Watch the opening 5 hours of the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, where strategy, speed, and endurance shaped the early battles of this legendary race. From manufacturer rivalries to the challenges of the Circuit de la Sarthe, these first hours set the stage for an unforgettable edition of the world’s greatest endurance event.
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SportsTranscript
00:00It's busy. Now that we've stripped out the box section at the front here, are we going to see it yet again? Here we are, this is the moment.
00:14That's what's caused all the work at Audi and a few cancelled dinner reservations at their hospitality unit. They're going to be busy and for some time.
00:30Welcome back. The gap at the top is virtually nothing as we speak. Trulia and Lapierre are locked together.
00:49There was a 53 second gap as they came into the pits and momentarily Toyota took the lead of this 24 hour race with just over 19 hours remaining.
01:00Remarkable. And here's the battle shooting.
01:02They're just coming out of the first chicane here. I might have been doing that if things have gone my way.
01:08But they're just coming out of the first chicane, carry on down the Mulsanne.
01:12But Toyota's got a little bit more straight line speed than the Audi, but the Audi's much, much better on the brakes and better through the tight and twisty stuff.
01:17So, you know, it's really good to see. And you saw that at the start of the race, the way they were hounding the Audis.
01:23How much closer do they have to be after this many hours of racing? We've been, what, five hours busy so far?
01:31And they're absolutely locked here together on track. It was a little bit tardy, the attack lap coming in.
01:38Maybe a bit of traffic came about. And here we go.
01:41Toyota is for the lead around the outside. Is he going to make it stick? He's got the horsepower shot. Is he going to...
01:46Oh, and they come straight back at him. This is amazing stuff. Traffic ahead. He's holding line.
01:51Oh, the contact. Nearly takes the nose off. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Audi's still out front here.
01:57Like I said, Toyota's got a little bit of straight line speed.
02:00He's going onto the grass. Plus, he's got better exit, that hybrid motion.
02:03Oh, he's really good. Oh, my God. He's done it.
02:04What a move that was. Use the traffic. You went off. Look at the mood in Toyota.
02:10They're out front here and here. Comes out. He's straight back out of here.
02:13Oh, using traffic as fast. Oh, nearly contact at the rear end here as well for the Toyota.
02:19He's holding station, bossing the road. That's what he needs to do, Liz.
02:22Oh, my goodness. Look at how close they are together. I'm just sitting back thinking,
02:26come on, boys, keep the racing. Don't have an accident.
02:28Here we go. Let's see which hybrid has the power delivery right now.
02:33And it's the Audi in front. But here comes the big old kick that the Toyota's got.
02:37He's going to hit the back wheels. And it's going to be like an explosion here.
02:40Down the straight. He comes. It's the fastest car on the track.
02:43Don't forget the Toyota. He's proving it right now.
02:47Genius of work. Fantastic racing here. Oh, this is amazing stuff.
02:52Five hours of racing deep into this. And you cannot honestly put anything between these two cars out front.
03:00No, it's, you know, it was explaining the Toyota's got a bit of straight line speed.
03:03But that Audi's much better on the brakes. And the prime example of that going into more size.
03:07Oh, no. Oh, no.
03:10He's gone and into the barriers. Oh, look at this. Joy turns to misery at Toyota.
03:18They're going to have some work to do. We'll see how busy they're going to be.
03:21It's a safety car. They've got our first safety car of the race. That's a big one.
03:25Thank you, Liz. Oh, no.
03:27There he is. Oh, no.
03:28Oh, no.
03:28Oh, my airborne as well.
03:30Oh, my God. He's so lucky.
03:32He is a lucky man.
03:33And the Ferrari in as well. Huge hit for the Ferrari.
03:36Big hit for both of them.
03:36The Ferrari is upside down now. Oh, my God.
03:39Wow. Safety car has been called.
03:42I can't help us.
03:43Everyone's fanning their own faces here.
03:45Let's just calm it down, shall we?
03:47We have a safety car the first here.
03:50We've had such a dramatic five minutes here that it's going to take an awful lot to pick it apart
03:57and tell you exactly what's going on.
04:00He's OK. Thank goodness.
04:01Yes, that's Anthony Davison waving to say that he is OK.
04:05The Ferrari, I still don't have an ID on it.
04:08This is the moment of collision here.
04:09Just didn't see him. Didn't see him.
04:11Turned into it.
04:12Got airborne.
04:13And look at that.
04:14He was lucky that so much energy was taken away by the hit at the rear.
04:18The Ferrari, well, thank goodness it was on the alternative side to the driver there
04:26because, to be honest, that would have been rather nasty.
04:29You could have had a tyre getting into the cabin there.
04:32It looks, well, there he is, extricated from the car.
04:35I think that might be...
04:36That's the Ferrari driver.
04:37That might be over for Davison as well.
04:39That's the Ferrari driver.
04:40Thank goodness for that, Stuart.
04:42A big, big accident.
04:43And, you know, there's been a lot of talk about how these cars shouldn't be taking off.
04:48And we've seen a prime example there.
04:50The car, just the minute it got sideways, just took off the Toyota.
04:53And the primary example of that big fin on the back of the car you see nowadays
04:57is to keep the car down.
04:59And the Ferrari completely upside down there.
05:02So, massive hit.
05:02But what you did see is the tyre.
05:04The tyre will do its job.
05:05It absorbed a huge amount of impact from that Ferrari.
05:08And that would have probably saved him from serious injury.
05:10Liz, your thoughts?
05:11I mean, he genuinely did not see him.
05:14You can see it.
05:15It just wouldn't have happened if he had.
05:17We were talking about that.
05:18And you know what?
05:18We were talking about the light stacks, weren't we, of the Audis being so distinctive.
05:22But maybe, maybe.
05:23Do you know what?
05:23If I'd been in that prototype, I would have thought he'd seen me too, I think.
05:27But at the same time, they're pushing so hard, aren't they?
05:31The Toyotas are just pushing absolutely to the limit.
05:35It's a difficult situation.
05:36And I suppose why they were encouraging drivers to use indicators this year is to say, yes, I've seen you on moving over.
05:42But come on, we're racing.
05:43You can't use an indicator like you're on the road all the time.
05:46OK, we have a safety car.
05:48I just want to know that he's OK.
05:49Toyota is leading this race.
05:52An amazing battle between Lapierre and Trullier.
05:55You saw the difference of the different energy systems that were employed by the cars.
05:59The Toyota, quicker on the straight, was able to retake.
06:02Audi quicker in the curves as their four-wheel drive kicked in.
06:06And there he is.
06:06Pantini is all right.
06:08And thank heaven as well.
06:10So is Antti Davison.
06:11The leader at the moment is the seven car of the Toyota.
06:14Trullier is in the Audi in the one car.
06:18We have a safety car here.
06:19I can tell you that Fisichella has just come into the pits.
06:24The 51 car.
06:26The safety car is out.
06:28And we have had one heck of a five-minute stint.
06:32Mark Cole is about to rejoin us.
06:34And believe me, he takes over the helm after what has been a shocking few minutes here.
06:41Yes, time for us to gather ourselves.
06:43Time for the engineers to do some work.
06:45Thankfully, everyone is OK.
06:47And I think that's the main, main point here, Liz.
06:49Well, have they gotten Antti Davison out of the car yet?
06:52I don't think they have.
06:52Well, he was waving to say that he was OK.
06:54Yeah, he was holding his hand up.
06:55But we haven't actually seen him be removed from the car yet.
06:58Just an incredible, horrible crash, really.
07:02And like you said, Stuart, it's done an amazing job.
07:06Somebody, Stuart's just taken his headset off.
07:08An amazing job that they managed to hit the tire barrier.
07:12I mean, the tire barriers are there to do that.
07:14And thank goodness they hit those and not arm code.
07:17I can confidently say.
07:19Absolutely.
07:20Mark Cole just getting himself back into position.
07:22I'll be bidding you a fond farewell in just a few moments' time.
07:25Mark, an absolutely dramatic sequence of events here.
07:31We are behind the safety car.
07:33And, yes, it's going to take some time to get the retrieval going on here.
07:39But, goodness me, hold on to your hat.
07:41There is never a quiet moment at Le Mans, it seems.
07:44No, I mean, I just went across the way for a burger.
07:46And I did exactly what you said.
07:48I saw Roman Dumas' crash and I spilled the burger down my front.
07:51And then as I walked back up over here to the cabin,
07:53there's Antti Davidson doing an Alan McNish from last year.
07:57My goodness, how frightening that was.
08:00It almost seems we've had more flips in these cars since the fin has been installed,
08:04which I can't imagine is possible.
08:05I'm sure it's just been bad luck.
08:07But I didn't think this year that we would see the cars take flight like we saw last year.
08:14My goodness.
08:15The problem is there.
08:17Am I on?
08:18Yes, you are.
08:19The problem is there is whilst cars aren't designed not to take off,
08:26that car was more or less at terminal velocity.
08:29That car was doing 200 mile an hour when it took off.
08:34And, you know, it just lifted a little bit on the curb as well just to get some wind.
08:39Yeah, it did catch the curb, didn't it?
08:41When things like that happen, there's not much, you know, mechanical bits you can do to keep them down.
08:46And you can also see a prime example of how heavy the Toyota is and how heavy the Ferrari is.
08:50Look what damage to the arm code that each one has done.
08:53And the Ferrari's pushed it back a huge amount, whereas the Toyota's not done as much damage.
09:00And we know that Davidson's impact was probably quite a lot quicker than the Ferrari.
09:04I think you're right, though.
09:05I think that if he'd maybe just been on the flat and hit that car,
09:08he would have had probably a shunt into the first bit of Armco, actually, to the right of him.
09:12But instead, because he caught that bit of curb and he was going so fast,
09:15it just gave him that little bit more lift underneath the car, didn't it?
09:19Well, as you're aware, this morning in the Grip C race, there was a massive accident in that.
09:22And Mike Donovan hit the guardrails halfway down the Mulsanne Strait just after the kink.
09:27It took them 30 minutes to rebuild those guardrails, and it wasn't anything like as bad as this.
09:32And they can't continue under green until that's all rebuilt, Liz.
09:36No, no, no, certainly not, especially in that part of the circuit,
09:39because you enter it at extremely high speed.
09:41It's a very, very heavy braking zone.
09:43You can't take a risk like that.
09:45So on board, then, the number one car.
09:47That's Benoit Trullier's car, second at the moment.
09:49He is one minute behind Nick Lapierre and Toyota Leeds against all expectations.
09:56When Chris Parsons was on with us earlier, he said to us, you know,
09:59who would have put any money on Toyota being second and third in the race after three and a half hours?
10:04Well, here we are now, what, some five hours in, and Toyota's leading.
10:11Incredible.
10:11Well, it's such a shame, because this has just been an accident that was, well, bad luck, really, amongst anything else.
10:17And it could have been that they would have gone on for a very long time.
10:21We're here at Le Mans.
10:22It's been a huge accident between the Ferrari and the number eight Toyota.
10:25Stay with us for more information.
10:27We'll be back with you after these messages.
10:29Mark, could you say bye-bye for me?
10:37Welcome back to Le Mans.
10:38If you're just joining us, it's been tragedy for one of the Ferrari cars, the number 81, along with the number eight Toyota.
10:46Not out of the cars braking, but out of a tremendous accident that we saw in Tumulsong Corner.
10:52We're on safety car.
10:53We expect it to be a very, very long safety car indeed.
10:56There was a lot of damage to the tire wall, but thank goodness it did its job, and we think both drivers are okay.
11:02We know that the driver of the Ferrari is out, but we've not yet seen Anthony Davidson.
11:06We can just see here.
11:08I believe he's on the stretcher there, so we will wait to find out more information.
11:12But all drama here, Mark.
11:14Yeah, and huge damage to the barriers, as we saw, which, again, is a critical thing here at Le Mans,
11:18and they must get those barriers repaired.
11:21So, I've got the marker of doom in my hand so far.
11:24Only one car posted as an official retirement, which was the Golf Racing Middle East Lola, the number 29 car,
11:29but two more going up now.
11:32And another in the number 16, sadly, as we've just had lovely Stuart Hall back here with us.
11:37So, unfortunately, four cars now.
11:39Yeah, four cars out.
11:40And, I mean, this is all my fault.
11:42I go off for a break, go and try and find a burger stall.
11:45And what happens?
11:46I'm standing in front of the big screen, munching the chips, looking up.
11:49Roman Dumas goes off, and no sooner did I come back across the track than this happens.
11:53Jeremy, it's another frightening chapter in the Le Mans history.
11:57Yeah, that really was a very frightening accident, wasn't it?
12:00And how ironic that, I mean, moments after Nicola Lapierre took the lead in the number 7 Toyota,
12:07what, a mile farther back down the racetrack, there's a huge incident that befalls his teammate Anthony Davidson.
12:15Boy, I mean, that was just...
12:17Yeah, clearly, the gentleman driver there in the Ferrari just wasn't paying attention.
12:21I mean, the Toyota had come up behind him, was absolutely, completely alongside him.
12:27And it's a petrol-entry car, though.
12:29It's not a diesel.
12:30It makes a fair bit of noise.
12:31You'd have thought he would have heard it, Liz.
12:33I mean, I genuinely, I said earlier, I said if I had been in the prototype, I would have made that pass as well.
12:38And I would have expected the driver to have seen me.
12:40Oh, boy, yeah.
12:41You know, I do believe it was...
12:43I personally think the Ferrari was at fault.
12:46Oh, yeah.
12:46The Toyotas are pushing extremely hard.
12:48We're still in daylight.
12:49You can see them coming.
12:50You would know that was a Toyota coming if you'd looked in your mirror.
12:53And being in the slower car, I mean, they're substantially slower, that car,
12:57you would have actually hoped that he would have thought, right, this car's coming hot.
13:01Yeah.
13:01And I'm going to be aware of that.
13:03The car, the 81 car, was not really in contention in the Amclass at the moment.
13:07Yes, they're running their own race.
13:09But I would have liked to have seen him just sort of, just lift a little bit.
13:12That's the best way to deal with this, that situation, is you're entering a corner.
13:15Just lift a little and make sure the prototype can get by.
13:17It wouldn't have affected his race at all and would have avoided a tremendous accident.
13:21Yeah, I mean, that's a kink going into the Mulsanne corner.
13:24It's a kink that you can easily take, you know, two abreast through there.
13:28It's really not a problem.
13:29It is flat in the prototype.
13:30It certainly is flat in a prototype car.
13:32You brake just after it.
13:33I would imagine, though, in a GT car, you're braking, perhaps, probably, possibly just a little bit before it.
13:38It's either a brake or a lift.
13:39I've never driven a GT car here.
13:41But certainly, it's no problem there.
13:42I mean, you would have seen the car coming.
13:45You should have seen the car coming.
13:46And furthermore, you would have heard it.
13:47If it was an Audi, you might not have heard the thing.
13:50But with the Toyota, you should have heard it.
13:52And that was certainly an avoidable accident.
13:54I totally agree with you.
13:55Well, of course, the knock-on effect of all this is that gap that Nick Lapierre had managed to put over Benoit Trullier's Audi.
14:01About three yards.
14:03Yes.
14:03Because he'd overtaken it literally moments before.
14:06Yeah.
14:06Moments before.
14:07Yeah.
14:07So, that gap, all that work's been negated at the moment, unless he can stay ahead.
14:13Actually, the gap's probably extended now.
14:15It's our whole 1.3.
14:161.3.
14:17This, of course, is where Le Mans is unique.
14:19Three safety cars at this circuit.
14:21We have one up at the entrance to Dunlop, which is protected, of course.
14:25We have one between the two Mulsanne chicanes.
14:27And the third safety car is based at Arnage.
14:30And the big news, the number three Audi, it is back out.
14:33That has not been a long time at all.
14:35After the very big accident that Roman Dumas had, he was so fast to rip the bodywork off and get it back.
14:41And there it is.
14:42As we said, Audi has repaired that car in phenomenal time.
14:45And he's going out in safety car.
14:47Now, this could be good for him, or it could be bad in some ways.
14:51He may lose another lap if he catches the safety car at the wrong place.
14:54That is part of the problem with three safety cars at Le Mans.
14:57They're releasing them.
14:58That's good news.
14:59That's very good news.
15:00He's not gotten stuck.
15:01But Arnage lost, you know, what, four or five, amazing, he only lost five or six laps.
15:06But even so, yeah, whether you fall behind one pace car or another when he's that far back really doesn't make a factor.
15:11But the fact that the safety car is out means he loses a lot less time than he would have ever done.
15:15And what's lucky is the safety cars are just coming out.
15:17So they're still collecting the crocodiles, which is probably the best possible because they have just released him.
15:22So they give him a chance to catch up.
15:24I think Audi's got a secret caster on the bottom of that chassis just in case this happens.
15:28Amazing.
15:28Because that's a replay of what was it, 15, 20 minutes ago when Jumar was limping that car back to the pits.
15:34And that was a very strange sort of accident, wasn't it?
15:36Well, we've had a few people on Twitter actually say rightly so, and we don't know the answer to this yet, that perhaps he slipped on some oil coming out of the Porsche because the Porsche then subsequently crashed.
15:46So we don't know the answer to that.
15:48We've not spoken to anybody.
15:48I mean, you've got to point out, I was talking to Sebastian Buemi who had just got out after a quadruple stint in the Toyota.
15:55And he told me that, you know, if you get off line.
16:04I think they were saying there from the race control they were trying to get some footage.
16:08I thought that's what they said, but I'm not sure of what.
16:10It's very hard to hear from in the box, I'm afraid.
16:12But remember, we were saying if you get off line through the chicanes there, it really is very, very...
16:17It's all marbles, isn't it?
16:18It is.
16:19And particularly now, I mean, a lot of drivers have been saying it's really grippy.
16:23The track is in great shape.
16:25And particularly, you know, since they repaved it since last year, there's a lot of grip through there.
16:29But as soon as you get off line, there isn't a lot of grip.
16:32And I was actually watching the TV with Buemi and with Nakajima when that incident happened.
16:38Both are race leaders.
16:40One and two have just come in, but we've got it off under the safety car, one of the Aston Martins.
16:44Yeah, but both Lapierre and Trelia in the pits.
16:48So is Bonanomi.
16:49How has that happened?
16:51Hopefully we'll see it again.
16:54Trying to get the car going, rocking back and forwards.
16:56I can't see which car that is.
16:57Can you see?
16:58Anyway, Nakajima is going to take over the surviving Toyota, we're told, from Nick Lapierre.
17:06Who's done a quintuple stint, I think he's done in that car, Nick Lapierre.
17:12All, I think, four stints on one set of tyres.
17:17So remarkable what Nick Lapierre was able to do.
17:20And right at the very end of that stint was when he passed Trelia to take the lead.
17:25And I think we are going to actually get an interview with one of the Audi drivers.
17:29So hopefully we can answer a few more questions there.
17:31I mean, I agree with you, Jeremy.
17:34It's very, very marbly and sort of full of tyre pickup and everything off the line.
17:39And he would have had to brake a bit behind that car in a position that he wouldn't normally have.
17:44So it's difficult to say, but hopefully we can get some answers.
17:47And normally also through the tightest part of the chicane, even the GT cars are going, carrying a pretty good speed through that corner.
17:55So I think maybe, possibly conjecturing here, that maybe Jumau was just surprised.
18:02He misjudged it as a bottom line.
18:04And he got too close there.
18:05And he had to jink out to the ride to try and go around him.
18:07And then he thought, uh-oh, I'm in trouble here.
18:09I'm going with Jeremy on this as well.
18:11It's very hard to say, really.
18:12He was, the Porsche's on the apex.
18:14He was way wide.
18:15It was on the marbles.
18:16Incidentally, Marc Genet has taken over that number three Audi.
18:20It's in 24th place it's rejoined.
18:22So he's lost a bundle of laps, of course.
18:24But they're still running.
18:26That's the important thing.
18:26That's phenomenal to get them back.
18:27They're still on the first page, even.
18:29Yeah, yeah.
18:29That's incredible.
18:30That's something else, isn't it?
18:31So, as we know, it's Nakajima going out when they are released to join one of the three safety car trains.
18:38Going around the circuit, 13 and a half kilometres.
18:41You cannot have just one safety car or even two like they have at Spa.
18:45They always have three here.
18:46At Le Mans.
18:47It's just too big a track, really.
18:48They couldn't possibly catch everyone and keep them organised safely with only just two.
18:53I don't disagree with you on that.
18:56What I would like to see, however, is an amalgamation behind one pace car before they go back to green.
19:02I agree.
19:03That's a rant I have every single year.
19:05And I thought, I can't not have it.
19:07The ALMS wave buy, which is the proper way to do it, of course.
19:11Right, now the number three car just left the pits.
19:14Can you explain to me what happened and what did you have to repair?
19:17Yeah, Romain lost.
19:21We had a GT car in front, went a little bit on the offline of the first chicane and was very, very slippery there.
19:26Obviously, another car had lost oil there earlier and crashed and destroyed the front ride suspension, the floor, bodywork and the whole front.
19:38And, yeah, we came in and had to repair it.
19:41And, unfortunately, it was not easy to get the damaged rest of the front suspension of the monocoque.
19:47So, that took a while longer than it should.
19:50But, now the car is back out and should be in a good state again, hopefully.
19:55You have very determined drivers, as we just saw.
19:57I mean, he took the car apart to bring it home.
20:00Yeah, I was amazed.
20:01He developed quite some courses.
20:04But, that's what we tell them.
20:05They have to get the car back somehow.
20:07And, he didn't lose a lot of time there.
20:09It was a good job.
20:10Thank you very much.
20:10So, you feel me there, team manager of yours.
20:12The two things that, to my mind, jump out from that incident.
20:15One, the tub amazingly wasn't damaged.
20:17But, two, there was more damage because those towers were backed by a concrete wall, not by Armco.
20:22Oh, yes.
20:23No, absolutely.
20:23Yeah, because he probably wasn't going a huge amount of speed when he hit that because he went through a lot of gravel to get through it.
20:29It was a fair bit of speed.
20:30But, he didn't completely bounce off the barrier, as we saw, thankfully, in the big accident, that it was all tyre, which was very good news.
20:38Yeah, and to get that car back out onto the track in just eight laps lost, I think, is absolutely quite remarkable.
20:45You're with Eurosport watching the 80th 24 Hours of Le Mans.
20:48We'll be back momentarily.
20:49Welcome back to Eurosport live here at Le Mans.
21:01It is, at the moment here, 8.30 in the evening.
21:04We have still got 18 and a half hours of racing left.
21:08But, we are neutralized at the moment because of a massive accident, if you're just joining us.
21:12Anthony Davids went flying in the Toyota after colliding with a Ferrari, one of the 81 cars, of course, Ferraris, the AM car.
21:22And, they've both piled into one of the chicane walls head-on.
21:26Huge accidents.
21:28And, as far as we know at the moment, Anthony is fine.
21:31They have sent an ambulance out for him, but hopefully nothing worse than a checkover like Alan McNish and Mike Rockenfella had to have last year.
21:38So, Marcel Fassler has jumped Nakajima during that last pit stop.
21:46They got out quicker, got in the chain to rejoin the track, and Dindo Capello in third place at the moment.
21:53But, still some interesting moves down in P2.
21:56We've got the Morgan Pescarolas of Oak Racing lying first and second at the moment.
22:01And, essentially, the 35 car is the one that's powered by Nissan, which is a good thing because Darren Cox from Nissan Motorsport has just come to join us.
22:09And, Darren, this must warm your heart.
22:12Well, indeed it does.
22:14It's good to see one of our cars at the top.
22:16There's lots of them.
22:17There's lots of Nissan engines there.
22:18We've got, at the start of the race, we had 13 of the 20 LMB2 cars at Nissan Power.
22:24So, we were hoping and actually predicting that we would win the class.
22:29It's obvious.
22:30It's a long, long way to go.
22:32And, we've got strength in depth here.
22:33So, on board that 35 car at the moment, it's Hanson Heinemere, who's the Dane who works in Chicago, of course, and New York and Chicago.
22:43He's a web creator, isn't he?
22:46Oh, this is a game.
22:48Liz, we're under safety cars and people are still going off.
22:52Oh, my goodness.
22:53We saw, a minute ago, we saw a Ferrari off in the gravel and now the number 31 car.
22:58I don't know if he was trying to catch a crocodile, but surely it's all been caught up by now.
23:03And, it's just ridiculous to have faults under safety car.
23:06What does happen sometimes is once you're under safety car, that sort of adrenaline and your complete focus shuts off a little bit.
23:11And, I've seen many drivers actually spin cars or have a lockup on the brakes, various things like that,
23:16because you're thinking about other things, talking to the team, sort of rejuvenating yourself, I guess,
23:21and you suddenly realise that you're still on a racetrack.
23:25Yeah, and this, of course, is one of the Lotus Racing, German Lotus Racing teams, run by Dr. Colin Collis and his son Romulus.
23:33And, four Lotus-branded cars in the race, Darren, and not one of them has a Nissan engine.
23:38You've missed out there.
23:38Well, we like our own branding on the car.
23:42And, we also like to have our own technology.
23:44I'm not too sure how much of Lotus is in those stickers.
23:49Only the actual sticker, I'm told.
23:52I think everyone's well aware it's a branding exercise, in much the same way as Morgan have put their name on the cars.
23:58And, in the same way, of course, that we have all the golf cars there.
24:02It's a marketing thing, isn't it?
24:04But, from your point of view, this is a fantastic race for Nissan this year, especially with the Delta, which the crowd love.
24:09I've been on the other side.
24:10People say, wow, that Delta, how's it going?
24:13You know, they love it.
24:14Oh, it's incredible, the reaction we've had from the fans here.
24:16And, you know, we tend to forget, those of us in the Paddock and Pits, that there's 240,000 people out there enjoying themselves.
24:22And, you know, we've tried to bring something to the race, not only in the Nissan Deltawing, but also what we're doing around the circuit.
24:29And, those of you that are visiting or you're here, there's lots of stuff going on, and it'll get even crazier out there this evening.
24:36But, as you say, you know, we're very happy with how it's going.
24:39Having all those cars with the Nissan engines in is great for us.
24:43And, we're bringing our customers along here to enjoy the moment.
24:47Right, now, we're just looking at shots of what's happened earlier while we're behind the safety car.
24:51Can you just fill us in what's happening with the Brundles?
24:53The car has tumbled down the order a bit.
24:55Yes, they were going very well.
24:56They were sticking to a very clear plan.
24:59They said they weren't the fastest over a lap.
25:02We saw that in qualifying.
25:04But, certainly, during the race, they had a plan.
25:07You saw last year, Creeds Motorsport didn't start leading the class until hour 10.
25:12So, they were very confident that they would move up the order.
25:15Unfortunately, they had a slight issue with an alternator, which was fixed very, very quickly.
25:19But, I think they lost a couple of laps.
25:21So, they've got a bit of a fight back to get back to the front, hopefully.
25:26I mean, this is obviously that car's leading, Peter, at the moment.
25:30The racing stroke Pescarola car is a bit of a Nissan engine.
25:34But, your manufacturer of choice appears to be a raker this year.
25:37So, that's the chassis that the Nissan really seems to work in so well.
25:41Well, what's interesting in an MP2, obviously, it's a privateer category.
25:44And, the privateers choose what they think is the best chassis and engine package.
25:49And, then, try to find the best drivers.
25:51And, obviously, as you say, the Orica, very, very successful.
25:54Most of those Oricas have got Nissans in them.
25:56But, also, the two Zytecs have got Nissans in them as well.
25:58So, again, you know, 13 out of 20 team owners can't be wrong, can they?
26:03Absolutely.
26:04Haruki Kurasara, of course, on board.
26:06One of those Zytec-engined, sorry, Nissan Zytec-engined Zytecs.
26:10Why don't you own the chassis as well?
26:12You can have the engines, have the chassis.
26:14But, again, you know, what we're happy about is we've got our technology out there
26:18and people are choosing to buy it.
26:19And, that's great.
26:20And, what we then do, that's all very well.
26:22And, we're very happy that people do that.
26:24But, of course, the fans out there want stories.
26:26So, we've got a couple of great stories in LMP2 of the driver lineups.
26:29Yep, that's excellent.
26:31Tell us a little bit about the GT Academy boys.
26:33I know we've talked a lot about them.
26:35And, they're both out still running, as far as I know, unless I've missed a trick.
26:38But, I think some of the listeners would probably like to know
26:41how they've been so lucky to end up here at Le Mans in a prototype car
26:45and what they can do to head down that path themselves.
26:48Well, Liz, actually, it's great to have you here
26:49because, of course, you were involved in the first American GT Academy last year.
26:54And, you know, you've got a great winner in Brian that came through.
26:57But, we've got two of our winners, the first two European winners,
27:00Lucas Ordonez and Jordan Tresson.
27:02And, if nobody's heard about this story, it's very, very simple, actually,
27:06which all great ideas are, of course,
27:08which is take a gamer and make him into a racing driver.
27:13And, it's easy to say and easy to think of.
27:15Making it happen, obviously, is very, very difficult.
27:17And, someone said to me the other day, you know,
27:19it's obvious that you'd put a PlayStation game and make him into a racing driver.
27:22But, the only way that you've done it is that you've proved it.
27:25Nissan and PlayStation have done it, which means it's obvious now.
27:28People would say, well, why wouldn't you?
27:29But, I can assure you at the beginning, you know,
27:31five years ago when we started talking about this,
27:33everybody thought we were completely crazy.
27:35And, I think we've proved them wrong
27:37when we got Lucas on the podium last year at Le Mans
27:39with a great second place.
27:41The first time he'd been here,
27:42and only six months after driving a prototype.
27:44And, he was very impressive.
27:45I remember watching the Times last year.
27:47And, of course, now it's going global, isn't it?
27:50It's really taking off in a lot of other countries.
27:52And, how can the people at home are sitting there saying,
27:54hey, I'm really fast on the PlayStation.
27:55How can I have a go?
27:57Well, there's actually a million of them at the moment
27:59competing to try and get through to the second stage of the competition.
28:05We've got competitions at the moment in the U.S., as we mentioned.
28:09We've got a first competition, which is fantastic for us, to go to Russia.
28:13So, we'll have a Russian winner this year.
28:15We've got the usual European programme,
28:17but also Germany are doing their own standalone version,
28:19I guess because they haven't won so far.
28:21They thought they'd have their own version,
28:22so they can guarantee a winner.
28:23So, we're going to have four winners this year
28:25that we're going to take forward.
28:26We've already got four winners at the GT Academy,
28:28so it just keeps growing and growing.
28:31And, it's great to see these guys coming through the ranks,
28:33not only here at Le Mans,
28:34but we've got a guy called Jan Mardenbre,
28:36for those guys that are watching us in the U.K.,
28:39who's six months ago, well, maybe eight months ago now,
28:42had never been to a race circuit.
28:44And, this year, he's doing two championships.
28:47He's doing the Blancpain Endurance Championship
28:48and the British GT Championship in a GTR GT3 Nismo Nissan.
28:54I think most people out there would love to have a go at that,
28:56and it's very simple.
28:58Download the free GT Academy download on your PlayStation.
29:02You don't have to buy anything else if you own a PlayStation 3,
29:05and get driving.
29:06And, you start at the beginning, as everybody does in motor racing,
29:10and you start driving slowly to make sure you clip your corners
29:12and get your braking right.
29:13And, progressively, the challenges get harder and harder
29:16until, in the end, we find ten winners for each country.
29:19It varies.
29:20And, then they go through to a physical challenge,
29:23doing driving in their real Nissans.
29:26Well, I think we're going to have a whole host of people
29:28switch off Eurosport now and turn on their PlayStation
29:30and start playing.
29:30Well, you could do both, can't you?
29:31Yeah, exactly.
29:32I'm not going to put you on the spot,
29:33but, Nissan Motor Company in Japan,
29:36I mean, they obviously view all this with great interest
29:39because you're promoting the brand globally this way,
29:42and you're responsible for the UK and Europe, I guess.
29:45I'm responsible for Europe, yeah.
29:47Yeah, for Europe.
29:48Now, back in the 89, 90,
29:50I was motorsport press officer for Nissan
29:52when they ran the Group C programme.
29:54And, to be frank, in those days, it was a struggle.
29:56The Japanese would want you to say something different
29:59to what actually happened.
30:01And, Nissan would come in with a hole in the block.
30:02They'd say, oh, electrical problem.
30:04It wasn't just Nissan.
30:05It was Toyota as well.
30:06It was Mazda.
30:07That, we noticed this change completely.
30:10You haven't had so many problems, of course,
30:12but Toyota, they put a hole in the block on Thursday night.
30:15They immediately said, we've got a hole in the block.
30:17You know, there's been a problem.
30:18That has been a big change, hasn't it?
30:20I was just going to interrupt and say,
30:22we've just heard from the race director,
30:23for those of you that didn't hear,
30:25that Anthony Davidson is just at the medical centre.
30:27He's not going to hospital.
30:28He's just being looked over at the medical centre.
30:29So, that's really good news.
30:30I know a lot of people were interested to hear his progress.
30:33Sorry to interrupt.
30:33That's absolutely brilliant news.
30:35I think we're all really waiting for that news, so that's great.
30:37So, what I'm saying is we're given more of a free hand now,
30:40aren't you, to tell things as they are?
30:43Well, I think, you know, Carlos Ghosn, our CEO,
30:46made a very good speech a few months ago,
30:48and he said Japan as a nation is very, very good
30:51at what's called in Japanese monozakuri,
30:54which is manufacturing and engineering,
30:56but we don't tell stories.
30:57And there's a Japanese word, which is kotuzakuri,
31:00and we need to tell more stories, and that's all we're doing.
31:03We're telling stories about our engineering
31:04and the way that our company works,
31:06and we're a very, very innovative brand,
31:07and we do exciting things,
31:09but in the past, we haven't told those stories well enough.
31:11It was interesting to hear you say about, you know,
31:13being the press officer there.
31:14And I think, you know, the GT Academy story
31:16that we just mentioned there,
31:18and the Deltawing story,
31:19which, as it comes past the commentary point,
31:21still looks as if it shouldn't go around corners,
31:23but I have seen it going around corners out there.
31:26But it's just us telling stories
31:28in an interesting way about our technology.
31:30Yeah, and I mean, that's what it's all about.
31:32At the end of the day, you want to sell cars to customers,
31:35and so customers need to know
31:36that they're being told the truth about English,
31:38which you do, which is excellent.
31:40We've had a couple of questions about the Delta.
31:42A lot of people think it's one of your V8s from Super GT.
31:45Of course, we're having to tell them on air.
31:46No, it's not.
31:47It's actually, the end block is based on your humble Nissan Cube.
31:51That's the second time you said that.
31:53It's the Duke.
31:54The Nissan Duke.
31:54I'm just testing you.
31:55You said you were trying to forget about the Cube.
31:58Oh, my.
32:00It's a 1.6-litre engine from the Duke, isn't it,
32:03which is becoming a very big-selling car in Britain and Europe.
32:07Well, it's been a fantastic success.
32:09You know, we had the Nissan Qashqai before that,
32:11which is selling a quarter of a million units
32:13across the whole of Europe.
32:15Again, people said we were crazy to take Golf on head-to-head,
32:18and in a lot of markets we're selling outside of the fleet area.
32:22We're selling a lot of cash guys, more cash guys than we are selling,
32:26than VW selling golfs, for example.
32:28No one thought that would be the case.
32:29Then we came along with this car that everyone said looks crazy.
32:34If there is any news, we will let you know.
32:37We built this car, which looked crazy.
32:42Everyone thought it was still a concept car.
32:44That was the production car.
32:45We brought it out.
32:46And as you mentioned, one of the drive options is a 1.6 direct-injection turbo engine,
32:51and that's pretty much the engine that's in the back of the Delta wing.
32:54You know, we've got cars out there that are 5 litres.
32:56We've got diesels.
32:57We've got hybrids.
32:58We've got a lot of, you know, different pieces of technology that's going on out there.
33:04But for us, the way that the manufacturers are going is lightweight and small petrol engines,
33:11and that's what we've got in the back of the car.
33:14And, you know, that really is making technology that's on the racetrack relevant to what's going on in the road.
33:19And something else we're doing, I said we're trying to do as much as we can for the fans out there,
33:23because if it wasn't for them, none of us would be here.
33:25We've actually launched the first time.
33:27I was talking to our head.
33:29We've got all the Japanese guys over here and the heads of Japan are here.
33:32It's the first time ever that we've launched a car at a race meeting.
33:35We've done that in the village for the fans with the Nissan Duke Nismo.
33:40It's a worldwide first.
33:42That car is on the stand.
33:43It's not at the Geneva Motor Show.
33:44It's not at the Tokyo Motor Show behind the barrier.
33:46It's on the stand.
33:47And you can go up and touch it next to all the other Nismo products.
33:49I think that says it all about what you think about Le Mans.
33:52And can we just say thank you also to Lindsay Mould, your press officer.
33:55She's done a fantastic job this weekend, as always, and made all the drivers accessible.
33:59We're getting plenty of information.
34:01So thank you to Lindsay and to you, Darren.
34:03Well, that's what it's all about, is making the sport accessible to more people, to the fans.
34:07Good.
34:07Brilliant.
34:08Well, thank you very much.
34:09And we look forward to seeing how the result comes out for you.
34:12I just hope the Delta keeps going round.
34:14We do.
34:14Everybody hopes for that, so fingers crossed.
34:18And I think we're going to switch to Eurosport 2.
34:21At home, you may need to switch channels from 1 to 2 or 2 to 1,
34:24because we're just going to switch channels.
34:25Other sports are coming on whichever channel you're watching at the moment.
34:28Welcome back to Eurosport live here at Le Mans.
34:49Sun, evening, fast approaching.
34:52Well, evening's here, of course, but dusk will be approaching us soon.
34:5410 o'clock, it'll start to get dark here, and then there'll be that sort of gloaming for an hour or so before it gets really dark.
35:00Shortest night of the year in motor racing.
35:02And as we go into lap 87, under safety car still, good news coming from the medical centre at the circuit,
35:10that Anthony Davidson, who had a huge crash in the number 8 Toyota, is in the medical centre.
35:17They're not going to take him to hospital.
35:19There's no injury, but he's obviously...
35:21Well, we don't know yet.
35:22All they've said, they've said all they know is that he's conscious and he is speaking.
35:26Right, but there's...
35:26They do not know yet if he has any other injuries, but at the moment, they're not sending him.
35:30Yep.
35:31And I think we're going to actually see that crash again in a minute for you.
35:34If you haven't seen it yet, you better be sitting down.
35:38And Jeremy Shaw's back with us, so thank you.
35:42Yeah, good to be back.
35:43Yeah, it's...
35:44It was a while showing that anything happened, because the rest really was heating up.
35:50In all sorts of ways.
35:55So we're still under safety car, and this is going to go on for a long time while they rebuild the barriers.
36:01We're just having a look back at what happened.
36:03It was one of those incidents going into Mulsanne Corner,
36:06but a huge impact for both cars, and the Ferrari, Jeremy, finishing on its roof.
36:10Yeah, and both cars there hit the barriers at an enormous speed.
36:15I mean, the Toyota scrubbed off hardly any speed at all.
36:18The aerodynamic drag of flying upside down, but then, you know, look at this again.
36:25You can see the Ferrari just turns in Davidson, committed to the corner,
36:29and it would have taken Nancy Davidson completely by surprise.
36:33Yeah, and you can imagine, you can understand the anguish of the crews there.
36:39This is their baby, this car, under Pascal Vassero.
36:41And just amazing that, I mean, literally moments he was after the sister car of Nicola LaPierre at the time
36:51had taken the lead from the number one Audi.
36:54Absolutely amazing happenings here at Lamont.
36:57And I think we're about to have an interview, actually, from the Ferrari driver, Peranzini,
37:00and hopefully he can shed some light on his side.
37:04And we're going to head down to the pits now to speak with him.
37:07I really hope we can get a few more answers from his side of the story.
37:14Crash, you seem to be okay.
37:16Did you already spoke with Anthony?
37:18No, I don't spoke with Anthony, because he was in the car,
37:22and I went and boxed with the ambulance, but I think he stayed well.
37:31It's a crash, incredible, because I think that he was trying to overtake me.
37:37But it was very fast, and I was in my directory.
37:41I think it's an accident of a race.
37:44I cannot think that it's a responsibility, my or of him.
37:48You're a sport, I haven't finished yet.
37:50You didn't see him on your mirror?
37:54Please?
37:54You didn't see him before?
37:56Yes, I saw.
37:57But it's impossible to know the distance, the rear.
38:01I saw, but he was near to the corner.
38:04It's impossible to break, to overtake in this point.
38:12You think to differ, I guess, do you?
38:14No, I mean, my feeling is...
38:16My feeling is that he's an inexperienced driver with Le Mans, and he made a mistake.
38:22That's what I think.
38:23Honestly, everyone can agree with me or not.
38:25I've been a driver in both that class and also in the LMP class,
38:29and when you see a car coming that fast and you're entering that corner,
38:33it isn't that hard to just lift a little and let them get past you.
38:36And there was more than enough room for him to let him get by if he just lifted and slowed down a bit more.
38:40I feel he made a mistake, and he misjudged how fast the car was coming.
38:43In pitch a second.
38:44He may be an AM driver, but he's not a rookie.
38:46He was last year's LMS GT vice champion,
38:49and of course, he won the Dubai 24 hours, took 12 hours this year,
38:53was second in it last year.
38:54So he's had a lot of experience.
38:55He's been here twice before.
38:56So, no, a huge amount of experience, really,
39:00and not the sort of action you'd expect him to be involved in.
39:04Has he been here recently?
39:07Yeah, in the last two years.
39:09That's my fault then, but I still feel it's his fault.
39:11I really do.
39:12He was a very, of course, last year, and he's with Racing Box Lola,
39:15the other sad thing about this, Matt Griffin, of course, is now out of a drive.
39:20Which is a real shame, because Matt is first Le Mans here,
39:22and such an experienced talented driver.
39:24He was so excited to do Le Mans, really is a shame.
39:27And so too is Nicky Kadai, who, of course, won the GT Open last year,
39:31had a massive win there, and a really, really quick Ferrari drive.
39:35I think we'll see a lot more of Nicky Kadai.
39:37Yeah, I mean, I'm very surprised by that.
39:39If he's going to be a more experienced Le Mans driver,
39:41I'm very, very surprised.
39:43Well, Bluyven, give us the news.
39:45How is Anthony doing?
39:47It's okay.
39:48We say he's brought into the medical center.
39:51He can walk, he can talk.
39:53He will be brought to the hospital to refer the checks,
39:56but we are happy that no severe injuries at the present moment.
39:59We can say his brother is with him,
40:01so we think everything will come out fine.
40:03What happened to him when he was on the car?
40:05Do you know?
40:06When he was lying on the side of the car?
40:08Yes, he was complaining about some pain in his back.
40:11So for security reasons or safety reasons,
40:13they put him just on the floor,
40:15so that no movements could do more harm,
40:17in case there were any.
40:18So at the present moment,
40:19it seems to be under control,
40:20and thank God we're happy.
40:22Thank you very much.
40:23That's John Litchens, I think,
40:24the project leader is an option.
40:25Rob Lupin, I think.
40:26Was this Rob, is it?
40:27Okay.
40:27And again, like we saw last year,
40:30a real testament to the design of these cars,
40:32so I applaud Toyota for building something
40:34that has looked after their driver
40:36and kept him safe in such a horrific accident.
40:38I agree.
40:38That was a very, very heavy impact,
40:40a huge speed.
40:41He would have been going flat out through that kink,
40:44and like I say,
40:45it scrubbed off very little speed.
40:46He probably hit the barriers
40:47at 170 or 18 miles an hour.
40:49Oh, I'd be interested to see the G-traces on that.
40:51Yeah, it must have been spectacular.
40:53And straight into it, isn't it?
40:54Let's just give some shout
40:57for all the ACO workers here.
40:58They're doing a great job today.
41:00Yeah.
41:00Big job this morning rebuilding barriers
41:02down at the Milsang King,
41:03and now having to build them,
41:04rebuild an Milsang corner.
41:05And this race doesn't run without them, really.
41:07It's not possible.
41:08And of course, all the marshals
41:09who everyone reminds us
41:10come from all over the world
41:12and a huge number here from Britain.
41:14A lot from France, Germany, America,
41:16they come over.
41:17I mean, it's a race
41:17everyone wants to go to.
41:19And over the years,
41:20it's sort of worked out, hasn't it,
41:21that you've got little cliques
41:24where the same marshals
41:25from the same country
41:26go year after year now.
41:28Yeah, and I actually,
41:28I know a couple of them
41:29that go to everything,
41:30and I've become quite good friends with them.
41:32I've got a Dutch marshal
41:33that comes to see me
41:34at loads of different races,
41:35and he always works Le Mans
41:36and works Petit Le Mans.
41:37He absolutely loves it.
41:38He helped me out at Spa
41:40many, many years ago
41:41in the 24-hour
41:42and the early hours of the morning,
41:43and he still is out,
41:45you know, he's got his friends there,
41:46and I just think it's amazing,
41:47and I so respect what they do,
41:49and truly the sport
41:50doesn't work without them,
41:51and I love that most of the drivers
41:54take a minute to thank them as well,
41:56and please, please, you know,
41:57remember any of you out there
41:58that are racing,
41:59when you finish your race,
42:00make sure you give them all a wave
42:01because they work really hard.
42:02Yeah, absolutely right,
42:04and we couldn't do it without them,
42:06as you say.
42:06So, still under the safety car period,
42:09Marcel Fassler leading
42:10one of those three chains
42:12from Kenjo Nakajima,
42:13Dindo Capello in fourth,
42:15Olly Jarvis in fifth,
42:16and Nico Pross,
42:17best of the private-year petrol runners
42:18there in fifth place.
42:21Another guest of us, Jeremy.
42:23Yeah, indeed, Mark Gallagher
42:24has joined us from the Stadis Grand Prix.
42:27Mark has been around the sport
42:28a long, long time
42:29from all sorts of different angles.
42:31Last couple of years,
42:32you were Cosmos for a little while,
42:33lately and now concentrating
42:36pretty much full-time,
42:37I presume,
42:37on Stadis Grand Prix.
42:39Well, actually,
42:39we founded the team in 2005
42:41when I, as you probably remember,
42:43I was at Jordan Grand Prix
42:45for many years,
42:4610 years at Jordan,
42:47and we started the team in 2005.
42:49We did A1GP for four seasons.
42:51We won the A1GP Championship
42:53in 2009,
42:54but we've always had a hankering
42:56after sports car racing,
42:57and with my partners being
43:00David Kennedy, of course,
43:02very well known
43:02to sports car fans
43:04from his long history
43:06here at Le Mans with Mazda,
43:08and indeed our other partner,
43:09Teddy Ipp Jr.
43:11It was kind of a no-brainer
43:12that we decided to move the team
43:13up into LNP sports car racing
43:15this year,
43:16and we're enjoying it.
43:18And there's a long-term plan here, Mark.
43:21I mean, you're running
43:21in one car now.
43:23You're running in the
43:25fourth European season over here.
43:27And then long-term?
43:29Well, long-term,
43:30we would like to compete
43:31in the World Endurance Championship,
43:33and that's really what
43:34created the interest
43:36from us during the winter.
43:37We saw the World Endurance Championship
43:39coming along.
43:40We were very interested
43:41to compete at world level.
43:42That's really what appealed
43:43about A1GP
43:44when we competed in it.
43:45We liked competing
43:46in world championships
43:47and really decided, therefore,
43:50to start off slowly
43:51with the European Le Mans series.
43:53And then we were given
43:54a late entry
43:54to the Le Mans 24 hours,
43:56and we found ourselves
43:57here this weekend.
43:58And it's...
43:58What a terrific experience
44:00for the team.
44:00We're really enjoying it.
44:01And his first time here
44:02for Teddy Ipp Jr.
44:03as well.
44:03He's been to every other
44:05major race in the world,
44:06but never been here before.
44:07No, he hasn't been here before.
44:09And very keen to see
44:10how the team does this weekend.
44:12Enjoying it so far.
44:13We're speaking with Mark Gallagher
44:16of the Status Grand Prix.
44:17We'll be back in a moment.
44:21Welcome back to Eurosport.
44:23Jeremy Shaw with Mark Cole
44:24and joined by Mark Gallagher
44:25from Status Grand Prix.
44:27The repairs are still underway
44:29at Morsan Corner.
44:30We're hearing that the estimated time
44:33that we can go back
44:34to Green Flag Racing
44:35is about 9.15 local time,
44:38so that's about 25 minutes from now.
44:41We've been under a red flag
44:43or under caution
44:44for the best part of an hour,
44:46I think it probably is now.
44:48It was a bit before 8 o'clock
44:49when the accident happened.
44:51Very scary incident it was indeed,
44:53but good to know
44:54that Anthony Davidson is OK.
44:56The car, however, is not.
44:58Back with Mark Gallagher.
44:59Mark, Status Grand Prix,
45:01you're running here
45:01in the LMP2 class, of course,
45:03also running in GP3.
45:06Any other strings to add to the boat
45:07in the upcoming seasons?
45:09Not yet.
45:10That's, I think, quite enough
45:11competing in single-seaters,
45:12and we had a good run in GP3
45:14two weeks ago in Monaco.
45:15We won the support race there,
45:17which was a good experience,
45:18so nice to come from Monaco
45:19here to such an iconic event
45:21like Le Mans 24 Hours.
45:23And, you know,
45:24so far for us this weekend,
45:26Romain Ionetta,
45:27who's currently driving the car,
45:28of course has raced here before.
45:30Our two other drivers,
45:31Jelmer Berman from Holland
45:32and Alexander Sims,
45:34this is the first time
45:35for them in Le Mans,
45:36so a big learning experience
45:38for them,
45:38but very capable drivers,
45:40very quick,
45:40very fast indeed,
45:41and, you know,
45:42we're hopeful of a good run
45:44so long as we can have
45:45the reliability.
45:46Was it a puncture or something
45:47in the very early stages of the race?
45:49Jelmer Berman started the race for us
45:51and he pitted after 15 minutes,
45:53a very early unscheduled pit stop,
45:55and really he was reporting
45:57pick-up on the rear tyres.
45:58It looked like possibly a slow puncture,
46:02but actually when we got the car back,
46:04really we could see
46:04it was a tyre pressure issue,
46:06and it was getting the tyres
46:07up to temperature,
46:08and I think that was,
46:09that's possibly an indication
46:10of a little bit of an experience
46:11on our team side
46:12for whatever reason,
46:14but as soon as he got on
46:16to a fresh set of tyres,
46:17the times came tumbling down,
46:19and he then tripled stinted
46:20before handing over
46:21to Alexander Sims.
46:22So, you know,
46:23the guys have been doing good times.
46:25Unfortunately,
46:25we've dropped a little bit behind,
46:27but, you know,
46:28we're kind of up into the top 20 now
46:30in the front half
46:31of the L&P 2 field.
46:32Yeah, I think you're running
46:3211th in the class right now,
46:34and you've fallen back
46:34to the 15th or 16th
46:35before there is
46:36so competitive this class.
46:39I mean,
46:39there's nothing to choose
46:40between probably
46:41at least a dozen cars, Mark.
46:43No, that's right.
46:44It's one of the things
46:44that really struck us
46:45during practice and qualifying here
46:47was just how close
46:48the field really is.
46:49Very competitive indeed,
46:50but, of course,
46:51different chassis,
46:52different engine combinations.
46:53We're running the Judd engine,
46:55which is, of course,
46:55based on the BMW M3 engine,
46:58but very close indeed,
46:59very competitive,
47:00and it really does show
47:01that, you know,
47:02for endurance racing
47:03at this level,
47:04literally, you know,
47:05it's split seconds.
47:06You've got this
47:07330,000 euro price cap.
47:09You had the choice
47:10between a Rayconissan Lola Judd.
47:11Why did you go for the Lola?
47:13Well, we went for the Lola
47:13for lots of reasons.
47:14We'd had a long-standing
47:15relationship with Lola
47:17as a company
47:18and indeed good
47:19personal relationships there,
47:20and, of course,
47:20we, of course,
47:21now know Lola
47:22having troubles
47:23in recent months,
47:25but we knew
47:26that the Lola Coupe LMP1 car
47:28had had a lot
47:29of aero development on it.
47:30We knew that
47:31that aero development
47:32had also been utilised
47:34in the cost cap LMP2 car.
47:37Effectively,
47:37they share
47:38a lot of common components,
47:39so aerodynamically
47:40it was a good car,
47:41and in the opening round
47:42of the European Le Mans series,
47:43we were very quick.
47:44We qualified
47:45on the front row of the grid.
47:46The car was very quick
47:47in a straight line.
47:48Unfortunately,
47:48we're not seeing that here
47:49this weekend at Le Mans,
47:50and that's one of the things
47:51that's causing us
47:53a little bit of head scratching.
47:55Yeah,
47:55but there's not much to choose,
47:57is there,
47:57between so many cars here,
47:59and Alexander Sims,
48:01his first time
48:02in a sports car.
48:04Yelma Berman's done
48:05a fair bit of GT racing,
48:06but for Alexander,
48:07this is something
48:07completely different.
48:09Yeah,
48:09well,
48:09as you say,
48:10Yelma Berman,
48:10in fact,
48:11took the lead
48:11in the GT World Championship
48:12last Sunday,
48:13so he's a very happy guy
48:15coming here.
48:16I think Alexander,
48:17you know,
48:17what's great about this weekend
48:19is today we spoke to Alexander
48:21on the grid
48:21just before the start
48:22of the race,
48:23and he was asked by somebody,
48:24you know,
48:24as a young guy
48:25in his early 20s
48:26who was previously
48:27on a single-seater
48:28kind of career,
48:29he'd raced for us
48:30in GP3,
48:31coming into endurance racing
48:32in a sports prototype,
48:34he was asked
48:34what he thought of it.
48:35He said he just cannot believe
48:37how wonderful it is to drive,
48:38the cars are great to drive,
48:39you cannot believe
48:40the atmosphere here
48:41in Le Mans this weekend,
48:42he'd never been here before,
48:44and, you know,
48:45I think this is,
48:45you know,
48:45it's a great advertisement
48:46for endurance sports car racing
48:48when these young drivers
48:49come in
48:50and really find
48:51what a great challenge it is.
48:52I think that's a great point.
48:53People like Brendan Hartley
48:54as well,
48:55you know,
48:55he's only 22,
48:57I think.
48:57And I heard you talking
48:59about, you know,
49:00the sad event there
49:01this evening
49:01with Matt Griffin
49:02no longer able to compete.
49:04You know,
49:04drivers like Matt Griffin
49:05as well coming into GT racing
49:06competing here.
49:08There's a bunch of new talent
49:09and realising
49:10there's a big future
49:11for sports car racing
49:12as there always has been,
49:14but I think particularly
49:14at the moment
49:15there's a lot of,
49:16you know,
49:16a lot of single-seater categories
49:18that are difficult
49:18to raise finance for.
49:20I have to say,
49:20we as a team
49:21are finding endurance
49:22sports car racing
49:23very appealing to drivers.
49:24Lots of drivers
49:25want to come into it.
49:2740 rookies here
49:28out of 156 drivers.
49:31It shows it's not falling off.
49:33That's what I was going to say.
49:35One thing, Mark,
49:36I have to say,
49:36we've had a sort of
49:37straw pole in the cabin
49:38and your car is certainly
49:40in the running
49:40for the best-looking car
49:41here this year.
49:42I mean, it's stunning.
49:43The other thing
49:43it catches our eye
49:45is the number of sponsors
49:46we've got.
49:46Schweppes is the most noticeable
49:48to us
49:48because you've taken advantage
49:49of this Dawson thing
49:50and you've slapped
49:51the sticker on that.
49:52Yeah, well,
49:53my background being
49:54marketing at Jordan
49:55for 10 years,
49:56I have a pretty good eye
49:57for what looks good
49:58in a car.
49:59But actually,
49:59it's a very serious point.
50:01You know,
50:01as an independent racing team,
50:02we have to work very hard
50:04to get our sponsorship dollars.
50:05I have to say,
50:06when I saw Dumas
50:06ripping the front
50:07of that Audi tonight,
50:08I was counting the cost
50:09in my head
50:10and thinking,
50:11I hope Alexander Sims
50:12is never doing that
50:13to my car.
50:14Just don't let him
50:15see the film.
50:16Exactly.
50:17But, you know,
50:17as an independent team,
50:18you know,
50:19we've got to look
50:19at categories of racing
50:20which are appealing
50:21to sponsors
50:21and I have to say,
50:22our sponsors this weekend,
50:24I mean,
50:24look at a beautiful evening
50:25here in Le Mans,
50:26great race
50:27and, you know,
50:28our sponsors feel privileged
50:29to be at an event like this
50:31and that's something
50:32special about Le Mans.
50:33Excellent.
50:34And I think the other thing
50:35we need to ask you about,
50:36we've mentioned about Lola
50:37and its problems,
50:38hopefully the company
50:39is going to survive,
50:40but are you okay
50:40for spares
50:41for the rest of the season?
50:42That's the...
50:43Well, you know,
50:44they say every cloud
50:45has a silver lining.
50:45The cloud that we had
50:47at Spa,
50:47at the World Championship
50:49race at Spa
50:49when Alexander Sims
50:51had that big accident,
50:52the silver lining to that
50:53was we then kind of
50:54really got up to speed
50:56with all the spares
50:56that we could get
50:57our hands on.
50:58In fact,
50:58we kind of overcompensated
51:00for the accident in Spa
51:01and then, of course,
51:02when Lola had some problems,
51:03you know,
51:04that was fortuitous for us.
51:05So we're carrying
51:06plenty of spares here
51:08and indeed,
51:09you know,
51:09we're confident
51:10for the rest of the season.
51:11We just saw the number eight
51:12shutters being pulled down
51:13on the Toyota garage.
51:15Mark, let's hope
51:15your shutters stay open
51:16until at least
51:17quarter past three
51:18on Sunday.
51:19Yeah, we sincerely hope so.
51:20I mean,
51:21and I have to say again,
51:22you know,
51:22Anthony Davidson,
51:23someone that I know
51:24from Formula One days
51:25and, you know,
51:26tragic to see that
51:27because Toyota have really
51:28been the surprise this weekend.
51:30I think all the teams
51:30in the pit lane
51:31have been enjoying
51:31seeing Toyota battling
51:33with Audi to that extent
51:34and Anthony Davidson particularly,
51:36you know,
51:36what a great job
51:37he did in qualifying.
51:37What more can one say?
51:41Thank you very much
51:43for coming along.
51:44Status have been
51:45the class of the field
51:46and let's hope you do
51:48really well.
51:48We'd like to see
51:49both the Irish teams
51:50do well, of course.
51:51Thank you very much.
51:54So still under safety car
51:56and as Jeremy told us
51:58a few minutes ago,
51:59probably about another
52:0015 minutes to go.
52:02Team Merger car 81
52:04to report immediately.
52:06Oh dear.
52:0681 is the Ferrari
52:09that was involved
52:10in that accident.
52:11Indeed.
52:11And there was another
52:13summons to see
52:14the race control
52:16about an hour
52:18or an hour and a half ago
52:19maybe now.
52:20It was the team manager
52:21of the Toyotas
52:22to go to race control.
52:24Do you remember seeing that?
52:25No, I wasn't on air then.
52:27OK, fine.
52:27It cropped up on the screen
52:29and it took a long time
52:31to figure out
52:31exactly what it was.
52:32But what it turned out
52:33to be was
52:33the guy holding
52:36the signaling board
52:37over the pit wall
52:38was apparently
52:39doing it for
52:39two longer periods.
52:41That's a first
52:42at Le Mans.
52:42It's nothing to do
52:43with the accident.
52:44I mean, but the most bizarre...
52:44No, it was way
52:45before the accident.
52:46The most bizarre one
52:47we'd had, of course,
52:47was on Thursday night
52:49where Sergei Arrow
52:50is in the dome.
52:50No front or back on it.
52:53Down at Porsche Curve
52:53still sitting in the car
52:54and the thing was saying
52:56driver to report
52:56immediately to race direct.
53:00So we're going to
53:00a commercial break
53:01in a minute.
53:01Not a lot to talk about,
53:03is there?
53:03No, I think, yeah,
53:05you can see the drivers
53:06are just trying
53:06to warm their tires up
53:07and keep them going
53:08because we should be
53:09restarting this race
53:10hopefully in about
53:11the next 15 minutes
53:12but have to make sure
53:14that everything
53:14has been repaired appropriately.
53:16It's going to be
53:16again a dash for cash,
53:17isn't it?
53:18I mean, it's just been
53:18so pushy this year.
53:20That's right.
53:20We've still got the
53:21Audi ahead of the
53:23Toyota now
53:24as a product
53:24of those pit stops.
53:25We'll be going green again
53:26in just about 12 minutes
53:28we reckon.
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