Crown

ACO rejects Peugeot protest, Peugeot appeals

The off-track battle between Peugeot and Audi has continued after the free practice session last night when the Automobile Club de l’Ouest announced its decision on Peugeot’s protest in which Peugeot questioned the legality of the three Audi R15 TDI cars entered here for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

According to a press release sent out by Team Peugeot Total the team was notified of the decision by the Sporting Stewards of the ACO at 23.33 on Wednesday night, just under half an hour before the end of the session. The ACO told Peugeot it had decided ‘not to uphold the protest’.

The notification which was sent to Peugeot gives the following explanation of the ACO: “…the ACO has the discretionary power to deem whether or not the sole function of an element of bodywork is to generate downforce… …it is based on this discretionary power of appreciation, compounded by the exclusive power it has to interpret the technical regulations as laid out in Article 18, that the ACO homologates the cars which take part in the events covered by its regulations.”

Despite the ACO again confirming that the Audi R15 TDI is, from their point of view, compliant to the current set of regulations Team Peugeot Total has a different interpretation of the regulations and therefore decided to appeal the decision. The appeal was made within an hour after the team was notified of the Steward’s decision.

Audi has yet to make a formal statement about the protest, but yesterday various people at the team made it clear that Audi is sure it is working within the regulations and that this is a matter between the ACO and Peugeot.

With the annual ACO press conference set to take place later this morning and the ACO already announcing a meeting for technical directors and engineers in charge of the design of the cars in Le Mans at the end of June it seems certain that this story will be continued for some while.

Here are some more very nice photos:

...and for the AM lovers:

Just look at the amount of work going on in the other boxes!

The Long wait! (Patrick Long waiting for his turn)

We are now 3 hours away from qualifying!

I will be traveling early tomorrow morning so I wont be able to update this thread with the qualifying times.

Andrea, would you do the honours?

Spyderidol:

We are now 3 hours away from qualifying!

I will be traveling early tomorrow morning so I wont be able to update this thread with the qualifying times.

Andrea, would you do the honours?

Will be a pleasure

Peugeot made the pole position, 4 cars in the top 5 positions!

1, Bourdais/Montagny/Sarrazin (Peugeot N°8), 3’22’’888
2, Capello/Kristensen/McNish (Audi N°1), 3’23’’650
3, Klien/Lamy/Minassian (Peugeot N°7), 3’24’’860
4, Boullion/Pagenaud/Tréluyer (Peugeot N°17), 3’25’’062
5, Brabham/Gené/Wurz (Peugeot n°9), 3’25’’252

24h Le Mans 2009 Qualifying  11.06.2009

1     8     Team Peugeot Total    LMP1     SARRAZIN Stephane     3'22.888             3'30.696     Pit
2     1     Audi Sport Team Joest    LMP1     KRISTENSEN Tom     3'23.650         0.762     3'30.540     Run
3     7     Team Peugeot Total    LMP1     MINASSIAN Nicolas     3'24.860         1.972     3'25.708     Run
4     17     Pescarolo Sport    LMP1     TRELUYER Benoit     3'25.062         2.174     5'09.428     Pit
5     9     Peugeot Sport Total    LMP1     GENE Marc     3'25.252         2.364     3'50.332     Pit
6     2     Audi Sport North America    LMP1     WERNER Marco     3'25.780         2.892     3'25.780     Run
7     3     Audi Sport Team Joest    LMP1     BERNHARD Timo     3'27.106         4.218     3'31.096     Run
8     007     AMR Eastern Europe    LMP1     CHAROUZ Jan     3'27.180         4.292     3'39.324     Run
9     008     Aston Martin Racing    LMP1     TURNER D     3'27.704         4.816     3'39.956     Pit
10     13     Speedy Racing Sebah    LMP1     BELICCHI Andrea     3'28.134         5.246     3'47.464     Pit
11     23     Strakka Racing    LMP1     LEVENTIS Nick     3'29.798         6.910     3'59.180     Pit
12     16     Pescarolo Sport    LMP1     JOUANNY Bruce     3'30.466         7.578     3'37.200     Run
13     15     Kolles    LMP1     ALBERS Christian     3'31.192         8.304     3'54.240     Pit
14     14     Kolles    LMP1     LOTTERER Andre     3'31.548         8.660     3'43.208     Pit
15     10     Team Oreca Matmut AIM    LMP1     MONTEIRO Tiago     3'33.514         10.626     3'42.128     Run
16     11     Team Oreca Matmut AIM    LMP1     PANIS Olivier     3'33.860         10.972     3'37.916     Run
17     009     Aston Martin Racing    LMP1     KOX Peter     3'33.968         11.080     3'33.968     Run
18     6     Team LNT    LMP1     MOORE Nigel     3'35.804         12.916     3'58.620     Pit
19     4     Creation Autosportif    LMP1     CAMPBELLWALTER Jamie     3'35.960         13.072     3'35.960     Run
20     31     Team Essex    LMP2     POULSEN Kristian     3'37.720         14.832     4'02.572     Pit
21     5     Navi Team Goh    LMP2     KUNIMOTO Keisuke     3'37.802         14.914     3'47.752     Run
22     12     Signature Plus    LMP1     RAGUES Pierre     3'39.326         16.438     3'53.164     Pit
23     33     Speedy Racing Sebah    LMP2     KANE Jonny     3'41.724         18.836     4'08.720     Pit
24     25     RML    LMP2     ERDOS Tommy     3'41.952         19.064     4'11.332     Pit
25     40     Quifel ASM Team    LMP2     AMARAL Miguel     3'42.012         19.124     4'50.944     Pit
26     30     Racing Box    LMP2     BIAGI Thomas     3'42.848         19.960     4'14.704     Pit
27     41     G.A.C. Racing Team    LMP2     GOSSELIN Claude-Yves     3'44.830         21.942     4'19.884     Pit
28     35     OAK Racing    LMP2     AJLANI Karim     3'45.032         22.144     3'57.564     Run
29     32     Team Barazi Epsilon    LMP2     BARAZI Juan     3'52.956         30.068     11'37.784     Pit
30     39     KSM    LMP2     DE POURTALES Jean     3'53.072         30.184     7'01.288     Pit
31     63     Corvette Racing    LMGT1     MAGNUSSEN Jan     3'54.230         31.342     4'10.340     Pit
32     64     Corvette Racing    LMGT1     GAVIN Olivier     3'54.702         31.814     4'04.268     Pit
33     26     Bruichladdich Bruneau    LMP2     ROSTAN Marc     3'55.320         32.432     4'12.948     Pit
34     66     Jetalliance Racing Gmbh    LMGT1     MULLER Alex     3'56.126         33.238     4'01.164     Run
35     72     Alphand Aventures    LMGT1     ALPHAND Luc     3'57.170         34.282     4'16.060     Run
36     24     OAK Racing    LMP2     YVON Jean-Francois     3'57.524         34.636     4'04.284     Run
37     73     Alphand Aventures    LMGT1     CLAIRAY Yan     3'58.564         35.676     3'58.564     Run
38     80     Flying Lizard Motorsport    LMGT2     LAW Darren     4'03.202         40.314     5'47.208     Pit
39     77     Felbermayr Proton    LMGT2     HENZLER Wolf     4'03.232         40.344     4'16.836     Run
40     82     Risi Competizione    LMGT2     MELO Jaime     4'04.056         41.168     8'56.676     Pit
41     99     JMB Racing    LMGT2     BOUCHUT Christophe     4'04.084         41.196     4'17.260     Pit
42     97     BMS Scuderia Italia    LMGT2     MALUCELLI Matteo     4'04.222         41.334     4'04.244     Run
43     76     Imsa Performance Matmut    LMGT2     NARAC Raymond     4'04.648         41.760     4'18.756     Pit
44     78     AF Corse    LMGT2     COMPANC Luis     4'04.938         42.050     4'16.732     Run
45     92     JMW Motorsport    LMGT2     KIRKALDY Andrew     4'05.168         42.280     4'27.632     Pit
46     87     Drayson Racing    LMGT2     FRANCHITTI Marino     4'06.482         43.594     4'13.728     Run
47     89     Hankook-Farnbacher    LMGT2     MONTANARI Christian     4'06.612         43.724     4'20.148     Pit
48     85     Snoras Spyker Squadron    LMGT2     BLEEKEMOLEN Jeroen     4'08.348         45.460     4'28.472     Pit
49     84     Team Modena    LMGT2     EHRET Pierre     4'08.508         45.620     4'22.284     Run
50     83     Risi Competizione    LMGT2     KROHN Tracy     4'08.758         45.870     4'28.152     Pit
51     70     Imsa Performance Matmut    LMGT2     LECOURT Michel     4'10.014         47.126     5'25.668     Pit
52     75     Endurance Asia Team    LMGT2     HESNAULT Philippe     4'10.456         47.568     6'44.896     Pit
53     96     Virgo Motorsport    LMGT2     VERGERS Michael     4'10.664         47.776     4'26.824     Pit
54     81     Advanced Engineering    LMGT2     DEMPSEY Patrick     4'13.920         51.032     4'32.012     Run
55     68     JLOC    LMGT1     YAMAGISHI Yutaka     4'21.812         58.924     4'21.812     Run

 Just watched last night the qualifying on the Euro Sport!!! Jaw dropping!!! Fantastic!!! Where is that F1 so borring in the last years? and full of politics instead of racing?!?! Good job done by Peugeot, but maybe the Audis will be much better in the long race. Also the Porsche RS still fast. Need a new car for the LMP1 maybe against Ferrari? in the coming years? The Astons IMO, the best looking prototypes! Very good job from Lyzard´s GT2 cars!!! Waiting impatient for the race! 

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Crazycars2000&view=videos

very interesting behind the scenes videos by Peugeot for Le Mans

A disgraceful performance by the GT2 Teams running Porsche's.

I cant remember Porsche doing worse than this in any Le Mans before.

Unfortunately the dancing donkey 430 has shown that the era of the 911 is coming to an end (rapidly).

I'm very, very sad.

don't tell me nothing..

The Prancing Horse is stepping all over the german mongrel!!!   The Peugeots on the top are doing a great job also. It shows that Audi was winning all these years mainly due to a lack of serious competition.

Time for Wendy to go!

911 replacement urgently called for. (at least as a GT2entry)

Porsche needs to develop a mid-engined car ASAP. It's the only way forward!

The 911 engine is streched to its max - it has shown to have become unreliable. The car can't double stint its tires (like the dancing donkey's) due to the large GT1 type tires it requires to put the rear engine power to the ground and keep grip.

It's been 40 years of pounding the competiotion, but now the end is here.

Spyderidol:

 

 

Time for Wendy to go!

911 replacement urgently called for. (at least as a GT2entry)

Porsche needs to develop a mid-engined car ASAP. It's the only way forward!

The 911 engine is streched to its max - it has shown to have become unreliable. The car can't double stint its tires (like the dancing donkey's) due to the large GT1 type tires it requires to put the rear engine power to the ground and keep grip.

It's been 40 years of pounding the competiotion, but now the end is here.

Spyderidol, could you please sum up the reasons for the retirement of 4 out of 5 RSRs? The running one came last

Also, it is notable that there were 10 customer Ferraris in GT2 (with 9 finishing) compared to 5 Porsches.

As regards a mid-engined GT2 car, Porsche could very easily develop a Cayman GT3 and build part of their program around it, if that was the solution to winning. This wouldn't necessarily spell out the end of the 911 as a racing car.  The 911 could still be used in certain races or categories with the corresponding marketing. In the past Porsche raced the 911 in parallel with the 924/944 series without any negative impact on the more coveted car.

--
It's not where you're going, it's how you get there that counts

  I too am extremely disappointed particularly given the results in ALMS this year.. There is something to be said to about  fielding a team consisting of factory drivers..Imagine if Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long had been teamed in Flying Lizard 911. 

Unfortunately, given Porsche's financial issues, I do not believe we will see a Cayman GT3 in the immediate future.

Audi's decission to not race the R15 this year other than at Sebring has come back to haunt them...IMO there is no substitute in developing a new car to actually racing it. Let's hope they decide to participate in ALMS and LMS series more actively for the remainder of 2009.

no words..

We need a winning Porsche in GT2,ok don't forget we won the LMP2..but i think GT2 is more important for us..

About a Cayman..well i know it will be the best solution,but i don't think Porsche whant let win a car that is not a 911..also if the 911 maybe can't make better with the engine there

Reginos -Right from the start all the Porsche eggs were put into one basket (so to speak). Only the #77 car really had a driver line-up that could take on the factory driven Ferrari's (3).

That #77 RSR only did 24 laps. It suffered a puncture that in turn, caused the wheel to flay and may have caused some electrical damage. Once the car was back up and running, it completed its stint (already having lost several places) and when it was low on fuel , the reserve fuel pump did not work.

The Flying Lizard car was a non-winner from the word go. The driver line-up could never guarantee it a podium finish, unless there was a tremendous amount of attrition in the GT2 class. Law is not a top-top driver and had no experience of Le Mans. Neiman is simply SLOW! A real waste of Bergmeister's talent. Darren Law was in an accident with this car that ended its participation

The IMSA car (76) had a reasonable line-up (Narac is not a professional driver), but would be no match for a factory driven opponent. I'm not sure what the reasons were for this car's retirement.

Having said all that, the impression with which I was left was that the RSR is now overstretched in its development. It may be quicker than the dancing donkey over one lap, and it may even beat it in a 2,5 hour race (ALMS), but it is no car to win at Le Mans against the donkeys.

Porsche has just lost one of it's prime publicity weapons (even if Wendy does not think so) and unless something is done within 12 months to correct this, Porsche will become "just another entrant "at Le Mans.

This is a very sad state of affairs and I'm particularly angry that conditions leading up to this fiasco have been allowed to foster.

Management had it's eye on the stock market, building saloons, and trying to hit unit sales figures, rather than guaranteeing that it's iconic flagship did not suffer humiliation and defeat.

From the look of things, it hasn't done a good job of the former, and it certainly did'nt succeeded in the latter.

REALZEUS:

The Prancing Horse is stepping all over the german mongrel!!!   The Peugeots on the top are doing a great job also. It shows that Audi was winning all these years mainly due to a lack of serious competition.

I think Audi has won all this years because they did it very well in all this time. Peugeot is trying to win from almost 3 years, so there was competition, just that Audi did it very well and this year Peugeot did it better.

Super Darius:

no words..

We need a winning Porsche in GT2,ok don't forget we won the LMP2..but i think GT2 is more important for us..

About a Cayman..well i know it will be the best solution,but i don't think Porsche whant let win a car that is not a 911..also if the 911 maybe can't make better with the engine there

 I don´t think that the GT2 is more important than the LMP2. That´s just if you have a 911 and your friends tomorrow will laugh at you and you will feel bad abot that (anyway I would not care at all about that). Any prototype category is more important than the GT ones, because those cars give the overall victory that is the only one that at the end counts in LeMans. So Porsche, with the new regulations coming from 2011, should build a winning car, but to challenge the overall win not just a lower class win that latter no one will remember very well.

Whilst I agree in part with you, consider the following:

The LMP2 class has no real competition. There are no "manufacturer" entries in the class and very few cars actually finished. (The saying is at Le Mans is that if you finish in this class, then you are guaranteed a place on the podium).

The GT1 class is doomed, and has even fewer cars.

The only other class (besides LMP1) that has "works (semi)" teams/cars is GT2.

Although it is the less powerful engined class, it is a very important class (especially for marketing).

Now, having said that, I totally agree with you that the main objective should and must be to win Le Mans overall, and as far as I'm concerned that is what Porsche needs to concentrate on doing (if nothing than to redeem it's humiliating defeat in GT2 this year).

It also needs to develop a mid-engined road car that can be raced in GT2.  (I'm not sure the Cayman is "special" enough to make it a commercial success)

Results:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans#Race_results

Spyderidol: It is to my undestanding tha the fastest GT2 lap was made by a 430 by far! So the 911 is by no means faster over a single lap!

Ed_Meoree: Peugeot tried for 3 years but that's only normal... Audi was running by it self for a decade or so. Now that they have got competion they are not running away, are they? Last year they were also not the quickest but won because of reliability issues on Peugeots front (and I don't even like the frenchies...).

--
FERRARI RULES!!!

REALZEUS - See qualifying times please!

Spyderidol:

 

 

Yes I know, Peugeot (heck I even have to look up the spelling) won overall with Audi showing some aspiration.

Porsche won LMP2, Ferrari ruled GT2,  Chevrolet ruled GT1.