2011 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 79th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''79^e 24 Heures du Mans'') was an 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars. The race was held from 11 to 12 June 2011 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France, before 249,500 spectators. It was the third round of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, and the 79th edition of the event as organised by the automotive group the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. A test day was held six weeks prior on 24 April.

An Audi R18 TDI—driven by Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, and Benoît Tréluyer—started from the pole position, after Tréluyer ran the fastest lap in the third qualifying session. The car battled a trio of Peugeot 908s and secured the first Le Mans victory for the drivers, as well as Audi's tenth victory in the race. The Peugeot 908 driven by Sébastien Bourdais, Pedro Lamy, and Simon Pagenaud finished in second place, 13.854 seconds behind, in the race's fourth-closest result; and their teammates Nicolas Minassian, Franck Montagny, and Stéphane Sarrazin were third, two laps behind the race-winning Audi, completing the group on the podium.

The Greaves Motorsport team of Tom Kimber-Smith, Olivier Lombard, and Karim Ojjeh—who shared a Zytek Z11SN-Nissan car—won the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category, after leading for the final 137 laps of the race. The trio finished six laps ahead of Signatech Nissan's Oreca 03 vehicle driven by Soheil Ayari, Franck Mailleux, and Lucas Ordóñez, and seven laps in front of Level 5 Motorsports' Lola B08/80 car driven by João Barbosa, Christophe Bouchut, and Scott Tucker. Corvette Racing took their seventh class win—courtesy of drivers Olivier Beretta, Antonio García, and Tommy Milner—finishing first in a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R in the new Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) category. An AF Corse-fielded Ferrari 458 Italia GT2—driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Toni Vilander—and BMW Motorsport's BMW M3 GT2—driven by Joey Hand, Dirk Müller, and Andy Priaulx—in second and third, respectively, completed the class podium. Larbre Compétition took the first two positions in the new Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) class with their Chevrolet Corvette C6.R—driven by Patrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal, and Gabriele Gardel—ahead of the sister Porsche 997 GT3-RSR—driven by Jean-Philippe Belloc, Christophe Bourret, and Pascal Gibon.

Audi's victory moved them closer to Peugeot in the LMP1 Manufacturers' Cup and Corvette's class victory, promoting it past BMW and Ferrari for the LMGTE Manufacturers' Cup lead. The LMP1 Teams' Cup lead was assumed by Audi Sport Team Joest from Peugeot Sport Total, and Larbre overtook Proton Competition for the LMGTE Am Teams' Cup lead. Signatech and AF Corse maintained their advantage in the LMP2 and LMGTE Pro Teams' Cups, respectively, with four rounds remaining in the season.

Background

The 24 Hours of Le Mans was first held in 1923 after the automotive journalist Charles Faroux, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) general secretary Georges Durand, and the industrialist Emile Coquile agreed to hold a test of vehicle reliability and durability. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport. 2011 saw the 79th running of the race, which was held from 11 to 12 June 2011, at the Circuit de la Sarthe, close to Le Mans, France. and which was the third of the seven automobile endurance races of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

After winning the 1000 km of Spa six weeks earlier, Peugeot led the LMP1 Manufacturers' Cup with 55 points, 17 ahead of second-place Audi. BMW led the LMGTE Manufacturers Cup with 49 points, 11 points ahead of second-place Ferrari, and a further 14 ahead of third-place Corvette. Peugeot Sport led the LMP1 Teams' Cup with 27 points; Audi Sport Team Joest, Team Oreca, and Rebellion Racing followed with 19, 18, and 12 points, respectively. Signatech Nissan led the LMP2 Teams' Cup, with 22 points, and OAK Racing followed in second with four fewer points. AF Corse led the LMGTE Pro Teams' Cup, with 27 points, followed by BMW Motorsport, with 26 points. Proton Competition led the LMGTE Am standings, with 24 points, over second-place Krohn Racing, with 21 points.

Regulation changes

The ACO authored the 2011 regulations to respect the environment and support sustainable development by encouraging the use of new technologies and techniques that would lower carbon emissions and fuel consumption. Le Mans Prototype (LMP) cars could now be fitted with four-wheel or kinetic energy recovery system hybrid powertrains, to recover energy otherwise lost by braking, exhaust, or heat generated by the engine and suspension dampers. Each hybrid system was limited to between braking zones, and driver aids such as push-to-pass were prohibited. Engine sizes for both turbocharged and diesel engines were reduced, and the ACO lowered fuel capacity for both petrol and diesel vehicles. All prototype cars had to weigh and were installed with vertical fins atop the engine cover to reduce lift.

The second-tier Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was overhauled to keep costs low and affordable for privateer entries. All LMP2 cars had to be fitted with a budget-capped production-series engine, with requirements for engine life to increase incrementally from 30 hours to 50 hours over the next three years. 2010 LMP2 cars could be entered until but had to be heavier than 2011 vehicles, with no bodywork modifications permitted and their performance limited to being slower than the current specification cars. At least one silver- or bronze-rated driver had to be signed by each LMP2 team.

The ACO dropped the LM GT1 category and created a single set of regulations, based on 2009 LMGT2 rules, for the GT Endurance category, which was divided into two separate classes: LM GTE Pro and the LM GTE Am. This was done to avoid multiple calendar clashes with several racing series and because there were few entrants in the class other than the Le Mans race, as well as the category being exclusively for short-distance sprint events. The LM GTE Pro category featured new cars able to be used by any driver, while the LM GTE Am class was restricted to one-year-old vehicles, with a minimum of two drivers, per team, who held either a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) silver or bronze licence.

Entries

The ACO received 71 applications by the deadline for entries, 19 January 2011. It granted 56 invitations to the race, and entries were divided between the LMP1, LMP2, LMGTE Pro, and LMGTE Am categories. A total of 40 per cent of the applications were for entry to the LMGTE Am class.

Automatic entries

Automatic entries were granted to teams which won their class in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, or who won Le Mans-based series and events such as the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC), the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), the Le Mans Series (LMS), and the Petit Le Mans. Some second-place finishers from the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 2010 LMS were also granted automatic entries. Entries were also given to the winners of the LMS Green X Challenge. As automatic entries were granted to teams, teams were allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next, but not their category. Automatic invitations in the two GTE categories could be swapped between the two based on the driver line-ups chosen by those teams. As the ALMS did not differentiate between the Pro and Am categories, only a single GTE invitation was granted to their class champion.

On 3 December 2010, the ACO announced the list of automatic entries.

Entry list and reserves

On the afternoon of 9 February, in conjunction with the announcement of entries for the 2011 ILMC, the ACO announced the full 56-car entry list and 10-vehicle reserve list at a press conference at the headquarters of Radio France in Paris. In addition to the 26 full-season entries from the ILMC, the field was composed of entries from the ALMS and the LMS, along with one-off entries competing only at Le Mans. A total of ten reserves were initially nominated by the ACO: two from the LMP1 category, three from the LMP2 class, and the remaining five in both of the LMGTE classes. Withdrawals after 1 February were replaced class-by-class: an LMGTE entry would be replaced by another car from that category, and an LMP vehicle would fill the spot vacated by a withdrawn car from the two LMP categories.

On 12 April, Signatech Nissan withdrew its the second vehicle, the 27 Oreca 03-Nissan, from the entry list;. As a result, the No. 44 Extrême Limite AM Paris Norma MP200P-Judd BMW car was promoted to the entry list; and the Kronos Racing Lola-Aston Martin entry moved to first on the reserve list. The Pegasus Racing and Rangoni Motorsport entries were subsequently removed from the reserve list. On 16 May, the Highcroft Racing team withdrew its LMP1 ARX-01e- Honda car, citing a lack of financial support as the cause, while at the same time announcing the end of their partnership with Honda and HPD, due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The Kronos Racing Lola-Aston Martin was then promoted to the entry list. At the start of the event, two cars remained on the reserve list: the No. 69 Robertson Racing Ford GT-R-Doran and the No. 86 Young Driver AMR Vantage.

Testing and practice

For the 2011 race, the test session was reintroduced to Le Mans for the first time since , to allow manufacturers and teams to develop new technologies on their cars. The test day took place over two four-hour sessions on 24 April, seven weeks before the race. There were 54 cars from the race entry and reserve lists involved during testing, including three Formula Le Mans-class Oreca-FLM09s from Hope Racing, Genoa Racing, and JMB Racing. The United States-based Flying Lizard Motorsports, Highcroft Racing, and Krohn teams did not participate in the test due to cost and logistics. The European-based JMW Motorsport, Prospeed Competition, Quifel-ASM Team, and Strakka Racing squads also did not participate in the test session.

Romain Dumas set the fastest time in the first test session in the No. 3 Audi R18 TDI—with a lap time of 3 minutes, 27.900 seconds; but his teammate Tom Kristensen—in the sister No. 3 Audi—improved that time to 3 minutes, 27.687 seconds in the second session. Mike Rockenfeller followed, two-tenths of a seconds behind, in second place, while the fastest Peugeot 908 car was the No. 8 of Stéphane Sarrazin, in third. The No. 2 Audi of André Lotterer was fourth, with Sébastien Bourdais's No. 7 Peugeot fifth, and the No. 10 Team Oreca Matmut Peugeot 908 HDi FAP sixth after a lap from Loïc Duval. The fastest non-diesel LMP1 car was Emmanuel Collard's eighth-place No. 16 Pescarolo. Oreca-Nissans led the LMP2 class, with the fastest time set by Franck Mailleux, for Signatech, with a lap of 3 minutes, 42.992 seconds, ahead of the No. 48 Team Oreca Matmut car of Alexandre Prémat and Alex Brundle's No. 41 Greaves Motorsport entry. Allan Simonsen, in the No. 89 Hankook Team Farnbacher Ferrari 458 Italia, was the only driver to go below the 4-minute mark in the LMGTE Pro category, with a 3 minutes, 59.966 seconds lap to top the class. Tommy Milner helped Larbre Compétition's Chevrolet Corvette C6.R to the lead in LMGTE Am with a 4 minutes, 4.222 seconds lap. Separate incidents led to disruptions during practice: Dominik Kraihamer at Arnage corner, Andrea Belicchi on the Mulsanne Straight with a fractured right-rear toe link, and Guy Smith in the gravel trap at the PlayStation chicane due to a broken front toe link.

Official practice was held on 8 June with the full 56-car field on track for four hours. Audi and Peugeot drivers traded fastest lap times until the fastest overall time was a 3 minutes, 27.986 seconds lap set by Rockenfeller in the No. 1 Audi, three-tenths of a second ahead of Lotterer's No. 2 entry. Bourdais was the highest-placed Peugeot driver, in third, followed by Alexander Wurz's No. 7 vehicle and Allan McNish's No. 3 Audi. Jonny Kane's No. 42 Strakka HPD ARX-01d led LMP2 with a 3 minutes, 42.863 seconds lap, ahead of Prémat's No. 48 Oreca Matumt entry and Signatech's Soheil Ayari. The LMGTE Pro class was topped by the No. 55 BMW M3 GT2, with the sister No. 56 vehicle of Andy Priaulx second; and the fastest non-BMW car was Jan Magnussen's third-place No. 74 Corvette, despite a dislodged power steering hose. Fabien Giroix in Gulf AMR Middle East's No. 61 Aston Martin Vantage GT2 lapped fastest in LMGTE Am, ahead of Flying Lizard's No. 81 Porsche 997 GT3-RSR of Darren Law. The No. 76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche of Raymond Narac struck the tyre wall in the Porsche Curves' first part and stopped in the gravel trap, severely damaging the car and stopping practice for eighteen minutes. Roger Wills, aboard CRS Racing's No. 62 Ferrari F430 GT2, struck the barrier exiting the Porsche Curves and damaged the car's front-left suspension and radiator, just before the session's mid-point.

Qualifying

The first of three two-hour qualifying sessions began late on an 8 June night, under dry and cool conditions. Audi led from the start with a flying lap from McNish, followed by Rockenfeller, and then Lotterer leading overall. Sarrazin's 3 minutes, 27.033 seconds lap, set with half an hour remaining, put the No. 8 Peugeot on provisional pole position, which it held to the session's conclusion. The trio of Audis driven by Lotterer, Rockenfeller, and Kristensen followed in the next three positions. Wurz was the next fastest Peugeot, in fifth, after traffic slowed him in the final third of the lap. His teammate Bourdais was provisional sixth. Collard, piloting the No. 16 Pescarolo, was the fastest driver in the petrol-powered LMP1 entries, in eighth. Dumas exited Mulsanne corner at speed and collided side-on with the right-hand corner in the door area of Roald Goethe's stopped No. 60 Aston Martin, which had spun earlier. Both drivers were unhurt, and qualifying was stopped for five minutes. Kane carried Strakka's car to provisional pole in LMP2, with a 3 minutes, 42.615 seconds lap almost 40 minutes in, ahead of Mailleux's Singatech, Premat's Oreca Matmut, and Tom Kimber-Smith's Greaves entries. Nick Leventis lost control of the Strakka car and crashed into the tyre barrier, just before the Dunlop, backwards at approximately and at 9.4 G, scattering debris on the track and concluding the session with 30 seconds left. The professional class of LMGTE saw BMW lead with a flying lap from Priaulx in the No. 56 car, ahead of Gianmaria Bruni's No. 51 Ferrari and Augusto Farfus's sister No. 55 BMW, with the first eight separated by 1.572 seconds. Jean-Philippe Belloc helped Porsche top LMGTE Am, ahead of Spencer Pumpelly's Flying Lizard and Giroix's Gulf AMR Middle East's Aston Martin entries.

After the first session, Strakka reconstructed its car overnight and changed its programme to provide their drivers the opportunity to acclimatise to race conditions. The IMSA Performance Porsche was able to return to competitive running after it was transported and rebuilt at the team's headquarters in Rouen, Normandy, overnight. The second qualifying session saw Sarrazin improve provisional pole to a 3 minutes, 26.336 seconds time and then to a 3 minutes, 26.156 lap. Marcel Fässler then overtook Sarrazin to move the No. 2 Audi to first with a 3 minutes, 25.961 seconds lap which he held to the session's conclusion. The No. 8 Peugeot was demoted to second as the sister No. 7 car improved to third after a lap from Marc Gené. McNish kept Audi's No. 3 entry in fourth, with Dumas' No. 1 car falling to fifth and Franck Montagny retaining sixth for the No. 9 Peugeot team. Ayari reset LMP2's quickest lap time to a 3 minutes, 41.458 seconds time for Signatech. Premat improved the Oreca Matmut car while Pierre Kaffer moved the Pecom Lola- Judd vehicle to second and third in class, respectively. In LMGTE Pro, AF Corse led the session and claimed provisional pole position with the quickest class lap set by Bruni, demoting the No. 55 BMW of Jörg Müller. Similarly, AF Corse's No. 61 Ferrari of Marco Cioci improved the LMGTE Am pole position lap, with Horst Felbermayer Jr driving the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche to second in the category. During the session, which saw several cars affected by mechanical issues, Priaulx lost control of the No. 56 BMW at the Ford Chicane, after possibly driving over debris or gravel, and crashed into the outside tyre barrier.

In the third session, Dumas, in the No. 1 Audi, bettered the No. 2 car's provisional pole lap before Benoît Tréluyer reset the fastest time to a 3 minutes, 25.738 seconds and held first until the session ended. Audi achieved their first overall pole position in the five years since . Dumas gained the No. 1 entry to join Tréluyer's No. 2 vehicle on the grid's front row while Simon Pagenaud qualified the No. 9 Peugeot third. Nicolas Minassian put the No. 8 Peugeot fourth, Kristensen qualified the No. 3 Audi fifth, with the No. 7 Peugeot of Anthony Davidson placing sixth. Davidson spun the No. 7 Peugeot in the Ford Chicane early in the session before Kristensen lost control of the No. 3 Audi upon a kerb and went through the Tetre Rouge gravel trap to crash the car. Signatech's second-session lap did not improve on Ayari's lap; and Ayari thus secured the LMP2 pole position. Kane's lap time could not be bettered by his Strakka team; and he began from second in the category, with Oreca Matmut starting third in category. Farfus bettered the LMGTE Pro pole lap, and the No. 55 BMW remained atop the class until the session's conclusion. The No. 51 Ferrari began from second, as the No. 56 BMW fell to third after not being able to partake in the session, following Priaulx's second-session accident. Cioci earned AF Corse the inaugural LMGTE Am pole position, with an improved fastest lap. The session was halted for 20 minutes when Anthony Beltoise crashed the No. 58 Luxury Racing Ferrari at Mulsanne Corner after hitting oil and Christian Klien, in the No. 009 Aston Martin AMR-One, picked up a left-rear puncture, prompting the laying of cement dust on the racing line.

Qualifying results

Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold. The fastest time set by each entry is denoted in gray.

Warm-up

The drivers had a 45-minute warm-up session at 09:00 local time on 11 June in cloudy conditions without rain. Bourdais' No. 9 Peugeot recorded the fastest lap—3 minutes, 27.228 seconds—just before the session's end. Pole-position qualifier Tréluyer was second-fastest, with his Audi teammates Timo Bernhard and Kristensen third and fourth. The quickest LMP2 lap was that of 3 minutes, 43.449 seconds set by Mallieux's Signatech entry. AF Corse's LMGTE Pro Ferrari of Toni Vilander led that class, while Niclas Jönsson's Krohn Ferrari led LMGTE Am. Rui Águas stopped AF Corse's No. 71 Ferrari at Mulsanne corner with a suspected differential issue. Kaffer continued straight on at the Arnage turn and restarted the Pecom car to continue his race preparations.

Race

Start to early evening

Pre-race weather was dry and clear with the air temperature between and the track temperature between . The race, which was attended by 249,500, started with a rolling start at 15:00 local time with Jean Todt, the FIA president, waving the French Tricolour from the starter's gantry to begin proceedings. The 56-car field was led by Tréluyer for the first ten laps. His teammate McNish overtook Bourdais for fourth before the Mulsanne Straight and then Montagny on the outside at the PlayStation chicane after a five-lap battle that saw Montagny put McNish towards the pit lane barrier. Aston Martin Racing lost both of its LMP1-class AMR Ones during the first hour when Darren Turner lost control of the No. 009 entry and beached it in the first Mulsanne chicane gravel and Adrián Fernández brought the No. 007 car into the garage with unrepairable broken engine aluminium alternator pulleys breaking the pulley-linked drive alternator and water pump gear. Bruni moved Ferrari's No. 51 car to the LMGTE Pro lead followed by Oliver Gavin's No. 74 Corvette in second after passing Farfus. Gavin held off Farfus on the Mulsanne Straight in the following laps before Farfus re-overtook him for second in class.

Mallieux's Signatech car forfeited the LMP2 lead it had held since the start, to Prémat's No. 48 Oreca entry after 34 minutes, because of a left-rear puncture causing bodywork damage. The first hour ended with McNish passing Bernhard's slowing No. 1 Audi for the lead on the inside, past the Dunlop Bridge, before Beltoise was caught off guard and hit the No. 3 car's rear in the high speed right-hand Esses. McNish went through the gravel backwards and struck the outside tyre wall at high speed, at a gap that was there to allow cars to be moved to a safer location beyond the gravel, and landed upside down on its side. The impact destroyed the Audi and sent debris flying across a group of photographers through the inside catch fence.
The marshals turned the Audi upright and McNish exited it unhurt. McNish was transported to the infield medical centre and then to a local hospital for tests that cleared him. The safety cars were deployed for 72 minutes as marshals worked to repair the damaged walls. Under safety car conditions, Montagny brought the No. 8 Peugeot into the garage earlier than scheduled to rectify a stuck vehicle brake-balance distribution unit in the rearmost area, and it rejoined the race in eighth with Sarrazin driving.

When racing resumed, Nick Tandy in the No. 88 Felbermayr Porsche was lapping faster than Corvette's Olivier Beretta and overtook him for second in the LMGTE Pro class. Tréluyer maintained the lead until a pit stop cycle saw his teammate Bernhard temporarily move past him, since the cars made pit stops in numerical order. Bernhard had driven over a kerb damaging the No. 1 Audi's nose line while lapping a slower GT car, reducing the amount of available downforce. Tréluyer and Wurz demoted Bernhard to third, following separate overtakes on the Mulsanne Straight. Audi brought the No. 1 car into the pit lane for a replacement front nose, and Bernhard fell to fifth. LMP2 became a duel for first between Prémat and, later, Kraihamer's Oreca and the Strakka car of Danny Watts, who was drawing closer to the Oreca. Jörg Müller relinquished the No. 55 BMW's hold on third in LMGTE Pro, due to a right-rear puncture that required it to enter the garage, and dropped two laps behind the class leader. Pagenaud lost control of the No. 9 Peugeot and went straight at Arnage turn, causing him to steer the car around in order to rejoin the circuit.

Davidson took over the race lead in the No. 7 Porsche from Fässler's No. 2 Audi, courtesy of his car being able to drive longer between pit stops. Dumas was recovering lost ground in the No. 1 Audi when he lost control of it lapping the LMGTE Am-class No. 71 Porsche on the inside at Tetre Rouge; he maintained the car's hold on fourth. AF Corse saw their hold on third in the LMGTE Pro class ceded to Antonio García in the No. 73 Corvette, when Vilander drove straight into the gravel trap at Mulsanne Corner and required trackside recovery to enable the Ferrari's return to the circuit. Matías Russo was able to pass Leventis's Strakka entry and moved into third position in LMP2. The No. 7 Peugeot of Davidson and the No. 2 Audi of Fässler exchanged the race lead during the sixth hour, until Fässler was able to establish a minute's lead over the remainder of the field. LMGTE Am became a tight duel with the distance between the class leader, and sixth in category, of just more than a minute, due to the track's length, and which involved the Flying Lizard, Krohn, AF Corse, and Larbre teams.

Night to dawn

As night began to fall, Rockenfeller in the No. 1 Audi overtook Lamy in the No. 9 Peugeot for third place after Lamy's car had been affected by a door repeatedly flapping open, as Lotterer and Gené continued to duel for the race lead. Priaulx relinquished the No. 56 BMW's hold on second in LMGTE Pro, due to an engine misfire requiring changing the engine control unit and ignition coil. LMGTE Am saw the two Larbre entries—the No. 70 Corvette and the No. 50 Porsche—duel for the category lead with the Corvette consistently lapping faster than the Porsche. Gené fell back from Lotterer in the duel for the overall lead; and the No. 7 Peugeot was put under pressure by Rockenfeller's No. 1 Audi, which took second by causing Gené to drift wide onto the Arnage corner run-off area and lose 30 seconds in the eighth hour. Not long after, Rockenfeller was lapping the No. 71 Ferrari of Rob Kauffman at the second kink on the straight linking Mulsanne and the Indianapolis corner, when Kauffman drove into Rockenfeller's path and made contact with the rear of the No. 1 Audi. Rockenfeller's car was sent spearing left into the Armco barrier at high speed, destroying the Audi and around of barrier, with the car recrossing the road and scattering much debris on it. The ACO ordered Kauffman to not partake in the remainder of the race, and Rockenfeller was kept in hospital overnight with a minor flesh wound to his right arm.

The safety cars were deployed for the second time, for 2 hours, 22 minutes, to allow marshals to repair the damaged Armco barrier and remove debris. All of the leading prototype cars were driven into the pit lane for full-service pit stops. CRS brought their No. 62 Ferrari into the garage for new tyres, due to driver Shaun Lynn heavily damaging the vehicle's right-rear corner against the Ford Chicane barrier after losing control turning into the corner. The resulting damage included bodywork jamming the right-rear wheel against the fuel cell, causing an oil leak that was repaired by Lynn before the car's clutch burned out. When racing resumed, the sole remaining No. 2 Audi and the three Peugeots exchanged the lead several times over the following hours during pit stop cycles. Prémat relinquished the LMP2 lead, which the No. 48 Oreca had maintained for 96 laps, to the Greaves entry of Olivier Lombard, because of electrical issues that forced the Oreca's moving to the garage. The battle for second place in the LMGTE classes saw four drivers within twelve seconds of each other in Pro and three competitors within three seconds of one another in Am. Watts moved the Strakka LMP2 car to second in category, with successive overtakes of Russo and Kraihamer.

The LMP2 category saw the retirement of two cars running in the top three. Russo lost control of the third-place Pecom car in the Porsche Curves, when it suddenly drove right into the barrier. Watts, in the Strakka entry, made contact with a kerb and the car sustained damage to its front aerodynamics. A change of front nose cone during a pit stop rectified the problem before Watts smelt oil and stopped the car at the first Mulsanne chicane, because of a suspected oil cooler issue, and then abandoned the car after telemetry determined that it should not be restarted. Kraihamer was lapping faster than Karim Ojjeh's No. 41 Greaves car and overtook him to reclaim the LMP2 lead in the No. 48 Oreca, due to making one fewer pit stop. Ayari brought the Signatech car to third-in-category when he passed João Barbosa as the Nos. 7 and 8 Peugeots twice exchanged third overall during a pit stop cycle. Pagenaud and his teammate Davidson were able to close up to Fässler in the No. 2 Audi and took the first two positions in the race just before the safety cars were deployed for the third time. Jean-Christophe Boullion substantially damaged the front of the No. 13 Rebellion in an accident at the Porsche Curves; marshals were required to remove the car and clear debris in the accident area. Boullion was unhurt.

As racing continued in the early morning, the first three entries were all close together. Fässler moved from third to lead the race after a pit stop cycle, before losing the advantage when Davidson overtook him on the inside on entering Indianapolis corner. Davidson was pressured by Fässler through the Porsche Curves; and the former flat-spotted the front wheels on the No. 7 Peugeot when he locked them at the first Mulsanne chicane, enabling Fässler to reclaim first place. The safety cars were deployed for the fourth time when Christophe Bourret beached the No. 70 Larbre Porsche on the edge of the gravel in the Porsche Curves and reversed to return to the track. Stéphane Ortelli then stopped the No. 59 Ferrari on the track and required assistance from marshals and trackside equipment for recovery. During the safety car period, David Hallyday, in the second-placed No. 48 Oreca LMP2 entry, went straight on at Arnage corner and damaged the car's front-right corner in an attempt to retain tyre temperature. Hallyday abandoned the car on the run-off area, and it was transported to the pit lane on a flatbed truck. The Oreca's retirement promoted Mallieux's No. 28 Signatech car to second in LMP2 and Christophe Bouchut's No. 33 Level 5 Motorsports entry to third in category.

Morning to finish

Beretta, who was combating carbon monoxide poisoning from inhaling fumes during earlier safety car periods, missed his braking point for Arnage corner and went straight into the turn's tyre barrier with the front of the No. 73 Corvette. He reversed the car and rejoined the circuit, retaining third in LMGTE Pro. The No. 81 Flying Lizard Porsche of Seth Neiman ran wide into the gravel at Mulsanne and was forced to temporarily relinquish the lead of LMGTE Am to the No. 50 Larbre driven by Gabriele Gardel, when Neiman entered the garage with liquids leaking from the car's rear. Neiman was then relieved by Pumpelly, who battled Gardel for the category lead until Gardel claimed the position. Magnussen, in Corvette's No. 73 LMGTE Pro–leading car, was lapping the No. 63 LMGTE Am Proton Porsche of Horst Felbermayr, on the inside, when he lost control of his car's rear. He struck the side of Felbermayr's car and sent both vehicles into the barrier before ricocheting back across to the wall on the circuit's other side. The accident forced the retirement of both the Corvette and Porsche; and Vilander's No. 51 Ferrari was promoted to the LMGTE Pro lead, with Beretta's No. 63 Corvette second.

The safety cars were deployed for the fifth time, marshals spent 29 minutes clearing debris in the accident area, and recovery vehicles were used to extricate the damaged vehicles. Following the resumption of racing, the No. 7 and 8 Peugeots were released from the pit lane a lap before the No. 2 Audi of Tréluyer that was at the back of the nearest safety car's queue. Pagenaud took the race lead from Tréluyer before the latter was able to reclaim the position on the outside, entering the second Mulsanne chicane and pulling away with a series of fastest laps. The No. 8 Peugeot of Sarrazin was assessed a one-minute stop-and-go penalty, due to the team member holding the refuelling hose having an improperly placed visor when fuel was being added to the car, and lost a lap to the race leader. In the 19th hour, Wurz missed the apex for Indianapolis corner and went straight on. He made light contact with the tyre barrier at the exit of the turn, and the No. 7 Peugeot received heavy damage to its front-right corner and a wobbling right-front wheel. The car was extricated by a tractor and was taken to the garage, where it lost four laps to the race leaders while repairs to its front suspension were being made.

At the end of the 19th hour, light rain began to fall on parts of the circuit and increased in intensity not long after, although initially not enough to affect the race. Tréluyer approached the rear of the lapped Davidson and was blocked from further lapping the No. 7 Peugeot due to its blocking his path and removing downforce from Audi's No. 2 car. Audi told Tréluyer to slow and not put a further lap on Davidson. Lotterer relieved Tréluyer during a routine pit stop before the No. 2 Audi was again slowed by a Peugeot, this time by Montagny's No. 8 entry, before being lapped at Mulsanne turn. García's No. 73 Corvette took the LMGTE Pro lead after Ferrari's No. 51 entry was unable to immediately restart due to clutch and electrical problems, when driver Vilander attempted to drive away from a pit box. Rain returned to the track during the 22nd hour, and some cars were caught out by the change in conditions. Kimber-Smith lost control of the Greaves Zytek car and temporarily beached the car on the gravel at the Dunlop S before recovering with assistance and without losing the LMP2 lead. Collard crashed the fifth-place No. 16 Pescarolo 01 into the tyre barrier entering the Porsche Curves, and the car was retired.

In the 23rd hour, Lotterer was delayed by the fourth-place Gené, whom he was attempting to lap; and the two drivers made contact going into the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. Lotterer was able to lap Gené after the Mulsanne turn. Robertson Racing's No. 68 Ford GT was promoted to third in LMGTE Am after the JMB Racing Ferrari had to twice enter the garage for clutch repairs. The circuit had become completely dry by the final hour's start. Lotterer was forced to make an extra pit stop to receive four new tyres, and fuel, with fewer than 40 minutes remaining, after Audi noticed the No. 2 car's left-rear tyre was slowly deflating. Race control decided that there would be no traditional slow lap to finish the race, with flag waving by marshals; but, instead, a full lap at slow speed would occur after the first car had completed the event. Pascale Gibson, in the second-place LMGTE Am Larbre Porsche, crashed into a tyre wall; but he was able to recover without relinquishing his position.

Lotterer was able to pull way from the No. 9 Peugeot by responding to the car's fast pace in the final half-hour; and the No. 2 Audi was the first to finish, after 355 laps, achieving the first Le Mans win for Lotterer, Fässler, and Tréluyer, and Audi's tenth. Their lead engineer, Leena Gade, was the first female race engineer to win the event. Pagenaud, in the No. 9 Peugeot, followed 13.854 seconds later in second, for the fourth-closest recorded Le Mans finish; and the No. 8 Peugeot, driven by the headache-affected and visually impaired Minassian, due to overnight car vibrations, completed the podium two laps behind in third. Greaves was undaunted for the final 137 laps in LMP2; and drivers Kimber-Smith, Lombard, and Ojjeh claimed their first class wins and Nissan's first since . Signatech were six laps behind in second, and Level 5 took third in their Le Mans debut. Corvette Racing held their lead in LMGTE Pro, earning the team their seventh category win, and Milner's maiden class victory, García's fourth, and Beretta's sixth. AF Corse took their first Le Mans class podium with the No. 51 Ferrari second, and BMW's No. 56 car was third. Corvette also won in LMGTE Am, with Larbre achieving their sixth category win with the No. 50 Corvette, ahead of the sister No. 70 Corvette and Robertson's Ford GT. On David and Andrea Robertson's wedding anniversary, the two became the first married couple to finish on the podium.

Post-race

The top three teams in each of the four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media at later press conferences. Fässler described how he felt when he observed his co-drivers duel with Peugeot in the closing stages: "In the last five hours I was in the pits with everybody, standing by the car when it came in. I didn't know where we were going in the rain. I know how difficult it is to drive a car like this on slicks in the rain." Bourdais conceded Peugeot lost to a slightly stronger, quicker, and more reliable Audi squad; and his teammate Pagenaud preferred to have been the driver being caught, adding: "It was more difficult to finish second by only 13 seconds because it was such a tough battle." Davidson denied employing gamesmanship against Lotterer, saying he had not received a team order and acted on his own initiative. He also said he did not deliberately collide with Lotterer and that the closed-cockpit Peugeot allowed him to only observe the latter whilst braking.

McNish was advised not to travel, so he could recover from body trauma. He praised the strength of the Audi, and said of the first-hour accident that led to the No. 3 car's retirement: "Obviously, it was a very big accident. I think everybody realises that. I've been banged around a little bit, but the biggest thing is a little bit of pain in the bottom of my back and a big graze around my shin. Considering the impact, the speed and everything else, I think we all got away quite fortunate." Beltoise said he did not observe McNish approaching his Ferrari from behind and was "very surprised" by the incident. Rockenfeller praised car safety standards following his accident with Kauffman, saying: "The safety standards at Audi are simply incredible and have saved my life. I've never had such an accident before in my career and hope I'll never have such an experience again." Wolfgang Ullrich, the Audi team principal, said that the closed-cockpit vehicle design did not provide as wide a view as from an open-cockpit car but denied that the team's two major race accidents were caused by visibility-related issues.

Kimber-Smith stated that Greaves's race-long low-risk strategy had proved fruitful, adding: "There's a perception that you always have to be fast, but in LMP2 you also have to finish and that's exactly what we did." His teammate Lombard described the team's victory as "truly exceptional", having tested the car just once, saying: "It was a delight for me and even though there was fatigue and stress I thought I coped well. Hopefully this success can be the start of things, maybe even a driver for next year as well." Milner described his LMGTE Pro victory as "the hardest drive of my life" and said the changeable conditions would have made it easier. Beretta said he became ill during a safety car period, from breathing in exhaust gas, and said of the challenge Corvette faced: "We had a lot of pressure and we just pushed as hard as we could. I think we really deserve the victory." Doug Fehan, Corvette Racing's general manager, commented: "If I were to write a script to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Chevrolet and the 10th anniversary of Corvette Racing's first win at Le Mans, this would undoubtedly be it."

The final result meant that Peugeot remained in the LMP1 Manufacturers' Cup lead with 103 points, ahead of Audi with 69 points. Corvette's class victory saw them progress to the top of the LMGTE Manufactuers' Cup with 84 points, ahead of Ferrari and BMW with 72 points each. Audi Sport Team Joest overtook Peugeot Sport to lead the LMP1 Teams' Cup, while Signatech and AF Corse retained the LMP2 and LMGTE Pro Teams' Cups, respectively. Larbre moved past Proton Competition to lead the LMGTE Am Teams' Cup with four rounds remaining in the 2011 ILMC season.

Race classification

Class winners are marked in bold. Cars failing to complete 70 per cent of winner's distance (249 laps) are marked as Not Classified (NC).

Championship standings after the race

References

External links

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{{24 Hours of Le Mans

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