Le Mans Le Mans and the WEC

[RasputinLives]

Half a lap down now though.

I'm confused by the 3 safety car thing. If they have to have 3 safety cars why not have each one pick up a different class? Would keep the class fields together and close the racing.

 

[Galahad]

It would be a bit unffair if you'd built up a three minute gap though. Mind you there is no completely fair solution. They way they do it now is probably safest as it gets the field slowed down the quickest.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

It's just the length of the circuit that requires safety cars for each third of the course. I wonder how safety cars are employed for the N'ring endurance races.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Quick repair for the No.7 Toyota maintains 4th in front of the No.1 Audi.
Impressive stuff from the mechanics.

Edit : Given the First 5 are all on different laps do you think the Audi and Toyotas will Slow up to do a formation finish?
Edit edit : hang on P2 and P3 are on same lap. Maybe not.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

P2 and P1 are now on the same lap. Anything can still happen in the last 22 minutes especially with more rain on the way.

 

[RasputinLives]

Buemi puts Toyota on the lead lap! They have to prey for a late downpour and a mistake from the Audi.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Nice move from Buemi.
That is one big black cloud.

 

[FB]

Does this make you think F1, GP2 and GP3 cars should all race at the same time? Might be unfair on Marussia and Caterham getting beaten by the GP2 boys every weekend though.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

60 single seater open wheel cars on the track at the same time? Pure madness.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Is it me or is it Moist

 

[Galahad]

You couldn't have a better driver in the lead than TK in this situation.

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Very true but that doesn't stop a backmarker spinning in front of him as he overtakes.

 

[RasputinLives]

Well done Audi and all in the number 2 car.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Well done McNish and Audi. Convincing win. Happy for Ant to get 2nd after the big accident last year.

 

[Galahad]

Great job by the winning team, they were as fast as they needed to be and made no mistakes. The Toyota number 8 did likewise and acquitted themselves very well. OAK were outstanding, Porsche were surprising and Aston Martin were so brave.

 

[cider_and_toast]

First time I've watched so much coverage and I really enjoyed it. Happy to see a Brit on the top step with Audi but I was happy to see Toyota second as that's my current car of choice. All in all an interesting 24 hours tinged with sadness for the loss of Allan Simenson. Obviously a great deal more work needs to go into improving the barriers for next year.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Result

Pos Cl Car Drivers Laps Gap
1. P1 #2 Audi Kristensen/McNish/Duval 348
2. P1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Sarrazin/Buemi 347 + 1 Lap
3. P1 #3 Audi Gene/Jarvis/di Grassi 347 + 1m55.252s
4. P1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima 341 + 7 Laps
5. P1 #1 Audi Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler 338 + 10 Laps
6. P1 #21 HPD Leventis/Kane/Watts 332 + 16 Laps
7. P2 #35 Morgan Baguette/Plowman/Gonzalez 329 + 19 Laps
8. P2 #24 Morgan Pla/Brundle/H Hansson 328 + 20 Laps
9. P2 #26 Oreca Rusinov/Martin/Conway 327 + 21 Laps
10. P2 #42 Zytek Krumm/Mardenborough/Ordonez 327 + 1m07.075s
11. P2 #49 Oreca P-Companc/Kaffer/Minassian 325 + 23 Laps
12. P2 #43 Morgan Gachnang/Mailleux/Lombard 320 + 28 Laps
13. P2 #48 Oreca Hartley/Chandhok/Patterson 319 + 29 Laps
14. P2 #38 Zytek Dolan/Turvey/Luhr 319 + 4m01.549s
15. P2 #36 Alpine Ragues/Panciatici/Gommendy 317 + 31 Laps
16. GTP #92 Porsche Lieb/Lietz/Dumas 315 + 33 Laps
17. GTP #91 Porsche Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard 315 + 2m10.631s
18. GTP #97 Aston Mucke/Turner/Dumbreck 314 + 34 Laps
19. P2 #34 Oreca Frey/Niederhauser/Bleekemolen 314 + 1m27.131s
20. GTP #73 Corvette Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor 312 + 36 Laps
21. GTP #71 Ferrari Beretta/Kobayashi/Vilander 311 + 37 Laps
22. GTP #51 Ferrari Bruni/Fisichella/Malucelli 311 + 1m57.110s
23. GTP #74 Corvette Gavin/Milner/Westbrook 309 + 39 Laps
24. P2 #41 Zytek Rossi/K-Smith/Lux 307 + 41 Laps
25. GTP #53 SRT Farnbacher/Goossens/Dalziel 306 + 42 Laps
26. GTA #76 Porsche Narac/Vernay/Bourret 306 + 1m51.302s
27. GTA #55 Ferrari Perazzini/O'Young/Case 305 + 43 Laps
28. GTA #61 Ferrari Gerber/Griffin/Cioci 305 + 1m26.507s
29. GTA #77 Porsche Dempsey/Foster/Long 305 + 2m51.114s
30. GTA #50 Corvette Bornhauser/Canal/Taylor 302 + 46 Laps
31. GTA #96 Aston Goethe/Campbell-Walter/Hall 301 + 47 Laps
32. GTP #93 SRT Wittmer/Kendall/Bomarito 301 + 1m58.599s
33. P2 #40 Oreca Dagoneau/Downs/Younessi 300 + 48 Laps
34. GTA #67 Porsche Gibon/Milesi/Henzler 300 + 32.348s
35. GTP #66 Ferrari Bertolini/Faisal/Qubaisi 300 + 51.765s
36. GTA #88 Porsche Ried/Roda/Ruberti 300 + 1m28.639s
37. GTA #75 Porsche Collard/Perrodo/Crubile 298 + 50 Laps
38. GTA #81 Ferrari Potolicchio/Aguas/Bright 294 + 54 Laps
39. P2 #39 Lola Porta/Brandela/Raffin 280 + 68 Laps
40. P1 #12 Lola Prost/Jani/Heidfeld 275 + 73 Laps
41. P1 #13 Lola Beche/Belicchi/Cheng 275 + 1m27.020s
42. GTA #70 Corvette MacNeil/Rodrigues/Dumas 268 + 80 Laps
43. P2 #33 HPD Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe 242 + 106 Laps
44. P2 #46 Oreca Thiriet/Badey/Martin 310 Retired
45. GTP #99 Aston Makowiecki/Senna/Bell 248 Retired
46. P2 #45 Morgan Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot 246 Retired
47. P2 #47 Morgan Imperatori/Howson/Tung 241 Retired
48. GTP #98 Aston Dalla Lana/Lamy/Auberlen 221 Retired
49. P2 #32 Lotus Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz 219 Retired
50. P2 #30 Lola Mowlem/Burgess/Hirschi 153 Retired
51. GTA #54 Ferrari Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank 147 Retired
52. GTA #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani 111 Retired
53. P2 #25 Oreca Graves/Hamilton/Nakano 101 Retired
54. P2 #28 Lola Giroix/Haezebrouck/Ihara 22 Retired
55. P2 #31 Lotus Weeda/Rossiter/Bouchut 17 Retired
56. GTA #95 Aston Simonsen/Nygaard/Poulsen 2 Retired

 

[Greenlantern101]

 

[Fenderman]

A great race and one of the toughest I can remember watching. Hats off to all of them for making it through. Huge pity about the young Simonsen so commiseration and respect to his family, friends and the team for sticking with it. Time for bed and a proper

 

[Titch]

So glad that McNish and his team won.