24 Hours of Le Mans 2008

14th - 15th June 2008

Notes of Interest

The 2008 edition of Le Mans saw the quickest race since the inception of the chicanes on the Hunaudieres straight. The first two cars covered 381 laps, which is a new record since 1990 when the chicanes were introduced.
It was one of a few race in the Le Mans history when the first two cars finished in the same lap and were two different manufacturers.
Six real manufacturer's cars started and all of them finished. Thus finishing in top 10 for a privateer team became similar success as finishing in top 5 in the past editions of the race when we had usually just two manufacturers cars in the finish. So no Pescarolo podium after three of them in a row. This year it was really quite impossible.
For the first time a LMP2 car finished ahead of the GT field. The last time a lower class prototype finished ahead a production class winner was in 2001 when LMP675 Reynard ROC finished 5th overall but then it completed only 284 laps, covering just one lap more than a Porsche 996 GT3. The best overall result for a LMP2 car was in 2006 when RML MG Lola covering 343 laps finished 8th, but behind three GT1 cars. This time the winning Porsche RS Spyder was classified only 10th but easily beat all GT cars and covering 352 laps.
The best production GT car was classified only 13th (344 laps). Compared to a few several last years (2007: 5th/343, 2006: 4th/355, 2005: 5th/349, 2004: 6th/345, 2003: 10th/336, 2002: 11th/335, 2001: 6th/283, 2000: 7th/334, etc.) we can say that the prototype reliability level went considerably up. Only in the first year of the modern GT era in Le Mans in 1993 (there were no GT cars during the second half of the Group C era at all) the winning GT car finished in higher position than this year. It was much more standard Porsche 911 Carrera RSR classified 15th with only 305 laps lapping by more than half a minute per lap slower than a Corvette or Aston Martin this year.
By far the largest number of finishers we had in this year's Le Mans race. Actually 35 cars made it to the finish, of which 33 or 34 were classified, depending on which published results we look at. Later results tends to show Lamborghini unclassified while it covered 266 laps and at the same time ACO claims that only cars covering less than 266 laps (or retiring, of course) are not classified. Regardless that confusion, the record number of classified finishers was 30 and it happened three times: in 1923, in 1975 and in 1993.
ACO announced a record crowd in recent years: 258 500 spectators.
For the first time since 1989 we had 55 starters. But back then there were no selections before the race so the first 55 cars in the qualifying were allowed to start the race.
It was for the first time since the chicanes were introduced in 1990 when the pole winning car run under 3:20, which was not even quite common in the pre-Group C era without the chicanes. Even more surprisingly this mark of 3:20 was broken also in the race, which never happened even during the Group C era when no chicanes were on Hunaudieres and when speeds used to exceed 400 kph. Only car ever lapping in the race was Porsche 917 LH in 1971 (3:18.4 compared to Peugeot's 3:19.394) but the track was a lot of quicker those days and average speed was lower than that by Peugeot this year (244.397 kph in 1971 versus 246.397 kph this year). Unfortunately the ACO is going to slow the cars down, similarly as FIA slowed down the cars after the record 1971 race.
Ferrari won GT2 for the first time in the class history dating back to 1999. Ferraris were on top 4 positions but still nowhere near the record for the class from 2005 when the winning Porsche covered 6 more laps. It was the first Ferrari class win since 2003 (then in GT1 class). Ferrari won its class only on a few occassions since its factory team demise after Le Mans 1973. Apart from the two mentioned it was a GT class in 1974, IMSA GTX class in 1981 and finally an old style LMP1 class in 1998.
Porsche might have recorded its best result in a decade since its last prototype effort in Le Mans was in 1998 when it won overall for the last time. But that did not happened as the GT2 cars finished in top 10 on several occassions during that period, the best place 6th in 2001 while the Spyder was 10th this year facing much better opposition than the GT cars in the past. But the LMP2 winning Porsche RS Spyder covered 354 laps, which an effort Porsche was not able to perform since 1993 when the last proper Porsche 962C hit the Le Mans track. The winning, almost Group C-like, Porsche GT1 was capable of only 351 laps in 1998 and the TWRs from 1996/97 were not a true Porsches despite referred to as like that from time to time. They became real Porsches only in 1998 when taken over by the factory.
Audi's eighth win in the Le Mans race put the German manufacturer in a direct comparision to the legends like Ferrari and Porsche. Porsche now has 13 victories (plus three more as an engine supplier for Dauer in 1994 and TWR in 1996 and 1997), Ferrari won Le Mans nine times and Audi is now the third ahead of another legend Jaguar with 7 victorious Le Mans participations. Audi is on its way to beat Ferrari, maybe Italians should have a look at Le Mans and think a bit, not only care of the Formula 1, otherwise historical records might be soon overwritten.
Tom Kristensen a driver with most victories in the race could add another one. With same number of victories as the Audi, he is now by far the most successful driven in the Le Mans history followed by real legend Jacky Ickx who won six times. Though it is worth to mention that several times the Belgian finished second overall by a small margin and usually raced against much tougher competition than very reliable Audis with Kristensen faced.
Yojiro Terada was the driver with most starts in Le Mans of the present drivers. It was his 29th Le Mans race. More races in Le Mans experience only Bob Wollek (30) and Henri Pescarolo (33), who now continues in Le Mans with his own team.
But Terada was not the oldest driver in the field. The oldest one was Greg Pickett. Interestingly it was his debut at Le Mans. Another interesting thing is that he was part of the Charouz Racing Team, which had also the youngest pilot in the field, Jan Charouz.