Le Mans 24 Hours - Wrapping That One Up - Part 3 - GTE-Pro

The GTE-Pro  field may have been a little lacking in numbers but it was rock solid in quality

2012 was a four way contest with 2011 winners Corvette looking to fend off the challenge from Ferrari, Porsche and the newly rejuvenated Aston Martin Vantage.

The whole class featured (with one exception) all pro line-ups – Le Mans was a real dogfight, but as things would turn out the real lead battle was fought out by less than half of the starters, with just three leaders through the 24 hours and a first time winning team that now adds ther Le Mans 24 Hours to a long, long list of sportscar successes.

Porsche Pair

There were but two bullets in the Porsche gun at Le Mans and in truth neither team expected to win this one on pace, the tactics from both focussing firmly on solid trouble-free runs and reliability, Porsche insiders glumly telling DSC that the opposition have the run on the 997s in more or less every department.

As things would turn out neither Porsche would have a clear run, and neither would finish.

The Flying Lizard’s run of Le Mans Luck (Bad) continued with Jorg Bergmeister struggling already even before a failed damper pitched the #80 car off at Indianapolis.  That was the start of a succession of stops for the Lizards with no fewer than three dampers requiring replacement, plus a puncture!

The final act in a trying run was when Pat Long found a huge amount of gravel on the track at the first chicane courtesy of someone else’s off which pitched him into the barriers, the car struggled as far as the second chicane but then it was game over.

The #77 Felbermayr Proton car meanwhile had a less troubled run but never really challenged the leading trio despite the best efforts of its very talented driving trio.

It ran as high as fourth in the early running (and third as the Corvettes hit trouble overnight) but dropped back as others recovered from earlier delays, the Porsche having no real answer to the ultimate pace of the rest of the field.

The only possible winning hand from Porsche was reliability and that was trumped when the #77 car stopped, and retired, on track at around 5am with a loss of gearbox hydraulics – Porsche need a better plan it seems. 

Aston Martin – Comeback Kings

Aston Martin Racing fielded a single Pro class Vantage GTE for this race after the disastrous LMP1 campaign of 2011 and the 2012 saw a return to form and then some for the Prodrive boys – Their new toy was just plain fast!

Mucke led from the start and got involved in a stint long battle with Oliver Gavin’s Corvette, followed by a battle with Milner, the car that previously had the legs (by some distance) on the Vantage was struggling (and often failing) to find a way by, it seems that the performance upgrades allowed for 2012 have worked!

The Aston was reliable too, just an off for Mucke and a single puncture interrupted its progress.

That off for the German though probably cost Aston Martin a win, dropping the car laps down as the car was recovered and repaired.  Throughout though the pace of the Vantage was stunning, clearly the fastest car of the lot this year, who would have thought that a couple of years ago?

The AMR team, thanks to great pit work and good driving from all three drivers, came home a very well deserved third, yet more WEC points in the bag in what looks to be a year that may well produce a win!

It Shouldn’t Happen To A Vette

Corvette next, and it’s probably fair to say that they started the week as favourites to retain their 2011 title here, the big yellow coupes seemingly ideally suited to the wide open spaces, long straights and super fast Porsche Curves.

It looked good from the start too, especially for the #74 car, Oliver Gavin getting stuck in straight away in yet another wheel to wheel GTE battle right from the start.

That battle continued when Tommy Milner took the wheel, and if anthying was even more intense at that point – Wonderful stuff to behold as Vette, Aston and Ferrari got it on!

The car led (one of only three to do so this year), but from there on in it sadly went downhill.

Indeed the #74 car was leading the race with the sister car in third when misfortune struck.

Something went wrong at what turned out to be a rather less than routine pitstop, and, as Richard Westbrook rejoined the car lost it’s left-rear wheel.

The slow in lap and repair to the car’s rear diffuser dropped the car back to sixth place but it was soon in even more trouble as Westbrook hit the barrier at the first chicane, attempting to miss someone else’s incident damaging the nose and requiring another extended stay in the garage for the nose to be changed, the team also took the opportunity to attend to the transaxle which proved to have been damaged from the first incident too!

The #74 car was already then out of contention when Tommy Milner had contact from an Audi and then an accident in the Porsche Curves, the team opting to garage the car until the last 40 minutes, the car emerging for the last 40 minutes but finishing unclassified.

And it was far from trouble free running either for the #73 - After running as high as second place the car suffered a lengthy stop to replace the steering rack.

A new alternator was fitted but there were still electrical issues and the team  made a series of battery replacements to cope with a problem in the charging system.

It all translated into a fifth place finish for the car, and that was as good as it got for the men in yellow.

Forza Ferrari

From disaster in practice to a dominant win. Ferrari were numerically dominant in the class but they had to fight hard for this one and had to rely too on misfortune for others.  The result though was an exceptional one for the AF Corse team.

Before we get there though lets look at the other 458s.

The JMW team came to the race with their usual Dunlop development rubber, an art car livery and a brand new paddleshift ‘box.

They came too with the expectation that their race would be one of looking for consistency and reliability, their overall pace couldn’t match the rest simply because they had a Pro-Am line-up in an otherwise all pro field.  Jonny Cocker and James Walker were up to the task and Roger Wills knew exactly what he had to do – keep it on the black stuff.

That said the pace was good, the consistency excellent, the #66 car was sitting (very) pretty and taking advantage as and when the competition faltered.  A podium finish was always the ultimate target and the car was rising up the order nicely, up to fifth when, with no warning, James Walker ground to a halt on the Mulsanne Straight with just 8 hours remaining.

It was a driveshaft issue, beyond Walker, or the team’s ability to fix with the car stranded out on the circuit – Game Over!

Luxury Racing have been looking stronger and stronger as the season has progressed and their driver line-up for Le Mans was a strong as any out there – Pole position for Fred Makowiecki reflected the pace of both the car and the man but the car was economical too, though oddly it was that very economy that may well have cost the car the win!

How so? Because the team were looking to take full advantage of the car’s fuel sipping qualities but overstretched themselves just a little leaving Jaime Melo out of fuel in the pit entry in the second hour – that cost the team two laps, effectively taking them out of a race for the win for the remainder of the race despite excellent pace from all three drivers throughout.

They should be very pleased indeed with the second place that they won on both speed and economy, as well as reliability, but the team will no doubt be looking back and thinking that they coulda, shoulda woulda won it!

Which brings us to AF Corse – Let’s start with the #71 car – it finished fourth after a slightly topsy turvy run including a lengthy delay after a trip into the gravel by Beretta early in the race that left the car playing catch-up.

The team set about the catch-up task with some vigour but lost time again overnight leaving them wanting, or rather needing, problems from those ahead.

And those problems came, but from the #71 crew’s perspective just not quite enough of them!

So then – The #51 car ended its first track session of the race week in several hundred pieces, the car needing reshelling after a big off for Fisichella.

That meant that the ‘new’ #51 didn’t see the track until the last half hour of the final qualifying session, AF Corse given a waiver to allow Bruni and Fisichella permission to do their night qualifying laps in the sister #71 car - Fisichella captured in this pic at the wheel of #71 by the ever vigilant Paul Mousley.

To get the car back on track that soon showed the class of the AF Corse squad, they’d need all of that again to get the car, effectively untested, into contention and to keep it there.

From the off the car, starting from the back of the GTE Pro grid, was making rapid progress and moving into the second hour it was involved in the emergent and hugely entertaining top three tussle, the Ferrari leading as its superior fuel economy began to tell.

When the Aston and the Corvette both hit trouble the #51 car powered on, it’s peerless progress interrupted only by a brief spin for Fisichella.

Bruni, Fisi and Vilander showed their class, and with faultless pit work and a reliable car, AF Corse did too.

Of all of the achievements at Le Mans 2012, from Audi, from Starworks, from Larbre Competition the first win in the top GT class by one of the most dominant GT teams of this generation might just prove to be one of the most significant.

GG