2011 Le Mans – LM P2 Race


79e 24 Heures du Mans



Pos#TeamCarLapGap
1st41Greaves MotorsportZytek Nissan326
2nd26Signatech NissanOreca 03-Nissan3266 laps
3rd33Level 5 Motorsport Lola Coupe – Honda Performance Development3147 laps

The Race

The Initial scrap for the lead was between #26 and #48. Other got involved, but these were 1-2 until their first stops. Premat was catching Mailleux over the first few laps and then it stablised at just under 2 seconds until a left rear puncture for #26 meant a slow in lap and a minutes lost in the pit. The LM P2 pit stops started on lap 9 anyway.

#26 Signatech had a very long stop on lap 42 and another on lap 280 which really knocked it back. At other times it was catching the eventual winner.

6 hours in and Team Oreca Matmut #48 had two laps over Greaves Motorsport #41. After that Ojjeh could gain, but it was too far back to worry Team Oreca Matmut. However on lap 129, just after the Rockenfeller safety car, Premat has to pit only two laps after he last pitted with an electrical problem. The car is in the garage and loses 3’40” and the lead to Lombard.

#41 would catch and regain the lead. On lap 201 Hallyday goes off and its race is over. #48 holds the lead until the end. It wasn’t without drama, on lap 289 and just after a stop Kimber-Smith put #41 in the gravel at Dunlop. The marshals got him out and the lead was such that by the end they still had 6 laps over second in class.

Despite its initial problems in the race weekend #33 Level 5 Lola grabbed the final LMP2 podium spot.


#44 just after taking the chequered flag. It was 155 laps down on the winner and was not classified.

A great stint Lombard after #48 went out of the race cemented the win for Greaves Motorsport.


Stint Lengths

Unlike the other classes things were more consistent in LM P2. The front runners were all stuck on 11 lap stints. The Zytek Nissan #41 could, on occasion, extend it to 12 laps depending on circumstance.

Some cars managed to take advantage of the safety car periods better than others to extend their stints. #36 was on course for completing few stops than most, except it had some short stints later on, including one after a spin.


Lap 294. Charouz hands over to Nakano, who would double stint to the end and finish fifth in class.


Relative Pace

The Signatech Nissan had the pace, but ultimately ended up in second.


Speed Trap

LM P2s are 30-40 kph down on P1s.


Sectors

#48 had a little extra in the second sector, but #26 showed its speed everywhere, …

… including the Porsche curves where it had a 0.577s advantage.


Drivers

Some great laps by Ayari and he was given the bulk of the laps in that car. #48’s Premat and Kraihamer both feature on the driver table. Bouchut was the ironman of the class.

#44 Exteme Limite AM Paris’ Norma-Judd BMW was running at the end. It’s three drivers featured towards the bottom of the lap speed rankings, but in true endurance style battled to get to the end. Unfortunately it fell two laps short of the the required distance of 70% of race winner distance to be classified.



Lap Chart



, , , ,

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *