At scrutineering (which this year started already on Sunday) I spoke to Henri Pescarolo, and I am pleased to say he seems physically in better condition than last year, even though he is still marked by the stroke(s). Inside, however, he feels even worse than last year, he told me, as his cars were back at the factory, as the moneyman behind the team had been unable to secure enough funds for the 2010 season. Pescarolo-Sport have thus ended its 2010 program, and are focusing on 2011, where they hope to have the funding sorted out.
What a Le Mans !
First it looked like a Peugeot walk-over, - and I am sure the French newspapers had already printed their frontpages ahead of time.
Once the race had started, ACO did what they could to help push the Audi's back (like inserting a safetycar between them, or making sure the Peugeot was OUT of the pitlane before sending in another safetycar etc)
Then it transpired that Audi did NOT even have a fuel-economy trick up their sleeve as I thought, so on top of being 2-3 seconds slower per lap, they ALSO only ran 12 laps per stint, while the Peugeots could to 13.
Peugeot have run several 32 hour tests on Paul Ricard, and has never had any severe mechanical problems. They simply seemed like the obvious (if a bit staged) winners.
Audi soon fell behind, unable to match the fast Peugeot, - but then the Peugeots started to fail.. First a suspension mount-point in the frame went astray, then engines started to blow up. It was quite simply unfathomable to watch how their supreme power evaporated, and left the three Audi's scooping up the podium.
For a while it even looked as if a petrol car - the gorgeous Aston Martin Lola could challenge the third placed Audi ... and I was torn, - should I support the #7 Audi with Tom Kristensen, or hope for the Aston to split the Audis?
It all cam to an end by the Aston sadly expiring on the track, and we could simply watch as the Audi's - still at a surprising pace - headed for the finishline.
Evrytime an Audi had a problem (like when TK ended up in the gravel) the Peugeot mechanics were cheering and all excited, - evrytime a Peugeot ran into trouble, the gentleman Ulrich simply shook his head in disbelief and you could see how he felt sorry for Peugeot. Such a difference, and I have to say, if the excessive nationalistic bullshit campaign hadn't already done so, my sympathy waived towards the gentlemen Audi team.
IMO a fully deserved defeat for Peugeot, and fully deserved win for Audi.
Here is my gallery of pictures from this years Le Mans 24h :
http://www.sorth.dk/p/20100605-13/index.htmlOur press releases and small updates are available on http://www.lemans.org/en/update.html
We as the Club Arnage team also summed up our experience in the much more opinionated (but fun to read) blog we had setup:
http://clubarnage2010.blogspot.com/
well worth a read !
PS: And I even got to meet up with mr Dinsen !
Regards
Lennart