Speed is Key, Safety is Paramount, but Knowledge is Power

The battle in P1 was definitely a sight to behold. the fact that the Peugeot's and Audi's were so close together for the majority of the race was amazing. This may have been the race of a lifetime, because I don't know if we will see another 24 hour of Le Mans where it seemed that viewers were watching a GT race.

Speed

To win Le Mans you need to not only have reliability, but speed as well. All of the race winners had the speed, and amazingly spent very little time in the garage.

Safety

This past weekend showcased something many racers have campaigned for in the past: safety. Having seen Allan McNish's car destroyed and him walk away from the scene is utterly amazing. Not to mention Rockenfeller's crash later where the car seemed to pretty much just explode, and according to people who were near parc ferme, was reduced to nothing but the crash capsule. I did expect in his crash for him to lose consciouness though, but him having the where withal to climb out of the car and over the barrier at one of the darkest section of the track after the crash is amazing once again. Audi has built a car that is not only fast, but remarkably safe as well. These pictures are of Mike Rockenfeller's car and were found through google images, I am not sure who took the pictures but they show the result of a safe car, and as much as I don't want to admit it, the wisdom of the ACO with the fins. It really does work to keep them on the ground, and between Rockenfeller's car hitting the armco head on and possibly flying over the armco into the trees, the armco was the better choice.

Besides the Audi crashes, there was also the Lola crash which we didn't really get to see it other than when it came to parc ferme and it looked like every body part on the car has hit a barrier in the Porsche Curves before it came to a stop. Then again with the Corvette and the Felbamyr Porsche. Felbamyr Sr. seemed to be fairly banged up after his accident with Gavin, though Gavin walked away. Amazing that both drivers were as well as they were considering they hit concrete barriers.

Knowledge

Inspite of the sister cars having terrible accidents, Audi pressed on at a seemingly relentless pace. The fact that Audi on paper was slower on the Mulsanne, got less mileage on a tank of diesel, and had to stop more but still won is amazing. Even though they pitted more often, the Audi's were spending less time in the pits than any of the Peugeots. For everything that Peugeot did, it seemed Audi had an answer. It will be interesting to see how these car develop and how they perform next year that the 2012, 24 hours of Le Mans.

Other Race Notes

For my recap of the event and of the events go here.

The ALMS contingent at Le Mans did well this year too. Corvette making it to the top of the podium after last year's dual DNF due to engine failures was amazing. The consistency from Corvette and Ferrari was amazing, it really did come down to how much time was spent in the pits. BMW's Joey Hand finished on the podium as well, but not where he expected in third. Robertson Racing in the GTE-Am class came in third on their first outing, a most impressive performance from the Robertson crew.

The Jet Alliance Lotus Evoras were something else. It was definitely good to see, after such a long absence, a Lotus on the grid. The car itself was definitely showing signs of early development. The