Aussie Martin scores top 10 finish and class podium
Audi has won Le Mans for the fourth straight year and the 12th time in 14 years, but the 24-hour race that so much more than any other is about manufacturers will be remembered this time for the death of Allan Simonsen.
The Dane who had raced a lot in Australia and was to have been David Wall’s co-driver in a Brad Jones Holden Commodore in this year’s V8 Supercar enduros died after his Aston Martin Vantage crashed just three laps into the French classic, which he had started for the seventh time.
His countryman Tom Kristensen was one of the trio of drivers in the winning Audi R18 e-tron Quattro diesel hybrid and dedicated his record ninth victory to Simonsen, who he called “a great fellow Dane”.
It was a race run in erratic weather with record time under caution and the fewest retirements – 16.
Best finisher of the three Aussies in the field was John Martin, who was third in the second prototype category and ninth outright in a G-Drive/Delta ADR.
Ryan Briscoe was 43rd overall in a Honda Performance Development machine in the same category and V8 Supercar veteran Jason Bright 38th outright in a Ferrari 458 in the GTE-Am category.
It was Martin’s second race at Le Mans but the first for Briscoe and Bright.
While on Aussies abroad, Marcos Ambrose was seventh in today’s NASCAR road race at Sonoma, California, as Martin Truex Junior ended a record 218-race winless streak in the Sprint Cup and Jeff Gordon finished second after Juan Pablo Montoya ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap.
And Will Power wound up only 17th and three laps down in the Indy race in Iowa after starting from a de facto pole position – his top-qualifying Penske teammate Helio Castroneves was relegated for an engine change – and Canadian James Hinchliffe became the season’s first three-time winner ahead of Andretti Autosports teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, who fought his way through from the back of the field.
At the World Rally Championship round in Italy series leader Sebastien Ogier won in his Volkswagen Polo R for the fourth time in seven events this year and stretched his advantage to 64 points.
Belgian Thierry Neuville scored a career-best second place in a Ford Fiesta despite an encounter with a cow on the final stage, while VW’s Jari-Matti Latvala was third.
Mercedes and Pirelli have escaped severe sanction from a special tribunal for the controversial three-day Formula One tyre test in Barcelona after the Spanish Grand Prix – just a reprimand and ban from next month’s three-day F1 test for junior drivers at Britain’s Silverstone.
Lead complainant Ferrari said it was “somewhat perplexing to see that the guilty party can get away virtually scot free for having derived ‘an unfair sporting advantage’”.
But it was Le Mans that occupied the motorsport world throughout the weekend.
Toyota’s petrol hybrid TS030 gave Audi’s diesel hybrid a run for its money, with the Japanese manufacturer’s lead car clawing its way back on to the lead lap just 23 minutes from the chequered flag – but it ended a lap down on 347 versus the 348 of the R18 of Kristensen, Scotsman Allan McNish and Frenchman Loic Duval.
It was McNish’s third Le Mans victory but Duval’s first.
Only Bentley in 2003 and Peugeot in 2009 – with Aussie David Brabham in its line-up – have broken Audi’s long-running dominance of the sports car classic.
A second Audi finished third, six laps behind its winning stablemate, despite four less pit stops (30 versus 34).
The second Toyota and third Audi filled fourth and fifth spots – the latter 10 laps, or more than 130km, behind the victorious car.
Two OAK Racing Morgan-Nissans headed Martin’s Delta ADR in the second prototype category while Porsches finished first and second in GTE-Pro.
Porsche also won GTE-Am – its 100th class victory at Le Mans – to the great disappointment of Aston Martin, which had its sights on victory in that class after the Vantage that Simonsen shared with two other Danes had been the top qualifier.
Simonsen was the first driver to die in the world’s greatest enduro for more than a quarter of a century.
His Vantage got out of control at the ultra-quick Tertre Rouge bend barely 10 minutes into the race.
The field was under caution for almost an hour after Simonsen was taken to the circuit medical centre, the car removed and fencing repaired.
Simonsen, 34, had been an endurance race specialist and two years ago was on the podium at the Bathurst 1000 after co-driving with Greg Murphy.
He was a regular in the Bathurst 12-Hour as well and 18 months ago set an unofficial lap record at Mt Panorama in a Ferrari at 2 minutes and 4 seconds.
During the lead-up to this year’s Le Mans he had spoken of how “incredibly special” the race was to him.
Anthony Davidson, one of the drivers of the Toyota that finished second outright and who survived a massive crash at Le Mans last year in which his back was broken, told post-race of feeling distraught each time he passed the spot where Simonsen crashed.
“It was without doubt the toughest race of my life and it puts everything into perspective,” Davidson said, adding that the track had been ‘like a skating rink” during heavy rain.
Formula One and V8 Supercar drivers were among the many who expressed condolences at Simonsen’s death on social media in the hours after the shock news. Full Le Mans results here.
Check out expanded Le Mans race photo gallery at www.motoring.com.au
Michelin trumpeted its LeMans 24 Hour domination with some interesting stats, published this morning. At the risk of looking like a blatant plug, here goes:
FIVE: Up to five stints on the same set of tyres in the LMP1 class with AUDI Sport Team Joest (stints of 10 or 11 laps each). The cars run by TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH regularly completed four stints of 12 laps each on the same set of tyres.
THREE: Three stints on the same tyres in the GTE Pro and AM classes (all Michelin partners). For the first time at Le Mans, the Type 991 PORSCHE 911 GT3 RSRs successfully triple-stinted (stints of 14 laps each) during all the different phases of the race;
TWO: Two different tyre strategies for AUDI Sport Team Joest (SOFT-compound ‘high temperature’ tyres during the day, and SOFT-compound ‘low temperature’ tyres at night) and TOYOTA Motorsport GmbH (SOFT-compound ‘low temperature’ tyres throughout the race);
FOUR: All of the French tyre giant’s LMP1 partners benefited from the ‘Hybrid’ race tyre. AUDI R18 e-tron quattro, TOYOTA TS030-Hybrid, REBELLION Racing LOLA-TOYOTA and the STRAKKA Racing HPD ARX 03A all used this tyre on several occasions when the track was wet
16: Michelin has now claimed 16 consecutive victories at Le Mans since 1998 to take its total number of wins there to 23 since its first success in 1923
100: This year, Michelin celebrated CORVETTE Racing’s 100th race on its tyres
1,000,000: In total Michelin partner teams have totalled more than 1,000,000 miles on its tyres at Le Mans since the 1998 race.
NASCAR Sprint Cup driver standings after 16 of 36 rounds – 1. Jimmie Johnson (Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet) 573; 2. Carl Edwards (Roush Fenway Racing, Ford) 548; 3. Clint Bowyer (Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota) 528; 4. Kevin Harvick (Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet) 510; 5. Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota) 481; 6. Greg Biffle (Roush Fenway Racing, Ford) 479; 7. Dale Earnhardt Junior (Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet) 479; 8. Kyle Busch (Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota) 461; 9. Brad Keselowski (Penske Racing, Ford) 454; 10. Martin Truex Junior (Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota) 453; 11. Kasey Kahne (Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet) 445; 12. Paul Menard (Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet) 445; 13. Jeff Gordon (Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet) 441; 14. Joey Logano (Penske Racing, Ford) 439; 15. Tony Stewart (Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet) 433. Australia’s Marcos Ambrose (Richard Petty Motorsports, Ford) is 22nd on 380, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya (Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Chevrolet) on 371. Ambrose’s teammate Aric Almirola is 16th on 428 points.
IndyCar driver standings after 10 of 17 rounds – 1. Helio Castroneves (Brazil, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 332 points; 2. Ryan Hunter-Reay (US, Andretti Autosports, Dallara-Chevrolet) 323; 3. Marco Andretti (US, Andretti, Dallara-Chevroelt) 277; 4. James Hinchcliffe (Canada, Andretti, Dallara-Chevrolet) 266; 5. Tony Kanaan (Brazil, KV Racing, Dallara-Chevrolet) 253; 6. Simon Pagenaud (France, Schmidt-Hamilton, Dallara-Honda) 241; 7. Scott Dixon (New Zealand, Ganassai Racing, Dallara-Honda) 240; 8. Takuma Sato (Japan, A.J. Foyt Racing, Dallara-Honda)233; 9. Justin Wilson (Great Britain, Dale Coyne Racing, Dallara-Honda) 227; 10. Will Power (Australia, Team Penske, Dallara-Chevrolet) 209.
World Rally Championship driver standings after seven of 13 rounds – 1. Sebastien Ogier (France, Volkswagen) 154 points; 2. Jari-Matti Latvala (Finland, Volkswagen) 90; 3. Thierry Neuville (Belgium, Ford) 70; 4. Sebastien Loeb (France, Citroen) 689; 5. Mikko Hirvonen (Finland, Citroen) 61; 6. Daniel Sordo (Spain, Citroen) 59. Australian part-time participant Chris Atkinson is 14th on eight points.
WRC team standings – 1. Volkswagen Motorsport 220 points; 2. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT 174; 3. Qatar World Rally Team 89; 4. Qatar M-Sport WRT 89; 5. Jipocar Czech National Team 39; 6. Abu Dhabi Citroen Total WRT 33; 7. Volkswagen Motorsport II 26; 8. Lotos Rally Team 20.
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