2013 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 81st 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 81e 24 Heures du Mans) was a 24-hour automobile endurance racing event for teams of three drivers entering Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 19 to 23 June 2013 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France. It was the 81st running of the event, as organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. The race was the third and the premier round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship, with 32 of the race's 56 entries contesting the championship. A test day was held two weeks prior to the race on 9 June. Approximately 245,000 spectators attended the event.
The race was won by an Audi R18 e-tron quattro shared by Dane Tom Kristensen, Brit Allan McNish and Frenchman Loïc Duval after it led the last 248 laps, taking the manufacturers' twelfth victory at Le Mans since its first in the 2000 edition. It was Kristensen's ninth victory, McNish's third and Duval's first. The car started from pole position but lost the lead at the start to the sister No. 1 Audi of André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer who traded the position with a Toyota TS030 Hybrid shared by Anthony Davidson, Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi under pit stop rotation until it was forced into the pit lane in the seventh hour with a crankshaft position sensor fault. Buemi, Davidson and Sarrazin finished second and Lucas di Grassi, Marc Gené and Oliver Jarvis in another Audi completed the race podium.
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category finished with the OAK Racing Morgan car of Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo González ahead of the sister entry of Alex Brundle, David Heinemeier Hansson and Olivier Pla by a distance of one lap. The class podium was completed by Greaves Motorsport's Zytek Z11SN, driven by Michael Krumm, Jann Mardenborough and Lucas Ordóñez. One of Porsche's Manthey Racing 991 RSR of Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz won the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class and the sister No. 91 vehicle of Jörg Bergmeister, Timo Bernhard and Patrick Pilet in second. Porsche also won the Le Mans Grand Touring Amateur (LMGTE Am) category with the No. 76 IMSA Performance Matmut car of Raymond Narac, Christophe Bourret and Jean-Karl Vernay, earning the marque its 100th class victory at Le Mans.
The result elevated Kristensen, McNish and Duval to the top of the Drivers' Championship with 94 points. The championship leaders going into the race, Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer fell to second while Davidson, Sarrazin and Buemi maintained third due to the trio's second-place finish. Di Grassi, Gené and Jarvis moved from sixth to fourth and the duo of Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre rounded out the top five. With 102 points, Audi increased their lead over Toyota in the Manufacturers' Championship to 35 points with five rounds left in the season.
Background[edit]
The 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans was moved forward one week after a request was filed by the world governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), in order to harmonise the 2013 motor racing calendar.[1] It was the 81st annual edition of the event,[2] as well as the third of eight automobile endurance races in the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship.[3] Going into the race, Audi Sport Team Joest drivers André Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoît Tréluyer led the Drivers' Championship with 44 points, one ahead of their teammates Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval in second. Anthony Davidson, Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi of Toyota were third with 27 points. Rebellion Racing's Neel Jani, Nico Prost and Nick Heidfeld were fourth with 20 points, and their teammates Andrea Belicchi, Mathias Beche and Cheng Congfu were fifth with 16 points.[4] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Audi (with 51 points) led their rivals Toyota by 20 points.[4]
Balance of Performance changes[edit]
The FIA Endurance Committee altered the balance of performance in three of the four categories to try and create parity in the classes. All hybrid and non-hybrid petrol powered LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1) cars received an additional 3 L (0.66 imp gal; 0.79 US gal) of fuel capacity for improved fuel mileage, allowing the Toyota TS030 Hybrid to run with a 76 L (17 imp gal; 20 US gal) fuel tank and the Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60s and the Strakka Racing HPD ARX-03c had 80 L (18 imp gal; 21 US gal) fuel tanks.[5] Porsche received an increase in performance by allowing a 0.3 mm (0.012 in) larger air restrictor on the air intake of their engines in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) classes. Aston Martin had 10 kg (22 lb) of ballast added to its LMGTE Pro Vantage while the Chevrolet Corvette C6.R received a 25 kg (55 lb) reduction in weight. The Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 and the SRT Viper GTS-R had no performance changes.[6]
Testing and practice[edit]
A test day was held on 9 June, two weeks prior to the race, and required all entrants for the race to participate in eight hours of track time divided into two sessions.[20] All 56 entries were involved as well as a fourth Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Marco Bonanomi for 2014 tyre testing, a Signatech Alpine A450 for Paul-Loup Chatin and Tristan Gommendy and a spare Level 5 Motorsports HPD ARX-03b tested by Scott Tucker. Two Team Endurance Challenge-entered Le Mans Prototype Challenge Oreca-FLM09s also participated.[21] Wet weather swept the area during the day and had Audi set the fastest time with a 3 minutes, 22.583 seconds lap from Duval in the No. 2 car at the end of the second session. Lucas di Grassi in the sister No. 3 entry followed in second and Lotterer completed an all-Audi top three lockout in third. Toyota placed fourth and sixth with its best times coming from Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz; they were separated by Bonanomi's Audi.[22] During the first session, Duval was distracted by an unidentified object hitting his windscreen and heavily damaged the No. 2 car in the wall alongside the track at Tertre Rouge corner.[21][22] Olivier Pla's OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan was the fastest LMP2 car with a late second session effort of 3 minutes, 38.801 and he was eight-tenths of a second faster than Nelson Panciatici's Signatech Alpine.[22] LMGTE Pro was topped by Peter Dumbreck for Aston Martin Racing while Jamie Campbell-Walter also helped the marque lead in LMGTE Am.[22] Crashes from Tracy Krohn of Krohn Racing at the right of Mulsanne corner, AF Corse's Giancarlo Fisichella leaving the same turn and Dominik Kraihamer for Lotus in the Porsche Curves led to stoppages during both sessions.[21]
Two days after the test day, Audi and Signatech Alpine held two half an hour practice sessions in the morning and the afternoon on the shorter and permanent Bugatti Circuit in wet weather conditions to ensure that car components worked efficiently before the race.[23] Official practice was held on 19 June with the full 56-car field on track for four hours.[20] A torrential rain shower fell at Le Mans in the early afternoon but it tapered off before practice commenced and the track dried up during the session although light rain returned midway through and some cars spun.[24] Audi again led from the start with Tréluyer's No. 1 car setting a benchmark time until Duval went quickest with a 3 minutes, 25.514 seconds lap.[25] Marino Franchitti's No. 33 Level 5 Motorsports car was the early LMP2 pace setter until Alex Brundle's No. 24 OAK Racing Morgan moved to first but it was Bertrand Baguette's sister No. 35 entry who was fastest with a lap of 3 minutes, 42.813 seconds.[24] He was a second faster than Maxime Martin's No. 46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca.[25] An hour into the session, Eric Lux crashed the No. 41 Greaves Motorsport car heavily into a barrier entering the second Mulsanne chicane and the session was stopped due to debris on the track.[24] Lux was unhurt.[26] The LMGTE Pro class lead constantly changed amongst the field with Richard Lietz's No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR fastest with Kamui Kobayashi's No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari two-tenths of a second slower in second.[25] Kristian Poulsen's No. 95 Aston Martin was quickest in the LMGTE Am category.[24][25] Krohn had a high speed accident at the downhill Dunlop Esses and his car was launched about 20 ft (6.1 m) into the air before landing in a gravel trap, bringing an early end to practice due to a large amount of damage to the barriers.[24]
Warm-up[edit]
The cars took to the circuit on Saturday morning for a 45-minute warm-up session in dry and clear weather.[2][42] The No. 7 Toyota of Nicolas Lapierre set the team's fastest lap time of the weekend so far at 3 minutes, 26.227 seconds. McNish's No. 2 Audi was 0.504 seconds adrift in second and third was occupied by his teammate Fässler in the sister No. 1 car.[43] The fastest LMP2 lap was set by John Martin's No. 26 G-Drive Oreca with a time of 3 minutes, 43.158 seconds, almost nine-tenths of a second faster than Brendon Hartley in the No. 48 Murphy Prototypes vehicle and Archie Hamilton's No. 25 Delta-ADR car was third.[43] Porsche and AF Corse exchanged first in LMGTE Pro before Toni Vilander's No. 71 Ferrari set the best time in the category, while Patrick Long, driving the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, was fastest in LMGTE Am and second quickest amongst all LMGTE cars.[43] Several drivers went off the track during the session.[43] Kristensen hit the No. 67 IMSA Performance Matmut car of Pascal Gibon at Indianapolis turn and yellow flags were waved in the area because Kristensen was stranded in the grass to the left of the circuit.[42][43] Philippe Dumas crashed the No. 70 Larbre Compétition Corvette into a tyre barrier at the Dunlop chicane halfway through the session and the No. 25 G-Drive car of Tor Graves blew its right-rear tyre on the run to the Porsche Curves and veered heavily into the inside barriers and debris was littered on the track. Graves was unhurt.[42]
Post-race[edit]
Allan Simonsen was mourned by the motorsport community.[53] A memorial foundation was established in his honour by the Danish Automobile Sports Union and he was given a funeral in his hometown of Odense in Southern Denmark on 2 July.[91] Following Simonsen's death, the ACO announced the improvements to several sections of the circuit in December 2013. Tertre Rouge was re-profiled and new barriers and tire walls were added at the corner's exit onto the Mulsanne Straight. Run-off areas in the Corvette corners were expanded, and TecPro barriers were added behind the tire walls at the start of the Porsche corners. Large kerbs were added to the paved run-off at the second Ford chicane to deter cars from cutting the corner.[92] A new safety system was implemented, which allowed for the intervention of safety vehicles on a particular section of the circuit without the need for neutralising the entire race with safety cars. The system, termed a slow zone, requires cars to slow and maintain a speed of 60 km/h (37 mph) within a specific zone.[93]
With their victory, Kristensen, McNish and Duval became the new leaders of the Drivers' Championship with 94 points. Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer fell to second and were thirty points behind their teammates. Davidson, Sarrazin and Buemi's second-place result enabled the trio to remain in third while di Grassi, Gené and Jarvis' third-position result allowed them to advance from sixth to fourth. Wurz and Lapierre rounded out the top five drivers in the championship standings.[4] In the Manufacturers' Championship, Audi kept their lead with 102 points but increased it to thirty-five points over Toyota with five rounds left in the season.[4]