LE MANS: THE GREATEST RACE

PEUGEOT ON TOP AGAIN IN ZHUHAI LE MANS FINAL

<strong>Peugeot have kept their recent edge on Audi alaive with a one, two in qulifying for tomorrow's 6 hour race at Zuhai in China.</strong> Anthony Davidson set a fast lap of 1:22;038 to edge out team-mate Stephane Sarrazin and the Audi pair of Tom Kristensen and Macel Fassler. Neel Jarni in the rebellion Toyota was the quickest of the petrol cars in fourth place just ahead of the Oak Pescarolo Judd of Neel Jarni. Stefan Mucke had a dissapointing run in the Aston Martin and will start back in seventh place.

AUDI ENDURANCE DOMINANCE CONTINUES AT SPA

Audi have backed up their 2011 Le Mans victory with a win in the most important endurance race for GT cars, the Spa 24 hours. The Audi R8 LMS GT3 of DTM stars Mattias Ekström (Sweden) Timo Scheider (Germany) and Belgian endurance specialist Greg Franchi led home teams from BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Experts agreed before the race started that the endurance classic, held since 1924, had never fielded so many potential winners as this year. A total of 62 cars representing 13 different manufacturers joined the grid, including no less than 57 cars of the booming GT3 category. The opening stages of the endurance classic fulfilled all expectations. Spectators lining the 7.004 kilometre track and in front of television screens enjoyed tough battles for position, countless overtaking manoeuvres, retirements and small and big dramas which are typical for a 24-hour race. The Audi R8 LMS was the fastest car in the field from the very beginning. After just a few hours it was clear that the V10 powered R8 sports cars where the favourites for victory. The race of the victorious #33 R8 LMS fielded by Audi Sport Team WRT was particularly impressive. The car driven by Mattias Ekström, Greg Franchi and Timo Scheider ran like clockwork for 24 hours, while many other GT3 cars were no match for the stresses and strains of the hard fought endurance race. The brake discs and pads were changed twice as scheduled. Apart from this, the R8 LMS only entered pit lane to refuel, change tires and to swap drivers. At the start of the tenth hour Ekström/Franchi/Scheider took the lead which they duly held all the way to the checkered flag. At the finish the trio had a two-lap lead over the closest rival.

PEUGEOT ON POLE FOR IMOLA 6 HOUR

Peugeot will start from pole for tomorrow's Imola 6 hour race after Anthony Davidson set the fastest time in qualifying. The Englishman and his teammate Sebastien Bourdais will start from pole position. In the GTE class, BMW will have two M3 GT in the first two places on the grid. Davidson (908 #7) set the fast time with a 1'31''736 ahead of Marcel Fässler in the Audi R18. Peugeot, Audi, Peugeot, Audi will be the first two rows of the grid for the race, the fourth round of the 2011 ILMC which starts at noon local time tomorrow. "The competition continues between us", said Davidson. "It's always good to start from pole position but the race is not only long but also with traffic on the track, you have to survive. Our goal at the end of this round is to increase our lead in the rankings of the ILMC (Peugeot has 103 points against 69 to Audi) and starting from the front line will help." Guillaume Moreau took the OAK-Pescarolo-Judd to be the first qualified petrol car. In the LM P2 class, the fastest time was achieved by the Swiss Mathias Beche (Oreca-Nissan #46) with 1'37''208. BMW dominated GTE Pro. Jorg Müller set the fastest lap time (1'44''468) in a hotly contested qualifying session. Less than a second covered the first nine cars of GTE Pro. Two tenths of a second from his teammate and compatriot, Dirk Werner (BMW #56) ahead of a horde of  Ferrari 458 Italia, the fastest being that of Jaime Melo. Very comfortable with the free practice, Giancarlo Fisichella had to settle for sixth time in the category. "The car is very powerful," Müller enthused, "very easy to drive. It seems we have a small advantage going over the curbs. But the difference is minimal. " In GTE Am, fastest was American driver Patrick Long in the Porsche 911 RSR (997) #63 with 1'45''650. The first competitor in ILMC Marco Cioci (Ferrari F430 #61), second behind Long in GTE Am with 1'45''906. The race will be covered live online via www.peugeot-sport.com as well as the usual great coverage via Radio Le Mans.

PORSCHE ANNOUNCE RETURN TO LE MANS

Porsche will return to the Le Mans 24 hours with a new LMP1 car scheduled to debut in 2014. The company has released a video featuring the company’s considerable history at Le Sarthe and the graphic making the announcement, but apart from that no details of the new car have yet been made. The video is available [...]

AUDI WINS LE MANS SURVIVOR SERIES

The sole surviving Audi of André Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and local driver Benoit Treluyer withstood the three pronged Peugeot attack to win a classic Le Mans 24 hours. Starting from pole the #2 Audi R18 became the team's sole surviving car after huge accidents claimed his team mates Alan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller. McNish crashed early in the race after contact with a slower Ferrari GTE-Am car which sent the R18 crashing into the Armco at high speed. Photographers, Marshals and Spectators were showered with carbon fibre as the Audi disintegrated. Thankfully no one was seriously hurt but it was far more good luck than anything else that a massive tragedy didn't occur. Mike Rockenfeller survived the weekends biggest crash after another tangle with a GTE-Am Ferrari. Rockenfeller clipped the Ferrari at the fastest part of the Mulsane straight send the car into the Armco at close to 300 Km/h. Once again the incredible strength of the cars survival cell did it's job and Rockenfeller was able to get out of his car under his own steam. With both Audi's out it was left to the #2 car to hold off all three Peugeots over the reminder of the race. Despite constant challenges, and some at times dubious tactics, the team held on, due in no small part to some brilliant driving especially by Treluyer and Lotterer.

AUDI ON POLE AS ALENCON LOCAL WEAVES HIS MAGIC

Audi will start this weekend's Le Mans 24 hour race from pole with local driver Benoit Treluyer setting the quickest time in an exciting final qualifying session. Treluyer, from the town of Alencon, 50 minutes north of the track, took advantage of a relatively clear track to record a time of 3m25.799s to take the coveted pole. "I am very happy. I just really realise now that it is just fantastic for me." he said/ "I was born so close to here and the 24 Hours is such a challenge and I was not even thinking about the pole position and then I did and it is just fantastic." Alongside Treluyer on the front row will be his team mate Romain Dumas who held out the Peugeot of Simon Pagenaud, Sebastien Bourdais and Pedro Lamy. "The car was quick" said Dumas, "but unfortunately I didn’t manage to get a perfect lap. The first row for Audi - that is very nice and shows clearly that we are competitive. We were fast with new tires and old tires and that is a good sign for the race." Pagenaud looked set to challenge for the pole but traffic held him up on for several laps and he was forced to settle for third place. Wednesday's provisional pole winner Stephane Sarrazin was also hampered by traffic and could only manage fourth for and all Peugeot second row. Dindo Cappello, Alan McNish and seven time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen were next in their Audi R18 alongside the Marc Gene, Alex Wurz and Anthony Davidson Peugeot.

LE MANS DAY 1: Peugeot pounce on provisional pole

Just when it looked like Audi was set to dominate practice & qualifying fir the 2011 Le Mans 24 hours, along came Stephane Sarrazin. With half an hour of the first session remaining, Sarrazin grabbed provisional pole position with a lap of 3’27’’033. And with a strong chance of rain for tonight's final session it may well be good enough to give Peugeot the coveted pole position. Earlier in the day Audi dominated the opening practice session with all three R18s at the top of the time sheets. The team, which had set the fastest times in the April test session looked set to continue it's advantage over the Peugeot but that was until Sarrazin's last minute charge.

AUDI’S NEW WAR PAINT AS THE BATTLE FOR LE MANS BEGINS

Audi have unveiled the new livery that the team will take to the 2011 Le mans 24 hours. The new look graphics mark a return to the traditional silver dominated look that has long been a part of the companies rich motorsport tradition. The new look will be seen in public for the first time this weekend when the new R18 takes to the track at Le Mans for the return of the traditional test day. The R18 design represents a radical departure for Audi from their previous Le Mans winning cars with the closed coupe aiming to take full aerodynamic advantage of the new ACO regulations. The livery of the cars is also makes a major feature of carbon fibre, the extremely light and, at the same time, high-strength material, which now plays an increasingly important role in the development of new production cars. "Carbon fibre is ideally suited for lightweight design and construction," explains Head of Audi MotorsportDr. Wolfgang Ullrich. "We have deliberately made this material and the ultra lightweight technology visual for Le Mans. Lightweight design has occupied us for many years in motorsport. Everything that we have learnt over the years and especially about lightweight design and construction during development of the R18 TDI will also be available for our customers in the future - either in the form of greater performance or in the shape of low fuel consumption and lower emissions."

PEUGEOT REVEALS NEW LE MANS RACER

Peugeot Sport have unveiled their challenger to retake the Le Mans 24 hour from arch-rival Audi with the new 908. Although visually similar to the original 908 908 HDi FAP, the new car has been radically changed to meet the new LMP1 regulations of event organisers the ACO. The 908 most notably features the so-called shark's fin engine-cover appendix which has sadly been mandated by the new rules. Once again it is a closed-cockpit car, but now features four identical sized wheels as pioneered by Nick Wirth with the ALMS HPD LMP1 two years ago. The new car has an all new engine, a 550-horsepower, 3.7-litre V8 HDi FAP diesel engine.