24h Le Mans 2008 - Qualifying
One of the biggest motorsport events on the calendar, the 76th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, takes place this weekend, and it promises to be one of the best in years.
It was an eventful qualifying tests session, with many crashes and record lap times. Audi and Peugeot will be duking it out in front with their diesel-powered LMP1 cars. The Audi R10 is a proven race machine, both durable and fast, but the Peugeot 908 has often times proved faster and they are on the way to secure the pole position on the Le Mans 2008 starting grid. However, going fast means taking more risks. Ricardo Zonta crashed the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP number 9 this evening. The car was badly damaged and had to be taken away on repair truck. The Peugeot team will be hard at work tonight to get the number 9 running again.
For now the Peugeot cars are clearly faster than the Audis so far in qualifying, but that was the case last year and Audi pulled out a win just like it has the past four years in a row.
Peugeot wasn't the only team in trouble these last two days. Roland Dumas who drives for Penske's Porsche RS Spyder in the American Le Mans Series crashed the Pescarolo Sport number 16 after the Team Modena Aston Martin in front of him started to leak motor oil on the track just before the Porsche corner. This caused Dumas to loose control and seriously damage the car. The Pescarolo team will do its best to get the car running in time for the race.
In another series of accidents, after hitting a rabbit at the Mulsanne corner, former Formula 1 driver Olivier Panis failed to brake at the Arnage corner and crashed his Courage Oreca number 6. The car was able to slowly enter the pits.
The situation is more dramatic for the Lola Mazda number 44 of Kruse Shiller Motorsport which was completely destroyed in a violent crash at the Dunlop curve. The driver, Hideki Noda, was extracted from the wreck by the commisaires de course. He was in deep shock but able to walk on his own. Video of the crash you ca se HERE.
Keep watchin Autoclips to see more action and updates during the weekend.
Tags: Audi Compilation Peugeot Racing
