The First Hour – Audi Down to One
The Night Battle – #2 v #9 At the End – The Privateers
Car Characteristics – Driver Comparison
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79e 24 Heures du Mans
| Pos | # | Team | Car | Lap | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2 | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R18 TDI | 355 | |
| 2nd | 9 | Team Peugeot Total | Peugeot 908 | 355 | 13.854s |
| 3rd | 8 | Peugeot Sport Total | Peugeot 908 | 353 | 2 laps |
An intense battle between Audi and Peugeot that was interrupted by two big accidents that removed two challengers. There were differences in the two cars and how they attacked the lap, and differences in how they went about their stints, but they finished 14 seconds apart at the end. Below breaks this down in to key segments and moments of the race.
Behind the factory cars there were the privateers racing amongst themselves in an old fashioned endurance way. Behind the privateers were Aston Martin.
The First Hour Battle
On the first lap into Dunlop Treluyer (#2) ran a little wide. Bourdais (#8) considered going for the lead, but thought better of it. From then on it was the Audis working their way to the front. Later in that lap Berhard (#1) got into second and on lap 7 McNish (#3) made it an Audi 1-2-3 (#2- #1- #3).
Two laps later we got the first hint at the different stint lengths between Audi and Peugeot. Two Audis stopped on lap 9 and the third on lap 10. The factory Peugeots one stopped on 10 and two on 11. Peugeot cycling to the front on lap 11.
After the stops McNish grabbed second from Treluyer. The Audis ran in formation. The three were never separated by more than 10 seconds until lap 13 when McNish tried a move for the lead. The move was initially successful as he got past Bernhard. Berhard had been delayed behind Beltoise in #58 and McNish came upon the Ferrari who was committed to turning into the right hand sweep before the Esses. It was a big crash and fortunately no one was hurt. One potential winner was out.
Looking at the gap to the leader we see that Audi was asserting themselves at the front.
The Peugeots over the same time period time before the stops fell to 15s deficit. Generally they ran together.
Audi Down to One
From the first safety car the gaps started to spread out with #2 Audi asserting itself at the front. #7 Peugeot was its closest competitor. After a round of pits stops in the mid 70 lap range the order was #2, #7, #9, #8, #1. Then #1 started moving up the order, closing the gap on the leader and working its way past the Peugeots. #8 #9 #2 were close for many laps and slowly Rockenfeller in #2 got the upper hand.
#7 started to have problems when a door that wouldn’t stay shut and had to be fixed not duct taped. Difficultly getting heat into the tyres also slowed its pace. A small off by Gene did for it and #1 got into second place, just over one minute behind the leader #2.
Then on lap 116, two laps after getting second, disaster struck. Rockenfeller crashed while passing Ferrari #71 driven by Kauffman. There was no contact, but on the run down to Indianapolis the Audi had to go to the grass to avoid the Ferrari. It speared in front of the Ferrari and smashed into the barriers. The safety car period lasted over two hours1 while the barriers were repaired.
Later Kauffman was excluded from the meeting for dangerous driving having been judged to have ignore several blue lights (flags).
And Then There Were Three
The battle through the night and into the morning ebbed and flowed. #7 and #9 taking turns at being the closest challenger to #2. On lap 175 #2 has a long pit stop and suddenly it is close enough that whenever it stopped it lost the lead briefly. At first to #9, but eventually #7 was right there too.
#8 never joins in with this fight and slowly falls back to over two laps down. It initially lost time in the pits to help repair a brake balance adjuster. It took advantage and came in under the Rockenfeller safety car. It later had a penalty for a pit stop infringement when a team member didn’t have their goggles on.
After Fassler stopped on lap 208 Davidson was within striking distance. On lap 210 he’d caught up to within 1 second, on 211 he was past, but on 212 Fassler was back ahead and up to speed enough to pull out a few seconds.
After the fourth safety car the Audi pitted and two Peugeots got ahead, swapping with the Audi at the stops. After the fifth safety car they were together on the track and from lap 241 they were not separated by more than 10 seconds for the next stint. Then Audi got the hammer down and slowly built up a lead. This was often aided by keeping the same set of tyres on.
#7s involvement in the battle ended with a trip to the gravel for Wurz on the exit of Indianapolis on lap 268. Being extracted from that and the subsequent pit stop loses it 14 minutes. This drops it behind the #8 and results in 4th place.
Stint Lengths
During this period we get a good snapshot into the different stint lengths. It was clear that the Peugeots could run longer. All three of the current year factory cars had more 12 lap stints than not in the race. #2 Audi was an 11 lap stint car. This is juxtaposed to the different car characteristics and race pace. Audi was faster, but Peugeot had a set-up that could have helped make it run longer.
Looking at the privateers it is notable that the year old private Peugeot mainly did 10 or 11 lap stints, whereas the #12 rebellion managed 11 and 12 lap stints.
Driver Battle #2, #7, #9
Audi split their drivers a little more equally than the others, but it was Lotterer that put in more laps and had the ultimate pace in #2. Davidson did more work in #7. It was Pagenaud that was the iron man of this group and he had the consistency to go with it.
#2 v #9 At the End
Now there were two challenges. #2 picked up the pace around lap 220 with Lotterer putting in the fastest lap of the race on lap 229. It would need this pace to win the race.
Lotterer pitted on lap 316 and conditions got a little tricky. Rain was was falling and on dry tyres Lotterer struggled to get heat into them after the stop. The Peugeot gained 30 seconds in this period, but on lap 321 had to pit. After its stop Pagenaud still continued to close on the Audi, but at a reduced rate.
The gap dropped to 16 second after #2’s penultimate stop, but from then Audi had the upper hand and it increases to nearly 30s. More ebbs and flows. The Audi stopped with 16 laps to go before time would be up. It would have to stop again. At this point it looked like Peugeot had managed to get a good count back from race end. It had finished its last 12 lapper and could get to the end with two 11 lap stints. So, if there had been any fuel management there were no worries from now on.
Only five laps after that penultimate stop the Audi was in again, and on the same lap Peugeot came in for it’s last stop. It wasn’t tactical, it was a reaction to a slow left rear puncture. It hadn’t been that noticeable on lap times, only losing 1 second in the last sector compared to its last in-lap – nothing unusual. It wouldn’t have wanted to stop then, it was on its limit to get to the end on its stint length. Imagine if it had happened one lap earlier!
It lost time to the Peugeot in this stop, but did have new tyres. From then on it was close, but Lotterer could pull away by a small amount on most laps. The gap was managed and Audi won their 10th Le Mans by 13.4 seconds.
In the end #2 was the leader for most of the race. #1, #7, and #9 challenged. #9 took it the wire for the closest (non staged) Le Mans finish.
The Privateers
The privateer year old Team Oreca Matmut Peugeot diesel held the advantage all week. The #16 kept it honest until Collard went of on a damp track. It completed enough laps to finish 19th, but was retired so wasn’t classified.
The longer stints helped keep the Rebellion Lola #12 close to the Peugeot #10. In the end it completed two less stops and finished a lap behind and the top petrol car. Mid race it was ahead of the Peugeot after the diesel car was delayed due to front end damage. It lost 15 minutes in the pits while the fixed this and seemed to do other work too. After that it reeled in the Rebellion.
Another Lola from Kronos racing, the Aston Martin powered #22, completed the privateer ‘podium’.
Car Characteristics
The overall win was contested between these two factory teams. With cars that had different characteristics. These two cars also had advantages over the rest.
Two of the Audis did not run the whole race and had less opportunity to set times, hence why #3 is slower on this measure than the privateer Peugeot.
As seen above, it is notable that most of Audi #2’s fastest laps came in the second half of the race.
Over the longer average (60% race distance) we see the ranking of manufacturer stays the same as the Top 10.
Here is the full list. The view from a Hypercar era perspective this looks crazy. Conditions contributed, but the factory spread is ~1%. Privateers are 4%-12% slower than the fastest factory car. The year old Peugeot bridges the gap.
The chart gives some idea how the early retirements influence this measurement.
It is clear the Audi #2 had the speed. It wasn’t always the fastest at any given time, but generally it had quite a few tenths over the Peugeots.
Speed Trap Data
Peugeot had the more slippery car, which will also have helped the fuel mileage. The Peugeots look like they had a 4-7kph advantage over the winner.
It is notable that the year old Peugeot was significantly slower on the straights compared to the factory cars (and as we have seen above, had shorter stint lengths). It was comparable to the faster petrol cars, Rebellion Lola #12 and Oak Pescarolo #15.
To help judge this data the impact of early retirements are shown.
Sectors
Looking at the sectors confirms what we have seen with the overall speed and the top speeds. Peugeot is top here for the Mulsanne, but Audi #2 is top whenever there is the twisty stuff.
Back in 2011 additional mini sectors were recorded too. We see that Peugeot managed to grab the top spot in the Esses! It was close in the Ford Chicane too. It was in the Porsche curves that Audi scored suggesting a higher level of downforce. Considering the sector 2 and top speed performance we see that this came at the expense of drag.
Drivers
Lap Chart
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