It is now beginning to get a bit gloomy .. and the race is about 120 laps old and this is when Le Mans seems to come alive as far as many of the fans are concerned. Beer seems to taste better in the dark!
But back to the start.. As always the pressure cooker was building up steam.. cars on the grid .. crowds beginning to build up.. bands playing .. girls in rah-rah skirts ‘rahrar-ring’ their little hearts out. It seems the Hawaiian Tropic girls have not been seen for a couple of years so they may now be a thing of the past here at Le Mans.. shame really they were rather decorative. But the build up to the start was as impressive as ever, but I am delighted to announce that there was a rather relaxed slightly out of character up-cock! To keep the fans, media and a viewing audience of millions etc. all moist eyed with nostalgia the ACO had organised a ‘run to your cars across the track’ .. or ‘The Herringbone start’.. I can’t say I have ever seen a herring bone quite like that but hey .. it’s Le Mans .. so we had the impressive sight of 55 drivers all suited and booted.. lined up on the grass verge opposite their cars .. each driver with a little white circle to stand in… the ‘tension’ rose… then roughly half the drivers heard whatever the signal was to start and they strolled across the track and clambered into their cars .. but the other half didn’t hear whatever it was so it all degenerated into a confused amble ! So this was a false start and they were recalled for another go and to do it properly. So, start two was a gentle slightly better choreographed. And the cars set off for a familiarisation laps. Some came back to grid, others popped into to the pits for a fuel top up and then the real countdown began. It is tremendous skill to time the start to nearest second but year after year they do it..
One feature of Le Mans in recent years seems to be the fact that all the drivers seem oblivious of the fact that this actually is quite a long race .. about twelve F1 GP back to back or a quick trip to New York… instead they go ‘balls out’ in head-banging flat out sprint mode.. it is splendidly daft, but very tense.
Anyway .. things went according to form .. the lead #1 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 Peugeot 908 stormed off into a modest lead but nobody had told McNish not to scare the wotsits out of Lapierre in the #4 Team Oreca Matmut LMP1 Peugeot 908 by pushing him very hard indeed, suggesting that maybe the Audis are not so slow after all. OK so it didn't last for long but it was fun.
Hugh Chamberlain had taken a passing interest in the #19 Michael Lewis/Autocon LMP1 Lola AER and was rather scathing about its distinctly unspectacular performance when it didn't even make one lap of the race before the gearbox expired. He suggested the level of preparation left a wee bit to be desired, or that was the gist of it!
Over the opening hours of the race the mechanical carnage was much higher than last year.. at 19:00hrs ten cars had retired this year as opposed to four last year. While the #19 Michael Lewis/Autocon LMP1 Lola AER faded in rather an unspectacular fashion, the departure of the #3 Peugeot Sport Total LMP1 Peugeot 908 was being driven Pedro Lamy when 'summat' went wrong.. it looked like a puncture but Pedro drove on at a heck of a lick with ever increasing amounts of tyre smoke. He brought the car back to the pits and when the French Kwik Fit Fitters looked at the front suspension it was all over. The front part of front suspension had pulled out of the carbon fibre tub and it simply isn't possible to repair that sort of damage so the team withdrew the car. This was a big blow to the team but it apparently reduced Sébastian Bourdais to tears. Another F1 Superstar to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons was one Mr N. Mansell Esq. It seems that he might have got a slow puncture or possibly come upon the #81 Jaguar RSR LMGT2 Jaguar XKRS that was having a terrible time and going very slowly, whatever happened he had a series of huge spins while the car re-arranged the Sarthe scenery on both sides of the track doing a fair bit of damage to the car and worryingly the driver did not leap immediately out of the car. The emergency services carefully extricated him from the car and whisked him off to the medical centre. It seems all he suffered was slight bang on the head .. his legions of fans will be most relieved.. Another spectacular mess was the #70 Marc VDS Racing Team LMGT1 Ford GT . The Ford GT is achingly beautiful .. but less so after you have thrown it backwards into a wall. Bas Leinders lost it , but to try and make up for it he drove what can only be described as 'the remains' back to pits.. quite a fair percentage of the car did get back to the pit but in insurance terms it was 'beyond economic repair' and withdrawn.
Whilst on the subject of Ford GTs the Le Mans adventure came to a fiery end for the #61 Matech Competition LMGT1 Ford GT. Natacha Gachnang was driving when the car caught fire. She realised all was not well when the car filled with smoke and she could see where she was going.. so wisely she parked up. Unwisely she parked too close to Armco to open the door and get out! Escape was made even harder due to the fact she is just recovering from a serious leg injury.. however she exited the car remarkably fast .. I suppose with that kind of motivation one would!
The #81 Jaguar finally gave up the unequal battle and the team withdrew the car having failed to cure the electrical gremlins that had plagued the car.
On the plus side the #69 JLOC LMGT1 Lamborghini Murcielago is still in the race.. a vast improvement over last year .. OK it is running last only (!) 59 laps behind the leaders.
At the last count ten cars had retired... we might do the same !! Watch this space!
At 01:30hrs the situation was:-
LMP1
#2 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 Peugeot 908 driven by Nicolas Minassian, Stéphane Sarrazin and Franck Montagny
#4 Team Oreca Matmut LMP1 Peugeot 908 driven by Olivier Panis, Nicolas Lapierre and Loïc Duval
#9 Audi Sport North America LMP1 Audi R15 driven by Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas
LMP2
#42 Strakka Racing LMP2 HPD ARX.01 driven by Nick Leventis, Danny Watts and Jonny Kane
#26 Highcroft Racing LMP2 HPD ARX.01 driven by David Brabham, Marino Franchitti and Marco Werner
#35 Oak Racing LMP2 Pescarolo Judd driven by Matthieu Lahaye, Guillaume Moreau and Jan Charouz
GT1
#50 Larbre Competition LMGT1 Saleen S7R driven by Roland Berville, Julien Canal and Gabriele Gardel
#73 Luc Alphand Aventures LMGT1 Corvette C6.R driven by Julien Jousse, Xavier Maassen and Patrice Goueslard
#60 Matech Competition LMGT1 Ford GT driven by Thomas Mutsch, Romain Grosjean and Jonathan Hirschi
GT2
#64 Corvette Racing LMGT2 Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 driven by Oliver Gavin, Olivier Beretta and Emmanuel Collard
#63 Corvette Racing LMGT2 Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1 driven by Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell and Antonio Garcia
#77 Team Felbermayr-Proton LMGT2 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR driven by Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler
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