Le Mans

LE MANS, France — After only an hour and a half of racing at Le Mans, the #3 Audi Sport Team Joest R10 has impacted the wall, and took heavy damage to the rear of the car. Unfortunately breaking what appeared to be both rear axle and transmission. The Circuit de La Sarthe went to full caution.

Le Mans, France — Mother nature dealt race teams a sunny start with for the 75th running of the 24 Hours of LeMans, but as the first hour of the race ended, the hole of blue sky and sunshine was closed by rain clouds and a light sprinkle. With 23 hours of the race left, it is Audi running one, two, three with the number seven Puegeot in fourth.Rinaldo Capello in Audi 2 passed the the number 8 Peugeot driven by Sebastien Bordais as they raced through the first turn of the race and never looked back.

There was some conjecture amongst pit wizards as to whether Audi tipped its hand for its strategy sending Capello to the front of the class as a “rabbit” to force the Peugeot to follow and possibly break. Further conjecture was that the Audi team perhaps “sandbagged” during the qualification period and then have brought its full force to bear on the French team in the early goings. Indeed it appears as if the Audi seem to be running stronger around the race track in the early goings.

However, with but 1/24th of the race complete anything can, and probably will happen, with the weather factor playing the joker. Thus far nearly one-and-a-half hours into the race there has been no wholesale dump of rain on the track. But the track is ringed by rain clouds and if one was playing weather forecast it would seem that there will be at least one good dump of rain.

With a roar of the engines, and crazy French crowds the 75th Running of the 24 Heures Du Mans is officially underway. Starting running order lasted until turn 2 where the Pole setting Peugeot slid wide, going off a little over two turns, and allowing the #2 R10 to sneak through. Current running order is:

1 #2 Audi Sport North America LMP1 CAPELLO R
2 #8 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 BOURDAIS S
3 #7 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 MINASSIAN
4 #1 Audi Sport North America LMP1 BIELA F 2
5 #3 Audi Sport Team Joest LMP1 LUHR L 2
6 #16 Pescarolo Sport LMP1 COLLARD E
7 #14 Racing For Holland LMP1 LAMMERS J
8 #13 Courage Competition LMP1 GOUNON J-M
9 #18 Rollcentre Racing LMP1 BARBOSA J
10 #15 Charouz Racing LMP1 YOONG A