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Le Mans 2014!

Ferry_vO

Ferry_vO

Retired SOH Administrator
Time for one of my favourite races, the Le Mans 24 hours.
This year Audi has two challengers: Toyota and Porsche, the last one still all-time record holder with 16 victories, but Audi is closing in with 13..
Looking at the WEC races in Spa and Silverstone Toyota seems to be in the best shape, Audi lacks a bit of top speed and Porsche needs more reliability.
Some new rules this year: Basically the only limiting factor is the amount of energy cars are allowed to use on one lap. Toyota uses a V8 petrol engine with electric (Hybrid) support, Audi uses a hybrid diesel and Porsche has a 2 liter V4 petrol engine with a hybrid system. The Toyota is rumoured to have about 1,000 hp with all engines running!

A good preview can be found here: http://msn.foxsports.com/speed/spor...-audi-to-defend-title-against-toyota-porsche/

Live images (With French commentary) here: http://www.lemans-tv.com/

Official site here: http://www.24h-lemans.com/en/

Audi already have a 'small' problem before qualifying begins, as this is what happened to their #1 car in the final practice session:



Fortunately the driver Loic Duval escaped with only very minor injuries.


Race starts Saturday 15:00 local time! (UTC+1)
 
Loic Duval won't participate any further at Le Mans this year, his seat will be taken by Marc Gené. Qualifying yesterday was cut short due to a damaged guard rail, Porsche leads 1-2 (With former Red Bull F1 driver Mark Webber on the provisional pole position.), Toyota in 3 and 4 and Audi in 5 and 6. The #1 Audi should rejoin the action today. The next 2 hour qualifying session starts at 19:00 tonight (UTC+1) until 21:00, the last session an hour later from 22:00 until 24:00.
 
I watched the Spa 6 hours Ferry.
Now, I know it is not going to happen, but if we could get rid of ALL the 'Prototypes' and run GT2 and GT3 I'd be right into LM again.
Thoroughly enjoyed the 'GT' category(s) at Spa, but the prototypes left me less than enthused.
I'll be going for the MotoGP this weekend, being a Spanish round it will be very serious in all classes.
:jump:
 
Toyota takes the pole, ahead of a Porsche, the other Toyota, an Audi, the second Porsche followed by the other two Audi's. Close competition in the other classes as well, especially in the LMP2 category.
 
Seven hours into the race, the top three GT cars are just over a second apart! We've already lost one of the Audi's in a crash, problems for the #8 Toyota and #20 Porsche, the remaining four LMP1's are still in a close battle.
 
Morning in Le Mans. five hours to go still and 39 out 56 cars still running. Most notable retirement is the #7 Toyota which led from the start until deep in the night when it suffered a complete and desastrous electric failure. Audi #2 had some problems as well, so now the #1 Audi (The car that was completely destroyed in practice!) is leading, 2 laps ahead of the Porsche of Mark Webber.
Should the #1 Audi win the race it will mean that Tom Kristensen will win the race for the tenth time since he won at his debut in 1997!

Also problems for the leaders in the LMP2 and GT Pro categories, the last one (The Aston Martin driven by Bruno Senna) had just taken the lead from Gianmaria Bruni's Ferrari 458..
 
More problems for the leaders in LMP1 (Tom Kristensen running very slowly, even after a reset in the pitlane) and LMP2; could Porsche win this 24 hours???
 
Audi #1 dropped back to third after an unscheduled turbo change, the #20 Porsche of Webber/Hartley/Bernhard still leads but was told to 'take it easy on the clutch' and the #2 Audi is closing by about 5-10 seconds per lap. This race is far from over!
 
Been watching the Eurosport live coverage (only one we get) and thoroughly enjoying the Senna/Bruni contest. :cheerful:
Prototypes are very fast and technically impressive but are 'homely'........all beaten big-time with the Ugly Stick!!
Frustrating coverage of the LMP2 cars, but at least we have live race cover for a change.





Bring back Group C..............................:redfire:
 
Porsche #20 now retired, Audi leads 1/2, Toyota #8 in third and the #14 Porsche in fourth.
 
So after 24 hours and 379 laps the #2 Audi of Fasseler/Tréluyer/Lotterer wins the race, 3 laps ahead of the #1 Audi driven by Kristensen/Gené/Di Grassi and 5 laps ahead of the #8 Toyota of Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi. Porsche ended up 11 and 13 after both cars retired. Quite impressive that the Rebellion LMP1L (Light, no hybrid systems) finished fourth and the first LMP2 came in 5th.

The winner in the LM GTE Pro category are Bruni/Fisichella/Vilander in a Ferrari 458, and the winner in the LM GTE Am(ateur) are Poulsen/Thiim/Heinemeier-Hansson in an Aston-Martin Vantage V8.
 
I'm not surprised that the Porsche 'Hybrids' didn't finish, probably more so that they performed as well as they did!
The 4th and 5th place cars are more to my liking and I was happy with the GTE result.
:encouragement:

However, I thoroughly enjoyed all the racing at Catalunya ........... hard to take not 'being there' after last year, and Assen only two weeks away!
Next year!
Time to get back to laying paving stones, wielding a paint roller and keeping a tight rein on my team of contractors.
:jaded:
 
wombat666 said:
I'm not surprised that the Porsche 'Hybrids' didn't finish, probably more so that they performed as well as they did!
Click to expand...

Yes, very impressive results, shame that both cars retired relatively late in the race. They had the smallest engine package of the field (A two liter turbo charged four cylinder!) yet combined with a well working hybrid system they did manage to do 3:22 just like the Toyota's and Audi's.
 
We use to get fairly full coverage of the event in the US, but since SPEED Channel became FOX Sports 1, we only caught a glimpse of the start and finish. By thanks to the Gods if the Internet, I had 24 hour coverage; had to listen to it in French, sure didn't interrupt the racing and some of their commercials are OO-LA-LA. :very_drunk:
 
Good you had a chance to see it Cazzie! IMHO the World Endurance Championship (WEC) is currently more interesting than F1 is, and much more competitive. It will be even more so next year when Nissan enters the LMP1 category and I still hope Ferrari will put their money where their mouth is and build an LMP1 car too.
 
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