Le Mans

Le Mans, France – The 24 hours is off and running with the giant Rolex, winding down the hours until 3:00 Sunday. The pace of the race so far is nothing but spectacular with Audi and Peugeot fighting it out for all out victory at Le Mans, but don’t forget Aston Martin, who are no strangers to Le Mans, however their last win was in 1959 with the Aston Martin DBR1.

Both Audi and Peugeot have already had difficulties in the first hour of the race, with the No. 3 Audi R15, driven by Alexandre Prémat, going off the course in what appeared to be a problem with his brakes in the Indianapolis corner.  The car hit the tire barrier, and had to be towed out of the gravel trap, but was able to continue to the pits, for repairs.

In the same hour, the No. 7 and No. 17 Peugeots had an altercation on the pit lane, the result is that Pedro Lamy’s Peugeot suffered a flat on track, destroying the bodywork, as he limped the car back to the pits. The safety car was called out to the track so that it could be cleared of the debris from the Peugeot.

Current Running Order for each class  as of the first hour is:

LMP1

1. 8 Team Peugeot Total MONTAGNY Franck  19
2. 1 Audi Sport Team Joest MCNISH Allan  19
3. 2 Audi Sport North America ROCKENFELLER Mike  19
4. 9 Peugeot Sport Total GENE Marc  19
5. 007 AMR Eastern Europe MUCKE Stefan  19
6. 008 Aston Martin Racing TURNER D  19
7. 13 Speedy Racing Sebah BELICCHI Andrea  18
8. 16 Pescarolo Sport TINSEAU Christophe  18
9. 14 Kolles ZWOLSMAN Charles  18
10. 11 Team Oreca Matmut AIM PANIS Olivier  18
LMP2

1. 31 Team Essex COLLARD Emmanuel  18
2. 5 Navi Team Goh ARA Seiji  18
3. 33 Speedy Racing Sebah KANE Jonny  18
4. 25 RML ERDOS Tommy  17
5. 30 Racing Box BOBBI Matteo  17
6. 41 G.A.C. Racing Team PETER Philipp  17
7. 32 Team Barazi Epsilon BARAZI Juan  17
8. 35 OAK Racing AJLANI Karim  17
9. 24 OAK Racing HEIN Richard  17
10. 26 Bruichladdich Bruneau ROSTAN Marc  17

GT1

1. 63 Corvette Racing MAGNUSSEN Jan  17
2. 64 Corvette Racing GAVIN Olivier  17
3. 73 Alphand Aventures CLAIRAY Yan  17
4. 72 Alphand Aventures GOUESLARD Patrice  16
5. 66 Jetalliance Racing Gmbh LICHTNER-HOYER Lukas  10
6. 68 JLOC YAMAGISHI Yutaka  1

GT2

1. 76 Imsa Performance Matmut LONG Patrick  17
2. 99 JMB Racing BOUCHUT Christophe  17
3. 82 Risi Competizione MELO Jaime  17
4. 80 Flying Lizard Motorsport LAW Darren  17
5. 89 Hankook-Farnbacher FARNBACHER Dominik  17
6. 92 JMW Motorsport KIRKALDY Andrew  17
7. 78 AF Corse BRUNI Gianmaria  17
8. 83 Risi Competizione KROHN Tracy  17
9. 87 Drayson Racing DRAYSON Paul  16
10. 85 Snoras Spyker Squadron BLEEKEMOLEN Jeroen  16

The build up to the start of the 24 hours of Le Mans, is always quite a spectical in itself, the cars are brought onto the track one at a time, along with pit crews, drivers, and all of the team principals, and other VIPs, and of course Pit Girls. The cars are readied, and and last minute changes are made, unlike Formula 1, the cars are allowed to be worked on all the way upto the race, and durring the race.

Pit Lane FridayThe Friday before the 24 hours of Le Mans, is usually a pretty slow day for the track, the calm before the storm per say…. Still insides the fences of the Le Mans, the pit lane is open to the general public all day long. Tens of thousands of spectators make their way though the pit lane, viewing their favorite teams, and possibly even drivers. Here are some of the pictures from the day.