24 Hours of Le Mans

Planetlemans analyzes the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

It is just past 4:20 AM and an increasing number of team managers start walking out of the pitbox and start to look at the skies. The tiredness and dozing that are traditional at this hour give way to doubts and adrenaline flowing; is it finally going to rain? While there is one team reacting as a clockwork (Audi), there’s another team that sees their worst case scenario materializing (Peugeot) and this is the defining moment of the 76th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the moment where the tide turns as it so often happens at La Sarthe.

But let’s start at the beginning and rewind our clocks over a dozen of hours to Saturday 15.00. In a very clean fashion 55 cars took the start of the 2008 Le Mans 24 hours and Peugeot’s pace advantage (which had been already been showing through the week,) started making a difference with Audi, opening the expected gap within the first few laps and seeing the French lions disappear in front.

As Peugeot kept on increasing their lead with number 8 on top followed by 9 and 7, Audi kept their pace and settled into 4th, 5th and 6th making it an all-diesel top 6 which, despite some incidents, would be also be the picture at the finish ..on a very different order however. Peugeot number 8 was the first to hit trouble and had to come in with gearbox issues just over 2 hours into the race. This would get them out of contention for the win after a long garage stop over 6 laps long, subsequent minor issues would be additional setbacks that had them off the podium in the end.

Both numbers 7 and 9 started pulling away from Audi number 2 even when the better fuel economy kept the Ingolstadt car relatively close to the two leading lions. But one of the 908s would see trouble later: after a fantastic series of stints by Franck Montagny, Christian Klien would lose time after coming together with another slower car. It was down to number 7 versus number 2 now and the menace of rain would become a key factor in the next chapters.

After an additional pit stop of number 7 where ice was thrown over the back of the car to cool down the engine, Kristensen started pushing hard as the raindrops started falling, first slicing several seconds per lap (5 to 7) from Villeneuve and then pulling away in the same proportion in what would be the fundamental blow that Audi would inflict Peugeot. It was a nerve wrecking hour (4.30 to 5.30 AM) where the performance of the Peugeot dropped significantly and Audi took advantage of it driving an absolutely perfect race.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

Was it the wet set-up? Was it the visibility inside the coupé? Peugeot improved as daylight came back slowly to Le Mans filtered by an overcast sky but it was not enough to fight back with Capello, Mc Nish and Mr. Le Mans himself putting triple and quadruple stints almost without an issue (a spin from Kristensen would accelerate heartbeats at the Audi pits but no consequence would come of it). A final bet of Nic Minassian going for slicks as rain returned after 14.00 on Sunday would not pay off and Audi could control the race as they are used to. Ruthless perfection.

The winning drivers mentioned this was their first 24 hours without any kind of problem, Dindo said “only tyres and fuel, that was it” and probably that summarizes their run pretty accurately. Team and drivers did absolutely everything right, from the programming of the race to execution of the right alternatives and decision making under pressure. This was the secret to a hard-earned, sweet victory which Tom Kristensen defined as “the best”.

For Peugeot it was a huge disappointment. The faces and body language from the podium drivers were clear and sadness and anger could be clearly felt, except maybe for the very sportive attitude of Michel Barge, a true gentleman with a smile on his face despite the circumstances and already analyzing and planning the future while on the podium. A true demonstration of professionalism in the middle of a bitter moment, remaining positive while main objective of the last 2 years of hard work had been missed: it was a very hard one to swallow.

On the petrol side Pescarolo emerged again on top despite an unusual retirement from the number 16 lead car of Collard-Boullion-Dumas. With a great performance by Benoit Treluyer and regulars Tinseau and Primat, it was car number 17 that made it to the finish ahead this time. A good race for the Orecas as well despite an unfortunate accident of Marcel Faessler wrecking one of the cars almost at the same spot where Marc Gené had flown during test day. De Chaunac and his people are clearly improving constantly and it shows. A lot of merit for the brand new Dome, finishing the race and scoring the highest top speed showing it is a very strong aerodynamic design.

The Charouz Lola-Aston Martin ruined its race with two early spins, the second one from Mücke leaving the car in a pretty poor state and demanding long repairs while the other Charouz labelled car (Cytosport) was running fine until a late retirement in the early morning. Creation also finished but far behind while the Epsilon Euskadi team fought very hard to stay in the race during the night but a double gearbox failure meant both cars had to retire just before 10.00 on Sunday morning. Heartbreaking stuff but a promise of more racing emotions to come from the Spanish team in the future, fighting till the end is the name of the game for them. Very low performances of the rest of LMP1, some of the entrants would seriously need to reconsider whether this is the right class for them.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

In LMP2 it was a very big battle between van Merksteijn and Essex that was defined almost at the same time as the LMP1 race when mechanical issues delayed Essex significantly around 4.00 and the Dutch team opened a gap that the Danes would not be able to close despite their efforts. It had been very close early on with the van Merksteijn crew delivering a class act that was matched by Elgaard and Nielsen reinforced by the presence of Porsche works driver Sascha Maassen, Essex having the lead often.

Flawless execution of a clear strategy and very solid performances of all three drivers saw the three-coloured Dutch flag fly high at Le Mans for the first time ever for a team from the Low Lands. Frans Verschuur and his crew showed once more they can deliver wherever they compete and the RS Spyder showed it can last the 24 hours and keep an amazing pace, the drivers simply loved it. Another fantastic victory and a very good 2nd place from Essex as well showing they have mastered endurance on their debut year and that those Dunlops can challenge the Michelins indeed.

Another well deserved finishing position was the Saulnier’s 3rd in class. In clear contrast to their LMP1 effort, the LMP2 boys did a great job getting the car to the finish and allowing Cong Fu Cheng to be the first Chinese driver to participate, finish and get to the podium at Le Mans. Very bad luck for RML, Embassy and Trading performance with incidents leaving them out of the race while Kruse-Schiller should have deserved a sportive price after working feverishly to rebuild the car crashed on Wednesday and making it to the race in a fantastic effort that could not be sweetened by a finish. The true spirit of Le Mans embodied in Kai and his men.

It was not Lola’s day as the Speedy-Sebah car did not last for long despite their initial challenge to the Porsches and the only remaining car at the finish was the Quifel ASM finishing way back after several issues during the 24 Hours.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

The GT1 classed treated us again to a 24-Hour dogfight, this time between the 63 Corvette and the 009 Aston Martin. In the end it went to Aston on a second victory in a row, this time with David Brabham and Darren Turner joined by Antonio García, a line-up that managed to beat the challenge of the experienced Corvette crew of Magnussen-O’Connell-Fellows.

The race started with Corvette on the lead confirming the strong performance during qualifying but soon it became clear the Aston Martin had been concentrating on race pace and were ready to fight. As both numbers 64 and 007 hit some issues during the race, the other two cars of the works teams ran close to each other practically during the full 24 hours. It could not have been any closer in the end and any mistake would have meant the race going to the other team.

The private teams were not able to challenge the works teams at any stage: Larbre and IPB had long garage visits early on while the 72 Luc Alphand Corvette had a very solid race waiting for a major issue of the top runners that never happened. Good finish by Team Modena in the end while Vitaphone had a colourless race that finished much earlier than expected.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

The smallest class was the stage for a Porsche vs Ferrari battle, unfortunately only for a few hours. An early coming together between the IMSA and Flying Lizards first and mechanical issues for the Felbermayr Porsche later on left the way open for an all-Ferrari podium which was topped by Risi with an impeccable drive by Salo, Melo and Bruni. BMS Scuderia Italia managed a strong second while Farnbacher ended third after Virgo retired in the late stages with engine failure, one of those disappointing moments that happen every year at Le Mans.

From the start it was clear the Porsches were more than able to challenge Ferrari so the IMSA/Lizards crash with less than 2 hours into the race was a serious blow to those expecting a duel down to the wire, even when the Felbermayr car battled on until they needed a very long stop at the pits during the evening that put them far behind the top 5. In the end they crossed the line on 5th however ahead of the Lizards which managed to keep running even if it was far behind the leaders.

A final comment regarding Spyker: the Dutch team took a heavy blow with both cars retiring before midnight after struggling all through the week despite their tremendous effort. The time might have come to regroup, rethink strategies and look for breakthroughs in terms of reliability and speed which can bring the Laviolettes to a level in which they can challenge the other manufacturers in the class. It is possible to achieve, it just might need an alternative avenue and this might be the right time to look for it. The Dutch Squadron are known for their relentlessness and passion so they should bounce back in the next period.

Once more we had the confirmation that the Le Mans 24 hours is the race of races, where nothing is decided until the very end and where four parallel races keep emotions running high all the way until the chequered flag. It is only over for a few days but, like thousands of fans, we are already looking forward to the 2009 edition. It is Le Mans, and nothing compares to it.