Peugeot in Control at 24 Hours of Le Mans

Three hours into the 78th 24 Hours of Le Mans, Peugeot has a hold on the lead, but is it a firm hold?

After Sebastian Bourdais put the #3 Peugeot on the pole, teammate Pedro Lamy led much of the first three hours, followed by the other three Peugeots, well ahead of the three factory Audis. But on lap 37, Lamy’s car disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Lamy limped back to the pits with what seemed to be a flat right front tire, but according to a Peugeot crew member, the problem was “bad damage in the tub. We cannot ix it here we have to retire.”

This raises the question: did the tub fail? Did a suspension part fail? What does this mean for the other Peugeots?

Barring massive mechanical failure, it looks at this point that Peugeot will repeat last year’s 1–2–3 victory. The Audis simply don’t have the speed, and they don’t have an edge in fuel economy. The closest Audi was a 1 minute, 45 seconds down after three hours.

Behind the Audis, Adrian Fernandez in the 007 Aston Martin was the best of the gasoline cars, with the sister 009 car close behind.

In LMP2, HPD ruled the day, with the Danny Watts in the Straka HPD ARX-01c leading, followed by the Highcroft ARX-01c of Marino Franchitti. Third in class was the Lola-HPD of RML Racing, driven by Mike Newton.

Jonathon Hirschi in the Matech Ford GT led GT1, ahead of Thomas Enge in the Young Driver Aston Martin.

In GT2, the American Le Mans series entrants were in control: the Corvette Racing C6 ZR1s of Olivier Beretta and Johnny O’Connell led over the Risi Ferrari of Bruno Gianamaria. The Risi Ferrari, after starting last after getting caught in with a non-regulation rear wing wicker, had worked its way through the field in only 35 laps, to challenge for the class lead.

Wrecks and retirements were plentiful. The Autocon LMP1 Lola-AER withdrew on the first lap, with a broken gearbox. Nigel Mansell crashed on lap 5, apparently the victim of a deflating rear tire, writing off the car and bringing out a 30-mnute caution period.

The Marc VDS Ford GT crashed hard, but limped back to the pits, as did Dirk Mueller in the #79 BMW “Art Car,” which went off hard and cracked part of the chassis.

Soheil Ayari in the #6 Aim Oreca had a pair of incidents, coming together with the Oak Racing LMP2 Pescarolo, then bashing into one of the Audis. No permanent damage, but certainly the team manager had a long talk with Ayari.

The Rocketsport Jaguar is also out, after running slowly for a few laps. Apparently the crankshaft sensor sent a pulse twelve times to o powerful into the ECU, frying it.

With 21 hours to go, no prediction is more than a wild guess, but a good guess, perhaps. Peugeot has the better cars, and their drivers are the equal of the Audi teams. Peugeot needn’t worry; at least one will last long enough to win.

Straka has run well all year in LMP2 in LMS, and are leading the field here. Seems likely they will take the class win.

Risi Ferrari has won here, but the Corvettes know how to win also. GT2 is impossible to call.