The two Aston Martin Racing DBR9s were fighting amongst themselves for the top two positions in GT1. The #007 car set fastest laps and started to real in the #009 car eventually getting to within 20 seconds of the leader. Enge, in the #009 car responded and increased his pace accordingly to stay in the lead. The #007 car then had an off in his car and returned to the pits for over eight minutes to have the front splitter replaced. It returned in fourth place behind the #63 Corvette and the #008 Aston Martin of Larbre Competition. Meanwhile, in GT2, the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari continued to follow the leading Ferrari of Jamie Melo and Risi Competizione. However, during the seventeenth hour, Melo spun on some oil, damaging the Ferrari. It returned to the garage for a lengthy pit stop to repair the front of the car and a radiator leak. That was, essentially, the end of their race and fell from contention during the stop. The Scuderia Ecosse car would take the lead followed by the IMSA Performance Porsche and the Autorlando Sport Porsche. It was also during the seventeenth hour of the race, that the leading Audi, driven by Dindo Capello, had crashed hard in Indianapolis Corner and was out of the race. The car had lost a left rear wheel entering the corner and went straight off and head first into the tire barrier. Capello got out of the car and looked to be ok. After the car was towed to safety, he tried to see if he could get the car back to the pits, it was not to be and the car would be retired. Capello was obviously disappointed as he walked around the car in disbelief. After a near perfect race, a faulty rear wheel/wheel nut would end their race. He later said: "I lost the rear left wheel at Indianapolis corner at approximately 260 kph. It was a horrible feeling, I was just a passenger, I couldn’t do anything to prevent a crash, and I just hoped for the best. But thankfully I was in an Audi, and I know that our engineers always put safety first. Despite such a heavy impact, I am in one piece and completely uninjured. But honestly no words can explain how I currently feel." After evaluation, it seems that the Audi was lowered off its jacks in the pits before the wheel was properly attached. The car was lifted back up and the wheel fitted, seemingly, properly. The car then felt ok to Capello as he reported back to the pits. Then moments later he went off and said that as he saw the wheel go by him, he knew what had happened. It also ended Tom Kristensen’s attempt at his eighth Le Mans victory. The #1 Audi would take over the lead of the race now as the final Audi still running. As the race progressed through the eighteen hour, three-quarter mark, the final remaining Audi continued to lead the race. With four laps in hand over the Peugeots, the lead was comfortable, but with the retirement of the other two Audis it could not get out of anyone’s head as to what might happen the last six hours. It would not take much of a problem for the Peugeots to make up those four laps or at least get close enough to make it an exciting finish. At the time of the #2 Audi retirement both of the Peugeots were lapping faster than the remaining Audi. The question was could the last Audi remain reliable and avoid any problems to stay out in front. The answer proved to be yes. The Audi was eventually able to increase its pace to match the Peugeots, stabilizing the lead. The pace, however, was picking up and soon all the top cars would be running the fastest laps of the event. As the eighteenth hour proceeded, the GT2 field started to mix up a bit. The Autorlando car suffered a puncture and soon after the leading Ferrari of Scuderia Ecosse would slow on the Mulsanne allowing the IMSA Performance Porsche to take over the lead in class. The Ferrari would be able to hold onto second position through the hour, however, it would soon retire from the event. The Autorlando Porsche would lose its third position to the bright green #99 Risi Competizione Ferrari of Tracy Krohn. The other Risi Ferrari that had lead so many hours through the night now suffered a water pump failure and they officially retired.
The leading Audi now continued to open up a lead. With an unscheduled pit stop for the #7 second place Peugeot for some minor repairs, the Audi was able to move out to a five-lap lead as we entered the last four hours of the event. The #8 Peugeot was a further two laps down from its teammate. The Binnie Motorsports Lola was cruising still in the P2 category with an eighteen lap lead over the #33 Barazi Epsilon Zytek running in second place, the only other P2 car still being classified after twenty hours. In GT1 the #009 Aston Martin was still leading the pack followed by the #63 Corvette, which was one lap down. The #008 Larbre Aston Martin and the #007 Aston Martin Racing DBR9s were still following behind in third and fourth trying to run down the Corvette. That was made harder for the #007 car as it had a puncture and a spin through the gravel. It made a pit stop to check for damage before returning to the race. In GT2, the IMSA Performance Porsche held onto the lead and with the retirement of the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari, the #99 Risi Ferrari would move into second position followed by the Autorlando Porsche. As the final two hours of the race approached, Mother Nature decided it didn’t want the race to end so predictably. The rains came and decided to make things interesting. Frank Biela in the leading Audi was one of the first to have a scare as he went straight through the Playstation Chicane. He was able to avoid the tire barriers though thereby not ending his race in the same fashion as his two teammates had earlier in the event. He was able to get back to the pits and with the rain coming down harder they made the change to full wet tires and higher downforce rear bodywork. Marco Werner took over the driving duties and the car continued without issue. The #7 Peugeot did not have as much luck and entered the pits with a mechanical issue. The car was put directly into the garage and the bodywork was removed. This dropped the car from second place and its #8 sister car took over the position. The car would be retired from the race and the #16 Pescarolo would move into the third position. The rain started to come down hard and cars started to pit for wet tires. Binnie remained in the lead in P2, the #009 Aston held onto the GT1 lead and the IMSA Performance Porsche held off Risi for the GT2 lead. With just under an hour to go in the race, the rain came so heavily that organizers put out the safety car. It would remain out for about a half hour as the cars circulated behind it. This severely hurt the chances for any of the chasing cars to catch their prey. The Corvette would likely not catch the leading Aston now without a problem; likewise the IMSA Porsche would be in good shape barring any sort of issue with it.
At the front of the field the #8 Peugeot was now experiencing problems as well and entered the garage only minutes after the safety car came out. The team would chase down an apparent oil leak in the engine compartment and get the Peugeot back on track with about twenty minutes remaining in the event. The track went green again right about the same time and the cars finished the last twenty minutes of the 24 hour affair. The yellow stabilized the top positions and they would go that way to the finish. In P1, the #2 Audi of Biela, Pirro and Werner would take the win over the #8 Peugeot of Sarrazin, Lamy and Bourdais. The #16 Pescarolo Sport of Collard, Boullion and Dumas would finish in third position two laps back from the Peugeot. In P2, the final two cars on track were the Binnie Motorsports Lola driven by Binnie, Timpany and Buncombe and the #33 Barazi Epsilon Zytek driven by Kurosawa, Fernandez and Kerr. They finished one and two respectively. In GT1, the closest battle on the track ended with the #009 Aston Martin of Turner, Brabham and Rydell taking the win over the #63 Corvette of Fellows, O’Connell and Magnussen. They officially finished six minutes behind the Aston, but that is misleading due to the rain as they were on the same lap as the Aston and under dry conditions would have surely been closer. The Larbre Competition Aston took third place with Bouchut, Gollin and Elgaard bringing the car home to a great finish for them. GT2 ended with the IMSA Performance Porsche of Narac, Lietz, and Long taking the win over the #99 Risi Ferrari of Krohn, Jonsson and Braun. The Autorlando Porsche was able to finish in a strong third with its drivers, Ehret, Nielsen and Simonsen bringing the car home. So overall, the race proved to be quite exciting with a little bit of everything thrown in. The top runners were not immune to problems and the weather proved to be a major factor in the event taking causing one of the Audis to retire and catching several other cars out during the 24 hours. Though the tight battle between the diesels did not materialize to be quite so close, it did keep things close for much of the event. The Peugeot, while having its fair share of issues during the event and eventually only having one car finish, did provide a great showing for the team that has been out of racing for years. They came with a brand new car and new technology and kept Audi honest. Without the perfect reliability that the #1 car showed, the Peugeot would have been right there to pounce. On paper it looks to be a dominating win for the Audi, leading start to finish, but they needed to have the perfect race to come out on top, they proved once again they could do that. P2 proved, once again, to be the class that just requires you to finish to podium. Only two cars remained running to take the checker. With the push of the Porsche Spyder and the Acura P2 cars in the American Le Mans Series, hopefully we’ll start to see everyone in this class pick up its pace in the upcoming years. Adrian Fernandez was here this year with the intentions of looking to the future with Acura. The ante will surely be upped soon in this class and hopefully it wont be the “last man standing” in the future. GT1 again proved to be the best racing on the track. Though this class suffers greatly in the United States, it shows again that with the right mix of cars this can be an excellent class to watch. Aston Martin finally got onto the top step of the podium after a heartbreaking defeat last year late in the event after leading most of it. This year they take the top spot and keep the Corvette behind them. The cars remained within a lap or two the entire race and kept everyone on the edge of their seats to see what would happen. When the rains came we thought that Corvette would have a chance as Fellows was able to lay down some very fast laps in the wet, however, too much rain ended that comeback as the safety car had to come out due to so much water on the track. Still a great finish for an exciting class. The team Aston Martin had some issues and failed to podium, however, the car proves to have the speed needed to contest the Corvettes as Larbre finished in third spot with their Aston. Hopefully we’ll see some Aston’s come back to the U.S. soon to take on Corvette. Lastly, GT2 often provides such great racing and this year was no different. Through much of the race it was too close to call and positions were swapped on a regular basis. Risi Competizione showed they were the team to beat through the night, but some bad luck and some oil on the track ended their dominance of the race. A great drive by their sister car though still put them on the podium when it was all over and allowed the youngest driver in the race, Colin Braun, age eighteen, to stand on the podium as one of the youngest drivers ever to do so. All the top cars overcame adversity to finish up top and it was great fun to watch. So the 75th running of the race comes to an end. It was witnessed by the biggest crowd in the history of the event, 250,920, and I’m sure none of them were disappointed. Well, maybe the French supporters were a little disappointed, but there is always next year and Peugeot and Audi will return. I’m already looking forward to it.
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2002 Speed Arena |
