Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

H16: Lotterer leads for Audi

Andre Lotterer leads the Le Mans 24 Hours for Audi by 23 seconds from the Peugeots of Sebastien Bourdais and Marc Gene

The course was neutralised for just over 20 minutes after the #59 Luxury Racing Ferrari 458 crashed and erstwhile LMP2 leader David Hallyday took the nose off the #48 ORECA. After the dramatics of the previous hour, Anthony Davidson's work was undone by the safety car and after Gene took over the car it fell behind the #9 entry driven by Bourdais.

Lotterer took over the #2 Audi from Marcel Fassler, falling to third in the process, and on fresh tyres set a succession of quick laps - including the fastest one of the race. Bourdais responded by beating Lotterer's time, only for the #2 Audi to go faster still.

Peugeot pitted the #8 car just before the green flag and when it emerged, with Franck Montagny still at the wheel, the three factory 908s ran in formation - albeit with the #8 car a lap down - as Gene held station behind Bourdais. Montagny unlapped himself from Gene and then made himself large in Bourdais' mirrors.

When all three Peugeots broke for the pits shortly after the turn of the hour, Lotterer moved back into the lead.

Christophe Tinseau leads the denuded field of petrol-powered LMP1s by two laps in the #16 Pescarolo from the sole remaining Rebellion Lola, currently driven by Neel Jani, running in fifth and sixth overall. Nicolas Lapierre is a lap down on Jani in the delayed ORECA Peugeot 908.

Hallyday's accident ceded the lead of LMP2 to Tom Kimber-Smith in the Greaves Motorsport Zytek, and when Kimber-Smith pitted to hand over to Olivier Lombard shortly before the turn of the hour the Zytek held a one-lap advantage over Franck Mailleux in the #26 ORECA.

Oliver Gavin leads the GTE Pro field imperiously for Corvette Racing with a lap in hand over Toni Vilander in the #51 Ferrari, but team-mate Olivier Beretta shunted the #73 Corvette just after the turn of the 17th hour.

Seth Nieman leads GTE Am in the #81 Flying Lizard Porsche.

NOTES:

- Jean-Christophe Boullion crashed the Rebellion Lola-Toyota in the 14th hour at the Porsche Curves. He had been running eighth at the time of the shunt.

- Mike Rockenfeller was taken to hospital following a frightening accident that totally destroyed the #1 Audi in the seventh hour of the race. The German had been running third when he made contact with a GTE Ferrari at kink after Mulsanne. Audi later confirmed that the German would be kept in overnight for observation but that he was okay.

- The #3 Audi of Allan McNish crashed out of the race in the first hour having just taken second position. The Scot collected the #58 Luxury Racing Ferrari in the right-hander after the Dunlop Bridge. The heavy impact destroyed the car and McNish was taken to hospital for precautionary checks, but was later released with an all-clear.

- Both Aston Martin AMR Ones ran into trouble on the first lap of the race. Darren Turner spinning with mechanical trouble and Adrian Fernandez stopping out on the Mulsanne. The #007 car of Turner was recovered to the pits where it was discovered an alternator belt tensioner was to blame.

POSITIONS AFTER 16 HOURS

Pos  Car            Team                      Class   Gap
 1.  #9  Peugeot    Team Peugeot Total        (LMP1)  
 2.  #7  Peugeot    Peugeot Sport Total       (LMP1)  +    3.504
 3.  #2  Audi       Audi Sport Team Joest     (LMP1)  +   35.943
 4.  #8  Peugeot    Peugeot Sport Total       (LMP1)  +    1 Lap
 5.  #16 Pescarolo  Pescarolo Team            (LMP1)  +   6 Laps
 6.  #12 Lola       Rebellion Racing          (LMP1)  +   9 Laps
 7.  #10 Peugeot    Team Oreca-Matmut         (LMP1)  +  10 Laps
 8.  #22 Lola       Kronos Racing             (LMP1)  +  13 Laps
 9.  #41 Zytek      Greaves Motorsport        (LMP2)  +  15 Laps
10.  #26 Oreca      Signatech Nissan          (LMP2)  +  17 Laps
11.  #33 Lola       Level 5 Motorsports       (LMP2)  +  19 Laps
12.  #49 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP2)  +  21 Laps
13.  #74 Corvette   Corvette Racing           (GTEP)  +  23 Laps
14.  #51 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEP)  +  24 Laps
15.  #35 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP2)  +  24 Laps
16.  #73 Corvette   Corvette Racing           (GTEP)  +  24 Laps
17.  #80 Porsche    Flying Lizard Motorsports (GTEP)  +  25 Laps
18.  #55 BMW        BMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  25 Laps
19.  #56 BMW        BMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  26 Laps
20.  #77 Porsche    Team Felbermayr-Proton    (GTEP)  +  26 Laps
21.  #76 Porsche    IMSA Performance Matmut   (GTEP)  +  26 Laps
22.  #36 HPD        RML                       (LMP2)  +  28 Laps
23.  #75 Porsche    Prospeed Competition      (GTEP)  +  28 Laps
24.  #40 Oreca      Race Performance          (LMP2)  +  30 Laps
25.  #81 Porsche    Flying Lizard Motorsports (GTEA)  +  30 Laps
26.  #50 Corvette   Larbre Competition        (GTEA)  +  30 Laps
27.  #70 Porsche    Larbre Competition        (GTEA)  +  31 Laps
28.  #63 Porsche    Proton Competition        (GTEA)  +  34 Laps
29.  #83 Ferrari    JMB Racing                (GTEA)  +  37 Laps
30.  #61 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEA)  +  38 Laps
31.  #65 Lotus      Lotus Jetalliance         (GTEP)  +  38 Laps
32.  #59 Ferrari    Luxury Racing             (GTEP)  +  43 Laps
33.  #66 Ferrari    JMW Motorsport            (GTEP)  +  43 Laps
34.  #68 Ford       Robertson Racing          (GTEA)  +  44 Laps
35.  #71 Ferrari    AF Corse                  (GTEP)  +  48 Laps
36.  #88 Porsche    Team Felbermayr-Proton    (GTEP)  +  57 Laps
37.  #44 Norma      Extr                      (LMP2)  +  85 Laps
38.  #58 Ferrari    Luxury Racing             (GTEP)  +  90 Laps
39.  #48 Oreca      Team Oreca-Matmut         (LMP2)  +  26 Laps
40.  #13 Lola       Rebellion Racing          (LMP1)  Retired
41.  #42 HPD        Strakka Racing            (LMP2)  Retired
42.  #60 Aston      Gulf AMR Middle East      (GTEA)  Retired
43.  #39 Lola       PeCom Racing              (LMP2)  Retired
44.  #89 Ferrari    Hankook Team Farnbacher   (GTEP)  Retired
45.  #64 Lotus      Lotus Jetalliance         (GTEP)  Retired
46.  #57 Ferrari    Krohn Racing              (GTEA)  Retired
47.  #24 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP1)  Retired
48.  #1  Audi       Audi Sport Team Joest     (LMP1)  Retired
49.  #5  Oreca      Hope Racing               (LMP1)  Retired
50.  #62 Ferrari    CRS Racing                (GTEA)  Retired
51.  #15 OAK        OAK Racing                (LMP1)  Retired
52.  #79 Aston      Jota                      (GTEP)  Retired
53.  #20 Zytek      Quifel-ASM Team           (LMP1)  Retired
54.  #3  Audi       Audi Sport North America  (LMP1)  Retired
55.  #007  AMR-One  Aston Martin Racing       (LMP1)  Retired
56.  #009  AMR-One  Aston Martin Racing       (LMP1)  Retired

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article H15: Fassler fights to keep lead
Next article H17: Peugeot leads under safety car

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe