With the French newspaper headlines demanding "Now go win Le Mans" after
Team Peugeot won the pole at the Le Mans 24 Hours on Thursday, it was
clear that the pressure was on, with the entire country expecting the
French team to win the race over its arch-rival Audi this year, the
third of its Le Mans program.
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#9 Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908: Alexander Wurz, David Brabham, Marc Gene. Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt.
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There would be no disappointment this time. David Brabham, Marc Gene and
Alexander Wurz drove a strong race in the #9 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, with
Marc Gene crossing the finish line to lead a 1-2 victory for the French
marque, its third victory in the June endurance classic, and the first
since the Peugeot 905B took the spoils in 1992 and 1993.
"We won, but (the #8 car) deserved it just as much as we did," said
Gene. "I felt terribly emotional over the closing laps, like I have felt
never before. Personally, I was expecting a little bit more opposition from
Audi, but mechanically, with a new car I did expect them to have some
problems".
The all-French teaming in the #8 sister car -- Sebastien Bourdais,
Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin -- seemed to be the initial
favourite, and certainly the local one, having started from the pole
position. The trio of drivers demonstrated their speed, building a
substantial lead after passing Allan McNish's Audi in the opening
minutes of the race. However, a problem with loosened components in
the left-rear brakes caused a 10-minute delay in the pits for the #8,
allowing Wurz to slip by and take the lead. Bourdais would eventually
take the chequered flag second, one lap down to his teammate.
"It's a great day Peugeot, we had a double," said Bourdais. "And if it
hadn't been for a rather stupid mistake in the pits, it would have been
a triple."
The #9 may not have been the absolutely fastest of the three works
Peugeots, but it suffered neither a mechanical problem nor a driver
error in its clean 24-hour run to the chequered flag. Le Mans demands
respect and requires reliability, clean driving and a bit of luck, and
the Brabham-Gene-Wurz trio cam up with all three to take the honours --
the first for Brabham and Gene, and the second for Wurz, who already had
a victory from 1996, when he won with Joest Porsche.
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#8 Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908: Stéphane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny, Sébastien Bourdais. Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt.
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Meanwhile, the #8 suffered from the brake problem, and the third team
car, the #7 fell back first after the pit lane collision that Bourdais
referred to, in the first hour of the race, as the team released Pedro
Lamy from the pit box while Team Pescarolo's customer Peugeot was
driving by. Extensive repairs were just the start of a bad day, and in
spite of its speed, the #7 finished the race in only sixth place, 13
laps adrift of the winners.
Team Pescarolo's 908, factory-supported but privately run, was a threat
for the podium for much of the race, in spite of the early damage from
the pit lane incident. However, the team's hopes were extinguished when
Benoit Treluyer crashed heavily into the barriers in the Esses, after
losing control on the downhill segment.
For Audi, this was the German marque's first defeat at La Sarthe, surely
a huge disappointment for motorsports chief Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who
was present to oversee the drive for a ninth victory, along with team
principal Reinhold Joest. However, the team's most experienced driver
combination, McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen in the #1 R15
TDI, was only able to finish third, seven laps down.
Kristensen, an eight-time Le Mans winner in his own right, Capello and
McNish drove a clean, incident-free race, but lost ground rapidly to the
Peugeots in the early going, and then fell victim to mechanical delays
in the second half of the race.
"Peugeot have raised their game, there is no doubt that," said
Kristensen. " We had some issues, we were not happy with the balance of
the car, especially in hot conditions. "
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#1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R15 TDI: Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen. Photo by Tom Haapanen.
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In general, the race pace of the marque's new R15 disappointed, after
the brief flicker of hope lit by McNish's strong qualifying performance
on Thursday night. The car appeared to suffer from poor handling and
driveability, limited testing opportunities possibly hampering its
development.
"We agreed to cancel the test day, and it was the same for everybody,"
Dr. Ullrich summarized the issues with limited track time for the R15.
"And if we couldn't make the best of it, it's in our hands."
It was only after the installation of some new front bodywork in the
night-time hours that the Audi drivers were able to post competitive lap
times. By then, the two top Peugeots had taken a decisive lead -- and
multiple subsequent visits for the #1 car to the team's garage to cool
it down put paid to any hope of catching the 908s.
Adding to the lack of outright speed were the handling problems:
experienced drivers Alexandre Premat and Lucas Luhr both had spins, the
latter writing off the #2 Audi in a heavy shunt at the Porsche Curves.
Premat, Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard fought on in the #3, but extended
repairs in the pits dropped the car way back; it eventually finished
18th overall, 50 laps behind the winners.
With only a single Audi in contention, and the single Pescarolo
Peugeot eliminated, the door was open for the petrol-powered cars to
make a move. Aston Martin Racing did exactly that: its lead driver
combination of Jan Charouz, Stefan Mucke and Tomas Enge hustled the Lola
B09/60-Aston Martin combination with speed and care throughout the 24
hours to cross the line fourth, nine laps off the pace of the winning
Peugeot.
"If we can finish in the three it will be a dream result, but top five
would be great as well," Enge summed up the team's hopes prior to the
race. "We'll try to beat as many diesels as possible and be the first
petrol car."
Behind Aston Martin, notable was the achievement of Team Kolles. Running
a pair of year-old ex-works Audi R10s with limited factory support and
a team of six Le Mans rookie drivers, the German team was going into
the race with a tall mountain to climb. Things got worse when Narain
Karthikeyan sprained his shoulder on the grid, leaving the #15 with just
two drivers. Charles Zwolsman and Andre Lotterer did yeoman work to
bring the #14 home in seventh place, having driven about twelve hours
each in their first Le Mans appearances.
"It's funny I haven't spoken to (Lotterer) but I can just tell he's
doing well," said Zwolsman an hour before the end of the race. "Always
when Andre is in the car, I'm not and vice versa!"
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#31 Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder: Kristian Poulsen, Casper Elgaard, Emmanuel Collard. Photo by Eric Gilbert.
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In the LM P2 category, the Porsche RS Spyders were unmatched in terms of
performance, and it looked like a 1-2 Porsche finish was in the offing
for most of the race. Team Essex, with drivers Casper Elgaard, Kristian
Poulsen and Emmanuel Collard, did go on to win the class, 10th overall
and 24 laps behind the overall winners.
"It's perhaps better to win in a category (rather than overall), as (a
category win) is very much for the driver," said Collard. "This year
Porsche asked me to drive for Essex, and I know I would be driving for a
class win. For a driver it is always motivating to drive for victory!"
The victory is the first at Le Mans for each of the three Team Essex
drivers, Collard finally making it to the top step of the podium in his
15th consecutive year at Le Mans. Poulsen, on the other hand, already
takes home the silverware in his first attempt.
However, the other RS Spyder, that of NAVI Team Goh just barely failed
to make it to the 23-hour mark, with Seiji Ara losing control of the car
at the second chicane on the world-famous high-speed Mulsanne Straight,
and destroying much of the car running into the barriers.
Instead, the joint Swiss-British effort, Speedy Racing Team Sebah, took
second in class with the Lola B08/80-Judd, with Jonny Kane, Benjamin
Leuenberger and Xavier Pompidou driving a steady race. The team could
not match the pace of the works-supported Porsches, but they were
easily fastest of the non-Porsche brigade.
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#33 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola Judd Coupe: Xavier Pompidou, Benjamin Leuenberger, Jonny Kane. Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt.
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With the attrition at the front, the French OAK Racing team moved up
into a podium position with their #24 Pescarolo 01-Mazda. They were 11
laps behind the second-placed Lola, but it was a remarkable result for
the small team nevertheless.
"It's superb to finish in third," said Yvon. "I work in wood, oak is
strong and solid, and we have a great team, solid, in OAK Racing!"
The third-place class finish was actually the second in a row for
the team: before being renamed OAK Racing this year, they finished
third in P2 in 2008 as Saulnier Racing, with drivers Cong Fu Cheng,
Mathieu Lahaye and Pierre Ragues.
This time it was a team of three gentlemen drivers though: company
president Jacques Nicolet, Richard Hein and Jean-Francois Yvon, all
over 50 years old.
"Even if these gentlemen are not in their first flush of youth, we have
really achieved something special," Richard Hein summed up.
See also Corvette, Risi earn historic Le Mans GT wins.
