Despite losing a pair of cars to two of the biggest accidents seen atLe Mans in recent years, Audi saw off the determined - and at timescontroversial – challenge of Peugeot to secure victory in the 79thrunning of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The #2 R18 of Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lottererhad been left to fly the flag for Audi after Allan McNish and MikeRockenfeller were involved in huge accidents before midnight onSaturday.
McNish failed to make it past the hour mark when he clashed withthe Ferrari of Anthony Beltoise at the Dunlop Curves and went off intothe barriers at high-speed, with debris from his car flying into aphotographers area on the side of the circuit.
Despite the violent nature of the accident, everyone involvedescaped injury, with McNish later returning to the circuit after abrief check in hospital.
Rockenfeller meanwhile would depart the race in even more dramaticfashion after darkness had fallen, with the German forced onto thegrass by Rob Kaufmann's GTE Ferrari at the kink after Mulsanne.Rockenfeller went off heavily into the barriers in an accident thatleft the #1 Audi little more than a pile of scrap metal, withRockenfeller spending the night in hospital for observation as aresult.
The #2 car was therefore left to fight against the three factoryPeugeot's for more than half of the race, with Peugeot employingsomewhat questionable tactics at times – with two separate incidentsthreatening to overshadow what would become a titanic battle forvictory.
Both Anthony Davidson and Marc Gene was guilty of blocking the Audidespite being a number of laps down, with Gene actually making contactwith the leader on two separate occasions.
As it was, the fight for victory came down to a final hour sprintbetween Lotterer in the Audi and Simon Pagenaud in the #9 Peugeot. Onits final stop, Audi gambled on putting fresh tyres on which allowedthe Peugeot to close in. Lotterer wasn't to be beaten however andresponded whenever Pagenaud tried to up the pace to take victory byunder 14 seconds.
Such was the fight to the finish, the traditional slowing down lapprior to the chequered flag had to be canned given how close theleading pair were.
Nic Minassian brought the #8 Peugeot home to the finish in third whileGene finished fourth in the #7 – which had lost time earlier in therace when Alex Wurz went off at Indianapolis. Team Oreca's Peugeot wasfifth, albeit 16 laps down after a race that featured its fair share ofdramas, including an off for Loic Duval that resulted in the rearbodywork flailing off the car as the Frenchman rejoined.
Rebellion Racing secured unofficial petrol honours in sixth placewith its #12 Lola-Toyota, the sister car having crashed out in the 14thhour when Jean-Christophe Boullion lost control at the Porsche Curves.The Porsche Curves would also be the section of circuit wherePescarolo's hopes of a top six finish on its return to the race endedwhen Emmanuel Collard went off into the tyres during a rain shower inthe closing hours.
The Kronos Racing Lola Aston Martin was the only other LMP1 carrunning at the finish, taking seventh place with its all-Belgian driverline-up.
Elsewhere in LMP1, the two Aston Martin AMR-Ones retired in thefirst hour with identical mechanical problems while engine issuesaccounted for the Quifel-ASM Zytek. The Hope Racing hybrid failed toinspire before eventually dropping out while OAK Racing saw both itscars in the top class retire from the race.
LMP2 honours went the way of Greaves Motorsport, with itsNissan-powered Zytek finishing a full eight laps clear of its nearestchallenger. The team was aided by the fact that defending championsStrakka Racing and Team Oreca both failed to finish having run towardsthe front of the class, but a strong showing from the small Britishoutfit left them as deserved class winners in eighth overall –youngster Olivier Lombard in particular impressing behind the wheel.
Signatech Nissan claimed second place with the Level 5 Motorsportteam taking third; putting three different chassis - Zytek, Oreca andNissan – in the top three places.
RML secured fourth place ahead of the #49 OAK Racing Pescarolo,although it remains to be seen if the fifth placed car will beclassified as a finisher after a late engine problem saw the carcomplete a very slow final lap.
A heated battle for GTE-Pro honours eventually went the way ofCorvette Racing, with the #73 C6 ZR1 of Olivier Beretta, Tommy Milnerand Antonio Garcia beating the AF Corse Ferrari of GiancarloFisichella, Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander to victory.
That went some towards making up for the fact that the sisterCorvette had crashed out of the lead when Jan Magnussen got out ofshape towards the end of the lap and took out the GTE-Am ProtonCompetition Porsche.
Third went to the #56 BMW M3 GT although it was a difficult race for the German marque, which saw the #55 retire.
There was also disappointment for a number of GTE-Pro teamsincluding JMW Motorsport, which was the last car in class to take thefinish after a myriad of issues, and Luxury Racing which failed to seethe finish with either of its Ferrari 458s. Special mention howevergoes to the Lotus Jetalliance team which managed to get its #65 Evorato the finish seventh in class. Given problems elsewhere, the Lotusalso finished third amongst those GTE-Pro cars registered for the ILMC.
GTE-Am went to Larbre Competition, with Jack Leconte's team securingthe top two positions in class. Its Corvette was the eventual winnerahead of its Porsche with third place going to the Robertson RacingFord GT, albeit many laps down on the winner. |
發表於 2011-6-14 10:34 AM
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