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Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the full 2023 race in stunning HD and without cuts. This milestone edition marked the return of legendary manufacturers like Ferrari, Porsche, and Cadillac to the Hypercar class, delivering an unforgettable showdown of technology, endurance, and passion. Witness every dramatic moment, from night battles to rain-soaked strategy calls, in one of the most historic races ever held at Circuit de la Sarthe.

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Transcript
00:00:00Oh, my God.
00:01:00Bienvenue au Mans. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the centenary of the Le Mans 24-hour race.
00:01:07We are here outside the medieval city of Le Mans in the heart of France, the heart of the French early motoring industry, to celebrate the centenary of the world's greatest endurance motor race.
00:01:20Starting the coverage for you today, Martin Haven, Graham Goodwin and Jim Roller.
00:01:26And Jim, perhaps the biggest day sporting crowd of any event this season.
00:01:32More than 300,000 people here packed around this eight and a half mile racetrack.
00:01:39And every one of them is breathless with anticipation as we are just hearing you do the welcome.
00:01:47I got goosebumps the fourth round of the World Endurance Championship.
00:01:52But this is more than just another race in a championship.
00:01:55As you said, it is the centenary of this absolutely marvelous event.
00:02:01In 1923, a group of three men got together from the ACO and from a wheel manufacturer and put together a plan to prove the reliability of the automobile and to foster innovation.
00:02:18And 100 years later, we are still following in that tradition, still proving the automobile, still proving new technology and still enjoying the fruits of the labor of these manufacturers,
00:02:33which should provide for us today an absolutely stunning 24 hours of Le Mans.
00:02:39Well, first of all, let's offer our thanks to the men and women, the boys and girls in Orange who keep everybody safe here.
00:02:46All the marshals, all the workers on the round the track, our volunteers, have always been.
00:02:51Without them, we would have none of this racing.
00:02:54We would not have great names like Jackie Ix and Roger Penske on the grid.
00:02:58We wouldn't have great manufacturers like Ferrari and Corvette and Aston Martin and the rest of them.
00:03:04We would have nothing at all.
00:03:06So our first thanks go to them.
00:03:08The ACO, the Automobile Club de la West de la France, originated this race back in November 1922.
00:03:16The thinking came around to creating a 24-hour race.
00:03:20And here we are celebrating its centenary.
00:03:23LeBron James there.
00:03:24And you can see the difference in height between a multiple NBA champion, LeBron James, and a multiple Le Mans winner, Tom Christensen.
00:03:33Quite significant.
00:03:34Elbow to head, I think that was, Martin.
00:03:36Yeah, and this track, 13.6 kilometers, it is a shorter version of the original 10-mile track, but it still presents phenomenal challenges.
00:03:46And two-thirds of it remains on public road for the rest of the year.
00:03:51So it has a very different nature to anywhere else we go racing.
00:03:55Historic names in the corners.
00:03:58And this historic challenge has not lessened since it was a 10-mile dirt track back in 1923.
00:04:06Last year's winners, Toyota Gazoo Racing car number eight in the overall category.
00:04:11Jota won in LMP2.
00:04:12You can see there the race record lap times.
00:04:16Brendan Hartley with the fastest lap of the race last year.
00:04:21LeBron James towering above everybody here in terms of stature.
00:04:27Minister of Sport there, I believe.
00:04:29I was dating him.
00:04:30Yeah.
00:04:30So you can see the cars on the grid, and they are gradually removing the excess humanity from the field.
00:04:45Well, let's take a look at the markings new for this race on the tires in the hypercar category.
00:04:51And think of it basically, W for wet, water is blue-ish.
00:04:56The soft tire for cold conditions, white.
00:05:00Medium hot conditions, yellow.
00:05:02And red hot conditions, red, that would be the hard tire.
00:05:05So we've got three compounds in our hypercar class.
00:05:08The top tier here, that is three compounds of slicks, plus the wet weather tire.
00:05:13Miguel Molina, part of the crew of the number 50.
00:05:16A, of course, a Ferrari, which claimed pole position.
00:05:18The significance of the 50 there, lost to me all season, is, of course, that it's 50 years since Ferrari raced with a factory team in the top class at Le Mans.
00:05:27And while it's dry around the start-finish area, it is definitely wet out on the rest of the track, Graham.
00:05:33That's part of the mills and part of the honore d'air.
00:05:36It's not the whole length of it, but as you can see, see Fred Vasseur there on the grid.
00:05:40It's everywhere you look, familiar faces.
00:05:43But it is wet out there.
00:05:45It's still warm here, so if we don't get any more, we're doubting it will dry quickly.
00:05:50Zero doubt in slick conditions to start this race.
00:05:53But equally well, none of the drivers, none of the cars, apart from Charles Leclerc, none of the teams have had a chance to actually scout out those conditions.
00:06:02That will come on the formation lap.
00:06:03In the LMP2 category, control tyre supplied by Goodyear.
00:06:08The blimp is also supplied by Goodyear.
00:06:10You'll see that a lot.
00:06:12One wet weather and one dry weather tyre.
00:06:15Nico Lapierre, the boss of Cool Racing.
00:06:18Brendan Hartley and the rest of the crew of the number eight Toyota team there.
00:06:21Big team effort to get here.
00:06:24Big team effort for whatever they've managed to achieve through qualifying and a huge team effort to tackle the Le Mans 24 hours.
00:06:31Yeah.
00:06:32There is a...
00:06:33This is Satoshi Yoshino with Tomino Bufuchi.
00:06:35The de-station racing car was damaged in qualifying.
00:06:40That will start at the tail of the field.
00:06:42And the race is not just 24 hours.
00:06:44The race is actually 10 days long.
00:06:46On Friday and Saturday of last week in the centre of Le Mans, the scrutineering.
00:06:52It's in the open air, Le Paysage.
00:06:55This has been a tradition for the last 30-odd plus years.
00:06:59Cars come in one by one.
00:07:00The teams follow them and the fans get a chance to see everything using the test there on the lifting gear that is required for each car in this race and all the World Endurance Championship races and a chance to get that famous photograph of the entire team together.
00:07:16I mean, Jim Roller, the location could hardly be more French, could it?
00:07:20And all these teams just enjoying the beginning of the week with a little parade of cars down through the city as well.
00:07:27While Yannick Dalmas, our safety car driver, will have slightly more up-to-date equipment, hopefully on his hands, than the 1923 winner.
00:07:38It was a very great beginning to the 10 days.
00:07:44Huge crowds there as well.
00:07:46Scorching weather in the centre of town.
00:07:48And Friday was absolutely rammed.
00:07:50Saturday even more so.
00:07:52And the drivers' parade last night, the traditional drivers' parade in town.
00:07:57Again, probably around 100,000 people jammed into the centre of Le Mans.
00:08:02The cowboy hats for the Corvette racing team.
00:08:06They were brought by the starting driver of that car, Ben Keating, the man who put it on pole position in the GTE AM class.
00:08:13I will say, by the way, gentlemen, you may have noticed, as we see the first sight this afternoon of the Centenary Trophy,
00:08:21Kimumi Kobayashi there.
00:08:22One car not starting from the grid as we see the celebrations in town last night for the drivers' parade.
00:08:28The 708 Lickenhaus gearbox leak.
00:08:31And that car will start from pit lane.
00:08:34And as per the regulations, that will be one lap down.
00:08:36Yeah, so already on the back foot there.
00:08:39But as the team said, onwards.
00:08:42That's the only way to attack this race, is to attack this race.
00:08:45And if the car starts to develop recalcitrant traits, keep pushing it back out of the garage.
00:08:51Yeah, happy scenes in Le Mans town centre after the, how can I put this, the staggering recovery from COVID.
00:08:59Great to see this race back in its pomp.
00:09:02And Leo Hendry told me, only time in his life he ever felt like a rock star.
00:09:10Former class winner here, one of the gentlemen drivers.
00:09:13And he said it was probably one of the biggest thrills he's ever had, was being in the parade.
00:09:18Yeah.
00:09:18It's great to see first-time teams and drivers here as well.
00:09:22They are absolutely blown away by the reception from the crowd.
00:09:26So lots of friends of the famous down on the grid and in the pit lane.
00:09:32Still a little bit of rain falling.
00:09:34We've had a few drops of water in the air most of the night and all of the day.
00:09:37The weather is moving away to the west there on the Le Mans radar.
00:09:42Le Mans, by the way, is the local newspaper.
00:09:44That was the first section of Funoriya, the Mulsanne Strait, as was.
00:09:49Professor with the Toyota Kazoo Racing crew now.
00:09:52Philippe Leloup, who is a long-time member of Oogda Shonak's crew at Orica.
00:09:57Mohamed bin Sulayem there, the president of the FIA.
00:10:00And greets the first ever race winner in an FIA World Endurance Championship race.
00:10:06That's Lila Wadu.
00:10:07Yeah.
00:10:07From last time out at Spa.
00:10:09Well, our top class here is no longer LMP1.
00:10:14It is now Hypercar.
00:10:15But two or three years ago, the ACO introduced a new element to qualifying Hyperpole.
00:10:22The deal here is that the fastest eight cars in each of our three classes got to go through into Hyperpole.
00:10:29And they had half an hour all together on track to try and set the best time.
00:10:34Ben Keating, again, pulled absolutely exceptional performance out of 33 Corvette Edix.
00:10:40Paul Euchatain, they were the perhaps surprised pole sitters in LMP2.
00:10:45A great, great Le Mans pole for them, their very first.
00:10:48And although Toyota pushed hard, Ferrari pushed harder.
00:10:52Brendan Hartley put the number eight car third.
00:10:54For a while, it looked like the 51 car of Alessandro Pierre Guidi would go fast enough.
00:10:59But an astonishing performance from Antonio Fuoco put the number 50 car clear and away in front.
00:11:08I mean, the stars lined up.
00:11:09Car number 50, 50 years away.
00:11:11The last time that Ferrari raced here, they had a car on pole position.
00:11:16Half a century later, they're back and they have a car on pole position.
00:11:23And of course, that car was the absolutely beautiful 312 PB.
00:11:27One just recently went at auction for 13 million euros.
00:11:31Wow.
00:11:32So this will be the 91st running of the Le Mans 24 hours for reasons that everybody will be very well aware of.
00:11:40In the late 1930s and early 1940s, there was no racing here in France.
00:11:45But the circuit and the town survived World War II pretty much unscathed.
00:11:49And by 1949, they were back racing here again.
00:11:52This is the Mission H24 machine.
00:11:55It is basically an adapted LMP2 car which runs on pure hydrogen.
00:12:00The only exhaust, if you like, from this, the only emissions from this is H2O.
00:12:06Yeah, to the left, the driver that will be leading this field.
00:12:08Stefan McKelvey, many times a starter here at the Le Mans 24 hours.
00:12:12This is an ACO project, firm favourites of President Pierre Fillon with an array of industry partners.
00:12:21Total Energy is involved here, Adès, to supply the chassis as well as the supplies of all the tech.
00:12:29It's an LMP3 chassis.
00:12:30It is an LMP3 chassis, right.
00:12:31What it actually gives you as well is a great indication of the absolute carnage that surrounds everything here at Le Mans.
00:12:38Just so many people need a slice of so much.
00:12:41This morning, we were treated to a great parade of more than 50 original Le Mans winning cars.
00:12:48We reveled in this, didn't we?
00:12:49Yeah, and a whole host of others that were, for one reason or other, the smallest, the fastest ever, were particularly notable.
00:12:58Bricks Cunningham bringing a Cadillac.
00:13:02Under all of that, under the bodywork of Le Mans is a Cadillac.
00:13:05The Group C cars, the cars of the 19, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, noughties.
00:13:11They were all there. Toyota brought their first and their most recent Le Mans winner.
00:13:16Audi brought a whole slew of their Le Mans winners.
00:13:18We saw Le Mans winners from Peugeot and Ferrari and just about every other brand you could think of.
00:13:25And you'll be hearing from one of the drivers as part of that parade later about what it was like.
00:13:28Yeah.
00:13:29Guy Smith joins us here for the commentary team this year for the first time.
00:13:32Delighted to have him here for this fantastic centenary race.
00:13:36And again, from Bentley, we had old number one, the first car to win here at Le Mans for Bentley.
00:13:40And it was a two-time winner and their most recent winner as well, the EXP8 Speed 8 that Guy drove.
00:13:49It just seems like a few years ago.
00:13:51I'm not going to embarrass him by saying how few that few was.
00:13:54It does feel in very recent history still, the Speed 8, but not quite as recent as perhaps we'd like to imagine.
00:14:0120?
00:14:02Don't jump on that.
00:14:04But he's still a sprightly young thing, Guy Smith.
00:14:07But remember, he's actually already raced twice here this weekend.
00:14:10Yes, that's right.
00:14:11In the road to Le Mans, part of United Autosports LMP3 set up.
00:14:16Part of the pageantry of this event, of course, will be the flypasts.
00:14:20We'll see the French national display team, Patry de France, from the Armée d'Air.
00:14:27In fact, I'll correct myself.
00:14:29I've always called them the Armée de l'Air, the French Air Force.
00:14:32They are, in fact, Armée de l'Air et des Spaces.
00:14:34They are now called the Army of the Air and Space.
00:14:37So, yeah.
00:14:38We'll also have the flag, the Tricolore, which will wave the drivers away, delivered by the helicopter crew from L'Armée de la Terre.
00:14:47And the flag that they'll be using here has been signed by every single driver who is here to start the race.
00:14:54So, there'll be 186 signatures on it.
00:14:57Correct.
00:14:58And that will be used to flag away the race.
00:15:02And we'll then go into the museum here.
00:15:04The flags of, I was going to say, all nations.
00:15:07There's not very many nations who don't have a participant here this weekend.
00:15:11All competing nations.
00:15:12And they will be celebrated with their anthems on the grid.
00:15:16Yeah.
00:15:17Well, there's been so much celebration around the centenary of Le Mans.
00:15:22We've been right in the heart of it.
00:15:24Where we live in the caravans, just in the TV compound, was about 20 feet from the launch of the fireworks.
00:15:29And about 25 feet from the soundstage that provided the Sonne, for the Sonne et Lumière display that was last night, yesterday evening.
00:15:41Chaparral.
00:15:42Yeah.
00:15:43Isn't that great?
00:15:48Well, I have to say, I don't know what automobiles or aviation or life will look like in a century.
00:15:57And I'm sure it won't be around, without question, won't be around to see it.
00:16:02But, hopefully, something of at least the spirit of this race will still be going in 100 years.
00:16:11This race started on dirt roads with very primitive vehicles.
00:16:16And now, still represents the zenith of racing technology.
00:16:21Whatever that is in a century from now, whatever powers vehicles, then, hopefully, they will still be doing this.
00:16:28Flux capacitors.
00:16:29There you go.
00:16:30I say we're going to see the flux capacitors.
00:16:32Daryl Pan will become, in just a few minutes' time, the 65th female driver to have started this great race.
00:16:39There have been numerous, numerous class winners.
00:16:45Could she be just the next?
00:16:47Odette Silco was the first, back in 1930.
00:16:50Yeah.
00:16:50And amongst the female drivers that have actually won this race, of course, Michel Mouton has won it in class before.
00:16:57There is Le Bon James.
00:16:58Also, also Pike's Peak.
00:16:59And there you go.
00:17:01Not sure how they're going to spot him from the grandstands.
00:17:03They're going to have to crane their necks and look up while I saw him with Arno.
00:17:06This is part of the camaraderie that takes part here.
00:17:10Friends, old and new.
00:17:12Yeah.
00:17:15It's absolutely part of it.
00:17:16The mutual respect that's required to survive this race, within the team, within the car crew, and within the paddock, is absolutely all-pervading.
00:17:26And that's one of the joys here.
00:17:28Now, Alpine unveiled their new hypercar here this week.
00:17:32That car will be on the grid in the World Endurance Championship, the calendar for which was also unveiled, and at Le Mans next year.
00:17:39So, the Alpine hypercar, look at the detail in the rear lines.
00:17:47I mean, I love that.
00:17:49There's nothing about this car that is not absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.
00:17:54From the colour scheme to the little light details, and my other cars, an Alpine A110, all of that.
00:18:01It's absolutely gorgeous.
00:18:02If it goes anywhere it will, like it looks, it should be brilliant.
00:18:06And this, even further into the future, the H2 concept from Toyota Gazoo Racing.
00:18:11We've already seen the hydrogen fuel cell demonstrator from the ACO with the H24 project.
00:18:20This is hydrogen combustion technology, and this is pointed towards where Toyota want to take their future at Le Mans.
00:18:27And Toyota have already started racing cars with internal combustion engines that use hydrogen rather than petroleum.
00:18:35So, it's not a future technology.
00:18:38It is a nascent technology.
00:18:41Jenson Button, one of 18 XF1 drivers on the grid, the only Formula 1 world champion competing this year.
00:18:47And as you can see from his shoulder and his chest, he's not in a prototype.
00:18:52He kind of is in a prototype, actually.
00:18:54Yes, he is.
00:18:54Garage 56 is for cars that fall outside the normal rules.
00:18:58They're either innovative in the adaptation of the car for the drivers, if they're handicapped or are otherly able, or in the technology they use.
00:19:11This year, Garage 56 joins the celebration for the centenary of Le Mans with the 75th anniversary of NASCAR.
00:19:19There is a NASCAR Cup car modified for endurance racing.
00:19:23Jenson Button, former race winner Mike Rockenfella, and seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmy Johnson are the crew.
00:19:30Well, here is the crew at Ferrari.
00:19:32AF Corsa Ferrari.
00:19:34These guys, Antonio Focca there and left, massive smile on his face.
00:19:37Yes, whatever happens in the race, hole at Le Mans, 50 years after last being here, they've won.
00:19:44They've won so much here already.
00:19:46And now all they can do is go out and just roll the dice like everybody else.
00:19:51You can have the best car.
00:19:52You can think you've got the slowest car.
00:19:55Le Mans decides who gets the luck of the green and who doesn't.
00:19:58So, for every, genuinely, in this race, above all others, for every single crew on the grid, you could be on the podium.
00:20:06And there's not many sporting events where you can say from the extreme of either end of the sort of ability and knowledge scale that that is true.
00:20:15Okay, Toto there, the man behind the Toto name and the winner of the 2023 Spirit of Le Mans award in the centenary year of this great event.
00:20:24And he could not be more proud of the effort that his team, his brand, has brought to this race over the last few years.
00:20:31They are desperate to defend that title.
00:20:34Rightfully so.
00:20:34He should be proud.
00:20:35Rightfully so.
00:20:36Yeah, Brendan Hartley said, okay, we lost our string of consecutive pole positions here at Le Mans, but we are going to go out all guns blazing to try and win the race.
00:20:44You know, the first skirmish went to Ferrari and went decisively to Ferrari.
00:20:50They made the very best use of the track of the drivers of the car and they were quick.
00:20:55But Toyota have the knowledge of the car, the knowledge of the race, and that is absolutely key here.
00:21:02You can bring the biggest dog to the fight.
00:21:04If it doesn't know what it's doing, then you could be in trouble.
00:21:07So Toyota is still very much the benchmark.
00:21:10Absolute gallery of legends, whether or not they're in the race or just want to be here for this race.
00:21:15And one of the best things for me about this race, gentlemen, every year, and never more so than this year,
00:21:21it's not just the likes of Jenson Button, those world-class athletes of motorsport that are here.
00:21:26This is the race that can deliver on your dreams.
00:21:29If you're not a professional racer, if you have the skill set and you have the resource to do it,
00:21:34and you have the passion to do it and follow through on it, this is the race that you can come to.
00:21:38And that car, the number 911 car, is one that proves it.
00:21:41Michael Fassbender here in the year five of a five-year program with Porsche.
00:21:47There is Michael.
00:21:48Yeah, the second Hollywood star to take on this race.
00:21:52Patrick Dempsey is here as well.
00:21:53In fact, in most recent memory.
00:21:55Of modern era, yeah.
00:21:57Paul Newman.
00:21:59I'm sure we'll see Michael racing.
00:22:01I hope it's not the last year we'll see him on Le Mans because he's been an excellent ambassador for this form of racing.
00:22:06As so many people who've come and discovered Le Mans have been in the past, including Patrick Dempsey.
00:22:10Still here, still with his name on the car.
00:22:12A podium sitter here as well, of course, Patrick.
00:22:15And we go down and down and down this grid.
00:22:18Towards the back of the grid, by the way, out of position.
00:22:20Three cars.
00:22:21The number 38, Team Joe Dakar, will be started by Antonio Fenix Costa from 6th place on the grid.
00:22:27The 13 Tower Motorsports car with Ricky Taylor, 61st.
00:22:30And the 777 D-Station Racing, Aston Martin, the hands of Tonabu Fuji.
00:22:34Those three cars failing to set times in qualifying will start from the back of the grid.
00:22:39One other slight change is the Garage 56 Hendrix Motorsport Camaro will start behind LNP2, but in front of all the GTE AM cars.
00:22:48It's about six seconds a lap quicker.
00:22:51So for safety reasons, instead of starting it on the back row, they've decided to start it ahead of the cars.
00:22:56It's faster than, and behind the ones, it's slightly slower than.
00:23:00Titiana from the Team Manager from Kessel Racing.
00:23:02Famously, she was the only member of the paddock that actually was in the paddock when our race director, Edwana Freitas, made his debut.
00:23:12He announced that at a driver's briefing a couple months ago.
00:23:15She's an absolutely stunning individual.
00:23:18Happy people on that crew, as there are on all 62 crews here.
00:23:23This is the pinnacle of ambition, not just for the drivers, remember, but for the team members as well.
00:23:28Huge pride on that grid.
00:23:30And it's an enormous undertaking.
00:23:33It's an enormously challenging race, but this is a little bit like being a downhill skier.
00:23:39The only people that are likely to upset your race are yourselves.
00:23:44Everybody else has got their own race to get on with and their own plan, and you are all battling the clock and Le Mans.
00:23:51And Le Mans is a tough mistress.
00:23:54If you win this thing, you know you've done something special with your life.
00:23:58If you become a world champion, that's an exclusive club as well.
00:24:03This is a tough race to win.
00:24:05You saw the Armani driver, Ahmad Al-Harty.
00:24:08His orange Aston Martin will start on the outside of the front row of the grid in GTE Am.
00:24:17Charlie Eastwood, you saw there, in a shot with him.
00:24:19He will start the car.
00:24:20Nicky Katzberg was being interviewed just down by the pole-sitting car in GTE Am.
00:24:25It's the car with the lap set by Ben Keating.
00:24:29And Nico Varoni is the third member of that car.
00:24:33Well, let's hear from the talented Texan, Ben Keating, on the grid by his Corvette.
00:24:39You put in such a performance in qualifying and hyper-pull.
00:24:52Yeah, it was really, really special.
00:24:54As a team, we were kind of struggling with how to set up the car after the incident that we had, right before qualifying the day before.
00:25:06I like a car that's really solid with the rear axle.
00:25:09I don't want any oversteer.
00:25:11And the team gave me maybe the best car I've ever driven at Le Mans.
00:25:15It would go exactly where I wanted it to go at no moments.
00:25:20And it was quite easy to be fast just because the car would do exactly what you wanted it to do.
00:25:26So much fun.
00:25:28You know, it was quite emotional when I got done.
00:25:30I didn't think much about it.
00:25:32I did a good lap, but when they said, OK, you've just done the pole qualifying lap in the last year of GTE for the 100th anniversary, it's a big deal.
00:25:42It really is.
00:25:43Thank you very much.
00:25:44All the best for the race.
00:25:47Middle name, Passion, Ben Keating.
00:25:49Good to see that.
00:25:50The team lined up and some of the passion that was around that NASCAR Garage 56.
00:25:55John Duden there, captured us being the IMSA president, also the team principal of this effort.
00:26:00And doing so on behalf of his boss, Jim France.
00:26:03IMSA president is just his J-job.
00:26:05He does this for fun.
00:26:08And he's having a big time.
00:26:11And Jim France couldn't be more proud of these guys.
00:26:14Jim's had phone conversations with John and is actually here today for the race.
00:26:22So absolutely fantastic.
00:26:25There you see LeBron James.
00:26:26And this whole NASCAR effort has really claimed everyone's attention.
00:26:32Let's hear from Jenson Button about it.
00:26:35I'm with the driver crew for the number 24, Garage 56, NASCAR Camaro here at Le Mans.
00:26:42And you're really blowing everyone away, Jenson Button.
00:26:46Yeah, it's pretty amazing.
00:26:47You know, it's such a special race, this.
00:26:49It's the 100th year as well of Le Mans.
00:26:51So to bring a NASCAR stock car here, it's pretty spectacular.
00:26:55I think the fans are really loving it.
00:26:57From what we hear every time it passes, there's a big cheer.
00:26:59So, yeah, it looks great, sounds great.
00:27:02And what an amazing team of people they've put together.
00:27:04And I get to race with my mates, which is pretty cool.
00:27:07And Jimmy.
00:27:08That's kind, isn't it, Jimmy?
00:27:10But also the times that you're putting in, the speed that that car's got.
00:27:14Yeah, the car's been well prepared and a bit more pace than we anticipated having.
00:27:18So it's been nice.
00:27:19As we're positioned here ahead of the GT cars, right on the heels of the P2 cars.
00:27:23All right.
00:27:24Well, we look forward to speaking to you during the race.
00:27:26Thanks very much.
00:27:27I'm going to just counter something, Jenson Button there.
00:27:30I'm afraid, I'm terribly sorry to have to apologise to you, ladies and gentlemen,
00:27:33for the blatant lie from Jenson Button.
00:27:35Because there's no way you can hear cheering over that.
00:27:37Because that is one very loud car.
00:27:40There are loud cheers.
00:27:41We hear there are lots of cheering.
00:27:43Yeah, no, they absolutely won't be hearing it inside the car.
00:27:45What they will do, though, is see all the heads turning.
00:27:49Oh, absolutely.
00:27:50They're very well aware.
00:27:51We were on trackside, all three of us at the test day, and it's just a smile spreader, that effort.
00:27:58It's absolutely fantastic that they're here.
00:28:01It's historically appropriate.
00:28:03It is a real buzz as we enter into this era of convergence between what have been divergent codes of sports car racing.
00:28:11And this feels not only like a celebration of 100 years, but the start of an era that is really, truly, very special indeed.
00:28:17Absolutely right.
00:28:18Jota, as so often, with two cars on the grid, 28 here, their lead, in fact, now their only LMP2 car.
00:28:26They're also running the first customer Porsche hybrid that has escaped from captivity.
00:28:33And that is the Hertz team Jota car number 38 bears their most famous number.
00:28:38And mighty 38, the first time we see a customer programme for a hypercar.
00:28:44The first, but definitely not the last.
00:28:47The second kind of customer car is 311, the Action Express Cadillac, but that is a quasi-works effort, let's say.
00:28:56The colours of Delage, an historic French make that has history here at Le Mans and is a new era now with a road-going or track-focused hypercar.
00:29:08Is there a racing future for that?
00:29:09We don't know yet, but the fact that they've got their colours all over a race car means that it's not a definite no.
00:29:15Number four, number four, hypercar.
00:29:19Interesting there, the gendarme, maybe from the public information office, getting a quick interview.
00:29:23Absolutely quite right, too.
00:29:24Great.
00:29:25It's great to see so many members of the first responders for the French Air, and we've had a need for some of those this week amongst this team.
00:29:36I'm talking about it, as well as the armed forces, we had a fabulous show in the air from both the naval and the air force arms of the French armed forces over the last couple of days.
00:29:47It's a low sneak pass from a couple of Rafales just a few, a couple of hours ago, and we'll wait and see just how special the fly pass is going to be.
00:29:55Usually very special.
00:29:56Frank Meyer, he'll be lapping this up, a proud Frenchman, and he's been a loyal servant to the Glickenhaus' efforts.
00:30:04Remember, one of their two cars on the grid.
00:30:06The other car, the 708 car, will start from pit lane and a lap down after a gearbox lead.
00:30:11Yeah, local boy made good right there.
00:30:13Sebastian Bordet.
00:30:14I was just about to pick up on that.
00:30:15He's from Le Mans.
00:30:16Little message on the radio during morning warm-up to the crew.
00:30:19Guys, great work to get the car out here.
00:30:22They had a fire yesterday in the final practice session, or two days ago in the final practice session, and he said, okay, great job.
00:30:30Don't forget, it's just a race.
00:30:32Don't overthink it.
00:30:33Let's just go and have fun.
00:30:34Let's do this thing.
00:30:35And that's exactly the way to approach it.
00:30:37It is a race, and everybody has a strategy and a plan and everything.
00:30:42Those will go out the window as soon as the lights go off at the start of it.
00:30:45Because the weather and circumstance will intervene.
00:30:48But the thing to focus on is enjoy doing what you're doing.
00:30:53Especially for a team like Caddy, who are here for the first time in a long while.
00:30:56Most of these team members didn't come here with the North Star program.
00:31:00So it's a whole new adventure for them.
00:31:02It's a whole new adventure for us.
00:31:03It's a new era, Graham, of top-flight sports car racing.
00:31:06There is a 708 in the garage.
00:31:08That car, I'm sure, will make the start of the race.
00:31:12Rahman Dumas, amongst the most experienced men of this great race.
00:31:16But that car will start, as I say, a lap down.
00:31:19We've got a good long look as well at the third Cadillac here.
00:31:21There's two caddies, the number two and the number three for Cadillac racing, fielded by Chip Ganassi.
00:31:26The third, the 311 car, is the first time here for Action Express racing.
00:31:30Talked about the NASCAR, Jim.
00:31:32That is effectively Jim Franz's day job, if you like.
00:31:35That's his Sunday roadster right there.
00:31:37Not this one, but the Action Express car.
00:31:40This is appropriate.
00:31:42This is the centenary trophy and a recreation, I believe, of the 1923 winner.
00:31:47I don't think the 1923 Shanao Walker survived the subsequent years.
00:31:52But the most successful race winner, Tom Christensen, nine victories here at Le Mans.
00:31:57So he's won nearly 10% of all the races ever held on this track.
00:32:01That's just greedy, obviously.
00:32:0418 starts for Tom.
00:32:06Four of those didn't result in a finish.
00:32:08The 14 that did, he finished on the podium every single time.
00:32:13And by the way, that trophy, it arrives here as the reward, amongst the rewards for the winning crew,
00:32:19after a global tour to promote this great race.
00:32:22I keep bumping into it.
00:32:23I don't mean literally.
00:32:24It wouldn't stand the denting.
00:32:26But it's great to see all sorts of major events.
00:32:30Not all of them sporting events.
00:32:32The ACO put in a great deal of effort to try to spread the word about this event.
00:32:38And boy, did that work with tickets selling out completely.
00:32:41And not a more appropriate person on the planet to be driving that replica with that real trophy.
00:32:47The man who's won the other trophy more times than anyone else.
00:32:51It's perfect.
00:32:52I think one of the things he's enjoyed most about the build-up to the centenary is the opportunity to drive lots of old winning race cars.
00:32:59He's done a whole bunch of films, you know, starting with Bentleys and so on.
00:33:03And a very different kind of atmosphere driving those cars.
00:33:07You know, he's now trying to go, okay, centre throttle, right handbrake, centre throttle, which is the neutral, where's the gear lever, all of that stuff.
00:33:15You know, he is.
00:33:17There you go.
00:33:18Ever the showman.
00:33:19Yeah, he is, of course, the ultimate pro.
00:33:22And absolutely the correct ambassador for this event this year.
00:33:27I'm sure his ex-Audi teammates in particular, we've been watching him just trying not to make a mistake with no little glee there.
00:33:34AJ Foyt will tell you that the Indy 500 made him who he is today.
00:33:38Richard Petty will tell you the same thing of the Daytona 500.
00:33:41And the 24 Hours of Le Mans has not only made Tom Christensen a national hero in his home, Denmark, he is a worldwide celebrity because of this event.
00:33:52And how many racers and racing teams are here, are cycled through this great race because of the example he said.
00:34:00Yeah, absolutely right.
00:34:03La Marseillaise, the French national anthem as ever, rings out across a packed grid and grandstands here at Le Mans.
00:34:10And to deliver the starter's flag, Lame de la Terre bringing it in, in the now honoured tradition.
00:34:19This is the view over the circuit of Le Mans from the helicopters.
00:34:24As they bring in.
00:34:28That's some firepower right there.
00:34:30That is some firepower.
00:34:31It's also got a camera pod, but this is on board the main delivery vehicle.
00:34:37Yeah, just making sure that that's a new element in race controls, Arbery, there.
00:34:44There's no solution for track limits, gentlemen.
00:34:46Limits, yeah.
00:34:47Will be punished by a 105mm howitzer.
00:34:50Yeah, this spectacle, though, has become part of the ceremonial over the last few years.
00:34:55Including the rehearsal on Friday night.
00:34:57Indeed.
00:34:57Yeah.
00:34:58And if you weren't aware that helicopter pilots were certified being sane.
00:35:04Just watch this.
00:35:05You will be.
00:35:06And not just the helicopter pilots.
00:35:08Why would you leave a perfectly serviceable helicopter before it happens?
00:35:10Yeah, without a parachute.
00:35:11Absolutely.
00:35:13Abseiling down with the Chikoloa.
00:35:19Again, this, I'm sure, is a huge honour for those responsible.
00:35:25Not coming down slowly.
00:35:26No.
00:35:26Either.
00:35:26Brave men and women of the armed forces of this great nation.
00:35:33And once the flag has been dropped off.
00:35:40Two more coming down.
00:35:41Yeah.
00:35:42So the first two will be stabilising the drop ropes for their colleagues that follow with
00:35:46the slightly heavier load.
00:35:47And then one of these servicemen will have been accorded the honour of taking his nation's flag
00:35:57to the hands of the man that will signal the start of the centenary running off the train around four hours of Le Mans.
00:36:06And the traditional bow to the teams on the grid from the heli.
00:36:11I expect at any moment.
00:36:13Robes will drop shortly.
00:36:16There's the trickleur.
00:36:16Oh, got it caught.
00:36:26There we go.
00:36:27Not for long.
00:36:28Good luck to you, sir.
00:36:31This is a proud moment for him.
00:36:33And it's going to, I think it's going to be, is that quad bike it's going to be coming on?
00:36:37I think it is.
00:36:38Nose down.
00:36:39Very low.
00:36:40And very, very loud.
00:36:42Yeah.
00:36:43And away they go.
00:36:46Tremennetti.
00:36:48Eurocopter Tiger.
00:36:52That's featured on a Bond film some years ago.
00:36:55I was just going to say that.
00:36:55It is that helicopter.
00:36:57It's the same basic piece of kit.
00:36:59Yeah.
00:37:00In the same family as the American Apache.
00:37:03Yeah.
00:37:05Reder Ikea in the centre of the group of luminaries, the CEO of LMN.
00:37:10You can just see Dr. Horkan Goldrick in the third row behind there.
00:37:13So LMN, the organisation that organises the FR World Insurance Championship and its family
00:37:20of racing events around the world, which we're privileged to provide the words and pictures
00:37:26for you.
00:37:26There's the man that will wave the trickleur, LeBron James, to the Los Angeles Lakers.
00:37:33Not the only top American sporting star on the grid because the most successful quarterback
00:37:38in NFL history, Tom Brady, is here as well.
00:37:41There's a big man and a big smile, LeBron.
00:37:44And this will not be lost on him.
00:37:46No.
00:37:47Huge glories in his career.
00:37:49But this, we've already seen the public statement from LeBron, the honour that this represents.
00:37:55And he will remember this.
00:37:56There's not many times LeBron will have been in front of a crowd this big either.
00:37:59No.
00:37:59Yeah, that's for sure.
00:38:03I mean, same deal with Tom Brady.
00:38:04You know, a Super Bowl crowd is a big crowd.
00:38:08There's Jackie Hicks, six times winner of the LeBron 24 hours, just on the left-hand side
00:38:12of the shot.
00:38:12And until Tom Christensen came along, that looked like a record that might never be beaten.
00:38:17Ah, there you go.
00:38:19Right on cue.
00:38:20Gentlemen, thank you.
00:38:21Some of our colleagues walked in this morning through the pedestrian gate.
00:38:25Jackie Hicks was just in front of them, race suit in one hand and a briefcase in the
00:38:29other, absolutely, yeah, just walking in through the normal gate, same as everybody else.
00:38:34Tell me something else.
00:38:35Jackie, Derek Bell, those guys, heroes of mine from my eras as a kid.
00:38:42And I'm delighted to say they don't let you down in terms of their attitude and their
00:38:46outlook.
00:38:46Stunning human beings.
00:38:48Yeah.
00:38:48Wonderful.
00:38:49And it's, you know, it's been a huge part of the spirit of this event to this point.
00:38:55Now, the new guys, the modern guys take over.
00:38:57But to this point, the spirit of this event has been defined by their example.
00:39:02And it's a fine example.
00:39:04They have shown all of the young drivers coming up.
00:39:08This is how you act.
00:39:09This is how you're a gentleman.
00:39:11And more importantly, this is how you're a sportsman.
00:39:13A proper sportsman.
00:39:15This is how you show the respect for the event, too.
00:39:17You know, it is that thing.
00:39:19It's very often in sport, and this celebrity-obsessed culture we have nowadays, it's not like that
00:39:24here.
00:39:24There's no one that is bigger than this event.
00:39:26Well, we love coming here, but I can tell you Tom Christensen and Jackie Hicks love coming
00:39:31here even more than we do.
00:39:32You know, we've got links with this place.
00:39:34We've been coming here a while.
00:39:36Jackie's been coming here a very great deal longer and has very much stronger links with
00:39:40this place, but they just absolutely love it.
00:39:42You know, it is just a delight.
00:39:47The teams, the drivers are so welcoming.
00:39:50They just embrace everybody because everybody's here with the same passion.
00:39:54Wherever you come from, whatever language you speak, whatever your background is, none
00:39:59of that matters.
00:40:00Everybody's here because they love this crazy event.
00:40:04You have some wonderful moments in this crowd, whether or not you're here as a fan.
00:40:08I've done that for many years.
00:40:10It's whether or not you're here just wandering through and enjoying the sights and the sounds
00:40:13and the smells of this place.
00:40:15There's always a conversation to be had.
00:40:17There's always a nod of acknowledgements.
00:40:19The passion is there for everybody.
00:40:21Stephen McKelmy just suiting up and getting ready to lead this field away in the Mission
00:40:25H24 car, second generation fuel cell car from that technology demonstration.
00:40:32It's a very different looking pattern on the side of its Michelin tires, and that's all
00:40:35going to be part of that as well.
00:40:37All the tire manufacturers trying to remain as valid as possible, as recyclable and as
00:40:45sustainable as possible, while generating the same performance from their tires.
00:40:50They, too, move the game along.
00:40:52So many things from decent lights, windscreen wipers, disc brakes, decent tires on your cars have
00:41:01all been developed directly here at Le Mans.
00:41:03With a cloud of water behind it, off goes the Mission H24 hydrogen-powered prototype.
00:41:16And Monaco driver Stephan Richelmy knows the track well.
00:41:19He knows his car well as well.
00:41:20He and Norman Nato, who's in the main race, have been deeply involved with the test driving
00:41:25in his car.
00:41:26It is a phenomenal engineering test bed because trying to overcome a whole host of challenges
00:41:34in terms of packaging, temperature control, you can see the big air scoops and so on of
00:41:38these pure hydrogen fuel cells is not the work of a moment.
00:41:44And we're going to have to get used to saying off in a cloud of mist.
00:41:49Off in a cloud of smoke or dust.
00:41:51By the way, that car has raced, that car has taken part in Mission and Le Mans Cup races,
00:41:56including here at Le Mans last year.
00:41:58There is, I believe, potentially a third generation of this.
00:42:01And you can see there, our first opportunity, that's not the water coming out the back of
00:42:04the car.
00:42:05Well, it is, but it didn't start inside the car.
00:42:07Still very wet there, but looks to be starting to dry.
00:42:10So, within 20 minutes now of the start of the race, I don't know about you, gentlemen,
00:42:25but the butterflies are starting here.
00:42:27Goosebumps are rising.
00:42:28This started on, well, it started on Friday, but the transit has been even before that.
00:42:34Some of these teams have been building up for a full year to this race.
00:42:38And now, it is going to start to get very real.
00:42:45Information to the pit lane, information to the pit lane, the race is declared wet.
00:42:51The race is declared wet.
00:42:55That means two things.
00:42:57It means you must run with the rain lights on the back of the car.
00:43:01And the other thing is, you can now, should you choose to do so, fit wet weather tyres.
00:43:06It's before that instruction, from Eduardo Freitas from race control, no wet weather tyres.
00:43:11And we should point out that in our conversations with Michelin, in the past, we've been used
00:43:16to seeing teams choose between slicks, intermediates, and wets.
00:43:21And now, it is really a, and then they had the slick, immediate.
00:43:26And now, it is a wet that Michelin is very confident will take you all the way to dry so that you don't need an intermediate.
00:43:34Yeah, their technology, they now say, it makes it a drying wet, which means it clears the water and gives you the grip
00:43:41in cooler, wetter track temperatures, but will survive the heat and the torture that the
00:43:45cars are put through, that the tyres are put through by the car, as the track dries.
00:43:50So, there should not need to be that intermediate step, which is exactly what the tyre says on
00:43:55the carcass between a wet weather tyre, grooved like your road car, and a slick tyre, grooved
00:44:01like the tyres you take off your road car when it needs new ones.
00:44:04Yes, but with more life.
00:44:06Not sure I expect anybody to start on anything other than a slick tyre here.
00:44:10You've seen there is very significant wetness on the Hunadi Air, but I don't think enough
00:44:16of it, and far enough, that's going to make that choice anything other than a real, well,
00:44:21long shot, shall we put it that way.
00:44:24It's a fool's errand, I think, a wet weather tyre.
00:44:26You can see here, this is the run down from Indianapolis to Arnach, bone dry, and most of
00:44:31the ground around.
00:44:31Again, you can see the colour that the grass isn't, it's predominantly straw yellow rather
00:44:36than green.
00:44:37It's been fairly dry around this track for fairly long periods of time recently.
00:44:43It was only yesterday evening that we started to get any kind of rain.
00:44:46Gentlemen, it's time for me to take my leave of you, because Anthony has arrived, and there's
00:44:52Rexy, and have a great race.
00:44:57I will be back with you in a couple of hours.
00:44:59I am very much looking forward to this, folks, at home.
00:45:02I hope you enjoy this half as much as I'm going to enjoy it.
00:45:05If you enjoy it half as much as us, then we've enjoyed it twice as much as you.
00:45:10Absolutely correct.
00:45:10And we'll be hearing from 2014 FR World Insurance Champion Anthony Davidson shortly.
00:45:17He comes literally hot foot from the grid in the midst of what looked like barely controlled
00:45:22craziness, but I'm sure you'll tell us the atmosphere was absolutely electric down there.
00:45:27And welcome back.
00:45:29What's it like down there?
00:45:30Absolutely electric.
00:45:31I said I was sure.
00:45:36I wasn't wrong.
00:45:37But packed, and celebs everywhere, it seems.
00:45:40There seem to be famous faces every single time the camera pointed a different direction.
00:45:45Here's one again.
00:45:46It's great.
00:45:46It's full of happiness, joy, expectation, optimism.
00:45:52I love this part of Le Mans.
00:45:55You know, clean sheet.
00:45:56Everyone goes in the same right now.
00:45:58And like I say, you don't know what's coming your way.
00:46:01But at this point in time, you're just soaking up all the atmosphere and enjoying it.
00:46:06You just look up to the crowd in the grandstands.
00:46:09You look at the driver's faces, all the team, personnel.
00:46:14It's absolutely, it's the best in the world.
00:46:17It's just, I'm just soaking it all up.
00:46:19It's absolutely amazing.
00:46:20Lots of words.
00:46:21We're at that point where we can say, hashtag, what could possibly go wrong.
00:46:24And you'll find out what could go wrong in the next 24 hours here if you stick with us for the Le Mans 24 hours.
00:46:29It is a race of three races, remember.
00:46:32Three classes here.
00:46:33The hypercars, the lead of the grid, LMP2 split into LMP2 and LMP2 Pro-Am.
00:46:38We'll get to that in due course.
00:46:40And GTE, and plus, of course, the innovative car.
00:46:43That does mean that three races are happening here at the very same time.
00:46:49There's a lot up for grabs other than just glory, and we are just minutes away now.
00:46:54And have you mentioned at all, obviously I couldn't hear you on my way down here, you've mentioned the fact that it's absolutely soaking wet at the first chicane.
00:47:00Yes.
00:47:00Because that, I mean, you're on the grid, it's boiling hot, absolutely dry.
00:47:06And standing water on the hot-on air.
00:47:08Yeah, Jose Maria Lopez came running up to me with a picture of someone who'd been out there and sent him a photo.
00:47:13And he said, no, have you seen what it's like at the first chicane?
00:47:15I couldn't believe he was talking about the same day.
00:47:17I said, are you winding me up?
00:47:18I'm live on air here.
00:47:19Are you winding me up, so I'm going to go on and say the wrong thing?
00:47:22He said, absolutely not.
00:47:23That's genuinely what it's like.
00:47:24Yeah, it's been a little downpour there, and it is very wet, but it will, you know, track is hot, it will dry fast, and I don't see anybody doing anything other than going on medium, slick tyres.
00:47:37The thing I'm happiest about here, not just to hear that the spirit on the grid is effectively an escalated version of what we always expect, is we genuinely were expecting a really good race here.
00:47:48Now, in all three classes, the depth of competition here, absolutely fantastic in all three classes, Ant.
00:47:53Yeah, I mean, just talking to the drivers there, most of the drivers that aren't starting, of course, they're a little bit more relaxed.
00:48:00Christensen gets on that iconic helmet, and all the drivers saying, look, the common theme is nobody that got through to hyperpole was saying, look, that it was because of just a lack of speed, it was just a lack of luck.
00:48:15Yeah.
00:48:15Like the Peugeot drivers.
00:48:17Yeah, traffic, red flags.
00:48:18We should be higher up, should be closer to the likes of Ferrari and Toyota, which is music to my ears.
00:48:25Yeah, Tom Christensen clubs aboard the car, I could just see in the background, we're about to get the fly pass from the Patrick-Ride-de-France, and Tom, as the Grand Marshal, will be the leading car.
00:48:36Very distinct livery on that car, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the creation of Porsche.
00:48:43So one of the very earliest cars, the Gemunt Porsche, the Pre-A Series 365 that raced here, and since then, Porsche have raced here pretty much every year since.
00:48:54It's not always in the top class, but they are the manufacturer that has the most wins of all, outright.
00:49:01Nice work by LeBron James.
00:49:07That is, drivers, start your engines.
00:49:09And here come overhead the Prat-Ride-de-France and their Alpha Jets.
00:49:14That's an Airbus A400, the heavy lift.
00:49:18A400M, yeah, the military spec car.
00:49:21That is a big plane.
00:49:22It is indeed.
00:49:24I'm going to steal a line that I read, and I'm going to say thanks to whoever wrote this on Autosport's social media account.
00:49:29Because we have that Hendrick Motorsport car as well, it's time for Le Boogity Boogity Boogity.
00:49:37It most certainly is.
00:49:38And Davies, it's just fat water down.
00:49:40I should be up.
00:49:41Excellent, my race is complete.
00:49:42You totally caught me off guard there.
00:49:45I do apologise.
00:49:46That's awful.
00:49:47It's exciting.
00:49:49It's so awful, it's genius.
00:49:49The drama, just the temperature's been turned up by the ceremonial.
00:49:54Congratulations to everybody that has attempted to stage manage this.
00:49:59They've done a fabulous job of making this a very special year.
00:50:03And we're only just about to go racing, gentlemen.
00:50:05Green flag waves.
00:50:07One formation lap.
00:50:09So far this season in World Endurance Championship races, without the use of tyre warmers, we've had two formation laps.
00:50:15This will be a single formation lap.
00:50:18And the only chance the drivers have to discover what wet on the Eno d'air is like.
00:50:24It has been bone dry and scorchingly hot throughout all of the practice and qualifying sessions.
00:50:30In test day as well, there is the Chevy Camaro ZL1, the adapted NASCAR Cup car.
00:50:38He's waiting for the rest of the LMP2 field to roll off.
00:50:41Reminder to the pit lane, car 708 will be starting from the pits.
00:50:52Car 43 has declared a mechanical problem.
00:50:55If that is the case, the gaps are to be respected.
00:50:59That's the 43's DKR Engineering's Oroka, the all-Belgian crewed pro-am car, starting in 33rd position.
00:51:07And in fact, you saw it down by the pit wall as the Henrik Motorsport Camaro rolled off.
00:51:13I think it was still beside the pit wall.
00:51:15So here comes our GTE Anfield.
00:51:18And there will only be this single formation lap.
00:51:20So that's really bad luck for Kendi Cenglas's Lucas de Bourgois team with the all-Belgian crew and the very Belgian commemorative livery.
00:51:30And here comes the rain.
00:51:31I could just see the safety car in front just kicking up a bit of spray.
00:51:35And yet, sure enough, look, riding on board the Ferrari, the sister car in front on pole position, doing exactly the same thing.
00:51:41Just as a driver, you drive around this part of the track right now and you're thinking, oh dear, oh dear, what have we got here?
00:51:48But, like we said, bone dry around one half of the track, that other part, you're really going to have to have your wits about you.
00:51:55Right, body work going back on there on the car 43.
00:51:57Maxime Martin is the driver and he was there in the WRT garage yesterday celebrating his Fanatec GT Championship co-driver Valentino Rossi.
00:52:09Claiming what is Rossi's first ever GT3 win and his first win at Le Mans since MotoGP in 2008.
00:52:18You can see the transition point is at the end of the first chicane and then bone dry.
00:52:23This is treacherous.
00:52:25Absolute.
00:52:25On slick tyres, we saw it in Spa, didn't we?
00:52:27The last race we had in the World Endurance Championship.
00:52:29Although it's there, look.
00:52:30Oh, you can see there.
00:52:31Don't touch that curb.
00:52:32Yep.
00:52:34Stay on the grey stuff, son.
00:52:35That's what it's there for.
00:52:36The big plus side is they've had a chance to see it at least.
00:52:40They're not coming blind into this, but that's going to be precious little.
00:52:46And the other thing is, although they're going very much more slowly than they will be at elapsed time, they have at least had a chance to feel how much or little grip there is.
00:52:55The DKR car being rolled off, so that will take the rolling start, hopefully.
00:53:00To be pushed into the pit lane, it says on timing and scoring, but has he got a chance to go?
00:53:05We'll see shortly.
00:53:06That's changed.
00:53:06Stay at the back of the queue.
00:53:07So he's not allowed to rejoin his position in the queue.
00:53:10He will start at the back of the queue, but they won't lose any laps.
00:53:14Then it dries up going into the second chicane, so it is so localised.
00:53:19Yeah.
00:53:20It's basically just the first chicane and a few hundred metres before it.
00:53:23And again, the problem here is it's not just about what the temperature's like here, it's what the temperature's like there.
00:53:29On an eight-mile course, that's the problem.
00:53:30If I was race director right now, I would throw a slow zone just for that sector.
00:53:34Okay.
00:53:35That's not a bad shout.
00:53:36That is not a bad shout.
00:53:38In the slow zones, the race director can have a section of the track where the maximum speed is 80 kilometres an hour.
00:53:47And that would be a pretty decent way of just protecting them from danger in the first couple of laps.
00:53:52But you can see how dry it is down the end of the Mulsanne Strait.
00:53:56The 08 is still in the pit lane.
00:54:06I was looking for you on the grid.
00:54:08So, Jim, can you tell us what's happening right now?
00:54:11Yeah.
00:54:12Before we went out, we noticed a little leak on the transmission seal.
00:54:18So, rather than fight it for 24 hours, we decided to be cautious, change the seal.
00:54:25It's fine.
00:54:25It's ready to go.
00:54:27You know, with this new pass-around procedure, it's not really an issue.
00:54:33And we're ready to go.
00:54:35Great.
00:54:36Safety car leading the field around before the start of the centenary Le Mans 24 hours.
00:54:49Since 1923, they've been racing on this track around the outskirts of Le Mans in France.
00:54:54The world's greatest endurance motor race is about to get underway for the 91st time.
00:55:01A 10-year hiatus in the 1930s and early 40s.
00:55:05We have been back to racing almost ever since.
00:55:09And for the first time in 50 years, Ferrari returns to the top class at Le Mans with a factory effort.
00:55:14They start on pole position with car number 50.
00:55:17It'll be Niklas Nielsen leading the field ahead of his Ferrari teammate, James Collado.
00:55:22On row two, defending champions Toyota Gazoo Racing, number eight car one of the race last year,
00:55:27Sebastian Buemi with them and the best of the Porsches.
00:55:31The number 75 car starts right behind as we ride with Buemi.
00:55:35And that's 75 car driven by Brazil's Felipe Nasser.
00:55:38Mike Conway in the second of the Toyotas and the first of the Caddies of Earl Bamba, car number two.
00:55:44The Peugeots are in 10th and 11th position in our 16-car top class fields.
00:55:52The 708 Glickenhaus, as you just heard from Jim Glickenhaus, will start in the pit lane
00:55:57after a change of a transmission oil seal.
00:56:00Always try and address problems as soon as you can.
00:56:03Pole in GTE Am, set by Ben Keating in the 33 Corvette Racing Corvette.
00:56:09And it is Nicky Katzberg that heads that field.
00:56:12Edex Sports' Paul Lutte-Chartan, the man who sets the pole position in LMP2, heads the second prototype field away.
00:56:19And just quickly, the reference to the pass around, there are new safety car rules this year
00:56:25which will stop drivers or cars losing a lap to the leaders in their class
00:56:31and will then punch all the classes together before they're released.
00:56:34So Jim Glickenhaus is very much the opinion that will help them get back onto an even keel.
00:56:40We are getting ready for the start of the centenary race at Le Bon
00:56:45with Ferrari, Toyota, Porsche, Cadillac, Peugeot, Glickenhaus and Floyd Vanwall in our hyper class.
00:56:55We've got 23 cars, 24 cars in LMP2
00:56:59and we have Corvette leading our 21 car GTE Amfield.
00:57:06It's a huge effort from these manufacturers to bring all these cars,
00:57:12most of them new racing this season to the grid here.
00:57:16Huge anticipation from more than 300,000 fans packing Circuit de la Sarte.
00:57:23But they could not have sold another ticket.
00:57:25Everything is full to the rafters.
00:57:29We are ready to get the race underway.
00:57:32The challenge is known, it's well known.
00:57:34The factors that are going to be the stories told over the next 24 hours
00:57:38and for years beyond are completely unknown and that's the best part of this.
00:57:42There are so many unknown factors with this race.
00:57:46When it comes at you, it comes at you hard.
00:57:48And the fact there's so much newness here and the depth of competition in every class.
00:57:51We're about to go racing.
00:57:54We are about to go racing at Le Mans for the centenary race.
00:57:59The 91st running of this great endurance classic.
00:58:03Cars heading off what was once all public road.
00:58:08And back in 1923 was a 10 mile course.
00:58:10This is the permanent race facility as they head into the Porsche curves.
00:58:14Some of the greatest challenge on the country, in the world of motorsport.
00:58:20We'll just hear from the race director.
00:58:22All cars to assume grid positions.
00:58:24All cars to assume grid positions.
00:58:28Let's close those gaps.
00:58:29Let's please close those gaps.
00:58:31Again, two lines of cars.
00:58:35Please, two lines of cars.
00:58:39Easier said than done somehow on those really tight final chicanes.
00:58:43And you tell yourself as a driver at this stage, keep it clean going into the first couple of corners.
00:58:47It's a long race.
00:58:48But again, that is easier said than done too.
00:58:52The 75th anniversary liveried Porsche safety car will lead the field around.
00:58:59Alzo Sprach Zarathustra reaches its conclusion.
00:59:02The clock is set to 4 o'clock, Central European Summertime.
00:59:09The centenary running at the centenary of Le Mans, 24 hours.
00:59:14We'll get away.
00:59:16LeBron James waves the chicolo and we are racing.
00:59:19Ferrari locked out the front row of the grid.
00:59:21Will they still be in front in 24 hours time?
00:59:24The Toyota No. 8 sweeping around the outside.
00:59:27Looking for second place.
00:59:28Lock up from the Porsche.
00:59:29The 75 car, there's contact with the Toyota.
00:59:31Toyota, they both survive.
00:59:33Peugeot and Cadillac both take to the runoff area.
00:59:38There was contact.
00:59:39It's a Ferrari 1-2.
00:59:4050 ahead of 51.
00:59:42The No. 8 Toyota in third.
00:59:44And the No. 7 Toyota up to fourth place.
00:59:46Ahead of the 75 Porsche.
00:59:48That's the car you can see right behind.
00:59:50Then the Blue Nose, that's the No. 2 Cadillac.
00:59:52The second Porsche is next up behind him.
00:59:55And then we get into the first of the Peugeots.
00:59:57The 93 car.
00:59:59With that distinctive, it hasn't lost its rear wing.
01:00:02That's the way.
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