2013 24 Hours of Le Mans gets underway

  • Jun 22, 2013
  • Views : 2700
  • 2 min read

  • bookmark

Audi dominated at the end of the second hour in a race that saw high drama after an Aston Martin crashed in the first few minutes leading to an almost hour-long pause to the proceedings

24 Hours of Le Mans race begins

The 90th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans got off to a scintillating start with Germany’s Andre Lotterer in his #1 Audi R18 e-tron edging past Allan McNish in the pole-sitting #2 car. However, a massive accident involving Allan Simonsen in a #95 Aston Martin just 10 minutes into the race brought out the safety car.

The crash happened after Danish driver Simonsen, who was competing in the GTE Am class, spun out of control and hit the barriers at Tertre Rouge on lap 3. While the driver was reported to be “conscious,’ his car was severely damaged causing the safety car to be out for almost 50 minutes while barrier repair work was being undertaken.  [EDIT (10.30pm): According to latest updates, Simonsen has passed away following the high-speed crash.]


The race resumed after the 58th minute, after which Toyota #7 and #8 Toyota hybrids with Nicolas Lapierre and Anthony Davidson in their respective cars briefly took up the second and third spots ahead of the three Audis owing to their superior fuel efficiency. However, Lapierre struggled to keep pace and was soon pushed from second to fourth while Audi’s Lotterer broke away from the pack to lead the race. By the end of the second hour and 24 laps, the Frenchman was trailed by sister R18 of Lucas di Grassi on second and Toyota’s Davidson. Meanwhile, McNish was pushed further down to the fifth spot.

Stay tuned to ZigWheels.com for more race updates.

Standings at the end of Hour 2:

Position Class Car Drivers
1 LMP1 #1 Audi Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler       
2 LMP1 #3 Audi Gene/Jarvis/di Grassi
3 LMP1 #8 Toyota Davidson/Sarrazin/Buemi         
4 LMP1 #7 Toyota Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima          
5 LMP1 #2 Audi Kristensen/McNish/Duval         

See what our community has to say! NEW

India's largest automotive community

Explore Now
comminity image
×
Recently Visited
Select Category