2012 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 80th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 80 e 24 Heures du Mans ) was a 24-hour automobile endurance race for teams of three drivers each entering Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 16 to 17 June 2012 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France before 240,000 spectators. It was the 80th running of the event, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923 . The race was the third round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance C...

The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class was won by the Starworks Motorsport team of Enzo Potolicchio , Ryan Dalziel and Tom Kimber-Smith in a HPD ARX-03b after they led the final 215 laps of the event. The trio finished ahead of Thiriet by TDS Racing 's Oreca 03 car shared by Pierre Thiriet , Mathias Beche and Christophe Tinseau and PeCom Racing's Luís Pérez Companc , Pierre Kaffer and Soheil Ayari . Giancarlo Fisichella , Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander in an AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 held...

The 24 Hours of Le Mans was first held in 1923 after the automotive journalist Charles Faroux , the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) general secretary Georges Durand and the industrialist Emile Coquile agreed to hold a test of vehicle reliability and durability. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport . [ 1 ]

The ACO moved the 2012 Le Mans schedule forward by one week in order to avoid a date conflict with races in the 2012 Formula One World Championship and to allow teams to establish their facilities at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans , France. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] It was the 80th annual edition of the event, as well as the third of eight automobile endurance races of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). [ 4 ]

After the preceding 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps , Audi drivers Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval led the Drivers' Championship with 43 points, two ahead of their teammates Rinaldo Capello , Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish in second place. Marc Gené was in third position with 25 points, the trio of Marcel Fässler , André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer were in fourth place with 19 + 1 ⁄ 2 points and Timo Bernhard was fifth with 18 points. [ 5 ] Audi led the non-scoring Toyota in the Manufacturers' Champi...

With the introduction of hybrid electric vehicles for the first time at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012, the ACO and the world governing body of motor racing, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), created seven zones on the Circuit de la Sarthe for those cars to recuperate electrical energy under braking. Each zone was situated 50 m (160 ft) before the entry to a corner. The ACO and the FIA imposed a mandatory limit of 500 kJ (140 Wh) to restrict the amount of energy capable of be...

Duval set the fastest lap in the first session at 3 minutes, 27.738 seconds in the No. 3 Audi R18 Ultra. [ 19 ] McNish later improved to a 3 minutes, 25.927 seconds lap in the No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro though he crashed at Tertre Rouge corner with one hour remaining and was unable to continue. [ 20 ] He was followed by Lotterer's No. 1 Audi in second and Duval fell to third. The fastest Toyota TS030 Hybrid was fourth courtesy of a lap from Alexander Wurz and the fastest privateer LMP1 entry ...

After the test several prototype teams, including all Audi, Toyota, Pescarolo and Starworks Motorsports cars participated in an unofficial test on the shorter Bugatti Circuit on 6 June to ensure car components were working efficiently before the race. [ 24 ] Official practice was held on 13 June with the full 56-car field on track for four hours. [ 16 ] Audi led from the start once again, with Duval and later Tréluyer setting the early pace. Kristensen went faster before a lap of 3 minutes, 25.1...

The weather was clear for the second session on the evening of 14 June. Duval's Audi R18 Ultra was quickest in the session with a lap of 3 minutes, 24.098 seconds on 30 minutes to go and passed Lotterer's No. 1 Audi for provisional pole position. McNish's No. 2 car finished the session third at the conclusion of a final six-lap stint as Davidson prevented Audi from taking the first four positions in the No. 8 Toyota. The No. 4 Audi of Marco Bonanomi fell to fifth and Toyota's No. 7 entry driven ...

In the third session, Lotterer in the No. 1 R18 e-tron quattro set a new fastest lap of 3 minutes, 23.787 seconds after 13 minutes and held the top of the time sheets to take pole position for Audi. [ 34 ] Audi was the first manufacturer to earn pole position with a hybrid electric vehicle at Le Mans and took its seventh overall pole at the race. [ 35 ] Duval improved the No. 3 Audi's lap to sit alongside the No. 1 car on the grid 's front row. [ 36 ] The No. 8 Toyota of Davidson closed to almos...

Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold . The fastest time set by each entry is denoted in gray.

Notes:

In LMP2, John Martin led the first nine laps until Pla's OAK car passed him during pit stop rotation. The No. 59 Luxury Racing Ferrari of Jaime Melo fell to fifth in the opening laps as LMGTE Am began as a multi-car battle between representatives of Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin with the lead of the class changing multiple times during the first hour. [ 46 ] The LMGTE classes continued to be closely contested in the second hour with the No. 97 Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke , AF Corse's No. 51...

Half a minute after racing resumed the overall leading No. 1 Audi of Fässler was delayed by slower traffic, causing Nakajima's No. 7 Toyota to collide with the left-hand corner of the No. 0 DeltaWing car of Satoshi Motoyama and sent the latter into a concrete barrier beside the circuit. [ 58 ] The DeltaWing sustained damage to its steering arm, powertrain and rear bodywork; track marshals pushed it behind the wall to allow mechanics from Highcroft Racing to advise Motoyama on how to repair the c...

Lotterer had an anxious moment when he made a driver error during the first third of a lap in the No. 1 Audi; he returned to the track without losing the overall lead. Further down the field the fuel efficiency of the Ferrari 458 Italia allowed the No. 51 AF Corse of Bruni to remain in contention with the LMGTE Pro leading Corvette of Milner. [ 62 ] As it turned 17 June, the No. 48 Murphy Oreca-Nissan relinquished the lead of LMP2 when driver Hughes entered the pit lane with a right-rear punctur...

Toyota lost its one remaining entry when the No. 7 car retired after 10½ hours with an engine failure. [ 4 ] The No. 74 Corvette emerged on the track soon after though it was once again involved in an incident when Westbrook crashed at the first Mulsanne Straight chicane and necessitating repairs to its bodywork and a change of differential and halfshaft. A major accident for Frankie Montecalvo's No. 58 Luxury Racing Ferrari caused the car to retire with heavy left-hand side damage and its front...

In the early morning the No. 1 Audi of Fässler spun in the Porsche Curves and made contact with the rear of the car against a barrier, relinquishing first place to McNish's No. 2 car. [ 70 ] During this period a broken left-rear transmission on Hartley's No. 48 Murphy Oreca-Nissan failed and caused one of the car's rear wheels to lock before track marshals pushed it towards the pit lane for it to be retired from the event. [ 71 ] Abdulaziz Al Faisal spun and crashed backwards against a concrete ...

Duval in the No. 3 Audi became the lead challenger to the No. 12 Rebellion Lola car, twice resetting the race's fastest lap and passing the Rebellion for fourth overall. [ 75 ] Brian Vickers made minor contact against a wall at Tetre Rouge corner and the No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari sustained a left-front puncture. As he entered the pit lane, the front-left wheel caught fire, which fire marshals extinguished. The car was transported into the garage for repairs to its bodywork. [ 76 ] Over three hours...

Bonanomi's No. 4 Audi twice stopped on the circuit with a transmission fault that he rectified by resetting the ignition system and kept the car in third position. [ 80 ] [ 81 ] Not long after an accident for Simon Dolan 's No. 38 Jota Zytek in the Porsche Curves caused its retirement in the garage due to extensive damage to its rear. [ 81 ] The race-leading No. 1 Audi of Tréluyer spun at the entry to the pit lane as he slowed to comply with the pit lane speed limit. He lost the lead to McNish's...

The top three teams in each of the four classes appeared on the podium to collect their trophies and spoke to the media in the later press conferences. [ 16 ] Lotterer said Audi's victory over Peugeot in the 2011 edition provided him with the confidence to challenge Toyota, "For me, I'm more new in Le Mans so to be in that situation was amazing, so this year we had a bit more confidence within the team. We know we can trust each other even more and this gave us good potential. But you come to Le...

Davidson was flown back to his home in Oxford on 20 June to begin a three-month recovery period. [ 93 ] He attributed the design of his race seat and head rest to saving him from paralysis, "It held me, supported me and arguably was the thing that saved me from further compression and maybe the worst case scenario of being paralysed now instead. When you look at everything involved, I think I got away with it the lightest I was ever going to." [ 94 ] Members of the Toyota team went to the Nissan...

Due to the result of the event, McNish, Kristensen and Capello moved to the lead of the Drivers' Championship with 77 points, 6½ ahead of the race winners Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer in second place. Dumas and Duval fell from first to third with 67 points, Gené stood in fourth position with 49 points and the Rebellion trio of Nick Heidfeld , Jani and Nico Prost rounded out the top five with 42½. [ 5 ] Audi continued to maintain their lead over the non-scoring Toyota in the Manufacturers' Cham...

Class winners are marked in bold . Cars failing to complete 70 per cent of winner's distance (264 laps) are marked as Not Classified (NC). [ 97 ]