Le Mans 2012 – The Recap

Last week I posted that awful Le Mans 2012 preview post. I don’t know why it was so bad; it just was. Today I present you a much better post, recapping this year’s race.

First off, if you want to understand how the race works, read this post by Top Gear first.

The Start

Firstly, the traditional Le Mans start whereby drivers run to the car, climb in and set off, is no more. The FIA deemed this too dangerous, saying that someone was going to get run over.

The starting hours of the race were rather uneventful, but take a look at the synopsis of the hours preceding the race and the first lap, couresty of Le Mans Live:

The Major Crash

At the start of the 6th hour of the race, British driver Anthony Davidson in the Number 8 Toyota TS 030 Hybrid, was overtaking the Number 81 AF Corse Ferrari GTE Am. The two cars collided as they cruised into Mulsanne Corner, sending the Toyota flying – tumbling over the Ferrari (driven by Piergiuseppe Perazzini).

Crash Number 2

In the 6th hour, the other Toyota, still in the race and driven by Kazuki Nakajima, turned into the Nissan DeltaWing just after the restart – ending Nissan’s funny-looking DeltaWing-hopes of a Le Mans finish.

The Audi Recovery Crash

On Sunday afternoon, Roman Dumbas drove his Audi into the tires in one of the lamest and slowest crashes of the year. He jumped out of the car and desperately tried to recover his car.

 

Watch him pull bits off of the front before nursing a rather battered racer back to the pits.

The Result

The Audis took top honours again this year. They’ve won 5 of the last 6 races. This is also the first victory for a hybrid vehicle as #1 crew Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler repeated their 2011 triumph in this, the 80th running of the race.

The trio led a one-two victory for the new e-tron, topping an all-Audi podium.

But, while that result might have been widely predicted given the rival Toyota TS030′s lack of preparational mileage, paired with Audi’s enthusiasm for proving the effectiveness of its e-tron concept, this does not mean that the winners had it easy.