Tag: Le Mans

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Porsche WEC

2014 LM24: Go to sleep Australia!

Mark Webber

The dream is over.

Mark Webber has retired from the 24 Hours of Le Mans with an unidentified drivetrain problem. He slowed on track while in second place and was able to limp back into the pits. The car was wheeled into the pits and the crew worked on the car for over 15 minutes before pulling the pin.

Mark then hopped out of the car and consoled his teammates. Speaking to televsion presenters shortly after he was very upbeat, praising the work of Porsche engineers and race crews: “We never expected to be at such high altitudes through most of the race, so the fall is quite big for everyone in the team.”

It’s now looking like an Audi 1–2 for the win, but as we’ve seen so far this race, anything could happen in the remaining 75 minutes. It is remarkable though, that the three leading cars, including the #8 Toyota, have spent extended periods in the pits with problems of varying degrees.

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Audi Porsche WEC

2014 LM24: Wake up Australia!

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans

With less than three hours to race Mark Webber’s #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid is leading the 24 Hours of Le Mans!

Mark’s car is not the fastest and has assumed the lead due to problems with its competitors. First, the #7 Toyota TS040 looked very comfortable and set for a well earned victory. The car dominated the race for 14 hours until an electrical fault with the wiring loom forced the car into retirement.

That gave the lead to the #2 Audi R18 which enjoyed a solid three lap gap to the cars behind. Drama soon befell that car when it came into the pits for a turbo replacement. The car lost over 20 minutes and resumed in P3, some two laps down on the #1 Audi.

Remarkably, then, the #1 Audi was leading the race. Remember, this was the car that was built from the ground up overnight during the week after the original chassis was crashed by Loic Duval during the first qualifying session on Wednesday. Marc Gene was drafted into the team to replace Duval who was ruled out, despite not suffering any serious injury.

Also, this meant Mark’s Porsche, with Timo Bernhard at the wheel, was now in second place. It couldn’t happen, could it?

More drama followed when the #1 Audi also had to pit for a new turbo. Suddenly, the #20 Porsche found istelf in the lead. It’s a lead the car still holds, albeit some 50 seconds ahead of the #2 Audi, which has showed outstanding speed since its turbo was replaced.

It’s not clear if it’s due to strategy or outright pace, but the Audi is clearly faster than the Porsche right now. For the leading 919, with Bernhard at the wheel, young Kiwi Brendon Hartley would usually be the next driver in the car. We expect there will be one more driver change before the end of the race. Will Mark Webber be given the responsibility to bring the car home?

One thing is clear, Porsche is so far exceeding all expectations, even if largely due to the misfortune of others. But, as the saying goes, to finish first, first you have to finish. And we could be set for an all-time classic finish, so get your arse in front of your laptop, or on the couch and cheer Mark home!

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Toyota WEC

2014 LM24: #7 Toyota retires from lead

Lead Toyota TS040 retires from 2014 Le Mans

Terrible news for Toyota from the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the leading #7 TS040 forced out of the race due to a technical fault with the wiring loom.

Kazuki Nakajima was driving the #7 car and pulled to the side of the track without incident. Toyota has since confirmed the car’s official retirement and the lead of the race has been handed to the #2 Audi R18. The #20 Porsche 919 now sits in second place, three laps behind the leader.

A further 40 seconds behind the Porsche is the #1 Audi R18 in third place. Mark Webber’s car may yet have a fight for P2 with the chances of the chasing Audi remaining strong during the remaining nine hours of racing quite high.

The #8 TS040 is in P4, but 11 laps behind the leader. In P5 the #14 Porsche is the remaining LMP1 car circulating and well out of contention.

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Audi Porsche Toyota Video WEC

2014 Le Mans video updates

#7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid

The 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans is approaching half race distance and to date the race has been dominated by the #7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid. Alex Wurz is at the wheel right now and he holds a lead of over 2 minutes from the #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro with André Lotterer at the wheel.

Intermittent and heavy rain patches affected the race early and ended the chances of the #8 Toyota and #3 Audi after a coming together on the Mulsanne Straight. The Toyota was able to limp back into the pits and get back running again and it’s now in P6 13 laps behind the leader. Alas for the Audi its race was over.

Porsche seemed to be running a split strategy with its two 919 Hybrids. The #14 car was running hot early in the race, mixing it with the leaders, until an electrical glitch limiting the car’s speed after 30 minutes forced the car into pitlane. Meanwhile, Timo Bernhard’s more circumspect approach in the #20 919 paid dividends when for a short while he lead the race. His lack of outright pace made him vulnerable, though, and Bernhard was soon swallowed up by the #7 Toyota and the #2 and #1 Audis.

Mark Webber has finally had his first competition experience at Le Mans after two failed attempts in the late 90s with Mercedes. He put in some solid laps, driving well into the night, but said after his stint they’re having to manage some problems. The car is running relatively smoothly in fourth place but is two laps behind.

There’s a selection of video highlights for you after the break, along with the following links to help you foolow the action.

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WEC

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans spotter guide

2014 Le Mans spotter guide

Watching Le Mans and want to know who’s who? Then go to the Spotter Guides website and download some of Andy Blackmore’s excellent handiwork.

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Porsche Video WEC

Porsche and Le Mans: Kind of a big deal

Ferry Porsche

With the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans moments away from starting this XCAR film tells you why Stuttgart’s return to the Circuit de la Sarthe is such a big deal.

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Mercedes-Benz Motorsports Video

Good luck at Le Mans this weekend Mark

Peter Dumbreck flips at Le Mans

Let’s hope it goes better than last time.

That’s Peter Dumbreck flipping his Mercedes CLR during the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans. Mark Webber was in the same team and famously suffered the same fate during qualifying. Mark flipped his car again during the morning warm-up session. His car was withdrawn and he did not start the race.

This weekend, with Porsche, is Mark’s first return to competition at Le Mans since his DNS in 1999.

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

Toyota claims pole for 2014 Le Mans

2014 24 Hours of Le Mans qualifying

The third and final qualifying session for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans has just finished and the #7 Toyota TS040 Hybrid (Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima) has claimed pole position with a time of 3:21.789, set by Kazuki Nakajima.

Porsche’s return to the outright category has gone well so far with its #14 919 Hybrid (Dumas/Jani/Lieb) posting a best lap of 3:22.146, good enough to be on the front row. The #20 Porsche (Bernhard/Webber/Hartley) will start from P4 (3:22.908). This car held provisional pole (3:24.136) after Wednesday’s qualifying, but did not improve its time.

Audi had a less than smooth qualifying after a massive crash by Loic Duval in the #1 R18 e-tron quattro during the opening session on Wednesday. Remarkably, he suffered no serious injury but has been ruled out of the race and has been replaced by Marc Gene. The car was a total wreck an Audi has used a new tub to build a new car and will start with three cars as planned.

The best placed R18 is the #3 car (Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis) which will start from P5 (3:23.271). Starting from P6 will be the #2 R18 (Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer) with a best time of 3:24.276. The recreated #1 R18 (Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen) is the last placed of the main front runners and will line up from P7 after setting a time of 3:25.814.

Toyota’s second TS040 will line up from P3 after the #8 car (Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi) lapped the 13.6km Le Mans circuit in 3:22.523.

Taking a look at the total lap count of the top seven cars from qualifying is interesting. The Toyotas and Audis had lap counts in the high 30s, while the Porsche lap counts were in the mid-teens. There’s probably countless theories as to why the 919 was relatively inactive, but if nothing else the car clearly has raw pace.

We’ve got an onboard video for you after the break, filmed from the #7 Toyota TS040. We’ll also update this post with official statements from the three main teams as they come to hand.

[Source: Autosport]

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Porsche Video WEC

Patrick Dempsey is a Le Mans fighter

Patrick Dempsey

Porsche joins the ranks of producers for Lifestyles of the rich and famous. In its episode they bring Patrick Dempsey to life so he can wax lyrical about his fighting spirit. He tells us: “They know what you do for a living, but not what you live for.”

No, we’re not jealous of Patrick at all. Honest, we’re not!

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Audi Porsche Video WEC

Audi welcomes Porsche back to Le Mans

Audi R18 e-tron quattro

It would appear Audi is very happy to have Porsche back chasing outright success at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. To illustrate that fact they sent an Audi R18 e-tron quattro on a drive from Ingolstadt to Stuttgart to deliver a special message. It’s pretty cool.

With 27 race wins between them they are the most successful marques in the race’s long and proud history. And yet, we reckon it’s Toyota both need to be watching ahead of next weekend’s race.

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Video WEC

VIDEO: Circuit de la Sarthe

Jon Lancaster, No34 Oreca-Judd LMP2

With the 24 Hours of Le Mans less than two weeks away here’s an onboard video filmed from Jon Lancaster‘s LMP2 Oreca-Judd giving us a driver’s eye view of the famous Circuit de la Sarthe.

The footage was captured during last weekend’s test sessions and we’re lucky enough to see a full lap of the 13.6km track without any other cars, ensuring Lancaster had the best cornering lines for the whole lap.

Official scrutineering for the 82nd running of Le Mans begins on Sunday and finishes on Monday, ahead of the first qualifying session on Wednesday 11 June.

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Audi Porsche Toyota WEC

Toyota favourites heading to Le Mans

WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans official test session

The Toyota TS040 Hybrid has firmed as the car to beat at this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. Two wins in the opening rounds of the WEC season had already set up Toyota as the 2014 front runners and the TS040’s abilities at the Circuit de la Sarthe were confirmed after last weekend’s official test session, when the two Toyotas topped the lap charts.

Two weeks out from the event this is the only opportunity for the teams get to run the full Le Mans layout. After the two day session the fastest time around the 13.6km circuit was set by the #8 Toyota (3:23:014).

Audi set the early pace with its R18 e-tron quattro, but in the end the defending champions had to make do with the third and fourth best times. Audi is the only of the LMP1 teams to run three cars and the remaining R18 split the two Porsche 919 Hybrids. The #14 Porsche was fifth and Mark Webber’s #20 919 the seventh and slowest of the factory-backed LMP1 runners.

Full statements from the three teams can be read after the break. The 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans will take place on 14–15 June with Australian television coverage available on Foxtel’s Speed TV channel.

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