72nd Le Mans 24 Hours– Hourly Patterns

We’ve got more post-race material than we can sort and post at the moment: it’s frustrating that racing action elsewhere continues so soon after such a fantastic 24 Hours, but we’ll just press on and cope as best we can.

Here’s an initial look at some of the detail that made up the 24 hours: the pattern of the top six or so positions at each hour, with relevant comments.

Hour 1 88 8 2 16 18 6 – no sign of the Goh Audi after its spin
Hour 2 88 18 9 16 6 5 – Goh Audi sixth
Hour 3 88 5 9 18 6 15 – Goh Audi second, where it will remain for many hours
Hour 4 88 5 18 15 6 31 – sixth for Gounon’s LMP2 Courage
Hour 5 88 5 18 15 6 64 – Gavin’s Corvette an amazing sixth (after LMP1 troubles galore)
Hour 6 88 5 18 6 64 66 – Rollcentre fourth, GTS fifth and sixth
Hour 7 88 5 18 6 64 66
Hour 8 88 5 18 6 64 66 – same positions for the last three hours
Hour 9 88 5 18 6 2 64 – Champion fights back into the top six
Hour 10 88 5 18 6 2 9 66 – Prodrive leads GTS, Kondo in top six, 64 is tenth
Hour 11 88 5 18 6 2 9 22 66 – Zytek fights back to seventh
Hour 12 88 5 18 6 2 9 66 – Zytek retires, Taurus Lola is tenth and stays in the top ten for nine hours (apart from one slip to eleventh)
Hour 13 88 5 18 6 2 9 66 – 64 Corvette drops to six laps behind 66 Ferrari
Hour 14 88 5 18 6 2 9 17 66 – Bourdais Courage fights back to seventh…
Hour 15 88 5 18 6 2 17 66 – Kondo Dome retires
Hour 16 5 88 18 2 17 66 (6) 64 – Goh leads (to the end), Rollcentre eliminated
Hour 17 5 88 18 2 17 66 16 64 – RfH Dome creeps into seventh
Hour 18 5 88 2 18 17 66 16 64 – Audi 1-2-3
Hour 19 5 88 2 18 17 66 64 8 – 8 Audi recovers to eighth
Hour 20 5 88 2 18 66 64 8 - 17 Courage retires, 66 and 64 on same lap (seconds apart, Corvette in reality ahead)
Hour 21 5 88 2 18 8 64 66 – Prodrive one lap behind 64 Corvette and fading fast
Hour 22 5 88 2 18 8 64 15 63 66 – the top eight is settled to the finish
Hour 23 5 88 2 18 8 64 15 63 65
Hour 24 5 88 2 18 8 64 15 63 65 90 – 30 seconds between the first two, Petersen/White Lightning into top ten.

As soon as we can, we’ll look at the stunning pace, hour after hour, of the Audis, in particular the two cars that dominated the first two positions for 22 hours.