23 March 2009 - 10:00
First blood to Audi
Audi has laid down the first marker for Le Mans in
June with victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring.
The R15 driven by Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello took the
chequered flag on its first competitive outing, but only after a spectacular
race-long battle with - yes, you guessed it - the Peugeot 908 of Frank
Montagny, Sebastien Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazin, which finished within 20
seconds of the Audi.
The second of the works R15s, driven by Mike Rockenfeller, Lucas Luhr and Marco
Werner, crossed the line in third.
The lead Audi and the Peugeot ran within seconds of each other for virtually the
entire race, with only a puncture for Bourdais with three hours to go allowing
the R15 to stretch the lead out to a minute.
Despite a series of blistering laps from the Toro Rosso driver to close the
gap, it was McNish in the Audi who put the hammer down in the final stint,
outpacing the Peugeot by a couple of seconds per lap and eventually crossing
the line 22 seconds in the lead.
After the race, Bourdais paid tribute to the Scottish driver. "The puncture
didn't help, but Allan McNish just killed us," said the Frenchman.
"I was quite
a bit quicker than the Audi when I was on the track, but as soon as Allan
turned the heat up, we couldn't do anything. He seems to be on another planet
and there's nothing we can do about it."
Audi's victory makes Danish driver Tom Kristensen - already an eight-time Le
Mans champion - the first man to win Sebring five times.
Despite taking pole position, the Acura ARX-02a couldn't keep pace with the
Audi and Peugeot, slipping back to fifth before retiring with suspension problems
after eight hours.
So has this set the tone for Le Mans? Audi edging out Peugeot... again? Or will
Aston's LMP1 car - though not competing in Sebring - be in the mix too?
Thoughts please...
Want to comment on this?
Well, maybe not on television =P Bourdais? Losing? And you call yourself an F1 Driver? hehe... =P
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I am a big Audi-fan and happy the Mc Nisch won again, even with their new car. The R15 is just amazing and I hope they 'll have a great ALMS season.
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Peugeot = Minor revisions to their car, and still lose by seconds Audi = Completely new car, and still win, albeit mostly by luck this time. They were neck and neck all the way but in the end it came down to that puncture for Bourdais. Still. I think the Audi trio demonstrated why Tom Kristiensen is one of the world's most versatile drivers, Why Allan McNish is severely underrated, and exactly why just because you are a F1 driver doesn't mean you're any good at driving a real racing car.
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It will be interesting to see what happens when Aston are competing too! Obviously this type of racing is as interesting as F1 and a lot of the drivers are the same so why do we never get any coverage?
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Gee, i would have loved to watch it, funny, i dont have any channels with it on!!!!!!!
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I watched most of the telecast and actually Bourdais was outpacing the Audi toward the end until they took him out and put in Montagny who was then outpaced by a couple seconds a lap. So take it easy on Bourdais, he was doing a good job at the end.
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USAF1FAN, how do you not have Speed Channel?
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I am sorry mates but bad news the Aston LMP1 crashed Hope to repair it ASAP
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I am sorry mates but bad news the Aston LMP1 crashed Hope to repair it ASAP
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stigsirishcousin: It rarely gets coverage because broadcasting a 24 hour race for, er, 24 hours would be one hell of a job. It'd be the one kind of motorsport where you wouldn't mind ITV's advert breaks :)
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angelica: Audi is not participating in the ALMS this season.
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AshHome : You realise that this race was 12 hours long, and the majority of races in the championship are between 2 hours [same as F1] and 6 hours long. There is only one 24 hours with this lot and that is Le Mans. It's not impossible, but as you have quite rightly pointed out, no mainstream broadcaster is going to turn their entire day's schedule over to one race, which rather leaves it to the more specialist broadcasters.
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AshHome : You realise that this race was 12 hours long, and the majority of races in the championship are between 2 hours [same as F1] and 6 hours long. There is only one 24 hours with this lot and that is Le Mans. It's not impossible, but as you have quite rightly pointed out, no mainstream broadcaster is going to turn their entire day's schedule over to one race, which rather leaves it to the more specialist broadcasters.
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Race with The diesel there dishonesty. Race only petrol or another fuel type.
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12 hours is such a long time... I prefer rally, sebastian loeb is the best I have ever seen
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Diesel rules. Diesel-engines are rugged, drives longer on the gallon and have so much more power than gasoline. Diesel is the fuel of Tom Kristensen "The king of Le Mans"
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AshHorne commented on this article
23 March 2009
Every time I see Bourdais on TV he's always complaining about something, whether its crying about just missing out on a podium (instead of being happy that 4th was the best position he had all season!), complaining about Massa shoulderbarging him on the pit corner, or jumping on the "anti-hamilton" bandwagon. Does the guy ever have anything positive to say?
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