2012 Le Mans 24 Hours Review

As the title says above a Le Mans 24 Hours Review of the race. Round 3 for 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship at Le Mans. And this years Le Mans 24 hours will be remembered for Audi domination. Audi Sport Team Joest team won the race overall and WEC LMP1 class in their R18 e-tron quatrro with drivers André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyerto and managed to do 378 laps altogether. And the No. 1 Audi was ahead of the second Audi R18 e-tron of Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, who were a lap down from the winners. Third was Oliver Jarvis, Marco Bonanomi and Mike Rockenfeller in their Audi R18 Ultra, three laps behind the leaders. While, the second Audi R18 Ultra of Romain Dumas, Loïc Duval and Marc Gene finished in fifth place, twelve laps down, to making an Audi R18 one-two-three-five at Le Mans.



While, Toyota returns to Le Mans as a manufacture for the first time since 1999, was a bad race for the Japanese brand. Despite, some impressive lap times to match Audis' early on the 24 hours. Car 8 of Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin crashed out after six hours when Anthony Davidson was lapping car 81 of the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GTC of Piergiuseppe Perazzini, the two cars collided at the end of the Mulsanne Straight. The collision turned Davidson's car sideways before becoming airborne, flipping through the air, before landing back on its wheels and made heavy contact with the barriers. Davidson was later transferred to hospital where he was later diagnosed with fractures to the eleventh and twelfth thoracic vertebrae of his back.



While, car 7 of Alexander Wurz, Kazuki Nakajima and Nicolas Lapierre did not finished either. At the seventh hour, Nakajima was third at the time, at the Porsche curves collision with Satoshi Motoyama in the DeltaWing. The DeltaWing was sent crashing into the wall at the Porsche curves in the process, while the Toyota pitted initially for a new rear section. Did not survive for much further for the Toyota TS030 Hybrid. So, that was the end for Toyota for this years 24 hour race.



Top non Audi or Toyota LMP1 car at Le Mans was Rebellion Racing of Nicolas Prost, Nick Heidfeld and Neel Jani in their Lola B12/60 with a Toyota 3.4 L V8 was 4th overall, 11 laps behind the leaders, but a lap ahead of one of the R18 Ultra's of Romain Dumas, Loïc Duval and Marc Gene, who finished in 5th place.

While, Highcroft Racing Deltawing Nissan 1.6 L Turbo race car of Marino Franchitti, Michael Krumm and Satoshi Motoyama did not finished the 24 hours after race instance with Kazuki Nakajima Toyota TS030 Hybrid at the seventh hour, only managing 75 laps. But, Satoshi Motoyama did a heart rending attempts to re-inject life back into the ground breaking Nissan DeltaWing, ending the car's assault on the Le Mans 24 hours and forcing "the 'fans' favourite" race car to retire.



In LMP2 class, the Starworks Motorsport team of Enzo Potolicchio, Ryan Dalziel and Tom Kimber-Smith in their HPD ARX-03b Honda 2.8l Turbo V6 engine won in LMP2 class and 7th overall, 24 laps down from the lead Audi. While in GTE Pro class, was won by AF Corse team of Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander won in their Ferrari 458 GTC, finished 17th 42 laps down the leading Audi. While in GTE Am class, was won by Larbre Compétition team of APatrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal and Pedro Lamy in their Chevrolet Corvette C6.R and finished 20th overall, 49 laps behind the leaders.

Three minute highlights package of the race below from Michelin's own Youtube channel. So enjoy.



Next Stop 6 Hours of Silverstone in August for the FIA World Endurance Championship. End of post/blog for now, That is all. Bye.