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| Photo Credit: Audi AG |
The 79th running of the oldest running 24-hour endurance race, the classic Le Mans event on the Circuit de la Sarthe brings some new look prototypes and a the recipe for a fierce LME category (better known last year as GT) fight. A prelude to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, qualifying for the race gives a sample to the sounds and speed expected for the race's 2011 edition.
For the first time since 2006, Audi Team Joest will lead the field of 56 sports cars to the start of the full day race. Taking the glory of the pole position, the #2 Audi R18 TDI prototype car piloted by Andre Lotterer flew around the Circuit de la Sarthe's 13.629 kilometer distance in 3 minutes and 29.939 seconds. Just one-hundredth of a second behind, the #1 Audi R18 TDI prototype sealed a strong front row for the German automaker. The third Team Joest Audi R18 TDI qualified 5th for the start of the 24 Hour of Le Mans.
Expected to want vengance for the defeat in the 2010 Le Mans race and now 2011 qualifying, Peugeot has the resources to reclaim their home endurance racing event. Three factory Peugeot 908 Le Mans prototype sports cars and an Oreca-fielded effort are planning to better endure the 24 hour distance for a second Le Mans victory in three years. In qualifying, the highest flying member of the Peugeot camp was the #9 car wheeled by Simon Pagenaud. Pagenaud is taking a departure from his regular ride competing in the American Le Mans Series for Highcroft Racing in a Honda Racing Development prototype. For Saturday, Simon Pagenaud is paired with Pedro Lamy and Sebastien Bourdais.
Factory Aston Martin vehicles in the LMP1 class were far from a figure in qualifying at Le Mans with their AMR-ONE cars failing to find speed. In fact, most of the LMP2 cars were faster than the Aston Martin racing team vehicles. The british-based race is still seeking a return to the podium since rejoining the sports car racing arena in the Le Mans prototype class. Aston Martin has two victories in the GT1 production car class in 2007 and 2008.
Prevailing in the production-based vehicle LME category in 2011, the BMW M3 GT took first and third in class qualifying sandwiching a Ferrari 458 Italia. Lapping the track at 3 minutes and 57.592 seconds, the BMW Motorsports cars is in a class where the top-9 vehicles are separated by 3.5 seconds in qualifying.
A very pivotal part to setting up the 24 Hours of Le Mans, qualifying will quickly become less meaningful when the green flag to the 2011 endurance race drops.
Classes
LMP1
LMP2
LME Pro
LME Am
2011 Le Mans 24 Hour Starting Grid
1)(1) 2 AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST AUDI R18 TDI
Marcel Fassler/ Switzerland
André Lotterer Germany
Benoit Treluyer France
2)(2) 1 AUDI SPORT TEAM JOEST AUDI R18 TDI
Timo Berhard/ Germany
Romain Dumas/ France
Mike Rockenfeller/ Germany
3)(3) 9 TEAM PEUGEOT TOTAL PEUGEOT 908
Sébastien Bourdais/ France
Simon Pagenaud/ France
Pedro Lamy/ Portugal
4) (4) 8 PEUGEOT SPORT TOTAL PEUGEOT 908
Stéphane Sarrazin/ France
Franck Montagny/ Switzerland
Nicolas Minassian/ Great Britain
5) (5) 3 AUDI SPORT NORTH AMERICA AUDI R18 TDI
Tom Kristenesn/ Denmark
Rinaldo Capello/ Italy
Allan McNish/ Monaco
6) (6) 7 PEUGEOT SPORT TOTAL PEUGEOT 908
Anthony Davidson/ Great Britain
Marc Gene/ Spain
Alex Wurz/ Austria
7) (7) 10 TEAM ORECA MATMUT PEUGEOT 908 HDI-FAP
Nicolas Lapierre/ France
Loic Duval/ France
Olivier Panis/ France
8) (8) 12 REBELLION RACING LOLA B 10/60 COUPE-TOYOTA
Nicolas Prost/ France
Neel Jani/ Switzerland
Jeroen Bleekemolen/ Netherlands
9) (9) 16 PESCAROLO TEAM PESCAROLO JUDD
Emmanuel Collard/ France
Christophe Tinseau/ France
Julien Jousse/ France
10) (10) 13 REBELLION RACING LOLA B 10/60 COUPE-TOYOTA
Andrea Belicchi/ Italy
J.Christophe Boullion/ France
Guy Smith/ Great Britain
11) (11) 15 OAK RACING OAK PESCAROLO - JUDD
Guillaume Moreau/ France
Pierre Ragues/ France
Tiago Monteiro/ Portugal
12) (12) 22 KRONOS RACING LOLA ASTON MARTIN
Vanina Ickx/ Belgium
Maxime MARTIN/ Belgium
Bas LEINDERS/ Belgium
13) (13) 20 QUIFEL - ASM TEAM ZYTEK 09 SC
Miguel Amaral/ Portugal
Olivier Pla/ France
Warren Hughes/ Great Britain
14) (1) 26 SIGNATECH NISSAN ORECA 03-NISSAN
Soheil Ayari/ France
Franck Mailleux/ France
Lucas Ordonez/ Spain
15) (14) 24 OAK RACING OAK PESCAROLO - JUDD
Richard Hein/ Monoco
Jacques Nicolet/ France
Jean-François Yvon/ France
16) (2) 42 STRAKKA RACING HONDA PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT ARX 01 D
Nick Leventis/ Great Britain
Danny Watts/ Great Britain
Jonny Kane/ Great Britain
17) (3) 48 TEAM ORECA MATMUT ORECA 03-NISSAN
Alexandre Premat/ France
David Hallyday/ France
Dominick Kraihamer/ Austria
18) (4) 39 PECOM Racing LOLA B11/40-JUDD BMW
Luis Perez-Companc/ Argentina
Matias Russo/ Argentina
Pierre Kaffer/ Germany
19) (5) 49 OAK RACING OAK PESCAROLO - BMW
Shinji Nakano/ Japan
Nicolas De Crem/ Belgium
Jan Charouz/ Czech Republic
20) (6) 41 GREAVES MOTORSPORT ZYTEK NISSAN
Karim Ojjeh/ Saudi Arabia
Thomas Kimber-Smith/ Great Britain
Olivier Lombard/ France
21) (7) 40 RACE PERFORMANCE ORECA 03-JUDD BMW
Michel Frey/ Switzerland
Ralph Meichtry/ Switzerland
Marc Rostan/ France
22) (15) 007 ASTON MARTIN RACING ASTON MARTIN AMR-ONE
Stefan Mucke/ Germany
Darren Turner/ Great Britain
Christian Klien/ Austria
23) (8) 36 RML HONDA PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT ARX 01 D
Mike Newton/ Great Britain
Tommy Erdos/ Great Britain
Ben Collins/ Great Britain
24) (16) 5 HOPE RACING ORECA SWISS HY TECH-HYBRID
Steve Zacchia/ Switzerland
Jan Lammers/ Netherlands
Casper Elgaard/ Denmark
25) (17) 009 ASTON MARTIN RACING ASTON MARTIN AMR-ONE
Harold Primat/ Switzerland
Adrian Fernandez/ Mexico
Andy Meyrick/ Great Britian
26) (9) 44 EXTREME LIMITE AM PARIS NORMA M200P - JUDD BMW
Fabien Rosier/ France
Philippe Haezbrouck/ France
Jean-René de Fournoux/ France
27) (10) 35 OAK RACING OAK PESCAROLO - JUDD BMW
Andrea Barlesi/ Belgium
Frédéric Da Rocha/ France
Patrice Lafargue/ France
28) (11) 33 LEVEL 5 MOTORSPORTS LOLA COUPE-HONDA PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT
Scott Tucker/ USA
Christophe Bouchut/ France
Joao Barbosa/ Portugal
29) (1) 55 BMW MOTORSPORT BMW M3 GT
Augusto Farfus/ Brazil
Jörg Muller/ Germany
Dirk Werner/ Germany
30) (2) 51 AF CORSE FERRARI 458 ITALIA
Giancarlo Fisichella/ Italy
Gianmaria Bruni/ Italy
Toni Vilander/ Finland
31) (3) 56 BMW MOTORSPORT BMW M3 GT
Andy Priaulx/ Great Britain
Dirk Muller/ Germany
Joey Hand/ USA
32) (4) 73 CORVETTE RACING CHEVROLET CORVETTE C6 ZR1
Olivier Beretta/ Monoco
Tommy Milner/ USA
Antonio Garcia/ Spain
33) (5) 89 HANKOOK - TEAM FARNBACHER FERRARI 458 ITALIA
Dominik Farnbacher/ Germany
Allan Simonsen/ Denmark
Leh Keen/ USA
34) (6) 74 CORVETTE RACING CHEVROLET CORVETTE C6 ZR1
Oliver Gavin/ Great Britain
Jan Magnussen/ Denmark
Richard Westbrook/ Great Britain
35) (7) 77 TEAM FELBERMAYR-PROTON PORSCHE 911 RSR (997)
Marc Lieb/ Germany
Richard Lietz/ Austria
Wolf Henzler/ Germany
36) (8) 59 LUXURY RACING FERRARI 458 ITALIA
Stéphane Ortelli/ Monoco
Frédéric Makowiecki/ France
Jaime Melo/ Brazil
37) (9) 75 PROSPEED COMPETITION PORSCHE 911 RSR (997)
Marc Goossens/ Belgium
Marco Holzer/ Germany
Jaap Van Lagen/ Netherlands
38) (10) 79 JOTA ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE
Sam Hancock/ Great Britain
Simon Dolan/ Great Britain
Chris Buncombe/ Great Britain
39) (11) 66 JMW MOTORSPORT FERRARI 458 ITALIA
Rob Bell/ Great Britain
Tim Sugden/ Great Britain
Xavier Maasen/ Belgium
40) (12) 80 FLYING LIZARD MOTORSPORTS PORSCHE 911 RSR (997)
Jörg Bergmeister/ Germany
Patrick Long USA
Lucas Luhr/ Germany
41) (13) 58 LUXURY RACING FERRARI 458 ITALIA
Anthony Beltoise/ France
Pierre Thiriet/ Belgium
François Jakubowski/ France
42) (1) 61 AF CORSE FERRARI F430
Pierguiseppe Perazzini/ Italy
Marco Cioci/ Italy
Sean Paul Breslin/ Germany
43) (14) 88 TEAM FELBERMAYR-PROTON PORSCHE 911 RSR (997)
Nick Tandy/ Great Britain
Abdulaziz Al Faisal/ Saudi Arabia
Bryce Miller/ USA
44) (15) 71 AF CORSE FERRARI 458 ITALIA
Robert Kauffman/ Italy
Michael Waltrip/ USA
Rui Aguas/ Portugal
45) (16) 76 IMSA PERFORMANCE MATMUT PORSCHE 911 RSR (997)
Raymond Narac/ France
Patrick Pilet/ France
Nicolas Armindo/ France
46) (2) 63 PROTON COMPETITION PORSCHE 911 RSR (997)
Horst Felbermayr Jr/ Austria
Horst Felbermayr Sr/ Austria
Christian Ried/ Germany
47) (3) 81 FLYING LIZARD MOTORSPORTS PORSCHE 911 RSR (997)
Seth Neiman USA Darren LAW/ USA
Spencer Pumpelly/ USA
48) (4) 70 LARBRE COMPETITION PORSCHE 911 RSR (997)
Christophe Bourret/ France
Pascal Gibon/ France
Jean-Philippe Belloc/ France
49) (5) 83 JMB RACING FERRARI F430
Manuel Rodrigues/ France
Jean-Marc Menahem/ France
Nicolas Marroc/ France
50) (6) 60 GULF AMR MIDDLE EAST ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE
Fabien Giroix/ Argentina
Michael Wainwright/ France
Roald Goethe/ France
51) (7) 57 KROHN RACING FERRARI F430
Tracy Krohn/ USA
Niclas Jonsson/ Sweden
Michele Rugolo/ Italy
52) (8) 50 LARBRE COMPETITION CHEVROLET CORVETTE C6 ZR1
Patrick Bornhauser/ France
Julien Canal/ France
Gabriele Gardel/ Switzerland
53) (9) 62 CRS RACING FERRARI F430
Pierre Ehret/ Germany
Roger Wills/ Great Britain
Shaun Lynn/ Great Britain
54) (17) 65 LOTUS JETALLIANCE LOTUS EVORA
Jonathan Hirschi/ Switzerland
James Rossiter/ Great Britain
Johnny Mowlen/ Great Britain
55) (10) 68 ROBERTSON RACING FORD GT-DORAN
David Robertson/ USA
Andrea Robertson/ USA
David Murry/ USA
56) (18) 64 LOTUS JETALLIANCE LOTUS EVORA
Oskar Slingerland/ Germany
Martin Rich/ Great Britain
John Hartshorne/ Great Britain
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