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Le Mans 24 Hour - Race Report - 23/6/13

By MJP Media / Formula Photographie | 23 June 2013

Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loic Duval take a commanding victory for Audi in a Le Mans 24 Hours overshadowed by the death of Danish driver Allan Simonsen.

Audi's race winning number 2 car

This year saw the 90th anniversary of the legendary Le Mans 24 Hour Race. What lay in store for the teams this year was a bit of an unknown quantity after the 6 hours of qualifying was badly affected by the unpredictable and occasionally bad weather and stoppages. From 2006 to 2011 the race was dominated by the diesels but now victory was most likely to come from one of the new generation hybrid cars from either Audi or Toyota - unless the weather intervened.

There had been some early revisions to the starting grid order after 15 cars were put back on the grid because of not completing the required number of laps within the 110 per cent time during the week. The biggest casualty in the main LMP1 category was the #21 Strakka HPD ARX 03c (Leventis/Watts/Kane) which was relegated from 8th back to 36th. As expected the top 5 places were dominated by the Audi and Toyota LMP1 class hybrids. Audi took first the top 3 places with the #2 car including Brit Allan McNish occupying top spot. The two Toyotas took fourth and fifth with Antony Davidson in the #8 top Toyota.

Allan Simonsen shortly before the fatal crash

Immediately after the race started it was marred by tragedy on lap 4 when the pole sitting GTE-Am class #95 Aston Martin of Dane Allan Simonsen was involved in a heavy accident at Tertre Rouge. Treated at the trackside, he was rushed to the medical centre where he died of his injuries. The 34 year old veteran of 7 Le Mans was driving for the Aston Martin Racing team and it was the first fatality during the race since 1986.

As the race developed, the weather and no fewer than eleven safety car periods were starting to take their toll as it headed towards the final stages. With the Tom Kristensen/loic Duval/Allan McNish team in control of the race in the #2 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro and seemingly out of reach of Anthony Davidson in the #8 Toyota TS030 hybrid, all eyes were on the big battle between Audi's Oliver Jarvis and Toyota's Nicolas Lapierre over the last podium position. The Toyota crew had seemingly risked turning up the wick on the #7 car for the final two hours of the race in order to allow it to keep pace with the #3. After a new round of pit stops, Lapierre was six seconds adrift of Jarvis on the track but heavy rain swept back over the 8.469 mile, 38-turn circuit once more and it pushed Lapierre to breaking point. The #7 car lost grip into the Porsche curves and snapped left, hitting the tyre wall and retiring.

Anthony Davidson was second for Toyota

In the GTE-Pro class, former BTCC driver Darren Turner was still doing everything he possibly could to claim the honours in the #97 Aston Martin Vantage V8. Although he had track position over Marc Lieb in the #92 Porsche AG Team Manthey, it wasn't enough to allow him the extra pit stop he would need over the Porsche before the finish. That made it an uphill battle for Turner but persistence sometimes pays dividends and the #92 promptly spun at Tertre Rouge to give Turner almost all the extra margin he needed.

At the end it was Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loic Duval who took a commanding victory for Audi in a Le Mans 24 Hours that was overshadowed by the death of Danish driver Allan Simonsen. This was McNish's 3rd Le Mans victory and brings Audi their 12th win in the last 14 years. Anthony Davidson helped Toyota to a stunning second place overall. Other British success included the all British Strakka of Jonny Kane/Danny Watts/Nick Leventis who finished 6th overall.

Words copyright MJP Media
Pictures copyright MJP Media / Formula Photographie

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