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-- Theres only one decent event in France, and it aint cycling - Le Mans 24 hour 2008
Theres only one decent event in France, and it aint cycling - Le Mans 24 hour 2008
Le Mans 24 Hour on this weekend. awesome.
Peugot are looking good, qualified 1-2-3 and blitzed the Audi's quali times. With luck they're be able to break the Audi stranglehold on the race in recent times. The car certainly looked bloody quick when i saw it last year, this year its a large step forward according to my sources in terms of speed and reliability. Will be interesting to see how Marc Gene drives in the race, he had a massive crash a couple of weeks ago in the Porsche Curves, he admitted afterward he thought he was about to die. Was quite incredible he got away with only a broken toe.
You can never rule out Audi though, they have owned this event over the last 8 years (7 wins, the only time they didn't was when the Bentley Speed 8 won, but that car was based on the Audi anyway). Qualified 4,5,7.
Its interesting to see the differing philosophies between Audi and Peugot in driver lineup, Audi are sticking with their usual lineup of experienced sportscar drivers while Peugot seem to favour ex-Formula 1 drivers.
The silence of those diesel cars is somewhat disconcerting, compared to the petrol LMP's they really are phenomenally quiet. Just doesn't sound right.
The Charouz Aston Martin LMP1 is the fastest petrol car, qualified in 6. Could well throw up a few surprises managing to get up amongst the diesel cars, splitting the Audi's in quali. But it would be a surprise as the fuel economy of the diesels wil have a much greater effect over the race distance, but would be great to see them up fighting the big boys.
You also can't rule out Pescarolo, they always seem to be the next best after the dominant team of the year. Pescarolo vs Charouz could be a good battle. Throw the all-Japanese Dome team in the works and it coud be a real ding-dong.
The best battle should be the GT1 category though. Aston Martin DBR9 vs Corvette. Aston won it last year but the Corvettes are back determined to take it to the Astons. The Aston's look amazing this year in Gulf Oil colours, definitely the sexiest car in the field. Brilliant. The Corvettes have qualified 31 and 35, while the Astons are in 36 and 37. Definitely going to be a mega race between those two teams. In 34th is a Saleen S7-R, so it could well pan out to be a 3-way battle which will be great to follow.
Live coverage is on Eurosport. Which I don't have in Australia
| quote: |
| Originally posted by pmoisse Today is the 24 Hours of LeMans. For those in Europe with the eurosport channel, you can watch ALL 24 hours, LIVE!! I was there last year, and in 2001, and it's the best bang for your buck ever. 40 euros for a walk-up, pay at the door ticket. Fantastic scenery, fantasic vibe, legendary race. Stayed from around 11pm until 130pm Sunday. I will be back next year. Pics from last year:     For north america, Speedvision / Speedchannel used to show the whole 24 hours before they went all Nascar. Not sure what they're showing this year. |
It's not true that Eurosport is showing all of it, most of it is on Eurosport 2 which I don't have. 
Speed was showing it and i was watching a bit but then switched to the spain game.... when i switched back to speed there was nascar truck racing 
Shit - sorry guys, I didn't even see the other thread
And sorry about the eurosport lead too - I got that from the Top Gera website so it might only apply to UK.
They will likely show a ton of it tomorrow. Dawn is the best time and where the real race begins.
re - the diesels - yeah, last year you could just hear a flutter of the turbine and the stick of the tires. It was so strange and really not normal for a racecar.
I love the new Dome S102 car. Looks badass. Hopefully it can end up first of the petrol cars, though it will probably be a Porsche RS Spyder to take those honours.
Tomorrow should be good!
4.5 hours left
#2 Audi looking like its getting away with it, again. Building a decent lead out front of 2 Peugeots. Audi's better fuel economy is whats winning it for them, they've had 3 less pit stops compared to the Peugeot in 2nd
Pescarolo best of the rest (in 7th), 6 laps ahead of the next car from Oreca. Charouz a futher 6 laps behind (with a few cars in between). Dome languishing in 25th, 51 laps behind the leaders
A dutch Porsche RS Spyder leading LMP2, in 9th overall.
Aston Martin DBR9 leading GT1 and getting away from the Corvettes
Risi Competition F430 leading GT2.
Still a long way to go yet though.
Not that the cool new Dome was winning or anything, but it sucked to see them kiss the wall a few laps ago
Best looking car out there.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by pmoisse Not that the cool new Dome was winning or anything, but it sucked to see them kiss the wall a few laps ago Best looking car out there. |
True - the Gulf Astons do look mighty sexy.
Next year, that badass Aston LMP1 car is going to be in Gulf colours which is goint to look fantastic
yeah I've heard that rumour too about the LMP1 being done up in Gulf colours next year. Hope so, would be awesome.
So there we go, final results
The #2 Audi wins from the #7 Peugeot by 1 lap. After 24 hours racing and 380 laps of Circuit La Sarthe, around 4 minutes separated these cars.
Tom Kristensen's 8th win at Le Mans, superb record. Allan McNish's 2nd win, and Rinaldo Capello's 3rd victory. Since 2000, Audi have won 8 Le Mans, the only exception being a victory by Bentley, which was effectively an Audi win anyway.
Pescarolo are 'best of the rest' in 7th behind the 3 Peugeots and 3 Audi's. This makes them the first petrol powered car. Oreca came 8th, 5 laps behind the Pescarolo. Charouz had some technical problems but battled back to finish 9th, 8 laps behind the Pescarolo and 3 laps behind Oreca.
The Dutch Porsche RS Spyder co-driven by Jos the Boss won LMP2 and are 10th overall.
David Brabham and Darren Turner have completed back-to-back GT1 wins in their DBR9, leading the Corvette of Jan Magnussen by a lap.
Ferrari have dominated GT2, holding 1-2-3-4 in class, with Mika Salo and Gianmaria Bruni in the winning Risi car. Alex Davison is in the first Porsche on road, in 5th. Both Spykers retired.
*obviously i haven't mentioned all the drivers in all the cars involved, I only mentioned drivers of note.
..............
every class winner involves an ex-F1 driver
LMP1 - Allan McNish
LMP2 - Jos Verstappen
GT1 - David Brabham
GT2 - Mika Salo, Gianmaria Bruni
Great race right down til the end few laps with the changing weather conditions.
I love how competitive it all is now. The commentators were saying how the ACO is going to try and even out the speeds between the classes for next year since the top LMP1 cars are dangerously faster than even the LMP2's.
I wonder if Audi will be back with the LMP car next year or if they'll bring a TDI into one of the GT classes? A TDI S6 would be awesome in GT1 or a TDI S4 would kickass in GT2. Great showcase of new innovation since it was effectively better mileage that won Audi this race.
Peugeot was fast as hell, but didn't have the range and it ended up costing them.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Trance Nutter every class winner involves an ex-F1 driver LMP1 - Allan McNish LMP2 - Jos Verstappen GT1 - David Brabham GT2 - Mika Salo, Gianmaria Bruni |
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