Though marred by tragedy, the 2013 2013 24hrs of Le Mans ended with predictable results. Hit the jump for a lot of pictures and just a tiny bit of commentary.
Sadly we begin, as all 2013 24hrs of Le Mans articles must, in offering our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Allan Simonsen. The Danish driver crashed heavily into Tetre Rouge during the first minutes of the race. In this era of incredible car safety, Allan Simonsen’s death is a shocking reminder that motorsports still has a very serious element of risk.
Going into this years 24hrs of Le Mans it was almost a foregone conclusion that the Audi uber-team, with 11 wins in the last 13 years, would simply grind the opposition into dust. Toyota came to the party with a newly revised LMP1 hybrid and while the number 8 Toyota TS030 of Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin managed a second place finish they were a lap down from the first place Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Kristensen/Duval/McNish.
The best LMP1 Privateer, Strakka Racing’s HPD ARX 03c-Honda, finished 16 laps down on the factory Audi.
The modern LMP1 factory cars are simply amazing pieces of technology but the fact that each design essentially runs under it’s own set of rules somewhat dulls the sense that the are competing on a level field. I understand that the manufacturers with deep pockets want a class that is a technological showcase but I doubt that I am the only one that would prefer to see more than one or two factory LMP1 teams show up for the 24hrs of Le Mans. Perhaps some adjustment to the regulations is necessary.
On the verge of extinction not to long ago the LMP2 category had over 20 entrants, more than twice as many as LMP1 and the biggest single category of the race. The racing was also pretty good cars battle through out the field before the Oak Racing team managed a 1-2 finish with the G-Drive Racing Oreca 03 in third.
The LMGTE categories were both won by Porsche 911s with the Porsche AG Team Manthey taking first in LMGTE Pro and the IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR capturing the crown in the LMGTE Am category.
Notable in the LMGTE Am category was the AF Corse team who provided quite a bit of entertainment with their keystone cops routine in the pitlane.
For all the official results including an hour by hour break down if the race check out the official 24hrs of Le Mans website.
As always we leave you with an image gallery from the race weekend as well as links to Flickr user Antoinoe Valentini’s great photo sets. Thanks for publishing under the Creative Commons license Antoine, we and our readers appreciate it.
Le Mans 2013 test session, photos by Antoine Valentini
Le Mans 2013 race, photos by Antoine Valentini
