24 Hours of Le Mans
Facts on Audi’s record victory at Le Mans
© Planetlemans – Brecht Decancq
In the fastest race in Le Mans history Audi achieved its ninth triumph. Key facts on the historic Le Mans exploit of the brand with the four rings.
With its ninth victory Audi has equalized Ferrari in the roll of honor of the endurance classic which has been held since 1923. Only Porsche with 16 wins (in 60 events) is even more successful. In total, 24 different marques are on the list of winners.
Audi’s track record at the Le Mans 24 Hours is impressive: the brand achieved its nine exploits in just twelve events (rate of wins: 75 percent). Audi clinched 23 out of 36 possible podium places (64.9 percent).
With 39 entrants since 1999, Audi achieved 31 finishes (79.5 percent), nine of which were victories, five were second places and nine were third places.
For the team of Reinhold Joest this was the eleventh victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours and the seventh with Audi. If the exploits by Dauer Racing (1994) and Bentley (2003), in which the team was involved as well, are included in the count, Joest Racing has recorded as many as 13 Le Mans successes.
In all of its twelve Le Mans commitments Audi achieved a podium result.
For the brand with the four rings this was the fourth one-two-three exploit after 2000, 2002 and 2004. For the first time an automobile manufacturer managed to clinch a one-two-three win with diesel-powered cars at Le Mans.
If Bentley’s 2003 exploit when a TFSI engine developed by Audi Sport was used is included in the tally, then highly efficient Audi technology has been victorious in ten of the last eleven Le Mans races. For all ten successes Audi Head of Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich has been responsible.
For the fifth consecutive time a diesel-powered vehicle won at Le Mans. Four diesel victories are credited to Audi’s TDI technology (2006 to 2008 and 2010).
After 2001 (TFSI) and 2006 (TDI) Audi won at Le Mans with new technology for the third time: in 2010 turbo-chargers with VTG (Variable Turbine Geometry) were used.
With an average speed of 225.228 km/h the 78th edition was the fastest in the history of the race. The other two Audi R15 TDI cars, as well, surpassed the so far best mark from the year 1971 (222.304 km/h) with 224.659 km/h and 223.524 km/h.
The victorious Audi R15 TDI designated as car number “9″ completed a total of 397 laps. Having covered a distance of 5,410.713 kilometers, it broke the 1971 record set by Dr. Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep in the Porsche 917 (5,335.313 km). At that time, the Le Mans circuit had no chicanes.
Despite the extremely high average speed the winning car consumed just 43.43 liters per 100 kilometers of diesel fuel on average – more than 10 percent less as at Audi’s first Le Mans victory in 2000 when the average was just 208.660 km/h.
The winning car completed the entire distance with only eleven sets of Michelin tires (including an additional set required due to a slow puncture shortly before the end of the race). This meant that on average 491.9 kilometers were driven on a single set of tires. In 2009 the tires had to been changed about every 330 kilometers – a clear sign for the high efficency of the “R15 plus.”
In total, the victorious Audi R15 TDI pitted 33 times. The pit stop time was just barely 20 minutes. The replacement of the right-hand outside mirror (approx. 20 seconds) was the only unscheduled work, plus an additional tire change as a result of a slow puncture just before the end of the race.
The victorious Audi R15 TDI (chassis number R15-204) was the leading car on 133 of the 397 laps.
The fastest lap of an Audi R15 TDI in the race was driven by André Lotterer at 3m 21.541s on lap 334. This meant he was quicker than Mike Rockenfeller was on the fastest qualifying lap of an Audi R15 TDI (3m 21.981s).
At an average age of 29, Timo Bernhard (29), Romain Dumas (32) and Mike Rockenfeller (26) were the youngest driver trio to have clinched an Audi victory at Le Mans.
At 26, Mike Rockenfeller is the youngest Audi driver to have the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Tom Kristensen in his 14th race at Le Mans clinched his eleventh podium position – eight of which were victories (record) and three were third places.
A total of eleven drivers have won at Le Mans in an Audi up to now: Seiji Ara (1 victory with Audi), Timo Bernhard (1), Frank Biela (5), Dindo Capello (1), Romain Dumas (1), Tom Kristensen (6), JJ Lehto (1), Allan McNish (1), Emanuele Pirro (5), Mike Rockenfeller (1) and Marco Werner (3).
Timo Bernhard is the only racer so far to have won the 24-hour races at Le Mans, Daytona and the Nürburgring and only the seventh driver in history to have entered his name in the winners lists of Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring.
Mike Rockenfeller is the first driver since 1988 (Jan Lammers) to have won the 24-hour races at Daytona and Le Mans in the same year.
In total, this was the 27th Le Mans victory for a German brand and the 51st for an open-top vehicle.
It was only the third time in the history of the race that a vehicle with a V10 engine won.
After Frank Biela (1999), Marco Werner (2002) and Christijan Albers (2009), Oliver Jarvis was the fourth Audi driver to be awarded the “Rookie of the year” title for the fastest qualifying time set by all Le Mans rookies.
For Audi’s tire partner Michelin this was the 19th Le Mans victory and the 13th consecutive one since 1998.
For the second time in a row (just the fifth since 1923 in total) the car designated as number “9″ won at Le Mans.
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“For the second time in a row (just the fifth since 1923 in total) the car designated as number “9? won at Le Mans.”
I was wondering if anyone else noticed that.
Yep. Also, coincidentally, both in ‘09 and this year the #9 car started from fifth place on the grid as well.
how strange!! great win for Audi
Simply an awesome, awesome achievement from Audi.
Its really hard to overstate how amazing that 1-2-3 was, and I still keep wondering if it really happened. This is a bigger upset than the 2008 running, surely!
It’s not a surprise that out of the three Audi these drivers have taken the victory. Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas have done a great job with the Porsche RS Spyder at ALMS already and are a really perfect team. I remember before Le Mans there was a lot of discussion at Planetlemans.com about Audi’s choice for car #8 (Fässler, Lotterer, Tréluyer). But Lotterer has set the fastest lap time of the Audi’s, and the performance of these 3 drivers was really equal to the other two cars. So finally everybody has to admit Audi’s choice was right. Better hire experienced sports car drivers who are able to go a constant speed for hours than hire former Formula One drivers who are doing F1 qualifying laps with the risk of accidents (see Anthony Davidson).
I feel that the Anthony Davidson criticism is WAY overdone in the media and consequently in the minds of the fans. He drove a blinding few stints, albeit with some mistakes, got his car into contention after its problems, and was then heavily criticized by the press. He said things which were stupid, particularly to Speed, who had/have a huge bias toward the Corvette boys.
The Corvette incident was a mistake, but the cars didn’t make contact, and Collard should have let the Peugeot through given their respective situations in their respective classes.
Diving down the inside of the Ferrari was the bigger mistake, and nobody seems to be critical of him for that! I think he did a great job, and I hope Peugeot inks a new contract for him for 2011. If not, then I really hope Aston gets him again because he’s a fabulous asset and very underrated!
i, personally, hope to never hear of him again, but thats just me. and personally, the ACO made a big mistake as well, as they punished the 009 last year for a small mistake by Hall, and this year, because its a french car i might add, just “ignored” it…
p.s. IM NOT EVEN A CORVETTE FAN!!!!
It’s not what happened on the track that davidson is being talked about. That can be written off as a racing incident. But it’s what he said…given that he had time to cool off and think it through before being approached, the things he said were just very unprofessional and there’s no excuses for that.
In a profession where crashes has taken peoples lives you can’t say anyone got well served in crashing.
He’s only underrated because he thinks he’s too good of a pilot to go find a sponsor for him to regularly get a good ride. He believes that’s beneath him. Basically arrogance and it was on full display at lemans.
Let’s not forget that even Michael Schumacher started in F1 by bringing sponsorship. Even Fernando Alonso brings sponsorship, how much more Anthony Davidson.
Someone else said this before, there’s a reason F1 teams haven’t been that interested in him. Despite his speed.
I felt all along the #9 Audi car was the fastest of all 3. But since the team favors the #7, the #9 had to let it past at the start of the race.
When the lead car hit trouble with the BMW, destiny was taking over. So in essence the #9 didn’t win because the #7 had trouble, but because they deserved the win and were the best crew. Go Romain Dumas.
I saw the interviews live, and I wasn’t impressed by Ant, but after listening to Radio Le Mans’ interview with him at Silverstone, I do sympathize with him. To be sure, I don’t condone such behavior, but I don’t feel his whole Le Mans, and possibly racing career, should be defined by a few bad interviews.
I also like outbursts like that in some ways because in this day of manufactured PR answers from drivers, its nice to here a driver show some character.
As for F1 teams not wanting him, well its a tough place to keep a seat when your team deserts you. Hiedfeld doesn’t have a seat this year, and neither does Grosjean, despite a good resume.
I like Ant, and I just hope his career isn’t destroyed, then remembered, by a moment of stupidity and ignorance.
5,410km, 43.43L/100km(=2.3km/L)… finally Audi breaks Gr.C record of 5,332km with 2,550L rule (roughly 2.1km/L) which established by TWR Jaguar XJR9LM in 1988.
Even now Gr.C is still icon or a good model of top sports-car racing in meaning of ultra balancing of performance and efficiency. Also I could not imagined that such a day that the record of 1971 and 1988 is broken will come when Hunaudieres separates by two chicanes in twenty years ago…
So potentially over 5,500km or 400laps may be now possible for modern LMPs. It is definitely amazing but I am not sure whether it will be so called as true evolution or not…
Peugeot should not bring back Anthony Davidson without some kind of public announcement.
Had it rained I think the slightly slower pace could have been all the breathing room the Peugeots would have needed for their engines to make it to the end.
Personally I feel for Bourdais and Pagenaud. Big fan of them in the US. Pagenaud should try his hand at F1 or maybe Indy. I’m sure Jean Todt can pull strings to make it happen as he did for Bourdais in F1.
a little off topic but is planetlemans planning to put up liverys on the lemans spotters guide ?
@ Bamba – Maybe so on the rain front, but IF my Auntie had ball’s she’d be my Uncle! We will never know.