I have posted pictures I’ve taken at the 24 Hours of Le Mans pit walk last Friday. It was really interesting, kind of funny to see all teams tuning their cars Friday in the late afternoon except for Audi who was practicing pit stops.
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We are delighted to let you know that we have posted the pictures taken yesterday and today at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012 Scrutineering session. It was a fun scrutineering session, at a whole knew location but everything turned out just fine. Have a look at the pictures and let us know what you think. You can post comments right here or you can send us a message on twitter at @lemanssensation. Audi grabbed the first four places at the second FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa. It was the first rollout of a new generation of top class Le Mans prototypes from the German manufacturer, the diesel powered R18 Ultra and the diesel hybrid R18 e-tron quattro. Both cars performed remarkably well for a first performance, with the R18 Ultra no. 3 taking the win and the R18 e-tron quattro no. 1 achieving the fastest lap time of 2’01.851. The extra torque provided by the electric engine in the hybrid has probably helped with that. McNish, Kristensen and Capello arrived 4th despite having left from the pole position and their best lap time was the slowest of all the Audis. The two Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota arrived 5th and 6th, right after the Audis. Allan McNish stormed through the qualifying sessions of the World Endurance Championship Spa race this week, at the wheel of his brand new Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro, securing the pole position for his team. It will be interesting to see how the car behaves in the 6 hours endurance race. This will be the first participation of the e-tron in an official World Endurance Championship race. Weather forecasts are not brilliant to say the least, with cold weather and almost continuos rain being expected during the event. Wishing all contenders best of luck. Oreca are proudly reporting that Sebastian Loeb will be attending the official Le Mans test day at the weel of their very own Oreca 03. Looking forward to see how this works out. Audi’s first and second place at the 12 Hours of Sebring last week must have felt really good and reassuring, as the Germans haven’t scored such a performance in the American classic endurance race since 2005. It was just like the old times, with Kristensen, McNish and Capello holding the cup. And you should probably get used to it, because with Peugeot out of their way, Audi will probably sweep everything away. Sebring was also the first round of the brand new FIA World Endurance Championship. Pescarolo finished in an honorable 6th place overall, 3rd in LMP1.
And it looks like this race is turning into a nightmare for Audi. First Allan McNish crashed in the most spectacular way and broke his car into pieces. He was lucky enough not to get hurt. Man, did you see that crash? And now Mike Rockenfeller also crashed, in a quite spectacular way too, not sure if the car is out or not. The four Peugeot are going steady without taking any chances, as Sebastien Bourdais explained earlier in an interview. So now after Mike Rockenfeller brought out the safery car, the Audi R18 no 2 is the overall leader, followed by the three factory Peugeot 908 and the Oreca Peugeot. Leading the gas prototypes is Pescarolo, followed by the two Rebellion Lola-Toyota within the same lap. The safety car is expected to stay out until about midnight.
We are happy to share our 24 Hours of Le Mans 2011 Scrutineering photo album with all our readers who could not be in Le Mans last Sunday and Monday. Enjoy! Audi managed to secure the first to spots on the starting grid at the 2011 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A couple of factory Peugeot 908s are third and fourth, followed by the third Audi, the third factory Peugeot and the Oreca Peugeot. Audi could have gotten the first three spots but Kristensen pushed to hard and ended up in the gravel. As far as the gas powered LMP1s goes, it was a tight race between Pescarolo and Rebellion, with Rebellion taking the lead by less than 200 milliseconds. The Astons have dissapointed again, ending up 22nd and 25th on the grid.
What is impressive, however, is how many people showed up to greet Henri and the rest of Pescarolo Team for their return at Le Mans. The people of Le Mans love Pescarolo and the his team’s spectacular comeback left everybody in admiration. In just one year Henri build a new team, revamped an older car and won the 12 Hours of Castellet, leaving behind teams with many times his budget, such as Aston Martin and Rebellion Racing. So back to scrutineering, these are our awards:
What’s your favorite car this year? Let us know on twitter, send us a message @lemanssensation. I’m currently processing all pictures and do my best to post a comprehensive scrutineering gallery as soon as possible. Follow @lemanssensation to be notified in time. |
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It’s been a difficult race so far. Both Aston Martin LMP1s gave up, first one after only laps. We all knew the Astons were not ready for a 24 Hours race but we would have expected a bit more than 2 laps. Anyways, the Aston Martin Racing boss apologized to fans and asked them to have faith in the future.
It had to rain. For nearly three months we didn’t get one drop of rain in Le Mans. Not one. But we had to have heavy rain Sunday, on the first scrutineering day, pouring down on the Pescarolo boys who opened this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.