2009 Le Mans/LMS/ALMS Thread

Congratulations Puegeot, I wanted #8 to win but just the fact that Audi win streak here is over is refreshing. Audi boys have done a tremendous job to finish 3rd.
 
Well done Peugeot ! At last, the never ending Audi domination has come to an end.

:-D:thumbsup::nod:
 
well done for Corvette btw!
 
well I'm going to sleep
 
Few thoughs on the race now that it has been completed...

It wasn't a classic like like last year's race which was an absolute thriller all the way through. Still, for most of the way through things remained interesting and there were some entertaining battles for positions. The Peugeots were fast as well but this time they did not break, nor did they do anything else to throw their races away aside from the silly pit lane incident early on. Audi was clearly not properly prepared and propably should have done more longer races early this year especially after the test day was cancelled and left was very little testing for the R15 and aside of Sebring no race testing at all.

Sadly the Aston Martins could not match the diesels which was to be expected but a shame nevertheless. ACO will undoubtedly look at futher slowing the diesels down next year (the race pace was not far from last year's and that was considered way too fast) so we'll see how the performance difference turns out next time round. Sadly there are not many normally aspirated challengers either, Oreca and Pescarolo still don't have the resources to develop serious challengers for the factory backed teams, and running old factory diesels in private hands didn't turn out to be that easy solution either although Pescarolo was not far off with his Peugeot. Finally on LMP1, thumbs up for Lotterer and Zwolsman in the #14 Kolles Audi, they did an excellent job to beat their teammates despite only running with two drivers, both of whom were rookies in Le Mans. Error free race with everything that was going on was a solid effort and seventh place a very respectable result from it.

Sadly the only other notable class was in effect GT2, and even there the early battles for the top positions quickly fizzled away. In the latter stages gaps were quite big and only position changes came after technical problems and punctures. Also, Porsche's effort was remarkably poor in the end, their cars had pace but lacked the reliability and in the end Spyker beat Porsche as a manufacturer in Le Mans which is unheard of.

Both GT1 and LMP2 had offered brief moments of very good racing. Overall it was a rather dull exit for the fantastic GT1 cars from Le Mans, you would think there would have been more competitive machinery on offer than the ridiculous JLOC Lamborghini for the race. The Corvettes raced hard together but sadly the safety cars always tended to separate them, in the closing stages the battle was fantastic stuff to watch. Hopefully the Vettes and the team return in GT2 guise next year, if they don't it will be a tremendous loss to sportscar racing. The LMP2 also offered good battles briefly but here as well it all ended too early after one of the two top runners had a problem which cost them time and after that everyone was minding their own business and making their way to the end.

Cheers for the company everyone. Same place, same time next year ;)
 
Well congrats to the Pugs lets hope we see another win like that in 15 years for them. I lol'd at the vette coming in for cleaning. I'm hoping for Aston versus Audi next year, so Aston work on your reliability FFS!

Overall great race, I fell asleep at 3:40 AM my time and woke up at the Mazda going bang.
 
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Good race, I wasn't really expecting it to be like last year. It's a real shame the Astons couldn't match the diesels but I was kidding myself. I was really going for the 008 car.

I'm surprised about the Audis, I'd have thought that if they could beat the Pugs with last years car, they would pull it off easily with the R15. But I guess experience with your car counts as much as the car itself...

EDIT: Anyone know where to watch the Legends race which RLM are talking about right now?
 
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The Legends race was yesterday morning, about 20 minutes after the warm-up session. I think they're starting to re-run recordings from Saturday morning onwards.
 
Tom said just after he finished that he wasn't satisfied and he actually felt stronger than last year. He said that it wasn't enough with only 3 test days and those mecanical issues they had here on Le Mans were completely new. They didn't had them on Sebring were they won over Pug. If the car would have been 100% ready, it had still been a hard race against Peugeot. They deserve this one.
 
Also congratulations to Aston Martin Racing and the #007 car's crew. They showed very good pace, otherwise they wouldn't have finished in fourth place. If the major regulation changes only come into force in 2011, then we can likely expect AMR to challenge at least for a podium next year.

P.S. Good to see that it lasted 24 hours without any of the Czechs binning it. :lol:
 
Where exactly did that Ferrari have that hydraulic(?) problem? The Speed guys said something about a bridge over a creek and an old farmer in a white house who used to watch the race.
 
Are there any torrents for the race coverage?

oneHD broadcast signal died in my area....
 
Congrats to Peugeot!

Man, what an embarrassing race for Audi. Oh well, Peugeot clearly deserved this win. Well done to them -- they've beaten Audi at their own game.
 
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I think Audi needs to rethink what they are doing. From past years Audi saw that competing in the ALMS was the perfect proving ground to test their cars and develop them for le mans. The first year they made the decision not to race in the series they fail to win le mans.... big surprise. Sure the R15 can and should be faster than the 908, but with minimal testing vs the 908 with three years of development it was pretty evident who was ready to race. I was a massive audi fan and still am, I just hope they learned their mistakes.....


Anyways I was happy to see the 908 take the win. After three years of hard work it has paid off! Its unreall a car that old was able to outpace the radical new audi. It was also nice to see the Astons running decently and not too far off the pace. Still a big gap remains, but it should be fixed shortly.

GT1 a lot of people are sad to see it go.... I am not. I was never into watching a car win race after race with no (real) competitors. I am happy they are moving down to GT2 where there are some real teams to race.
 
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