Dawn Of A New Era: Hybrid Audi Victory At Le Mans

The #1 Audi e-tron Quattro has taken victory at this year’s running of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The car held the lead for the majority of the race, fighting off opposition from both within the Audi camp and from the remarkably strong Toyota team.

It has to be stressed what a great performance Toyota put in. This was their first race for the new TS030 Hybrid, and its performance meant that Audi had very real competition right up until the terrible accident for Anthony Davidson and the subsequent terribly unnecessary accident for the sister car later on.

The hard pace early on had not seen a matching rate of attrition. But it was the night that did the damage, as it always does. Eyes are tired. Bodies are weak. Focus is lacking. By 1am just six cars had dropped out and their garage doors shut, but come daybreak just five hours later the number of retirees had more than doubled to 20.

Now Le Mans wasn’t just picking on the weak: it was picking on everyone, with a pretty even number removed from each of the four classes. The #7 Toyota TS030 had finally made it out of the garage, only to return to its box and have the front removed. Within minutes the emotion of the mechanics told the story – it was over for Toyota at Le Mans in 2012.

The biggest shock was the trouble for Corvette: #74 had picked up the baton and led as night fell, but lost a wheel at the Dunlop Esses – that meant a slow crawl round a long track to recover to the pits, and the car haemorrhaged places. Back out and circulating soon after the damage was repaired, the car was further set back by a second off for Richard Westbrook, into the tyres at the Forza Chicane.

That handed the lead to the marauding Ferraris: the #51 AF Corse 458 of Giancarlo Fisichella took the lead in GTE, followed by the pole-setting #59 Luxury Racing car. Fisichella then decided to level things up by having an off of his own. Did no one want to lead the GTE class?

Pescarolo were having a torrid race, despite splitting their effort between the new 03 and their uprated Dome S102.5 – the former was out within 20 laps and the latter struggled in and out of the pits during the last half of the race before emerging for a final lap to the cheers of the crowds. Henri is nothing if not popular. Despite taking the flag, the Dome wasn’t classified as it hadn’t completed a sufficient number of laps. This fate also befell the #74 Corvette crew: a phlegmatic Tommy Milner was still smiling in the pits, and you know the Corvette team will bounce back. They like a challenge.

LMP2 was hard fought for the entire race, with the Starworks HPD ARX-03b hitting the front just around half distance right near the front of the overall standings, but with a gaggle of Orecas squabbling over the remaining podium places for 12 hours.

Porsche in particular seemed to suffer in the colder temperatures overnight, with the pace of both the Imsa and Prospeed Am cars dropping off in the early hours of the morning. Worse was to come for Abdulaziz Al Faisal in the #75 Prospeed car: a failure put the car into the barriers and out of the race just before dawn.

Both Felbermayr 911s also suffered punctures – and come the morning both could be seen abandoned in the retirement home that was the Parc Fermé area, next to the growing number of other casualties – and several other Porsches.

The #51 Ferrari came back from its off to lead the GTE-Pro class through the morning and all the way to the flag.

Behind them, the #59 Luxury 458 was looking behind as much as forward…

…as the #97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 was putting in a storming drive in its efforts to get back on terms in GTE-Pro. The Aston would finish just a lap off the 458 at the flag.

JRM continued to have travails with their HPD LMP1 during the night, but came back fighting after each problem and continued to hold station near the front of the privateer LMP1 pack, inexorably moving up from just outside the top ten to finish a fantastic sixth overall once the second of the Rebellion Lolas hit trouble.

An ecstatic team welcomed David Brabham over the line. The HPD had got faster and faster throughout the race as they hit the sweet spot of the car, and it was visibly quicker and more stable towards the end of the 24 hours. It was an incredible result following the short, sharp programme leading to Le Mans.

Rebellion finished as the top privateer LMP1 entrant: their Lola-Toyota B12/60 had put in an excellent performance throughout the race and thoroughly deserved their fourth place finish.

Audi still did their best to make things difficult for themselves once the main opposition had self-destructed: the #1 and #2 e-trons traded the lead throughout the morning, showing that at least during this period there were still no team orders in force.

The #4 R18 Ultra had come back into contention with the demise of the Toyota challenge – their steady approach played them into a podium position.

McNish in #2 and Gené in #3 then both crashed their R18s in the final phase of the race just to make things interesting and give Rebellion a whiff of a podium – but it was just a dream. The Audi crew went to work and both cars were out without losing more than a handful of time.

Come three o’clock a quartet of Audi R18 swept over the line, the pair of e-tron Quattros leading the Ultras. Maybe the idea of a different outcome was optimism was than reality, but once again this Audi victory was still the result of a real race – and Audi are again deserving winners. Next year Toyota should be further advanced into their programme, and there are rumours of further factory entries stepping up to what is still the world’s ultimate endurance race.

Le Mans 24 Hours 2012
Race result
1: LMP1 #1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron Quattro (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer) 378 laps
2: LMP1 #2 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron Quattro (Capello/Kristensen/McNish) +1 lap
3: LMP1 #4 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 Ultra (Bonanomi/Jarvis/Rockenfeller) 3:25.433s +3 laps
4: LMP1 #12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota (Prost/Jani/Heidfeld) +11 laps
5: LMP1 #3 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 Ultra (Dumas/Duval/Gené) +12 laps
6: LMP1 #22 HPD ARX-03a (Brabham/Chandhok/Dumbreck) +21 laps

7: LMP2 #44 Starworks HPD ARX-03b (Potolicchio/Dalziel/Kimber-Smith) +24 laps
8: LMP2 #46 Thiriet By TDS Racing (Beche/Thiriet/Tinseau) +25 laps
9: LMP2 #49 Pecom Racing (Perez Companc/Ayari/Kaffer) +26 laps
10: LMP2 #26 Signatech Nissan (Panciatici/Ragues/Rusinov) +27 laps

17: GTE-Pro #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia (Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander) +42 laps

20: GTE-Am #50 Larbre Corvette C6.R (Bornhauser/Canal/Lamy) +49 laps

Jonathan Moore

Speedhunters at the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours
Full results of the 24 Hours

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3

My first le mans and the only team I wanted to win (the gt pro corvettes) ran into terrible troubles. :'(

4

My first le mans and the only team I wanted to win (the gt pro corvettes) ran into terrible troubles. :'(

5

Makes me proud to work for AUDI :-)

6

Makes me proud to work for AUDI :-)

7

Watching Audi win at Lemans again is like watching RedBull win an F1 race, its boring & it sucks.

8

Watching Audi win at Lemans again is like watching RedBull win an F1 race, its boring & it sucks.

9

when thinking le mans earlier this year. i think that "oh crap. now peugeot is gone, those audis gonna win for sure". when i watched (some of the hours), "umm.. go toyota?" then it retired i say "why oh why?" yes. it will be more interesting if those ts030 keep racing till the end. assuming that there will be no reliability issue, im sure there will be no early win parade from audi's quartet. hopefully toyota wont consider this as a failure and push on. come on. you got a whole year to develop toyota people. congratulations audi! oh i like the delta wing more now. :) btw, i dont understand  Lola-Toyota B12/60 car. what is lola? why is there toyota and lotus on that car?

10

when thinking le mans earlier this year. i think that "oh crap. now peugeot is gone, those audis gonna win for sure". when i watched (some of the hours), "umm.. go toyota?" then it retired i say "why oh why?" yes. it will be more interesting if those ts030 keep racing till the end. assuming that there will be no reliability issue, im sure there will be no early win parade from audi's quartet. hopefully toyota wont consider this as a failure and push on. come on. you got a whole year to develop toyota people. congratulations audi! oh i like the delta wing more now. :) btw, i dont understand  Lola-Toyota B12/60 car. what is lola? why is there toyota and lotus on that car?

11

 @bradjh cheers! i got to admit that i love the sound of those corvettes. whats the difference between gte-am and gte-pro corvettes anyway?

12

 @bradjh cheers! i got to admit that i love the sound of those corvettes. whats the difference between gte-am and gte-pro corvettes anyway?

13

@Slappy I suspect you haven't watched much F1 this year ;)

14

@Slappy I suspect you haven't watched much F1 this year ;)

15

@yanes33537 @bradjh The Pro cars are 2012 models driven by 3 professional drivers, the Am cars are 2011 models driven by 1 pro and 2 am drivers.

16

@yanes33537 @bradjh The Pro cars are 2012 models driven by 3 professional drivers, the Am cars are 2011 models driven by 1 pro and 2 am drivers.

17

Johnathan, you know which images must become a desktop! My current desktop is of the WRT Speedhunters Audi R8 but I'm sure another Audi could take its spot on my screen.

18

Johnathan, you know which images must become a desktop! My current desktop is of the WRT Speedhunters Audi R8 but I'm sure another Audi could take its spot on my screen.

19

 @sean klingelhoefer  i see. how about the LMP class? is it in the same formula too? because im suspecting LMP1 is closed top and LMP2 is open top.

20

 @sean klingelhoefer  i see. how about the LMP class? is it in the same formula too? because im suspecting LMP1 is closed top and LMP2 is open top.

21

 @yanes33537 Lola makes race chassis/platforms/cars. Toyota provides the powerplant for the car. Lotus is the team/major backer. Lotus sources Toyota engines for their cars, so the combination makes sense for this car. Basic explanation.

22

 @yanes33537 Lola makes race chassis/platforms/cars. Toyota provides the powerplant for the car. Lotus is the team/major backer. Lotus sources Toyota engines for their cars, so the combination makes sense for this car. Basic explanation.

23

 @yanes33537  @sean klingelhoefer p1 is just a faster car than p2, there are both open and closed top cars in p1, i'm not sure about the rules in p2 but I didn't see any closed p2's

24

 @yanes33537  @sean klingelhoefer p1 is just a faster car than p2, there are both open and closed top cars in p1, i'm not sure about the rules in p2 but I didn't see any closed p2's

25

 @Golightly thanks a lot! :)

26

Great write up Jonathan, along with some mind-numbingly beautiful photos!! Great work man!

27

@ENRIL_JCW kok vegan?

28

@cinititi abisnya hybrid :P

29

@bradjh @yanes33537 @sean klingelhoefer

there are open and closed cars in P2 aswell though nearly all are open

P2 basically just has less power due to having smaller restrictors, so around 400-450hp, where as P1 is around 550hp and around 600hp for the diesels due to them having larger restrictors then the petrol P1 cars have

P2 also need 1 "amateur" driver

30

@ENRIL_JCW hybrid biar sisa bensinnya buat bakar-bakar daging. gimana?

31

@cinititi hmmmm...deal deh kalo gitu,sepakat

32

@ENRIL_JCW kan gue gak bilang daging apaan

33

@cinititi no deal klo gitu

34

Awesome writeup and photo's! I just returned from my first attending of Le Mans, was a pitty the Toyotas got screwed and the Delta Wing was out early in the race, but nonetheless an amazing experience! *ohh and you've got to love the Corvette's Rooooaaar :D
 
Btw I noticed a speedhunters sticker during the start on the main straight on one of the LMP's....!!!!!

35

Too bad for the Delta Wing Nissan....
As for the Audi, it makes sense that they are the winners. They had invested hugely in this race and those cars.
E-tron? Step ONE in making hybrids up to the muscle car era.

36

The sound the Corvette made was just terrifying, it seems like a WWII airplane just passed in front of you. The Toyota were nice to watch too, nice livery and gorgeous sound. I hope the will do better next year.
I didn't have a chance to catch Jonathan, but did you have a walk in some camping lots ? Mine was littered of awesome car, from TVR to Cobras, with the crowd of brits bringing a ton of Evo/GTR/STI/Aston Martin. I even saw a Diablo GTR at Beauséjour. And some journalist from CBS was driving a GT86.
Overall, an awesome weekend, I will be sure to get back next year.

37

 @sean klingelhoefer  @Slappy Yes, it is so predictable now - very sad.  Its so very unhealthy for a sport to have such little competition and the same team winning all the time.  I wonder how Audi would cope if it had more than one major competition to fend off at any time like the old days when you had Porsche, Renault, Jaguar, Mercedes, Mazda factory entries all racing together - that is what a true race is all about.  Lets hope we get some big players back next year to give Audi some competition and then Le Mans can once again live upto its name as ''the greatest race on earth''.  By the way I drive an Audi myself and still have this opinion. 

38

One of the best moments was when the Pescarolo came out of the pits for the slow lap and hearing the crowd cheer over the cars.

39

Walls?!

40

 @ehh  @bradjh  @yanes33537  @sean P1 cars use bespoke racing power plants, P2 have to use production-based engines.

41

 @alfapip audi got competition. before those 2 toyotas crashed. its actually 'earlily over' race. anyway, i still consider it the greatest race on earth. because its le mans. :)

42

Nice to see Audi managed to purchase another win. Bit daft really that they can't do it without Reinhold Joest, but okay. Guess 500 million isn't enough and judging from their roadcars, the best engineers are in Munchen or Stuttgart anyway. Would be nice in 2014, if audi paid for the event and ACO officials holidays + personal cars, and Porsche, the only proper sportscar maker in the world, wins. 

43

Nice to see Audi managed to purchase another win. Bit daft really that they can't do it without Reinhold Joest, but okay. Guess 500 million isn't enough and judging from their roadcars, the best engineers are in Munchen or Stuttgart anyway. Would be nice in 2014, if audi paid for the event and ACO officials holidays + personal cars, and Porsche, the only proper sportscar maker in the world, wins. 

44

 @JoelSmith1 Yes, they are proper LM contenders. I spoke to many of the teams over the years, and they don't consider Audi to be genuine competition as the benefit they get from the ACO is so great no mortal LM team can touch them. ACO first asks what Audi's marketing plans are for the next year, before they make the rules. 

45

 @JoelSmith1 Yes, they are proper LM contenders. I spoke to many of the teams over the years, and they don't consider Audi to be genuine competition as the benefit they get from the ACO is so great no mortal LM team can touch them. ACO first asks what Audi's marketing plans are for the next year, before they make the rules. 

46

switch jobs to BMW, MB or Porsche whilst you still can. The Audi roadcars represent everthing thats wrong in the automotive world today.

47

switch jobs to BMW, MB or Porsche whilst you still can. The Audi roadcars represent everthing thats wrong in the automotive world today.

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