Any news on racing can be posted here. I saw the forums lacked a topic like this and thought it might be interesting to share some news about the races.
Has anyone heard about Duval crashing his Audi at the Le Mans 24h training session?
Its a horrific crash, totally destroying the car, but luckily he just got away with minor bruises and scratches. How on earth is that possible!
Check the video here!
Bloody impressive he walked away from that relatively unharmed. A testament to how far safety has come, it’s not that many years ago that would have had a very different outcome.
That was a huge crash, but sometimes the most impressive looking crashes, those with bits of car flying everywhere, cause less harm than a crash that causes a very sudden stop (Kubica’s crash in Canada compared with Schumacher’s crash in 99). But, yeah, safety for racing cars have come a long way.
One thing, does Audi have a backup chassi or something, or does that mean that the number 1 car won’t race?
After a major crash like that they have to replace the carbon structure, even if it looks normal. It can cause some small cracks in the chassi, which would decrease the rigidity and therefore safety.
Yeah they rebuilt the car, I didnt say they did from the parts the car crashed with (I think thats just scrapped) But they really rebuilt it overnight. I read that in an article.
I think it’s because the barriers then were right next to the trees. It was effectively the same as running straight into the tree, that’d be why the Vantage frame was so badly buckled. I hear that the barrier’s finally been moved closer to the track this year.
Porsche did well until their engines (yes, both did) started to break down 1-2 hours before the end, the leading Porsche nearly literally crawled back to the pits, handing 3rd to Toyota. The other Porsche seemingly still performed well, but started vibrating heavily and went only half the speed in the pitlane. Audi had some problems too but still managed to get their usual leading spots.
Edit: Apparently Webber’s transmission broke, not the engine, whoops.
Actually the Porsches were slower than the Audis and the Toyotas, which were 4 or 5 seconds per lap quicker than the Audi. After a couple of hours of race, it started to rain, in the rain the #3 Audi and the #8 Toyota crashed with a Ferrari, the Audi was out and the Toyota had to go to the pits for repairs, so it was some 8 laps behind the leaders when it came out.
At that time it was the #7 Toyota ahead of both Audis then the Porsche #20, driven partly by Webber.
The 7 Toyota had a problem with their electric and was out, so both Audis were in the lead. Then, both the Audis developed Turbo issues, and had to get them replaced.
Both the Porsches broke down with 2 hours or so to the end, giving the trophy to the #2 Audi.
The garage 56 entry, the Nissan hybrid deltawing-ish car abandoned after just 5 laps.