Relive the full broadcast of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2009 — a true battle of endurance, technology, and determination. Peugeot and Audi faced off in an intense 24-hour duel on the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, pushing their prototypes and drivers to the absolute limit. Every lap brought drama, precision, and pure racing emotion as strategy and reliability shaped the outcome. Experience the triumph, the heartbreak, and the passion that defined one of the most iconic editions in Le Mans history.
#LeMans2009 #24HoursOfLeMans #FullRace #EnduranceRacing #Motorsport #AudiVsPeugeot #LegendaryRace #HistoricRace #EpicRacing #SpeedAndEndurance
#LeMans2009 #24HoursOfLeMans #FullRace #EnduranceRacing #Motorsport #AudiVsPeugeot #LegendaryRace #HistoricRace #EpicRacing #SpeedAndEndurance
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00What there was on the spectator banks, on your forums, people listening at home, Henri Pescarello is part of the history of this race, and always will be, but he's part of the living history of this race, and I think millions of people in France and beyond would actually love to see Henri win this race.
00:00:14That would be a fairytale result, I think, bearing in mind all the kind of, the torrid nature of the kind of politics around diesel against petrol over the last three, four years, for, you know, a Pescarello run, Peugeot, and a diesel at that, to actually win this race would be, well, it'd be a laugh, wouldn't it, let's face it.
00:00:32Oh, yeah.
00:00:33I'd love to see him win, I think that'd be fantastic.
00:00:35Would Peugeot be too worried which one's won, would it bother them?
00:00:38No, I mean, if you look at it from Peugeot's point of view, I mean, it's not by accident they've placed a car where they've seen that they know is capable of actually getting a car to the finish and onto the podium here.
00:00:47You know, they need strength in depth, if things do go wrong, having four competitive Peugeots is better than having three, and at the end of the day, their advertising, their marketing can still say, Peugeot win Le Mans.
00:00:58Yeah, that's the number seven Peugeot we're watching at the moment, Pedro Lamy on board, the one that's coming back, almost coming back from the grave, isn't it?
00:01:04I mean, absolutely wrecked on that, in that first hour of the race.
00:01:07But you see the way he went past the Aston Martin there.
00:01:09Oh, that's what I was just noticing, like it was an LMP2 car.
00:01:13Yeah, extraordinary.
00:01:14And that's with Jan Cherus in it, that's not a slow car, he's a quick driver.
00:01:17Now he's looking to gobble up the Audi instead of him, that's the Aston he's just passed.
00:01:21Well, I think he'll be a man on a mission now, he'll be told to absolutely push, no matter what, from Peugeot, and that's what they'll be doing.
00:01:27And that accident, there's no fault of Pedro's, but we did talk earlier about, to Hugh Chamberlain particularly, saying, why, having had that, did they let the car go back out?
00:01:35Why not stop it there and then, and then wheel it back?
00:01:38Well, I think, you know, I was listening to what Liz was saying earlier, and Liz is absolutely right.
00:01:42As a driver in that kind of situation, you're completely reliant on the information you're getting from your pit crew.
00:01:46And I know what the pit crew, and to a lesser extent the drivers have been saying, and Henri said it too, is that it was actually to do with the photographers in the line of sight.
00:01:53But, well, that's fine, but come on, this is Le Mans, this is a factory-blessed team, do you want the publicity or don't you?
00:01:59And if you want the publicity, either, you know, manage that better in the pit lane or whatever, but it's an inexcusable accident, that could have been so, so much worse.
00:02:08And I know there are people in the way, but I'm sorry, it's a massive race car with a roof on it and everything, you're not going to miss it, are you?
00:02:14Plus, they're together, they're joined in in a team, they were meant to be a lap apart, I know that, but surely they would have some knowledge together of who was coming in when, I just, or they should have if they didn't.
00:02:26It was, I think, pretty poor pit management, and let's hope they've learned that lesson, it's a very hard lesson to learn.
00:02:32It's put one of the cars out of contention for the moment at least, but fighting back and fighting back hard, 3.31 that last time around from Pedro Alami, which is well up with leading pace.
00:02:42But, didn't it seem to be just symptomatic of the woes that Peugeot have had here in the last couple of years?
00:02:48And not just here, it does seem that they're actually able to throw it away all too easily.
00:02:53And, you know, genuinely, I thought they were past that this year, with a bit of a revamp, a new look, actually, to the team, and a bit of a new kind of spirit behind it, too.
00:03:00A team that's mature, with a car that's now well-developed, and absolutely capable of winning this race on pace.
00:03:06Now, Yannick Dalmas, who's working for our French colleagues here at Fort France, he came in earlier, and we were talking about his win in 92, when he won with Warwick and Blandell.
00:03:17And he said, like Tom Walkenshaw said, it takes three years with a new programme to win Le Mans.
00:03:23And this is the third year.
00:03:24There you go.
00:03:25And I think that's a very wise kind of thing from Yannick, and no one knows better than he does how to win Le Mans.
00:03:30But we've got a fascinating race.
00:03:33You know, I think I could confidently predict, if I came back here in another 18 hours, we could have a quick, quite similar conversation, with just different incidents to be talking about.
00:03:43It's like a game of automotive chess.
00:03:45It's fantastic.
00:03:46You know, the big difference here, I think, between any other form of motorsport, is that you really do not know what's going to be around the next corner.
00:03:55Traffic here is a massive factor.
00:03:56And Liz knows, I think, better than anybody.
00:03:58Well, the traffic.
00:04:01Oh, God, yeah.
00:04:01I mean, here more than anywhere else, the closing speeds are just insane.
00:04:06And you've got to be prepared for anything to change.
00:04:08Just a quick insert here.
00:04:10We're going to change to Eurosport 2 now.
00:04:12So those of you who've got Eurosport 2, just change channels when we tell you.
00:04:15And we'll be back with Eurosport International about 10.30.
00:04:19But you can, as we told you earlier, get all this on the Eurosport iPlayer.
00:04:23There is a small subscription, but you can do that immediately.
00:04:26So if you're not geared up to get Eurosport 2, have a look on the Internet.
00:04:31Try and follow that thread.
00:04:32Go to Eurosport.com.
00:04:33So race continues, and to the joy of all the local French, Sébastien Bordet, the man from Le Mans, is our race leader for Peugeot at the moment in the number 8 car.
00:04:43He's just done 86 laps.
00:04:45He's got Alex Wurtz behind him.
00:04:46One lap down now, we believe.
00:04:48And then Capello and Leur for Audi.
00:04:51Paginot for the Pascarolo Peugeot and the two Lola Aston Martins there in 6th and 7th place.
00:04:58I think that's a change, actually.
00:05:00I think Paginot has actually leapfrogged the two Aston Martins at the last pit stop cycle.
00:05:05So now what we've actually got are three Peugeots in the top five.
00:05:07And that's not been the case for quite some time.
00:05:10We've had Peugeot, Peugeot, Audi, Audi, Lola Aston Martin, Lola Aston Martin with the Pascarolo Peugeot tagging along behind.
00:05:18But that's not the case anymore, as we see a car, I think, in trouble, Mark.
00:05:21Right.
00:05:22That looks like a Seth Neiman, isn't it?
00:05:24It's the Flying Lizards car.
00:05:25In the Lizards.
00:05:26Oh, dear, oh, dear.
00:05:27And this is the one that Darren Law was hoping to get that back-to-back victories at the Rolex 24 at Daytona this year for Brumos Porsche.
00:05:37And here for the Lizards at Le Mans.
00:05:40This isn't fatal.
00:05:41It may just be a puncture.
00:05:42It's a rear left puncture.
00:05:43Yeah, it's a puncture.
00:05:45Is it rear left?
00:05:46In the scheme of things, this may not be too serious.
00:05:48It loses a little bit of time.
00:05:49And they're fourth in class, I think.
00:05:50Yeah, and he's got a long way to go, though.
00:05:52And he's just going to hope that they actually can keep that tyre together if it indeed is a puncture.
00:05:58This is a long way to go.
00:05:59And as we saw with the Peugeot earlier, Liz, once one of these tyres lets go and starts thrashing around,
00:06:04it's like a threshing machine.
00:06:05And it's going to take anything that's in its way.
00:06:06It is.
00:06:07And the worst part about Le Mans is it's such a long lap.
00:06:09So you've really got to be patient if you get a puncture to just keep the speed down, not go too fast.
00:06:14Yeah.
00:06:15We're just going down to the pits again and see who Justine has got for us.
00:06:18It's going so far so well.
00:06:25The first stint was the best I felt in the car.
00:06:28I'm feeling a lot more comfortable now.
00:06:31Under braking, the down shifts are improving tremendously.
00:06:36Also, the situational awareness is improving, too.
00:06:38I think everybody's driving really heads up out there, which is nice.
00:06:42Track conditions are changing now.
00:06:44But I'm glad that first session is out of the way.
00:06:47How is it going to go for tonight?
00:06:49Are you going to drive during the night?
00:06:52Yeah, I'm about to do a double right now.
00:06:54I'll get in probably in about 20 minutes, see how that goes.
00:06:58Just try to get a nice, consistent pace and stay with that and see where we end up after that stint.
00:07:02So we can see it's a lot of money now.
00:07:04Yeah, we're getting up to almost $50,000, which has been fantastic.
00:07:08That's going to take care of a lot of children.
00:07:09So we'll just keep plugging away, and hopefully we'll be here tomorrow when we take the check.
00:07:17So thank you, Patrick Dempsey, then, the man who is still, I think, absolutely overwhelmed by how popular he is in France and Germany, too.
00:07:26Anyway, Graham, we're just going to say goodbye to you.
00:07:29Thanks very much.
00:07:29I hope everybody's enjoying the coverage.
00:07:31I think we've got a classic race here.
00:07:33I don't think there's ever been a time when people have been able to follow this race more easily.
00:07:36And thanks to all you guys.
00:07:37Well, no, Andrew, once again, we say you've made our job so much easier on dailysportscar.com.
00:07:43If you love sports car racing, do subscribe to that.
00:07:45It's a great site for fans, run by fans.
00:07:49So we're going to be joined just after we've changed over to Eurosport 2 by Martin Brane, managing director, owner of Lola Cars.
00:08:00And he's got some interesting news for us.
00:08:01So, Liz, going into evening, interestingly, again, we're just starting to see some faster times coming up.
00:08:09You've talked about the track getting rubbered.
00:08:11Well, I think what we're seeing now is it's starting to cool off as well.
00:08:15It's cooling off.
00:08:16The track's rubbered up.
00:08:16I think now we're reaching sort of a prime time for the faster times.
00:08:20And as we go into the night, we should be seeing that.
00:08:22Also, what we're seeing is the sun's starting to come down.
00:08:25The bugs are coming out.
00:08:26We're looking at the in-car scenes, and it's definitely becoming more tricky for the drivers to drive now in these conditions.
00:08:32I can't see the lights coming in.
00:08:34It's becoming a hard time in the evening.
00:08:36Right.
00:08:36We're turning over to Eurosport 2 now.
00:08:38So come over with us.
00:08:39If you haven't got Eurosport 2 on your cable or your dish, then go to Eurosport iPlayer, and you can continue to watch the race live there.
00:08:47How are you?
00:08:50We're going to take a short break.
00:08:51We'll be back in a minute.
00:08:52Martin Brane of Lola Cars will be with us.
00:08:54And we're going to hear straight from the horse's mouth.
00:09:00And all right through the field.
00:09:03This is going to go all the way down to the wire.
00:09:05It must do.
00:09:05But every class has been exciting tonight, hasn't it?
00:09:07Oh, it's been incredible.
00:09:08And, of course, much of that is down to Lola Cars.
00:09:11Eight cars they've got running here this year.
00:09:13And, of course, supremely, those two Lola Aston Martins right up the front of the field.
00:09:170-7, 0-8 cars.
00:09:19Sixth and seventh at the moment.
00:09:21And Martin Brane, who owns Lola Cars down at Huntingdon.
00:09:26Martin, great to have you with us tonight.
00:09:27And congratulations.
00:09:29Such a good showing.
00:09:30I think it equals your best ever numbers of cars here, doesn't it?
00:09:34Yes, thank you very much.
00:09:35It is the best that I've ever had in the last 12 years.
00:09:38It's equals 79 with the previous management.
00:09:44And I'm delighted.
00:09:45I'm delighted to see how competitive we are.
00:09:49The Lola Astons are doing really well.
00:09:51We've got a good team there with Howard Chappell and his people.
00:09:59We have great teams in the P2 as well.
00:10:02Speedy and RML who have just got hit up the rear, I believe, by a Ferrari a little while ago.
00:10:08Which is why they've dropped down.
00:10:11Yeah, we had Rob Dyson watching with us just as that happened.
00:10:14With Chris on board, of course.
00:10:16But, I mean, this has been one of the stories of this year, hasn't it?
00:10:18The Lola Coupes.
00:10:19You have just set such new high standards.
00:10:21Well, I was pushing for that for quite a while through the LMS, where I am a shareholder and a director.
00:10:29And we talked about this for a long time.
00:10:32The open cars looked so similar and not really representing road cars.
00:10:36And, of course, I'm a sports car fiend.
00:10:40And I was pushing to get closed cars so we could move that around.
00:10:46Now, I was speaking with Julian earlier just about the Coupe.
00:10:52And last year, I know a few of the drivers were saying that it was a great car, but it was maybe a little bit loose behind.
00:10:56A few little issues.
00:10:58This year, they're saying it's absolutely nailed to the ground.
00:11:00Fantastic car.
00:11:01Really user-friendly and just absolutely planted.
00:11:03And I'm wondering what you can tell me that's happened to make that such a fantastic car now.
00:11:08Well, I can tell you that the car was designed to have a V8 engine in it.
00:11:18And at the last minute, that got switched to a V12.
00:11:22And, of course, there had to be compromises at the rear to allow that to fit in.
00:11:28A shorter gearbox and a lot.
00:11:30Quite a bit of change.
00:11:31So, it has taken a little while for all of that to fit in.
00:11:36I wish we had a nice V8 to put in there.
00:11:43But, no, the V12's doing really well.
00:11:47Can you hear me?
00:11:48Yeah, absolutely.
00:11:49No, it certainly seems like you've got it dialed in now.
00:11:52And, really, everybody I've spoken to has just done nothing but rave about the car and what a quality car it is.
00:11:56I'm desperate to drive it myself, to be honest, being such a Lola fan that I am.
00:12:00So, I think it's definitely, it's proving where it should be.
00:12:04It's right up there in the petrol class, right at the front.
00:12:06Well, you had the right man sitting here.
00:12:07Then, the moment ago, you had Rob Dyson.
00:12:10It's going well.
00:12:12There's a man who can do it for you.
00:12:15Come on, Rob.
00:12:16Where's he gone?
00:12:17He got out quickly as soon as we saw Martin.
00:12:19Maybe owes him some money.
00:12:21No, he doesn't.
00:12:22No, he doesn't.
00:12:23We love the Dyson team.
00:12:25And they're great competitors.
00:12:27And Chris is a very good driver.
00:12:30And he's been praising your staff at Huntington and saying what a good job they've been doing.
00:12:36We've been saying hello to them tonight.
00:12:38So, have you got a message for them?
00:12:39To the staff, you've done a fantastic job.
00:12:42Don't worry, kids.
00:12:44We'll have other news later in the week.
00:12:48Right.
00:12:48We're going to ask you about them in a minute.
00:12:50But first, we're just going down to Nigel Mansell.
00:12:52Another blast from the past.
00:12:54Nigel, how does it feel to have his son racing in this famous race?
00:12:59Very historic.
00:13:01It's the first time I've come to the Le Mans 24 hours.
00:13:05And I can assure you it won't be the last.
00:13:06It's fascinating.
00:13:08It's just incredible.
00:13:10It's an awesome race.
00:13:11And for fans around the world, it's got everything for everybody.
00:13:15And the incredible thing is the changing conditions and how long the race is.
00:13:20Now, the setting sun, the next driver's stint is going to be very, very difficult.
00:13:25And to see the differences in lap times and the strategy, it's very interesting.
00:13:29How is Leo doing?
00:13:32Very, very good.
00:13:32We've done two double stints already.
00:13:35And now the first driver, Pierre, is going back in the car now.
00:13:39And then Leo will be doing the midnight shift in the complete darkness.
00:13:44So that will be very good.
00:13:45Can we imagine one day a car with an old Mansell family, you and your two sons?
00:13:51It definitely has a possibility now because I've really enjoyed watching, but I'm still prefer to participate.
00:13:59So who knows what might happen next year?
00:14:02Maybe we will have a battle across Mansell again.
00:14:06I know, it's incredible.
00:14:08And Senna next door as well is incredible.
00:14:10But for me, it's just how professional the race is.
00:14:14And from when I used to watch it on television to being here now, all the manufacturers, everything stepped up.
00:14:20I mean, the LMP1 cars are like past Formula 1 cars.
00:14:24They're incredible machines.
00:14:25So, yeah, it's going to be very exciting.
00:14:27It's going to be a long night, but a very exciting one.
00:14:29And anyone who finished the race, I think, has achieved something very great.
00:14:34Thank you very much, Nigel.
00:14:36So there's another Formula 1 driver who's seen the light and now realizes that Le Mans is where it's really at.
00:14:41Martin, you're going to do it the other way around.
00:14:43You've put an entry in for the Formula 1 World Championship.
00:14:46Lola cars.
00:14:48Still trying to get it sorted out, aren't you?
00:14:51Yes, we are.
00:14:51Can I say something about Nigel?
00:14:53He went in a Lola at Estoril, I think it was, and he absolutely flew.
00:15:00He went about two seconds faster than anyone had ever gone.
00:15:03And either that car or one like it, in the space of, like, I don't know, 30, 40 laps.
00:15:08Wow.
00:15:08But, yeah, and I think he would like to get in with his sons, I spoke to him earlier.
00:15:14Formula 1, yeah, the attraction of the cost cap and the fact that they've waived the 40 million that they used to talk about us putting in meant that we assessed, and we could probably assess the opportunity, shall we say.
00:15:35We can get within that cost cap.
00:15:38We can do a good car for that.
00:15:40In fact, damn it all, we've done a car.
00:15:43We've been working on it for the last seven weeks, and it's really come together.
00:15:47We've got the wind tunnel model in the tunnel all this week.
00:15:52It was finished last Friday, Friday week, actually.
00:15:55We were a little disappointed that our name wasn't on that list when it came out, but we've had a letter saying, well, hang around, boys, it's not over yet, and so on.
00:16:07I'm not going to make any comment other than that.
00:16:11We are considering the thing.
00:16:14We're reviewing the situation, as you say, and I won't say it to music, but we're reviewing the situation, and on Tuesday, we will have a proper talk with my board, even though I'm doing this personally.
00:16:30Your diplomacy is very creditable, but, you know, we're all surprised, obviously, that you and ProDrive and the super fund of Alex Works weren't actually on that list at the moment, but as you say, maybe that's to come.
00:16:42But just about Lola in Formula One, I mean, in the early days, Lola was a top lane in Formula One, then Eric Broadley had this rather ill-fated foray into it, but that was probably not the right time, was it?
00:16:53Wrong time.
00:16:53Lola actually has a pretty good record in making customer cars.
00:16:59The very first time, they actually outperformed Ferrari and Porsche, finishing fourth in the championship, and getting poor position and winning podiums.
00:17:09Then the next time round, they, as you know, there was a Honda engine put in the back of an Indy car, and it went off, and after less than four weeks of work on it, went off and won at Monza.
00:17:27So, and then there have been several other, there were seven altogether.
00:17:34The one with Eric, the last time, well, he had no facilities, in fact, the moment I came in, I started putting all of these facilities in.
00:17:44And we have everything, we've had everything for more than ten years that you would need to do a Formula One programme.
00:17:52Yeah.
00:17:53And, I mean, I've been down to Lola, you've shown me around down there, and I mean, it's a fantastic operation you've got.
00:17:58But like you, I'm a sports car lover, and I think, why, why someone who loves sports cars so much want to go single-seater,
00:18:05go into Formula One single-seater racing again?
00:18:08I know you're still building single-seaters.
00:18:09Oh, yeah. We're still building sports cars, and we'll continue to do so, because we have spent a lot of time and money actually developing our IPR,
00:18:19and this coupe was 15 months of R&D before we ever got it on the floor.
00:18:26So, that's a lot of time and a lot of money.
00:18:29But it's become the car to have. That's the great thing, isn't it?
00:18:31It's definitely come in the right direction, though.
00:18:33Well, we seek perfection. It's not easy to get that,
00:18:38but engineering excellence is what we try to do.
00:18:42Eric in one way, and me in a different way.
00:18:44Well, Martin, thank you very much for taking the time to come up and see us,
00:18:47and all the best with the Formula One programme, and let's hope things find their level.
00:18:53Pleasure to see you both.
00:18:54Great. Thanks a lot.
00:18:55Thank you, Martin.
00:18:56So, we've just saw some excitement there while Martin was talking.
00:19:01Did you see this Peugeot come into the pits?
00:19:03Dived between two GT2 cars, nearly wiped out Rissendorf in the Ferrari.
00:19:08He's sharing with Leo Mansell.
00:19:10Oh, dear. It's getting a bit tricky.
00:19:12It's all getting a bit exciting, isn't it?
00:19:13I mean, I think a lot of it's down to the time of day we've got as well.
00:19:16Visibility is getting worse.
00:19:17It's getting a lot harder to see on a lot of the straights.
00:19:20It's getting difficult.
00:19:21Right.
00:19:22We're about to be joined here by Jörg Bergmeister.
00:19:24Another lizard, yeah.
00:19:25Yeah, another lizard.
00:19:27Liz, you and Timo are old friends.
00:19:29Why don't you have a chat about things?
00:19:30Yeah, I mean, you've just been awesome in the Porsche.
00:19:34I mean, very impressive in qualifying.
00:19:36Obviously, a great start to the race.
00:19:39Just tell us how it's been going, really.
00:19:41Fill us in.
00:19:42I mean, so far, I can't complain too much.
00:19:44The car is handling really well compared to qualifying.
00:19:48In the warm-up already, we're a little bit down on top speed,
00:19:52but it's not awfully bad.
00:19:53We're missing like three, four Ks, so it's not too bad.
00:19:57And we can do double stints on the tires,
00:20:01so I'm really pleased with the car.
00:20:03Good.
00:20:03Are you going to continue double stints through the night on the tires,
00:20:06or are you going to try and triple,
00:20:07like a lot of teams are going up one more stint, really, through the night?
00:20:10I think we're going to stay with double stints.
00:20:13The pit stops of the lizards are so fast, so we won't lose too much.
00:20:17The quickest stop they have done so far in practice was 18 seconds on the tire change,
00:20:22so that's really, really impressive.
00:20:25That's really fast.
00:20:26I think we're going to stay on the double stints.
00:20:28Yeah, it's probably safer anyway, isn't it?
00:20:29It just saves you that little extra window of mistake with the tires.
00:20:33You never know, do you?
00:20:34Yeah, definitely.
00:20:34And you can push a little harder, which is also more fun.
00:20:37Yeah, exactly.
00:20:38That's basically the way you always drive, I think, isn't it?
00:20:41Always push a bit harder when you can, and it certainly pays off.
00:20:44I hope it does.
00:20:45So, when are you next going to be in the car, and you'll be going into a double stint, obviously, into the night?
00:20:52Yeah, Darren just got in, before that was Seth, and then Darren is doing a double,
00:20:58then it's me a double, Darren a double, and so we go through the night.
00:21:01Okay, and tell us about the American Le Mans series.
00:21:03It's been a little bit different this year, hasn't it?
00:21:05How's that been going out there, and how does it compare to be back here again?
00:21:10ALMS, I think we're having a great run there.
00:21:13Well, of course.
00:21:14Yeah, you are having a great run.
00:21:15So, it's really good, working out really well for us.
00:21:19We won the last three races, and it's great being together with Patrick Long again.
00:21:25It's a great teammate, and we are both friends, so it's always great if your teammate is your friend as well.
00:21:32I think that works out pretty well.
00:21:34Of course, and it's been such a successful partnership for many years for you two, hasn't it?
00:21:38So, it must be fantastic to be back again.
00:21:40Yeah, about tonight, though, Timo, you've had, obviously, Seth was fairly slow.
00:21:44So, then, we think he got a puncture, did he?
00:21:47I'm not sure.
00:21:48I just walked over here when he was running really slow.
00:21:52His pace before was pretty good, so I assume it was a puncture, yeah.
00:21:55And Darren's on board the car now.
00:21:57So, Darren's obviously a man you've raced against in Grand Am, haven't you, only?
00:22:01Yeah, I did.
00:22:03We had some good fights as well, yeah, and obviously, we had teammates at Flying Lizards.
00:22:08It's his first time here at Le Mans, but he's doing really, really well.
00:22:11Yeah, I mean, he obviously wants to win this, so he can say, I won the Rolex and won Le Mans
00:22:15in the same year.
00:22:17Yeah, I wouldn't mind it as well.
00:22:18Yeah, yeah.
00:22:19I'm sure you wouldn't be opposed to that, would you?
00:22:23So, it's all going well then, and we just so enjoyed the battle we had in the first two
00:22:28hours of the race.
00:22:29Just the chain of cars, the Ferrari, the Porsches, and swapping around all the time.
00:22:33Must be great being in that situation.
00:22:35Yeah, at the start, some of the guys were a little crazy.
00:22:38They were driving like there was no tomorrow.
00:22:42Melo and Mark Leap were touching on the straight, so I was pretty impressed, and I took a little
00:22:48bit more conservative there, and worked out pretty good.
00:22:52Well, I was saying, when we were watching the start, I was saying, with Jamie Melo, certainly,
00:22:55he's only got sort of one speed, and that is absolutely flat out.
00:22:58Would you agree with that?
00:22:59Yeah, absolutely.
00:23:00It was the start of the Le Mans 24 hours, and you said they were touching each other
00:23:02as if it was, you know, a 20-minute qualifying session.
00:23:06I think that's the way Jamie is.
00:23:08Yeah, well, none of us have forgotten the end of the Sebring 12 hours.
00:23:11Oh, wow.
00:23:12How could you?
00:23:13Liz wasn't going to mention that.
00:23:15No, I was keeping that on quiet.
00:23:17But you're world-famous because of that.
00:23:20Yeah, I still would have had the result the other way around.
00:23:23You ditch the fame and take the result.
00:23:26Yeah.
00:23:28So, we're going back down to the pits?
00:23:31No, we're actually going to a commercial break, but that's very keen of you, Mark.
00:23:35Yes, I was getting ready for an interview, and we've got an interview here.
00:23:38Yes, and we're on board now with the Corvette C6R.
00:23:43Antonio Garcia at the wheel, but we're going to be back with you very soon.
00:23:47Yeah, York, if you can hang on a moment, we'll get a little bit more in a moment.
00:23:49Stay with us.
00:23:53We're back on Eurosport Live, and just looking after, but now, where are we?
00:24:09We are five hours, 41 minutes into the race, and at the moment, our race leader, still Peugeot.
00:24:15Peugeot, Peugeot from Audi, and this one's going to go right through the night.
00:24:19It's Sebastian Bordet, the man from Le Mans, still out front from Alex Wurtz, the man from Austria.
00:24:24Dindo Capello for Audi, Lucas Lua for Audi, Anthony Davidson for Lola Aston Martin, and Benoit Trullier for Pescaro Le Peugeot.
00:24:33And there, into the pits at the moment, is the Aston Martin of Cherouz, Jan Cherouz, just coming in.
00:24:38Now, it looked like there was possibly some smoke coming out of that car, but I think what it was, was a lock-up on the way into hitting his pit limiter.
00:24:45So, I just wondered if he's got a puncture at the back, yeah, because his front wheel was off the ground.
00:24:51Oh, maybe that's what the smoke was saying then.
00:24:53Yeah, that was what it was, yeah.
00:24:54So, we've got Jörg Bergmeister with us, Jörg, who's been in the middle of this frantic battle in GT2 today.
00:25:01We're just looking at where your car is at the moment, Jörg.
00:25:04Where are we?
00:25:057th.
00:25:067th, is it?
00:25:07Yeah, in 40th place overall.
00:25:09Your best lap today, I guess it was you, 4.06.
00:25:13Yes.
00:25:14Great race pace.
00:25:14Great race pace.
00:25:15Yeah.
00:25:16It's not too bad.
00:25:17As I said, the car is working really well.
00:25:21We can double stint the tires, and pace-wise, I think we're right there.
00:25:26I think people might wonder, if Peugeot and Audi, the diesel cars, can get 4 stints out of their tires, why do you only do 2 stints?
00:25:36Because our car is a little heavier, and we don't have all that downforce that those cars make, so we're working the tires, obviously, a bit harder.
00:25:44Because you're sliding a little more, and yeah, I see.
00:25:47This is what people always ask us about, what's happening.
00:25:50And what are the, any problems about going into dark?
00:25:54For me personally, no.
00:25:55I like driving in the dark, so I'm looking forward to it.
00:25:59People ask us on the website, are you faster in the dark as a driver, or?
00:26:03It depends a little bit on the track, but normally I do about the same lap times in the daytime than in the dark.
00:26:09There's an advantage in the dark, obviously, the air temperature is a little cooler, and you get a little bit more horsepower, so it takes away the disadvantages of not seeing that well.
00:26:20Now, you have to have air conditioning in these closed cars, 32 degrees, I think it has to be.
00:26:24That's still pretty hot, isn't it, inside?
00:26:26Yeah, you're definitely still sweating, that's for sure.
00:26:29It's still hot, isn't it?
00:26:30I mean, in the 30s, it's still warm when you're working as hard as you have to work in a Porsche.
00:26:33I mean, you still have the helmet on, and the suit, the fireproofed underwear, everything, so it's, yeah, it's still really warm.
00:26:40Yeah.
00:26:41Well, Jörg, thank you very much for coming up and seeing us.
00:26:44We've got to hope.
00:26:45Best of luck for the rest of the race.
00:26:46Thank you so much.
00:26:48I'm sure it's going to work out well.
00:26:49We're rooting for you and Darren and Seth.
00:26:51Okay.
00:26:52Bye-bye.
00:26:52Cool.
00:26:53Thanks.
00:26:55So the order at the moment, we just said Sebastian Bordet leading the great race overall, but problems for a lot of other people,
00:27:01and amongst those problems has been the all-time disaster for the Pedral Army and the rest of the crew.
00:27:09So, there we go.
00:27:11Five hours, 44 minutes, 93 laps completed by Sebastian Bordet.
00:27:17Liz?
00:27:17Well, we've recently just seen a pit stop putting Patrick Dempsey back into that car, the advanced engineering car.
00:27:25He's going out for a double stint, his first double stint ever around the little, 24 hours.
00:27:28We saw him speaking earlier, saying what a fantastic time he's had, and he said he was so glad to have gotten that first stint out of the way.
00:27:34And I think a lot of these rookie drivers will be feeling the same way.
00:27:37So much pressure and a lot of stress.
00:27:40Just the whole feeling you get starting at Le Mans, you think, my God, it's my first stint at Le Mans.
00:27:44And it's so overwhelming that you are quite happy to get that out of the way, and then you can settle down and just enjoy the racing.
00:27:49And this is a really brilliant time for him to get in the car.
00:27:53It's an amazing time to be out on the track in tonight.
00:27:56But it's also a very challenging time for a new driver.
00:27:58You know, you've got the light changing.
00:28:00It's very, very difficult because you can't really have any sort of shading with you because you're going in tonight.
00:28:05The glare is an issue, especially into the Porsche curves and places like that.
00:28:09You know, the bug count gets a lot higher.
00:28:10It's difficult to keep the windscreen clean.
00:28:12People don't think about that.
00:28:13So, that's going to be a challenge.
00:28:14So, this car continues to be a favourite with the crowds, doesn't it?
00:28:17The Spyker C8, La Violette, Tom Coronel, Yarrick Yannis and Jeroen Blakevold on board that car.
00:28:23And, of course, that car, people forget, is the 6th Audi.
00:28:25Audi V8 engine in it.
00:28:26You're right, it is.
00:28:27People do forget, including myself.
00:28:28I'd forgotten that.
00:28:29But always, always hugely popular.
00:28:31Here's a replay of, oh, it's a big problem there.
00:28:33Well, it's a tire coming off the rim completely, isn't it?
00:28:36On the, which car, is that the Cherouz Lola?
00:28:39I'm not sure.
00:28:41Yes, I think it was, actually.
00:28:43Yes, I believe it was.
00:28:44So, that's not good news for them.
00:28:46They have a lot of punctures, which, as you said earlier, perhaps that's, you know, coming
00:28:50back on us from all that carbon that was spread across the circuit a while back.
00:28:53Could definitely be repercussions from that.
00:28:55Yeah, well, we're now joined by another of the manufacturer's representatives.
00:28:58We've had Martin Brain from Lola.
00:29:00And we've now got John Manchester from Ginetta Zaytek, as the team's now called.
00:29:07And, John, hi.
00:29:08We do this every year with you, don't we?
00:29:09Have our go at Le Mans.
00:29:11John, we've been so, so impressed with the pace, particularly of the Stracker car, which
00:29:16was at one time threatening to take the petrol pole on Thursday night.
00:29:20Yeah.
00:29:20Gladly Watts went out, I know, again, tried to do it, but it just got bought by traffic.
00:29:24But what a fine showing.
00:29:25Yeah, I was very pleased, obviously.
00:29:27It's a new car, essentially, for this year.
00:29:28Very pleased with the performance.
00:29:30I think one encouraging thing was we wasn't using qualifying tyres.
00:29:33So, obviously, you probably get another two, three seconds out of the car with qualifying tyres.
00:29:37So, on that alone, we're very, very pleased with the overall performance of the car.
00:29:40We'll obviously continue to still develop the car to improve it further.
00:29:44Yeah, now, just to remind everyone exactly what's happened.
00:29:47Ginetta and Zaytek are obviously now partners, aren't they?
00:29:50Yeah, Lawrence Tomlinson, who's the owner of Ginetta Cars, he bought a 40% stake in Zaytek Engineering.
00:29:57And we decided, from a marketing point of view, to rebrand the Zaytek name with Ginetta.
00:30:04And it's just really a marketing exercise.
00:30:07Yeah, let's just, sorry, just to interrupt for a moment.
00:30:08This is the lead car.
00:30:09Sebastian Borde has brought the number eight Peugeot into the garage.
00:30:12Now, is this going to be a major problem?
00:30:14I mean, we've been talking tonight about, you know, Persia have got the pace, but have they got the reliability in the game?
00:30:20And, John, it takes, we're told by previous winners, it takes three years with a programme to win this race.
00:30:27Yeah, I think this is the third year.
00:30:28Indeed, I think Le Mans is probably one of the biggest engineering challenges we face.
00:30:32You know, to get a car and engine to complete 24 hours at Le Mans, it's a big challenge.
00:30:37Now, apparently, I'm hearing this is only three laps into his stint, only three laps since his last stop.
00:30:42So, this is not going to be good for Peugeot.
00:30:44In saying that, they don't look particularly panicked.
00:30:46They do seem to know, it looks as if they know what the problem is, if you know what I mean.
00:30:51Yeah, I mean.
00:30:51But, at the same time, the car is in the garage.
00:30:54This is a really hot race right now.
00:30:56They will not be able to afford to have this happen.
00:30:58Now, this is going to fall into out his hands again if they're not careful.
00:31:01Alex Vertz is going to have to pick up the baton, isn't he?
00:31:04Depending on how long we're in there.
00:31:05There is Seabass sitting in the car, distinctive helmet, the multiple-champ car champion.
00:31:10This is not what he wanted.
00:31:11He's from Le Mans.
00:31:12It's his home track.
00:31:13He's racing in front of his home crowd.
00:31:15He does not want to be sitting in the carriage.
00:31:17No, absolutely not.
00:31:18So, this is a huge blow for Peugeot.
00:31:20We're just going to have to wait and see when they get back on the track and how much time they will have lost.
00:31:25We'll monitor that.
00:31:26But, John, sorry, back to you with Zytec and Ginetta.
00:31:29So, Bill Gibson still is obviously hands-on, but he and Lawrence Tomlinson are effectively partners now.
00:31:34Yeah, Zytec's split into two companies.
00:31:36The Zytec Automotive, which are responsible for the design, development, and manufacture of the electronics for automotive and also for motorsport,
00:31:44and also electric vehicle technology.
00:31:46We're probably one of the world leaders in electric vehicle technology.
00:31:49And then Zytec Engineering are basically just a motorsport-based company producing LMP cars, racing engines,
00:31:55and also a lot of the manufacturing support for the rest of the Zytec group.
00:31:59Yeah, I mean, your engines themselves have been hugely successful, haven't they, throughout the sport?
00:32:02Yeah, we've obviously, yeah, sorry, we're just going to Olivier Canel, director of Peugeot Sport.
00:32:09Sorry about this, John.
00:32:13What's happened? We asked him.
00:32:16Well, earlier in the race, Sébastien put a wheel off the track, and it's on the curb.
00:32:36I hope it's not going to take long to fix this.
00:32:38We're going to be just going to bother otherwise.
00:32:43Apart from that, everything's been going really well.
00:32:46I don't really yet know why he's had to come back into the stands.
00:32:52All we know is that he did put a wheel off.
00:32:55It did look as if they almost had some of the suspension off the car just then.
00:32:59It was quite hard to tell from the scenes, but certainly there must be something that Sébastien is feeling,
00:33:04must be a vibration, or something he feels is a problem enough to bring it in.
00:33:08So this may fall into the hands of Adi, as you've said,
00:33:11and this is exactly what Adi would be hoping would happen right now.
00:33:13Yeah, but then again, Adi have got their own problems.
00:33:15Are they going to be running through the night with these radiators, John Manchester?
00:33:19They're getting stuffed up.
00:33:20This is part of the problem.
00:33:21They're hoovering stuff off the track.
00:33:23Yeah, not part of the game plan, I wouldn't think, at the moment.
00:33:25Especially, certainly not.
00:33:26Probably plenty to have out of his hands, for sure.
00:33:28So, going back to Zytec for a moment while you're watching it,
00:33:31we're just saying about how successful your engines have been, as well as the chassis.
00:33:34But you are becoming the must-have customer chassis in L&P1 now, aren't you?
00:33:38Well, I don't know.
00:33:38I'd like to think so.
00:33:39It's certainly the A.
00:33:40Yeah, we've obviously, I think one of the advantages with Zytec is we produce everything.
00:33:44We do the chassis, the electronics, the engine in-house.
00:33:47And I think that integrates well as a package.
00:33:49You don't have to make too many compromises.
00:33:51So, the whole package is optimised really well.
00:33:53And I think that shows in the performance of the car.
00:33:56Yeah.
00:33:56But what effect of it is your factory car, the orange Lawrence Robinson car?
00:34:00That's the one that's had the bad luck so far this year.
00:34:02Yeah.
00:34:03Factory car is probably not quite the right term to use.
00:34:06But Lawrence has actually bought that car.
00:34:08He's bought it, basically, to race at Le Mans.
00:34:10It's more of a demonstrator, so we can demonstrate it.
00:34:12Let people try the car.
00:34:13The idea is people can go out and try that car, drive it.
00:34:17Which is what we did with the ASM people and the Stracker people prior to them buying the cars.
00:34:22And I think it works really well.
00:34:23Not many other people can offer that.
00:34:24So, that's really what that car's purpose is.
00:34:26Now, the obvious question, Liz, John, is are you going to go the coupe route?
00:34:31No plans to at the moment.
00:34:32We did look at that seriously last year.
00:34:35We looked at a lot of different areas of the car in CFD.
00:34:41And we felt that it wasn't really worth the expense to go coupe as opposed to the open top route.
00:34:47So, no, no plans at the moment, certainly not.
00:34:48Now, I have to say, I have heard in speaking to people that know Lawrence and her people who've driven the car.
00:34:54All of them have said what an incredibly user-friendly car it is.
00:34:57Literally, it's one of the nicest prototypes that people have driven.
00:34:59You know, especially for new drivers who don't have prototype experience.
00:35:03They've said it's a car that as you get closer to the edge, it's actually, you know, more, like say, user-friendly.
00:35:09Like, you can actually handle the car at the edge.
00:35:11Whereas, a lot of prototypes, they're really loose and really, you know, you feel like you're on the limit.
00:35:15And certainly, the ones I've driven, you know, you're really hanging off the edge when you start to push it more.
00:35:20But I've heard that this particular car is one that they feel confident they can push a bit harder in,
00:35:24which I think is great for drivers coming up into an LMP1 car.
00:35:27You know, it's a big jump forward for people like Nigel Moore and other drivers who haven't experienced that much power
00:35:32and carbon brakes and the downforce.
00:35:34And I think that's a big asset for you.
00:35:36I mean, would you agree?
00:35:37That's a big asset that you've managed to make such an incredibly user-friendly car.
00:35:40Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
00:35:41Anyone that has always driven that car the first time are absolutely amazed at the sheer ease of the car to drive.
00:35:46I'm talking to Richard. He's not Richard Dean. He's not done a lot of driving in that car.
00:35:51And he's probably yesterday going into, or on Friday going into, sorry, Thursday going into qualifying.
00:35:57He's probably only done his seventh competitive lap.
00:35:59And he just said, I kept pushing the car, pushing the car.
00:36:02And it's like, is this all you've got to give me? You know, give me a bit more.
00:36:05And he said, he's just amazing, amazing to drive. It's so forgiving.
00:36:08And I think that's one of the advantages of the car.
00:36:10Yes, it's a very, very easy car to drive.
00:36:12Yeah. Oh, well, certainly I'm jealous of the quality.
00:36:15That sounds fantastic.
00:36:16Oh, yeah. Won't catch me saying no to that.
00:36:20Well, John Manchester, thank you very much for coming up.
00:36:22Just telling us all about Zytec.
00:36:24And we wish you all the best.
00:36:26And just seeing where your best car is at the moment.
00:36:29That's, where are we?
00:36:32Just looking down the list.
00:36:34I think, yeah, it was Danny Watts.
00:36:35He's coming to the garage.
00:36:36I don't know what's going on.
00:36:37He's been in there for a while, so I'm not quite sure what's happening.
00:36:39OK, you haven't come back out yet.
00:36:41Anyway, many thanks, John.
00:36:43It's a pleasure.
00:36:43We shall perhaps see you tomorrow morning sometime.
00:36:46Thank you very much.
00:36:47Bye-bye.
00:36:48Bless you.
00:36:48So, just to update you what's going on at the moment, as we get the right timing screen.
00:36:54It's Alex Wirtz leading now for Peugeot.
00:36:57But the Peugeot, Sebastian Bordet, still in the garage, slipping down the order, Capello and Leur.
00:37:03And the Audis move into second and third.
00:37:06Anthony Davidson's about to move up into fourth place.
00:37:08He's only, was only just a couple of minutes, a couple of seconds behind.
00:37:12We're going to take a break, we're going to take a break, and when we come back, we've got someone here from the Eureka Courage team, Nicholas Lapierre.
00:37:22And we'll have a quick, so after the break, come back with us, still stay on Eurosport 2.
00:37:27Mark Cole, Liz Halliday, and Nicholas Lapierre.
00:37:30Welcome back to Eurosport.
00:37:41We're just going to have a quick look at Sebastian Bordet.
00:37:43He's been in the pits.
00:37:44We don't know what the problem is yet.
00:37:45Even Olivier Canel of Peugeot Sport didn't know what the problem was.
00:37:50Here is Sebastian.
00:37:52Yeah, Justin is down there with Stefan Sarrazin.
00:37:56Can you tell us any more yet, Stefan?
00:38:05Well, it's either a pivot, a wheel bearing, or a wheel that came loose.
00:38:12It's a shame, it's cost us some time.
00:38:19Still 18 hours of the race, still to go, so, you know, we can catch up.
00:38:23We're going to try and attack a little bit more, make up some time.
00:38:30I think they've been doing plenty of attacking already, but talking of attacking,
00:38:33Sebastian Bordet, the man from Le Marne, he's just rejoined,
00:38:36but we've got a man from another famous circuit, from Manu Courage.
00:38:38Your father, Nicolas Lapierre, was, I think, race director of the school.
00:38:43Of the racing school, yeah.
00:38:44That's it.
00:38:44So, you're born into racing.
00:38:46Definitely.
00:38:47And you're racing with Hüdi Shonak's outfit this year.
00:38:50Your car at the moment, in fact, we're just looking on the screens,
00:38:53you're the best of the open petrol cars.
00:38:55Yeah.
00:38:56That's a very small category, isn't it?
00:38:59No, I mean, the car is getting good.
00:39:00It's getting really better as the track is quicker now.
00:39:03We got some rubber down, which was not decaying at the beginning of the race.
00:39:08So, now we are very pleased.
00:39:09We want to make a no-mistake race.
00:39:11That's our point.
00:39:12Take no risk at all in the traffic, on the track.
00:39:15And I think we can expect coming back in the top eight or top six
00:39:19that would be wonderful for our car.
00:39:21This is your second participation at Le Marne.
00:39:24Great team-mate.
00:39:25We've got, of course, Olivier Panis and Sayer Ayari.
00:39:28Yes, I mean, Olivier came back in the sport car last year,
00:39:32and he's really enjoying it.
00:39:33We are doing the 1,000 km race together as well.
00:39:38So, no, we have a really good team.
00:39:40I think the driver's level is quite close,
00:39:44so I hope we can achieve something good on this race.
00:39:48Liz?
00:39:49Sorry, I was sitting there playing with my mic level there.
00:39:54No, I mean, I think it's fantastic to see these cars running so well and so quickly.
00:39:58And, I mean, it's still a relatively new car.
00:40:01It's only been sort of two years.
00:40:02I mean, how do you feel about it in sort of the combination of, you know,
00:40:06Courage with this car?
00:40:08I mean, the combination is good.
00:40:09As you say, it's still young.
00:40:11I mean, on this kind of race, you need a lot of experience.
00:40:14But, I mean, Udoshanak knows how to run the project.
00:40:18He's a very clever man, and he got a lot of experience in motorsport.
00:40:22So, we are putting things together.
00:40:24At the moment, it's quite difficult to fight for us because of the equivalency.
00:40:28But, I mean, we are getting closer compared to last year.
00:40:32So, let's hope it goes even better next year.
00:40:35Well, we wish you lots of luck.
00:40:36We're being told that you're being rushed off to somewhere else.
00:40:38So, thank you very much for joining us, even though it was only for a brief period of time.
00:40:42And, we wish you all the luck for the rest of the race.
00:40:44Have a good race.
00:40:44Nicola, thanks.
00:40:45So, Jeremy Shaw's come back upstairs, and Jeremy's going to take over for the next couple of hours and help us out.
00:40:52So, Liz, interesting days.
00:40:56Here we are, still on board with, that's not Capella, it's your number one car.
00:41:01No, no, it's the wrong one.
00:41:02I think it's been a very active race.
00:41:04There's been a lot going on.
00:41:05We're actually barely even into this race.
00:41:08That's the thing.
00:41:08It seems like we've been going for hours and hours, but, in fact, we're barely even scratching the surface of a 24-hour race.
00:41:13And, there's been so much action so far already, hasn't there, Mark?
00:41:16Yeah, this is Alex Wurtz, of course.
00:41:18We ought to know that helmet by now from all these Formula 1 days.
00:41:21So, Alex, 41 seconds over Dindo Capello's Audi, and Lucas Liu about to come across the start-finish line.
00:41:28We'll just see what the gap is back to that.
00:41:30And, look at this, already just telling slower cars you're there.
00:41:33If anyone's been asking about the lights, white lights for prototypes, yellow lights for GT cars,
00:41:39that's to, in the dark, when they're coming up behind you, you know exactly what's going on.
00:41:43So, Liz, that comes to the end of yours and my shift, and Martin is champing at the bit.
00:41:48Jeremy is champing at the bit.
00:41:49They want to get into the action, and they've been here listening to all our guests, seeing what's going on,
00:41:53and I think we're going to have a long, hard night ahead of us.
00:41:56I think so, too.
00:41:57I'm looking forward to it, actually.
00:41:59Right, we'll see you all later.
00:42:01So, Martin, what have you seen on your travels in the last couple of hours?
00:42:09Dinner and an ice cream, actually.
00:42:11Excellent.
00:42:12But, obviously, an awful lot of drama, how this race is turning around already.
00:42:1718 hours remaining, which means we're only six in.
00:42:20We're a quarter distance.
00:42:21We've seen drama in just about every category from every car.
00:42:26Alex Worts leads for Peugeot, Dindo Capello and Lucas Lohr second and third for Audi.
00:42:31And, actually, one of the interesting periods in running out into the fresh air was to catch up with Alan Magnish,
00:42:37the driver, of course, with Dindo Capello and Tom Christensen of the number one Audi that is now in second place.
00:42:43And, after all our speculation of the first couple of hours of the race, Jeremy caught up with a driver who actually knows what's going on
00:42:52and got him to explain exactly what was happening with the cars.
00:42:55And, yes, basically, as we surmised, this is kind of like the beginning of a NASCAR 500-mile race for Audi.
00:43:02They are chasing the setup.
00:43:04And, Alan explained it like this.
00:43:05He said, basically, we've had four hours of dry running.
00:43:08That was in qualifying on Thursday.
00:43:10He said, the track is now in the sort of condition it would be after lunch on the Saturday of a Le Mans test weekend.
00:43:17It's just started to get rubbered in at the beginning of the race.
00:43:20Now, of course, we're six hours in.
00:43:22So, it's like we're starting Sunday of the Le Mans test weekend.
00:43:25And, the track is very slippery, very dirty, very low grip.
00:43:29And, they're fighting chronic understeer in the car.
00:43:32And, they're changing the nose and the setup of the car, trying to chase that grip.
00:43:36And, he said, I said to him in the end, how quick should you be going?
00:43:39He said, really, we expect to be going within a second of the Peugeot's outright pace.
00:43:44We should be in the 26s, maybe just shaving into the 27s, lap after lap after lap.
00:43:50But, he said, even by matching their pace, we can't beat them on that alone.
00:43:55Which is patently clear, because they're behind.
00:43:57Yeah, you know, they nail on head.
00:44:01I mean, they should be doing 26s, 37s, regular basis.
00:44:04In fact, they've snuck in a couple of 27s.
00:44:07Most of the time, they're in the 30s and the 31s.
00:44:10So, you know, they're just not able to match the front running pace.
00:44:13And, yes, it is a kind of a brand new car.
00:44:15I mean, it debuted at Sebring in March.
00:44:18How long ago was that?
00:44:19Three months ago.
00:44:20What have they been doing for the last three months?
00:44:23Testing it relentlessly, but on a track where they know the grip levels, presumably.
00:44:28Quite, and there's no other cars out on the track that are causing any problems.
00:44:31And, what they didn't do was the first two Le Mans Series races of this year, did they?
00:44:36So, you know, they kind of shot themselves in the foot a little bit.
00:44:39They would have learned a lot more by doing those 1,000-kilometer races.
00:44:43They would have learned a lot more about the car, but it still wouldn't have made the track any less green.
00:44:48No, but they would have learned how the balance is affected when more rubber gets laid down under different racing conditions.
00:44:54And, you know, bottom line is, they're really not properly prepared, which is very, very surprising for that man.
00:45:01I mean, Wolfgang Ulrich is, you know, about as Germanic as you could possibly get, and structured and organized and everything.
00:45:09And yet, penitently, you know, they're not ready for this race, which is very surprising to me.
00:45:14Absolutely. It's the 10th anniversary of their first appearance here, and you're right.
00:45:19It is a very un-Audi state of preparedness.
00:45:22It's not that they're totally unprepared, it's just that they're not 100% on the ball.
00:45:27Having said that, they are 2nd and 3rd at the moment, and back on the lead lap.
00:45:33Yes.
00:45:34So, now anything can happen.
00:45:36It's now the number 9 Peugeot, Alex Vertzi, is leading.
00:45:39Dindo Capello is about 43 seconds back in 2nd place.
00:45:42And Lucas Lu, also now with that problem for Sebastian Bourdais, is also back on the lead lap, just a minute or so behind the race leader.
00:45:49And our 4th place car, let's get this right, our 4th placed car overall, 008, Anthony Davidson, is on pit road.
00:45:59The Lola Aston Martin, now, if this was the last hour of the race, and the number 9 Peugeot had a 43 second lead over Dindo Capello,
00:46:08I'd be thinking, do you know what, that's possibly still in the balance.
00:46:13We've got 18 hours to go, and Peugeot have got one car between Audi leading this race, and Audi being 1st and 2nd in this race, in fact.
00:46:23And that's not really very much of a...
00:46:25Don't forget, the 17 Pescarolo car got taken out by the 7 car, which got taken out by the 17 car.
00:46:31Whoops!
00:46:32Two of the 4 balls dropped in one foolish collision.
00:46:36Now, that obviously shook them up, and we did see, for the first time that I can remember, some very, very sharp pit stopping by Peugeot.
00:46:44In that second safety car period, the 7 car was first on the pit road, and whatever the French is for, or you, get out of the way, was instantly communicated.
00:46:53He pulled right out of the way and allowed 8 and 9 to come in, do their pit stop, to get gone.
00:46:57That is properly Audi stroke Porsche pit work.
00:47:00That is absolutely on the money. Without any question, they knew what was coming up before it came up, and that's the only way to win Le Mans.
00:47:08But they now have had their problem with the number 8 car. I'm afraid I've had my headset off, so I didn't know what it was, but...
00:47:14I gather he ran off the road. I didn't have my headset on it, but he ran off the road, and there was clearly a problem.
00:47:18I think, I believe they changed the left rear corner on that car, and it's cost them surprisingly little.
00:47:26I mean, Bordet is actually now back within two laps, so it's just over one lap down, and in sixth place.
00:47:33Three official retirements now. The 77 Porsche ran out of fuel. The 68 J-Lock Lamborghini ran out of luck.
00:47:42Well, it ran out of drive shafts and didn't qualify, ran out of engine, and didn't really effectively start the race.
00:47:47And the Kifal ASM, Ginetta Zaytek, ran out of spare parts, presumably, as Miguel Amaral kept bidding it lap after lap.
00:47:55Yeah, there was a brake problem. There was apparently a brake problem on that car, and it finally caused some damage to the tub of the car.
00:48:01The monocock was damaged, so that was the end of their race.
00:48:04I did say when we first saw him go off, and especially when we saw him go off a second time, that's really not like him.
00:48:10He's a very good gentleman driver, and I was most surprised. I would have been, frankly, quite flabbergasted if there was not a properly sensible explanation for it.
00:48:20And actually, while we're having a look, look at this. How cheeky is that? Would you get that out of my way?
00:48:27I thought for a moment, actually, he was flashing a Peugeot. He's not. He's flashing a speedy Sabah Lola Coupe.
00:48:33The, is that number 10 or 11 Orica car?
00:48:37It looks like it might well be Soyaliari flashing that blue speedy Sabah car as they weave their way through the Porsche curves.
00:48:45And Jeremy, you know, so much drama.
00:48:48It's hours till it gets dark, even, and that's when all the witches come out.
00:48:52Yeah, isn't that a fact? Number, just a little note here. We saw a note up on the screen there from the Skewars.
00:48:57Car number 84, which is the team Modena, a Ferrari F430, has just been warned for improper use of the circuit or something, or disrespect.
00:49:08Not respecting the circuit limits, which means he'll have been going inside the white lines, probably, at the chicanes on the Mulsanne.
00:49:15There aren't too many other places you can really pinch an inch. Well, you can pinch an inch, but more than that, you can't really go over the white line in too many places without it costing a lot of money and hurting quite a bit.
00:49:26So, it's normally cutting the inside of the chicanes on the Mulsanne, and that is not deliberate.
00:49:31That's a bit of an oops! Oh my goodness, trying to almost straight line it.
00:49:34So, let's run through where we are, then, after six hours and ten minutes. Alex Wurtz leads for Peugeot.
00:49:42Audi are not far behind. Top three cars on the lead lap, and that's a big step forward for Audi and a big retrograde step for Peugeot.
00:49:51Dinde Capello's Audi number one is 46 seconds back. Lucas Lure, a minute and 16 seconds back in third.
00:49:57Yeah, doesn't it just show that how quickly things can change in this motor race? I mean, Peugeot was dominating Audi, weren't they? We were kind of writing them off, almost.
00:50:07Shame on us, of course. You never write off Audi. And now, with that problem, two cars, not one, but two cars back on the lead lap.
00:50:15So, now, maybe if I go and talk to McNish again in a few minutes, by the time I've finished, the other Peugeot will have gone and he'll be back in the lead.
00:50:22Wouldn't that be nice?
00:50:22Like he said, they can't beat them just by doing the same speed. You know, when you're behind, you can't beat them by being just as quick as them.
00:50:31So, yeah, everything can and will change. This race is like a junkyard dog. Turn your back on it, it bites you in the arse.
00:50:37Yeah, so, fourth place, one lap down, is the Pescarolo Peugeot, car number 17, Buena Trullier at the big wheel at the moment.
00:50:44In fifth place, also, one lap down, Anthony Davidson in the lower Aston Martin, double eight, and Sébastien Bourdais in number eight.
00:50:52So, that is the top half dozen. Peugeot prepare for another pit stop.
00:50:56We'll be back live with more action from Le Mans here on Eurosport 2 in a second.
00:51:00Welcome back live to Le Mans. Benoit Trullier receives service at the Pescarolo Peugeot team.
00:51:08This car is fourth overall. Gas and go, clean off a few bugs. Martin Haven, Simon Hill, and the man with the clipboard, Jeremy Shaw.
00:51:17How many laps on that? Properly up to 13 or still struggling to make 12 that time around?
00:51:24And the last, actually, the last three stops have all been 12 laps. It was 13 the stop before that.
00:51:30So, you know, I think they're just running to their own pace. I think they've got their game plan and they're trying to follow it.
00:51:37Nice tip there from Benoit Trullier. Nothing special. You don't have to do anything special, particularly when you've got that car up into fourth place.
00:51:43Well, he does, actually, because he's got little Ant behind him in the 008 Aston Martin and Ant stopped a lap before Benoit Trullier in that Lola Aston Martin.
00:51:54And so, there is a good battle going on there for fourth place. Davidson, at the moment, is already top petrol engine car and is now looking to slay another giant.
00:52:05Lots of fans were asking early on how the Lola Aston Martins are going to fare, what we think they might do.
00:52:12Lots of people seem to have seized on this magic. Do you think there's a chance of a top five?
00:52:15Well, a few laps ago, we had both of them nudging up into the top five.
00:52:19And at the moment, we have one with 18 hours to go still in the top five.
00:52:24Lord Paul Drayson's car still running in the GT2 category as well, but outside the top eight in that class.
00:52:30But again, really, they are looking to finish the race and Lord Paul Drayson in his, Paul Lord Drayson, rather, in his first weekend as the new Defence Minister supporting Armed Forces Day in the UK, which is June the 21st, I believe, next weekend.
00:52:47So, he's now the new Minister of Defence. Alex Wurtz in for service.
00:52:52Of course, that is our current race leader. In is the delayed number seven, which is now 16th.
00:52:5719th, Pedro Lamy was released early from the pit lane in the first hour and got collected by the incoming number 17, Pescarolo Team Peugeot.
00:53:08And at the time, Henri Pescarolo was not particularly, oh, as number one comes down pit road.
00:53:12Oh, busy, busy.
00:53:14Simon, it's one of those after nothing happens for 25 minutes moments, suddenly everybody's on pit road.
00:53:20And again, we've seen this last year, exactly what's happening. Every pit stop, every single driver change, every single tyre fuel situation seemed to throw something else up.
00:53:30Plus, we've had the chaos that was Peugeot at the beginning, as you just mentioned there.
00:53:33And now we've had this situation with the problem for the eight car.
00:53:38And the interesting thing is that I was talking to some of the guys from Audi.
00:53:42I was talking to Oliver Jarvis, who races for Audi and DTM.
00:53:44He has been talking to some of the engineers, who he obviously works with a lot on the DTM programme.
00:53:49And he said that, really, we haven't got an answer for Peugeot on pace.
00:53:52However, we know that we can run the pace we're at all day, all night, no problems.
00:53:57And we think that that's where it might come back to us.
00:53:59And I talked to Alan Mignish as well about fuel. I said, how many laps can you do?
00:54:03He said, 13. I said, can you squeeze 14? He said, 13.
00:54:07And I said, but Peugeot are doing 13s and 12s.
00:54:11He said, yeah, they can't do 13 all the time.
00:54:14So it looks like they can do two 12s and then maybe eek out a 13 from the dregs that are left.
00:54:20But he doesn't think they can do 13 every time.
00:54:24And for years, it's been that fuel economy that has swung the balance for Audi.
00:54:29But, of course, luck needs to go hand in hand with it.
00:54:31It does. The interesting thing, if you remember a little bit earlier on when we saw that tremendous opening stint by Frank Montagna in the eight car,
00:54:38immediately the man, Stefan Sarrazin, goes out and laps considerably slower than Montagna in the great scale of things.
00:54:45And we start to hypothesise, as we do, about this, that and the other.
00:54:49But we wonder, maybe that could potentially easily be that, can we get our 12 and a half laps to 13 laps if we run at X time instead of, let's try and drive away from the field time.
00:54:59And that could well have been the logic they were applying.
00:55:01The Persians are getting, they're getting 12, between sometimes 12, sometimes 13 laps.
00:55:09Last stop for the number eight car was, actually, well, it was only three laps because that was a problem, wasn't it, for that car.
00:55:15Before that, though, actually, they got 14 laps.
00:55:19Admittedly, the beginning of that was under the safety car.
00:55:21Whereas the last stop for the Audi, they did 12 laps and then 13 laps this time around with their last two pit stops.
00:55:29So it really is nip and tuck, I think, with Audi and Peugeot on the fuel.
00:55:33And certainly the Audi isn't, doesn't have the advantage that it had last year.
00:55:37Quick word on the number three Audi as well.
00:55:39Apparently, Dr. Orlis has just been saying that there's some problem with the fuel pickup.
00:55:43So whether it's a pickup in the tank, whether it's a pump problem or not.
00:55:46So we also were told at one stage we thought it might have been a turbo problem.
00:55:51But maybe that's actually related to lack of fuel rather than lack of turbo.
00:55:54So I think they're working backwards from no power to the source.
00:56:00In that car also had a turbo problem in qualifying, didn't it?
00:56:04Yes, I think that's right.
00:56:05But that was a much longer stop, of course, this time around.
00:56:08Do you think it could be a bit like back in the bad old days of Ferrari in the 70s when they had reliability issues?
00:56:13They said, we have an electrical issue with the engine.
00:56:15And the problem is that Conrod's gone through the alternator, that kind of thing.
00:56:19We haven't seen them lately.
00:56:21That was just behind Johnny Kane's car is the GT1 leader, Johnny O'Connell, who's still running absolutely beautifully there in that number 63 car.
00:56:34He's now, he's actually, oh, the 64 car is on the lead lap, a couple of minutes behind.
00:56:41And then Luc Alfond is driving the number 72 car.
00:56:45And behind him is his teammate, Yann Claret.
00:56:48They are a couple of laps behind the two factory GM Corvettes.
00:56:52Meanwhile, in LMP2, it's still Kunimoto who leads for Team Go in the Porsche RS Spyder.
00:56:58But Emmanuel Collard has been gradually chipping away at the advantage that Kunimoto had built up.
00:57:05So Emmanuel Collard now in the Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder within, well, three seconds or so of the class lead in LMP2.
00:57:13And the speedy Sabah car of Johnny Kane, third in the LMP2 class, ahead of Chris Dyson in the RML Lola that is still in fourth.
00:57:21Claude Yves Gosseland's car we just saw on pit road, the car he shares with Karim OJ, that's in fifth.
00:57:26Philip Pater has now left the pits in that car.
00:57:29And in sixth place is the Barazzi Epsilon car.
00:57:31Now, on to pit road comes Lucas Lure.
00:57:34Incidentally, Cadillac boy emailed us, lemond.eurosport at yahoo.com.
00:57:38Wanted to know if Doug Feehan was here.
00:57:40Well, yes, he is with all the other Pratt & Miller and Corvette Racing guys.
00:57:44And we will try and get Sebastian maybe or Justine to go down and have a chat with him.
00:57:50Feehan, of course, has been the architect of this program right from, as he would have it, the get-go.
00:57:55And now we'll be leading them after, hopefully, another glorious 1-2 at Le Mans on towards the GT2 program.
00:58:03And in fact, we had an email earlier, Jeremy, maybe you're the man for this,
00:58:06talking about the differences between racing here and racing in the States.
00:58:10And particularly in the Rolex series, how do LMP1 and LMP2 prototypes compare to the Daytona prototypes?
00:58:17We touched on this with John from Mazda Speed yesterday, Thursday now, didn't we?
00:58:22But I suppose an LMP2 car would be a little closer, but probably still a little quicker, wouldn't it?
00:58:29Yeah, I think quite a bit quicker, to be honest, yes.
00:58:34By design, though, because John was saying, wasn't he, he was saying that the idea in the Daytona prototypes
00:58:39is not to have them ridiculously fast compared to the GT classes,
00:58:44so that there's not so much danger in the closing speeds.
00:58:48Yeah, that's right. And also, they've worked very hard, the Rolex GT guys, to keep their concepts under control.
00:58:54It's not cheap, but it's certainly cheaper than a properly run LMP2 car.
00:58:59So, you know, you're kind of comparing apples and oranges with yes of those cars.
00:59:03I think the parallel with LMP2, though, is the fact that you see a lot of the cars that use essentially the same chassis,
00:59:08but a different type of engine, which you can see, obviously, the Lola and LMP2 is a great example of that,
00:59:13how they could do that. But, of course, I think the real key thing is, if you look at this Lola LMP2 car that we see at the moment,
00:59:19essentially, it's the same as the LMP1 car, with some modifications in terms of weight, in terms of power output, and aero, etc.
00:59:25So, chassis-wise, you've got the same foundations to work with, and that's really where the significant difference comes in, I think.
00:59:31Now, after we've seen so many problems for them, on to Pit Road for a routine service, as we watch the 33 Lola racing round,
00:59:41it's the 39 SKM, Schiller, Cruise Schiller Motorcycle, I only knew it was there in summer.
00:59:52The 39 Lola Master, the one that had crashed during the wet practice, and that has been nothing but trouble for its crew,
00:59:59now, they seem to have beaten the willful...
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