[LM24 Race] The 77th Edition of the 24hrs of Le Mans • Race Thread • June, 8th – 14th 2009

[veeten]

if Luca is serious about a an effort, he needs to go over to Risi and give him the job.

[chernaudi]

About time, Peugeot. They kinda made it easy for Audi to walk all over them at times, and could never seal the deal. And of course, Brabs has crossed off one of the major wins that has eluded him.

I doubt that Peugeot keeps the trophy-the 3 wins deal only applies to 3 consecutive wins by the same entrant, which Audi has done twice with Joest.

However, for Audi, if only they had more dry weather testing, and maybe one or two more LMS or ALMS races with the R15, it would've been close.

[Flyin Ryan]

Good job to Peugeot. They deserved it.

Audi, for the first time in 10 years when intending to win, just didn't have the speed.

Good performance by Aston Martin, getting a car to 4th. More than I expected from them.

Who had the Spyker finishing ahead of all the Porsches in GT2?

Also, 7 total Porsches (both LMP2 and GT2) started the race. Only 1 finished, as the Endurance Asia car it doesn't look like took the checkered flag from timing. Thankfully the one that did was the Spyder that won class.

9 of the 10 Ferrari F430s finished.

[jab]

Nearly missed the end - my net connection died on the last lap

Peugeot have silenced the doubters. It's as if they swapped places with Audi for the race apart from the incident in the pits

I actually enjoyed this more than last year's. There seemed to be a lot more going on. But I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I got a bit more sleep this year

[broadrun96]

Varsha says Speed has a new contract for LM for the coming years

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by veeten

if Luca is serious about a an effort, he needs to go over to Risi and give him the job.

Well I'm sure winning class and defeating Porsche when the President of Ferrari is at the track counts for something.

[dj choc ice]

congratulations Peugeot, finally a win which was well overdue, impressed with Aston Martin and Oreca in 4th and 5th place's.
A very big shout to Essex for winning LMP2, Corvette had GT1 sealed up from the start and GT2 was another great victory for Ferrari.
A shame the Pesca Pug retired from the race in such a horrible way and Quifel who disappointed me massively in LMP2, see you all next year!

[Speedblood]

While it wasn't an Aston win (very unlikely but anyhoo) I'm glad it was the no.9 diesel to win as Brabs has been missing the outright win for too long and Gene I feel as been hidden behind Sarrazin, Bourdais, Minassian etc but considering he's been with the 908 project since the beginning I feel his win was well deserved.

[veeten]

Hey, doesn't Brabs have a son in his early racing career?

I see Peugeot making plans...

(every time they win, it's with a Brabham at the wheel.)

[supermario21]

Congrats to Zwolsman and Lotterer for running the whole race themselves and finishing 7th for Kolles. They quadruple stinted the whole race. If it wasn't for a gearbox problem in hour 16 they would've finished in the top 5. Overall though it was great to see Kolles running well, especially with 5 rookie drivers.

[pitviper]

Congrats to everyone, even Corvette ;-). Excellent job to Aston Martin, and ORECA, and the best possible GT2 result!!! Huge congrats to Spyker!!! ahh, now maybe for some sleep, lol...

pit

[Matt]

Ugh, I went to bed at one, intending to wake up at 5:30. Slept until 9:30, an missed the finish, and everything.

[dxk1]

Well a big congratulations to Peugeot, Porsche, Corvette and Ferrari. Special congrats to Johnny O for becoming the first US 4-time winner and special congrats to Risi for two in a row in GT2 (1 & 3 I might add). On another note,this year will probably go down as the most pathetic performance in the history of GT Porsches. All of their GT2 cars failed to finish. I know they were outnumbered 10 to 5, but 9 Ferraris managed to finish, even McDreamy. By the time the race ended all Porsches were parked or so far behind they wouldn't be classified. Embarrassing!!

DK

[AndrewF31]

Originally Posted by supermario21

Congrats to Zwolsman and Lotterer for running the whole race themselves and finishing 7th for Kolles. They quadruple stinted the whole race. If it wasn't for a gearbox problem in hour 16 they would've finished in the top 5. Overall though it was great to see Kolles running well, especially with 5 rookie drivers.

Ya, that was a very good effort by Zwolsman and Lotterer in the handicapped car.

[pitviper]

I completely agree with Hindy's final speech that is going on right now. And the #1 Audi drivers are simply the epitome of class. Congrats guys...

pit

ps. dxk1; we stayed up with relatives in Annapolis not long ago. Simply beautiful there...

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by AndrewF31

Ya, that was a very good effort by Zwolsman and Lotterer in the handicapped car.

My Indian co-worker that's an F1 fan but doesn't like Karthikeyan is going to love this story.

[joeb]

Really surprised by the GT2 Porsche results or lack there of. But great work by a whole bunch of Ferrari teams to finish the race. Oh and lets not forget the Spyker in 5th!!!!

[djb]

I was asleep when the crash happened with the pescarolo car near the dunlop bridge--I couldnt tell if it was before the bridge or after, it looked like the car was up against the wall tothe left of the bridge (track direction) Is this right?

If so then did the car lose it in the right fast right hander before the chicane?

Just curious of how it happened and what the news of hte driver was/is.
(also, very poor taste forthe Speed commentator to bring up the word "fatality" in the despcription of what had happened when Speed came back on at 12am, when he was describing the incident (I figure he must have been up all night-was 6am there) and wasnt thinking it through properly.

[airbusA346]

"Richards critical on driver fatigue"

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76192

Tom.

[Dunlop Corner]

I am quite shocked by Audi's performance. First they didn't have the car dialed in, from the start, the drivers complaining of too much understeer. It took several stints and front changes to get the balance needed to run in the 27-28's constantly. Then the radiator problem. Several times they made temporary fixes, before eventually finding the real cause of the problem and solving it. After a couple of decent stints, they ran into the ECU problems and the final nail was the wheel bearing problem.
Their pace was below Peugouts. Their setup was wrong. Their car ran into wierd problems they did not manage to fix immidiately.

Compared to how amazingly well the car ran at Sebring, this was really surprising and very un-Audi. It seemed to me the guys did all they could, but were let down by poor preparation. That recurring radiator problem is simply something they should have solved before the race!
In the old days, we used to say that Audi raced while Peugout just practiced their cars. This made Audi more adept and sharp in the races. But now Audi has almost refused to race the R15, and today that decision bid. Some more experience with the car, and i think Audi could have used it's potential better. I think the R15 is ultimately a bit slower than the 908 particularly at Le Mans, but i don't think even Audi Team Joest managed to bring the best out of their equipment. Which they almost always manage to do.

Congratulations to Peugout. The #8 car was clearly the fastest on the track, and the #9 ran really consistantly. They were able to always edge away from the Audi, and in the end Audi never managed to turn the tide. A very good performance from Peugout, that was so much more sharp on the strategy side than last year.
I was a bit disappointed that the #8 was not allowed to attack the #9, i would have loved to see the all french car win. They cut down the gap quite rapidly from 3 minutes to about 1:40, but then when Audi fell helplessly behind, Peugout held their places and slowed the pace. A bit of a disappointment, since Audi always had their cars race each other internally. But i understand how important just getting the win was for Peugout.

Congratulations to Aston Martin for a very fine performance. I had not seem them get one car through the race without major delay. A fine pace and reasonably good reliability, a Le Mans debut they can be more than proud of.

A real shame for Pescarolo losing the Pug like that. Fortunally it looks like Treleuyer was lucky. The Pesca Pug did not lose much time after the first pitstop (totally the Peugouts own fault). It ran fast and reliably until the crash, a real bugger.
Also Kolles did really well, their cars rising as the fast petrol cars ran into problems. They were around 6-7 with both cars, until they began to run into problems sunday morning. Particularly well done by Lotterer and Zwolsman.

Essex completely dominated their more famous opponents Goh. Essex was faster and it was Goh who blinked first and got into problems. A really nice race for the Essex Porsche to get to 10th overall. A well deserved win. Apart from that great drive, the reliability of the LMP2s were rather sad.

GT1 was a joke from the start. Although the Vettes proved a nice battle throughout, they was noone in it. That the Aston made the podium after such a problematic run, is a joke (but well down to them for getting to the end!).

Porsche was a disaster in GT2. Again. I have no words for losing their works car after some 25 laps. And the backups in IMSA and Lizard ran into major problems as well. You really expect the Porsche GT2 to do better at Le Mans!
Well done to Risi, grapping the lead at evening and never making a mistake to let other cars in it. A flawless and dominant win. The rest of GT2 was a bit of a Ferrari lottery. And good job getting to the end from Spyker, a huge improvement over last year's pathetic effort.


All in all i don't feel the race turned into the classic it should have been. Audi and Porsche GT2 did just not deliver. But a very fine performance from Peugout, denying Audi to get a chance.
A great win is measured on how tough opposition it faces (like Audi last year). Unfortunately Audi did not challenge Peugout as hard as one could have hoped for. Not a classic (like last years), but a good race and very fine win by Peugout.

[jab]

What was left of the Pesca Pug

So any further info on the crash? Still a mystery...

[AndrewF31]

Richards not happy with Hall's exclusion: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76192
I actually agree with him that it was a dumb move by the aco.

Ullrich thinks Audi will be back next year: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/76208

[CTD]

Originally Posted by jab

What was left of the Pesca Pug

So any further info on the crash? Still a mystery...

Wow!, It really just is the engine and the tub!.. this show how well engineered todays race cars is!...

actually, if that car could have returned to the pits, (with no tub damage, which there of course is!) then Pescarolo actually is allowed to be rebuild!..
But what is Pescarolo going to do now!?, does he ow Peugeot a car?

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by pitviper

ps. dxk1; we stayed up with relatives in Annapolis not long ago. Simply beautiful there...

It's certainly one of the most beautiful spots in the US.

DK

[TheKimme]

Awesome race! This Race Week has been awesome! but it feels like it was five minutes since i saw Practice..