LeMans Hour 4: Audi leads, then Peugeot takes over
The Risi Ferrari led the GT2 category |
Risi Competizione charged through the GT2 field and into the lead after four hours at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Gianmaria Bruni holding the point in the No. 62 Ferrari F430 GT he shares with Mika Salo and Jaime Melo. The Ferrari was one of two American Le Mans Series entries to lead their classes.
At the front of the grid, Audi’s Le Mans strategy was working perfectly as the diesel-powered R10 TDI of Dindo Capello, Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen led by just over 30 seconds over the leading Peugeot 908. The Audi had made five stops through four hours compared to six for the Peugeot, enabling the R10 to take the lead in the third hour. However, by the 5th hour Peugeot was back on top.
The Audi R10 led overall for awhile but then Peugeot just drove right past them |
At the 4th hour Capello led Nic Minassian by 34 seconds with Audi seeking its third straight victory with the R10 TDI and eighth since 2000. Two other Audis were on the lead lap with Alexandre Premat running fourth and Marco Werner, looking for his fourth consecutive win, in fifth place.
In addition to the overall lead, the American Le Mans Series had drivers leading the three other classes.
In LMP2, the Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder of Penske Racing’s Sascha Maassen along with Casper Elgaard and John Nielsen led by 15 seconds over the Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche.
The GT1 battle was as close as expected. Aston Martin Racing’s David Brabham drove the factory Aston Martin DBR9 to lead past Corvette Racing’s works Corvette C6.R of Johnny O’Connell. Entering the fifth hour, Darren Turner led Olivier Beretta in the No. 64 car by four seconds with the pole-sitting 63 another 12 seconds back with Ron Fellows at the wheel.
Back in GT2, Bruni led the Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Wolf Henzler, who drives for Flying Lizard Motorsports in the American Le Mans Series. Bruni held the advantage by less than a minute.
Disaster struck the Lizard Porsche early nearly two hours in when Seth Neiman and the IMSA Performance Porsche of American factory driver Patrick Long made contact and sent both cars into the gravel. The Lizard entry suffered significant damage including severe bodywork damage on all sides, a broken rear wheel (and the other three badly damaged), two broken radiators and right rear suspension damage.
It took 80 minutes to get the car repaired. Jörg Bergmeister rejoined the race but was 20 laps behind Bruni.
Hour 5 Standings
Pos |
# | Class | Drivers | Team | Car | Laps | Gap |
1. | 7 | LM P1 | M.Gene, N.Minassian, J.Villeneuve | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 | 83 | 0.000 |
2. | 2 | LM P1 | R.Capello, A.McNish, T.Kristensen | Audi Sport North America | Audi R10 | 83 | 35.965 |
3. | 9 | LM P1 | F.Montagny, R.Zonta, C.Klein | Peugeot Sport Total | Peugeot 908 | 83 | 1:01.843 |
4. | 3 | LM P1 | L.Luhr, A.Premat, M.Rockenfeller | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R10 | 82 | 1 Lap |
5. | 1 | LM P1 | F.Biela, E.Pirro, M.Werner | Audi Sport North America | Audi R10 | 82 | 19.275 |
6. | 5 | LM P1 | S.Ayari, L.Duval, L.Groppi | Team Oreca Matmut | Courage-Oreca LC70 Judd | 79 | 4 Laps |
7. | 17 | LM P1 | H.Primat, C.Tinseau, B.Treluyer | Pescarolo Sport | Pescarolo Judd | 79 | 1:00.029 |
8. | 11 | LM P1 | D.Ito, Y.Tachikawa, T.Kataoka | Dome Racing Team | Dome S102 Judd | 79 | 1:53.947 |
9. | 6 | LM P1 | S.Pagenaud, O.Panis, M.Fassler | Team Oreca Matmut | Courage-Oreca LC70 Judd | 79 | 1:54.623 |
10. | 31 | LM P2 | J.Nielsen, C.Elgaard, S.Maassen | Team Essex | Porsche RS Spyder | 78 | 5 Laps |
11. | 16 | LM P1 | J.C.Boullion, E.Collard, R.Dumas | Pescarolo Sport | Pescarolo Judd | 78 | 1.928 |
12. | 18 | LM P1 | V.Ickx, S.Gregoire, J.Barbosa | Rollcentre Racing | Pescarolo Judd | 77 | 6 Laps |
13. | 34 | LM P2 | P.van Merksteijn, J.Verstappen, J.Bleeke | Van Merksteijn Motorsport | Porsche RS Spyder | 77 | 13.508 |
14. | 8 | LM P1 | P.Lamy, S.Sarrazin, A.Wurz | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 | 77 | 54.375 |
15. | 20 | LM P1 | A.Burgueno, M.A.De Castro, A.Valles | Epsilon Euskadi | Epsilon Euskadi EE01 Judd | 76 | 7 Laps |
16. | 33 | LM P2 | X.Pompidou, A.Belicchi, S.Zacchia | SpeedY Racing Team Sebah | Lola B08/80Judd | 76 | 1:10.375 |
17. | 45 | LM P2 | W.Hughes, J.Kane, J.Foster | Embassy Racing | Embassy WF01 Zytek | 75 | 8 Laps |
18. | 35 | LM P2 | P.Ragues, M.Lahaye, C.Cheng | Saulnier Racing | Pescarolo Judd | 74 | 9 Laps |
19. | 40 | LM P2 | M.Amaral, O.Pla, G.Smith | Quifel-ASM Team | Lola B05/40 AER | 74 | 1:13.154 |
20. | 00 | LM GT1 | D.Brabham, D.Turner, A.Garcia | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin DBR9 | 74 | 1:36.748 |
21. | 4 | LM P1 | M.Faggionato, J.Nicolet, R.Hein | Saulnier Racing | Pescarolo Judd | 74 | 1:36.855 |
22. | 64 | LM GT1 | O.Beretta, O.Gavin, M.Papis | Corvette Racing | Corvette C6.R | 74 | 1:58.021 |
23. | 63 | LM GT1 | J.O'Connell, J.Magnussen, R.Fellows | Corvette Racing | Corvette C6.R | 74 | 1:58.843 |
24. | 00 | LM GT1 | H.-H.Frentzen, A.Piccini, K.Wendlinger | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin DBR9 | 74 | 2:20.287 |
25. | 12 | LM P1 | G.Pickett, K.Graf, J.Lammers | Charouz Racing System | Lola Judd | 73 | 10 Laps |
26. | 32 | LM P2 | J.Barazi, M.Vergers, S.Moseley | Barazi Epsilon | Zytek 07S/2 | 73 | 1:55.324 |
27. | 72 | LM GT1 | L.Alphand, J.Policand, G.Moreau | Luc Alphand Aventures | Corvette C6.R | 72 | 11 Laps |
28. | 44 | LM P2 | J.de Pourtales, H.Noda, J.-F.Yvon | Kruse Schiller Motorsport | Lola B05/40 Mazda | 71 | 12 Laps |
29. | 59 | LM GT1 | J.Menten, C.Fittipaldi, T.Borcheller | Team Modena | Aston Martin DBR9 | 71 | 5:05.129 |
30. | 82 | LM GT2 | M.Salo, J.Melo, G.Bruni | Risi Competizione | Ferrari F430 GTC | 70 | 13 Laps |
31. | 77 | LM GT2 | A.Davison, W.Henzler, H.Felbermayr | Team Felbermayr-Proton | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 70 | 54.216 |
32. | 73 | LM GT1 | P.Goueslard, J.Blanchemain, L.Pasquali | Luc Alphand Aventures | Corvette C6.R | 70 | 2:11.388 |
33. | 10 | LM P1 | S.Mucke, J.Charouz, T.Enge | Charouz Racing System | Lola B08/80 Aston Martin | 70 | 2:51.839 |
34. | 78 | LM GT2 | T.Biagi, C.Montanari, T.Vilander | AF Corse | Ferrari F430 GTC | 70 | 2:54.224 |
35. | 53 | LM GT1 | A.Negrao, P.Hardman, N.Leventis | Vitaphone Racing Team | Aston Martin DBR9 | 69 | 14 Laps |
36. | 96 | LM GT2 | T.Mullen, R.Bell, T.Sugden | Virgo Motorsport | Ferrari F430 GTC | 69 | 5:44.695 |
37. | 26 | LM P2 | B.Devlin, M.Rostan, G.Jeannette | Team Bruichladdich Radical | Radical SR9 AER | 69 | 7:27.322 |
38. | 97 | LM GT2 | F.Babini, P.Ruberti, M.Malucelli | BMS Scuderia Italia | Ferrari F430 GTC | 69 | 7:32.768 |
39. | 90 | LM GT2 | L.-E.Nielsen, P.Ehret, P.Kaffer | Farnbacher Racing | Ferrari F430 GTC | 69 | 9:02.447 |
40. | 99 | LM GT2 | B.Aucott, S.Dauodi, A.Ferte | JMB Racing | Ferrari F430 GTC | 68 | 15 Laps |
41. | 14 | LM P1 | S.Hall, J.Mowlem, M.Goossens | Creation Autosportif | Creation CA07 AIM | 65 | 18 Laps |
42. | 23 | LM P1 | M.Lewis, B.Willman, C.McMurry | Autocon | Creation CA07 Judd | 65 | 28:19.226 |
43. | 25 | LM P2 | T.Erdos, M.Newton, A.Wallace | RML | Lola B05/40 MG | 65 | 28:51.925 |
44. | 94 | LM GT2 | A.Chiesa, B.Leuenberger, I.Alexander-Dav | Speedy Racing Team | Spyker C8 Laviolette | 63 | 20 Laps |
45. | 21 | LM P1 | J.-M.Gounon, S.Nakano, S.Johansson | Epsilon Euskadi | Epsilon Euskadi EE01 Judd | 62 | 21 Laps |
46. | 22 | LM P1 | T.Suzuki, M.Kageyama, H.Kurosawa | Tokai University-YGK Power | Courage-Oreca YGK | 57 | 26 Laps |
47. | 50 | LM GT1 | C.Bouchut, P.Bornhauser, D.Hallyday | Larbre Competition | Saleen S7R | 57 | 43.701 |
48. | 19 | LM P1 | G.Evans, B.Berridge, A.Stretton | Chamberlain-Synergy Motorspr | Lola B06/10 AER | 56 | 27 Laps |
49. | 80 | LM GT2 | J.Bergmeister, J.van Overbeek, S.Neiman | Flying Lizard Motorsports | Porsche 911 GT3 RSR | 51 | 32 Laps |
50. | 85 | LM GT2 | P. Dumbreck, R.Kelleners, A.Vasiliev | Spyker Squadron | Spyker C8 Laviolette | 43 | 40 Laps |
51. | 55 | LM GT1 | P.Kox, R.Rusinov, M.Hezemans | Interprogressbank Spartak | Lamborghini Murcielago | 40 | 43 Laps |
52. | 24 | LM P1 | Y.Terada, K.Takahashi, H.Katoh | Terramos | Courage Mugen | 37 | 46 Laps |