Le Man 24HRS

[Rob]

7h03m All eyes are now on the Risi Competizione pits to see when Jaime Melo will bring the class-leading #82 in.

[Rob]

7h14m The GT2 lead fight has died off for the time being, as we wait for the leading #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari to come into the pits. It enjoys a one minute lead over the #64 Corvette currently, with the #63 Corvette still third.


7h15m The #82 is in now and there is no driver change. Jaime Melo stays on board and it's fuel only. Out he goes and we'll update shortly where it is in relation to the Corvette.

[Rob]

7h22m The fourth placed GT2 car #77, the Felbermayr Porsche comes into the pits. Richard Lietz stays in the car and he rejoins the race.

[Rob]

7h27m The action has settled down a little following that rash of class-leading pitstops - save for the fact that the GT2 fight between the #82 Ferrari and the #64 Corvette is back on again. The gap is just two seconds.

must go, and carry on watching race. This is going to be cracker. Forza Risi

[Sianellen]

A shame for the Risi #82 Ferrari having to be pushed into the garage

[epiclyaddicted]

I know, heart breaking (a bit like footy, actually)!

The #82 Risi Ferrari was doing so well, fighting for the GT2 lead with the Corvette after starting from the back of the grid, could have gone on to win the race. Shame about the gearbox problem.

[Rob]

I know, heart breaking (a bit like footy, actually)!

The #82 Risi Ferrari was doing so well, fighting for the GT2 lead with the Corvette after starting from the back of the grid, could have gone on to win the race. Shame about the gearbox problem.

really really gutted, could of won this, especially now that both vette's have fallen aswell happy that pugs are being beaten and the smugness has gone.

[Rob]

95 Fisi goes straight on at Indianapolis and reports brake failure.
13/06/201010h06- Auto NewsThe #95 AF Corse Ferrari 430 went straight on at Indianapolis in the hands of Giancarlo Fisichella.

He brings it back to the pits to repair front end damage - it is thought the brakes failed.

[Rob]

#64 grinds to smoky halt at Mulsanne corner
13/06/201009h43- Auto NewsOlly Gavin driving Corvette #64 grinds to a smoky halt at Mulsanne corner and is pushed behind the wall.

Olly has now got out of the car.


#63 Corvette suffers engine failure www.autosport.com

By Kevin Turner Sunday, June 13th 2010, 05:43 GMT


Chevrolet's efforts to win the GT2 class on the 50th anniversary of its Le Mans debut have taken a blow after the second-placed car suffered a suspected engine failure.

The two works Corvettes had led the competitive GT2 category since the demise of the Risi Ferrari late on Saturday.

The #63 car was still on the same lap as the leading #64 machine and Antonio Garcia had just climbed aboard when it pulled off the road and stopped.

Johnny O'Connell, who had been sharing the car with Garcia and Jan Magnussen, told AUTOSPORT: "It's something in the engine. I don't know of any over-revs or anything like that.

"The thing about it is that it can happen to the #64 car, so they might back it off a bit."

The #77 Felbermayr Porsche is now up to second in GT2, just under two laps behind the remaining Corvette.

[Rob]

19h45m Jean Alesi with a good outlap in the #95 Ferrari 430, which looks to have recovered from its earlier technical problems

[Rob]

Update 11am after 20hrs
13/06/201011h06- Positions at 11am were:

Overall and LMP1 #9 Audi leads #8 Audi by 20secs

LMP2 #42 HPD leads #35 Pescarolo by 7 laps

GT1 #50 Saleen leads #52 Aston Martin by 5 laps (only 3 GT1s left)

GT2 #77 Porsche leads #89 Ferrari by 2 laps

32 cars still running out of 55

[Rob]

H20: Audi duo remain in control

By Steven English Sunday, June 13th 2010, 09:04 GMT www.autosport.com

Romain Dumas and Andre Lotterer are holding station in the #9 and #8 Audis as the German manufacturer moves nearer to a surprise Le Mans victory.

The pair are separated by two minutes as they continue to reel off lap after lap at the head of the field. Alex Wurz is now at the controls of the #1 Peugeot, but still one lap down.

Allan McNish is still fourth in the #7 Audi, but Loic Duval is now just 1m30s behind and closing in at four seconds per lap.

Juan Barazi has had two more offs in the #009 Aston Martin, but managed to hand it over to Darren Turner in sixth place, over a minute ahead of the #15 Kolles Audi.

There was more drama for Aston Martin when the #008 Signature car went straight on into the wall at the first Mulsanne chicane.

The Highcroft HPD's challenge has fallen away due to a persistent problem with the cooling system, leaving the Strakka car eight laps clear in LMP2.

In GT1, the Larbre Saleen is back on course after its earlier off and maintains a comfortable five-lap advantage over the Young Driver Aston Martin.

Richard Lietz is now at the wheel of the #77 Felbermayr Porsche in the lead of GT2. The 911 is two laps clear of the Hankook Ferrari, with the BMS Scuderia Italia Porsche in third.

The sole remaining BMW has been pulled back into the garage for repairs, while the Prospeed Porsche has spun into the gravel at Indianapolis for the second time in two hours.

[Rob]

21h06m Wurz in the #1 is now only 43 seconds behind the #8 Audi, which should be in the pits fairly soon.

[Rob]

13.06.2010 The Fairy Tale Ends For Risi Competizione

When the No.83 Krohn Racing Risi Ferrari entered the pits at 0613 hrs this morning with smoke coming from the rear, there were glum faces all round as the engine problem proved to be terminal. It is the first time since the team has been racing the storied, and extremely successful Ferrari F430 GTC that neither car has made it to the checkered flag at the French classic.

With the No. 82 car already parked up in the pits due to gear selection issues (officially retired at 0100 hrs), all hopes were being pinned on the familiar green and blue liveried Ferrari which has achieved two GT2 podium finishes in the last four years. Nic Jönsson was at the wheel of the Ferrari and explained what happened: “I was coming into the second chicane on the Mulsanne and the engine stumbled; it felt like there was fuel starvation. Then there was a big puff of smoke in the back and the crank case pressure dropped. There wasn’t any warning or temperature change or anything.”

Since overcoming a persistent understeer problem early in the race, the No. 83 Risi car was making steady progress and all three drivers had driven without any issues during the night and early morning. It was a hugely disappointing end to the team’s troubled weekend.

Risi Ferrari No. 82 Driver Quotes:

Pierre Kaffer: “It was a very unusual problem which happened to the Risi Competizione team and for Ferrari. They have such great gearboxes normally and it was a shame we got such an unlucky problem. We need to analyze everything to find out what the problem was. It’s a pity after such a great race with Corvette.”

Jaime Melo: “We tried our best and everything was working properly. We gave everything we had from the cars to the team and drivers, but maybe that wasn’t enough today. The competition is so strong with the Corvettes, as they showed us, and it would have been a great battle but the gearbox didn’t help us.”

Gimmi Bruni: “It was very disappointing to finish like this. Pierre, Jaime and I recovered from last on the grid to first until the car had the problem. It’s a shame but that’s the way it goes. I feel sorry for the team and Ferrari who have all been working so hard for this race but, unfortunately, it’s this thing called ‘racing’ and it proves that things can happen even in the F430’s life.”

[Rob]

21h10m Meanwhile, the #4 Oreca Peugeot is chasing the #7 Audi driven by Tom Kristensen and the gap between fourth and fifth is now 51 seconds.

21h08m Mike Rockenfeller continues to lead around a lap clear of that pair but certainly can't afford any delay in this fast-paced run to the finish.

looks like the LMP1 race isnt over yet, fingers crossed the Audi's can take 1-2 this year. Hope they can find and improve the speed of the R15 plus. Then next year they have the R18.

[epiclyaddicted]

Yeah I didn't expect the LMP1 race to be so tight, I thought the Pugs would just drive off into the distance. Fingers crossed the Audis can hold station and cruise home to take the 1-2.

But such a shame about Risi though!

[Sianellen]

hopefully Alesi, Fisi and Vlander can pick up a podium

[RED]

Feel really sorry for Wurz and the team.

[Mitra]

i wanted the number 1 Peugot to win, i wanted to see Gene take it over the line
oh well, hopefully Fisi and Alesi make it to the podium

[Rob]

i had family get together this afternoon. and missed last2 half hours. Got it recorded, so watch it later, but already now the result. Great for Audi 1-2-3 fantastic.

[Rob]

Allan McNish on the retirement of the last remaining Peugeot
13/06/201013h48 Allan McNish, as the last remaining Peugeot retires says:

"The race come down to reliability, we've all won it (Peugeot, Oreca and Audi), so I know the highs and lows. I feel very sorry for Oreca but also somewhat relieved, as it takes pressure off our car."

[Rob]

Audi claims win as Peugeot crumbles

By Steven English Sunday, June 13th 2010, 14:08 GMT www.autosport.com

Audi claimed a shock 1-2-3 victory in this year's Le Mans 24 Hours after Peugeot suffered a catastrophic collapse from the stronghold it enjoyed early in the race.

Peugeot was cruising, with the #2 car in particular looking almost certain for victory, but reliability woes plagued the 908s throughout the race and each of its cars ground to a halt before the end. That left the race to fall into the laps of the unfancied Audi R15s, which had been unable to compete with the raw pace of the Peugeots all week long.

Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller clinched their maiden Le Mans victories in their first year together, while the #8 car of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer followed home in second. The favoured Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen, Dindo Capello car was the one to hit trouble during the race and recovered to complete the podium.

But, as expected, it was Peugeot that romped off into the distance early on, with the ORECA example also leaving Audi in its wake. But their formation was broken inside the three-hour mark when a suspension failure damaged the tub of the #3 car and Pedro Lamy, Sebastien Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud were spectators before the latter two had even been strapped in.

The #1 and #2 cars ran closely up front into Saturday night. A safety car period separated them for a while before the next of the problems struck. The #1 car lost four laps in the pits to alternator trouble and the rest of its race became a charge to catch up. Ultimately it was the last of the factory cars to expire, but only after 13 hours of intense charging from Anthony Davidson, Alex Wurz and Marc Gene.

It clawed back time right through the night, but was always fighting a losing battle to make the progress required. Davidson gave it everything and a bit more during his stints: spinning early on, colliding with a Ferrari during the night and then playing his part in an incident that dumped the #64 Corvette out of its GT2 lead. Davidson was trying to lap Emmanuel Collard at the Porsche Curves when the pair got a little close for comfort. There was no contact, but Collard spun into the wall, though Davidson later protested his innocence.

Ironically, the best hope for the #1 car came after the demise of the #2 from the lead on Sunday morning. Once chasing an Audi two laps ahead, rather than another version of itself four laps ahead, it began to make real progress. Wurz was at the controls and homing in on the #8 for second place when the Peugeot engine let go at Indianapolis and all he could do was lead a thick trail of oil all the way back to the garage.

That was curtains for the factory team with the #2 car of Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Nicolas Minassian having gone out early on Sunday, also with a blown engine. This car was not even on a caution to the wind charge, it had been settled into a two-lap lead all the way through the night and was lapping no quicker than it had to. This retirement more than all the others in the last three years exposed the fragility of the 908, even when it enjoys such a performance advantage over its rivals.

During the closing stages, all Peugeot had left to hope for was that its customer car might still be able to sneak third and stop Audi taking a clean sweep of the podium. Not exactly what it had in mind when its 908s took to the track on Wednesday as easily the fastest cars in town.

But the ORECA car's desire to charge all out in an attempt to topple just one Audi from the rostrum ended predictably prematurely with an almost identical failure to that of the #2 car. And so Audi, which had not been given a prayer of victory since crossing the French border, found itself with a 1-2-3.

Yes, this was a case of Peugeot snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and Audi inheriting glory only when those ahead faltered, but that is not to say it was not deserved. Audi simply did its sums. It was not that Peugeot pushed too hard and blew up all its cars. Far from it. But that did not matter.

This was Peugeot's race to lose. They knew it, and so did Audi. It was never going to be much of a poker game. Audi would ride its cars only as hard as it knew it could, while Peugeot would sit ahead of Audi and hope for the best. The Audi R15 responded dutifully. The Peugeots misbehaved. The worrying thought for Peugeot is that its flagship machine might just be fundamentally flawed. Even when you treat it nicely it is a fragile creature with a cruel streak and a habit.

And this time it was not the fancied Audi that came through. It did not need the outstanding individual performances that won the 2008 race. McNish, Kristensen and Capello were out of the hunt by Saturday afternoon when Kristensen tripped over Andy Priaulx's wounded BMW and backed into a tyre wall in the Porsche Curves. It was never given the chance to recover the three laps it lost because the other two R15s ran near-perfectly.

The #9 line-up of Rockenfeller, Dumas and Bernhard was just quicker than Fassler, Lotterer and Treluyer and spent the vast majority of the race circulating a minute up the road from it. And that was it. When all the rival cars drop out, all you have to do is finish.

Speaking earlier in the week about his chances of victory, Bernhard had told AUTOSPORT: "It will be a big dream come true. This is the one race missing in my CV. I've won Daytona overall, I've won the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring, I've won Sebring, so really this is the race in my career that I want to win at least one time.

"I remember I had a video game from 1989 called Le Mans, it had a 962 Porsche and for me to drive here was a childhood dream. Just to drive here in an LMP1 car was a dream come true, to be on top of the podium would really be a dream."

The rate of attrition took its toll right through the LMP1 class. The Rebellion Lolas disappeared early on, Nigel Mansell crashed his punctured Ginetta-Zytek on the fourth lap, and the Drayson Lola spent half its time in the garage - so the unofficial petrol class was pretty thinly contested. It got a lot worse on Sunday afternoon as both works Aston Martins blew their engines and Vanina Ickx crashed the Signature car, leaving the ORECA-AIM of Soheil Ayari, Didier Andre and Andy Meyrick with victory by default.

The arrival of HPD (still Acura, to you and me) at Le Mans sadly failed to bring the underwhelming LMP2 class to life. It's a shame that the arrival of a new manufacturer coincided with the absence of another - neither of the two Porsche Spyders that have been giving CPR to the class for the last two years were present this time, so it was another two-car race.

For much of the race, it seemed as though the Highcroft car of David Brabham, Marco Werner and Marino Franchitti was well-matched against Strakka's Danny Watts, Jonny Kane and Nick Leventis. Strakka could run its HPD car a couple of seconds quicker than Highcroft, which gave it a handy margin to compensate for Leventis, who was never going to match the pace of any of the opposition's trio.

Watts and Kane did a fine job of tearing off up the road and Highcroft just never found a way to close the gap. It was hurt by the positioning of the safety cars at the start. And later, each of its three drivers lost time to a puncture. Highcroft was already two laps back and staring up a pretty steep mountain before the car developed a problem with the water pressure in the cooling system. It had to make a string of pitstops early on Sunday morning just to keep it running, and then eventually stopped for good.

The #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo and the #25 RML Lola completed the class podium by doing exactly what is necessary in LMP2 - both simply kept going. Neither had any major problems, nor ever threatened the pace at the front. But with the fourth car in class 25 laps behind the winner, the podium filled itself.

The GT1 class signed off its final year as part of the Le Mans 24 Hours by displaying exactly why it is being dropped for 2011.

Early on, there was a decent scrap between the Young Driver Aston Martin and the Ford GTs of Matech and Marc VDS. But it was not long before they began to tumble. The Aston lost 15 laps to a broken driveshaft and Bas Leinders had a big crash in the Marc VDS Ford. The #60 Matech GT hung around longest, and even survived a tangle with the second Oak Pescarolo, but eventually folded with a similar engine failure to the one that claimed the sister car - although in less firey fashion than the departure endured by Natacha Gachnang.

That left the Larbre Saleen to take the honours - a car that was not only three laps behind the class leader by Saturday evening, but is also a model that has been around since 1999. The Alphand Chevrolet team picked up second in class, but even that was not for its better car. The #73 Corvette ground to a halt with transmission failure on Sunday morning, leaving the #72 five laps shy of the Saleen.

This was a particularly punishing year on the reliability front, but at least the fiercely and relentlessly competitive GT2 class had good reason for most of its frontrunners to blow up - they all spent the first half of the race doing qualifying laps.

The ongoing scrap at the front between the #82 Risi Ferrari and the #64 Corvette quite literally kept the crowd on its feet through more than four hours of bumper to bumper racing on Saturday afternoon. The lead changed back and forth as the pair continually chased, caught, drafted, passed and repassed each other as though in a touring car race. Unfortunately for the spectacle, the Risi car developed intermittent gear selection problems a third of the way through the race and had to yield for lengthy repairs. It did get back into the race but never cured the problem and gave up the ghost during the night.

The Corvette held the lead over its #63 mate until early Sunday morning, when Emmanuel Collard spun the car into the barrier after the non-contact clash with Davidson. Again, the car did make it back into the race, but fell to an engine problem soon after - possibly a legacy of the rear-end damage sustained the crash. The #63 car had departed only recently, also with a blown engine.

With the Corvettes and the quickest Ferrari out of the way, the road was clear for the #77 Felbermayr Porsche of Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler to coast to victory on the 40th anniversary of the marque's maiden Le Mans triumph. It wasn't given a great deal of opposition in the end. The AF Corse Ferrari ran second for a while in the hands of Jean Alesi, but tumbled down the order after Giancarlo Fisichella had a scary moment overshooting Indianapolis on Sunday morning.

The Hankook Farnbacher Ferrari finished second in GT2 after a pretty quiet and uneventful run, with the BMW Scuderia Italia Porsche completing the podium.

BMW's first Le Mans with its M3 turned into a race to forget. Its aesthetically fetching art car - the #79 machine of Priaulx, Dirk Muller and Dirk Werner - had just about everything possible go wrong with it on Saturday. The race was barely three hours old when the Schnitzer team had to completely rebuild the right rear suspension following a puncture for Muller.

Priaulx had only been back out in the repaired car for 45 minutes before it sprang the puncture which led to the accident with the Audi. Muller was back in it later on Saturday afternoon to collect its third puncture, and then damaged the gearbox in a spin caused by the deflation. It only put an end to the misery when it ran out of fuel later on Saturday evening. The #78 sister car at least kept on going, but was only sixth in class and never in the lead fight.

[Rob]

A Ferrari on the podium at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Fisichella: “A really unique experience”

Le Mans, 13 June – A Ferrari F30GTC, maybe the least expected one, made it to the podium in the LMGT2 category in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Hankook Farnbacher car numer 89, crewed by Simonsen-Farnbacher-Keen, finished second behind the Porsche of Lieb-Lietz-Henzler.

The cars from Maranello did not have much luck in this race. First, the two Risi Competizione cars dropped out, then the AF Corse one, driven by Fisichella-Alesi-Vilander went off the track, requiring a long pit stop which meant any chance of fighting for the win had gone.

Problems with the gearbox and engine during the night meant the two F430s run by the American team had to retire. There was great disappointment, especially for car number 82 which, having started from the back of the grid, staged a great climb up the order until it was duelling for the lead with the two Corvettes. The other Houston team car had to retire with engine failure.

The only AF Corse car in the race was lying second this morning, shortly after dawn whe, because of a brake problem, it went off the track at 280 km/h. Giancarlo Fisichella, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s third driver was at the wheel at the time. “It looked like being really bad, but luckily, there is an escape road at that point and I was able to limit the damage. Unfortunately, we had to spend a long time in the garage to repair the car and after that we could not make up the time lost. All the same, fourth place is a very good result. I am happy to have had this unique experience: it was a tiring race, without any sleep, but it was unforgettable. I want to thank the team for all their efforts and my team-mates in this adventure, Toni and Jean who were really fantastic.”

[Rob]

Simon Pagenaud of Peugeot speaks
13/06/201016h47- Simon Pagenaud of Peugeot No 3 said:

"If we knew what went wrong it would help us. We've run 32 hour tests and nothing like this has happened before. We've never had a tub break and never had an engine failure. Everyone in the team is in tears. The team is like a family and to win would have meant so much to us."

[Rob]

GT2 Porsche relieved to be back on top

By Steven English Sunday, June 13th 2010, 15:32 GMT www.autosport.com

Le Mans 24 Hours GT2 winners Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb were relieved to take Porsche back to the top of the class after two years of Ferrari dominance.

The Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 has won the class in the last two races and looked likely to challenge again after fighting the leading works Corvette in the early stages.

The #77 Felbermayr Porsche that Henzler and Lieb shared with 2007 class winner Richard Lietz couldn't match either, but moved forward as the pace of the race took its toll on those ahead. The trio eventually won the class quite comfortably, ahead of the Hankook Farnbacher Ferrari and the BMS Scuderia Italia Porsche.

"After two hours we knew we couldn't match the Risi Ferrari or the Corvettes," said Henzler. "It was like a sprint race so we just decided to drive our own race and it turned out good for us."

Lieb added: "After the last two years when we have struggled here and the Ferrari has been very strong, we are very pleased to come back and win for Porsche."

hats off to the Porsche, they drove good clean race. Risi will hit back at Utah and take another enduro win at Petit Le Mans october 1st

[Rob]

After a very long 24 hours, the Ferrari F430 of the AF Corse team arrived
fourth at the finish line. At the beginning of the race, the French public was
enthusiastic by the fantastic performance of Alesi. AfCorse had absolutely no
problems during the first hours of the race, with the car alternating between
the fifth and third positions. During the night Vilander, Fisichella and Alesi
reduced the gap between them and the other drivers and although they got a flat
tyre, they were able to bring the car into second position. But in the first
hours of the morning the car driven by Fisichella had some problems with its
brakes, colliding against the barriers. Fortunately the Roman driver was able
to bring the car to the box to be repaired. The time lost fixing the car made
the team lose three positions, so Vilander found himself in fifth position,
being forced to attack to reduce the gap. Three hours before the chequered
flag, the car gained one position, finishing the race fourth, very near the
podium. Amato Ferrari, although aware of the importance of finishing the race,
is a bit sorry to have missed a podium that for several hours could have been
possible. An applause goes to the car which showed to be fast and reliable, as
to the Michelin tyres, which gave their best performance during the entire
race.

[Nova]

Decent results in a tough race, go Ferrari..

[Rob]

GT2 classification on hold – top 2 under investigation
By Marcel ten Caat ⋅ June 18, 2010 www.planetlemans.com

Shortly after the finish of the 78th Le Mans 24 Hours it became clear that the battle in the LM GT2 category had ended on track, but was likely to go ahead beyond Le Mans. Today the Automobile Club de l’Ouest informed the teams that the classification is indeed not final.

The first placed number 77 Team Felbermayr Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR (Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler) and the #89 Hankook Team Farnbacher Ferrari F430 GT2 (Dominik Farnbacher, Allan Simonsen and Leh Keen) did not immediately clear scrutineering at Le Mans and this afternoon the technical delegate of the ACO, Daniel Perdrix confirmed that the engines on both cars will be undergoing further checks.

It is expected that the results of these inspections will be announced in early July. As a result the full LM GT2 classification is now suspended, as are the general classification and the Michelin Green X Challenge classification from the first LM GT2 car.

If the ACO finds nothing irregular on the two cars the results will stay as they are. Should there be something irregular they could be excluded and that could promote the BMS Scuderia Italia Porsche 997 GT3 RSR to first place, with AF Corse and IMSA Performance Matmut taking second and third.

To be continued…

[epiclyaddicted]

Wow, didn't know that!

engines on both cars will be undergoing further checks

I wonder what that could be?

[Rob]

Wow, didn't know that!



I wonder what that could be?

yeah i know, i surprised at that too. I will email friend tomorrow morning too see if they know what further checks mean.