Alpine A460 and ORECA 05 still in the LM P2 lead of 24 Hours of Le Mans
While the contenders are coming into the last quarter of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, two ORECA chassis still occupy the first and second places in the LM P2 class. Indeed Signatech-Alpine’s No. 36 Alpine A460 (Lapierre/Menezes/Richelmi) is in front of G-Drive Racing’s No. 26 ORECA 05 (Rusinov/Rast/Stevens). Their closest rival races more than two laps behind them while Eurasia Motorsport’s No. 33 ORECA has made its way back into the Top 5. Night and dawn in La Sarthe were once again unforgiving this year, several teams have had to withdraw, one of them being Thiriet by TDS Racing which had been fighting for the leadership for a long time.
Comfortably in the lead during the first six hours of the race, the ORECA chassis have kept on demonstrating their competitiveness throughout the second and third quarters of the challenge. Thiriet by TDS Racing’s and G-Drive Racing’s ORECA 05, as well as Signatech-Alpine’s No. 36 Alpine A460 shared the top of the hierarchy. Actually the Lapierre/Menezes/Richelmi trio has been in sixth place overall since H14 thanks to a superb performance. G-Drive Racing follows, just less than a lap away, while Eurasia Motorsport now ranks fifth thanks to a flawless night performance.
What they’ve said.
“After a night that was positive for both cars and particularly a great catching up of the No. 35 all the way back to the 4th place, we had no other choice but to withdraw this morning at 7am” Signatech-Alpine Team Principal Philippe Sinault explains. “We don’t know yet what caused the car to go off track. Now our goal is to come up with the best strategy possible for the No. 36 to remain in the lead. The car is working well, everything went fine over night, but it’s still a very close fight with our contenders.”
“The race got really interesting and exciting overnight, we’ve made lots of progress” Eurasia Motorsport Technical Director Greg Wheeler notes. “The entire team has done a fantastic job. We’ve made it through the night! We had a couple of hiccups at the beginning, we lost two laps, but the car is currently well, it’s really a fantastic machine. It’s a long race but everything is panning out now. We just want to make the chequered flag now.”
“We were right in the middle of a solid race and so we’re obviously really disappointed with this withdrawal” Thiriet by TDS Racing Team Manager Xavier Combet confides. “We started from the 7th place and went onto leading very quickly. The drivers were great. Mathias performed like we expected him to, Ryo’s driving was outstanding for a first hour here and Pierre clocked an excellent lap time. Despite a little issue with the power steering, the car was behaving perfectly well. We were on it. The team did a great job, the mechanics achieved lightning quick pit stops. All of these things encouraged us to project a very interesting result. But unfortunately it didn’t work in our favour with this crash. These things happen in Le Mans. The entire team is just remarkable. We were chasers in the qualifying and then became the ones being chased, we were always in the lead.”
The race so far.
After fifty minutes under the safety car because of heavy rain, the race finally kickstarted with G-Drive Racing’s and Manor’s ORECA 05 surrounding the two Alpine A460. The different strategies impacted the hierarchy. Manor took the lead with Roberto Mehri behind the wheel, he was up to one minute ahead of his rivals after a quintuple stint. Fast and consistent, Thiriet by TDS Racing, G-Drive Racing (despite a slow puncture) and KCMG were also within the Top 5 alongside the No. 36 Alpine which, after a difficult first pit-stop, managed to catch up – Nicolas Lapierre was behind the wheel.
At quarter-distance, those five teams were still in the first five positions, replacing one another in the lead, stint after stint. Thiriet by TDS Racing took control and established a gap of over a minute by midnight. Though Manor had gone down in the hierarchy following on an issue with the starter (H7) then a crash (H9), Signatech-Alpine which had to check and top off fluid levels (H9) and G-Drive racing were still within the Top 3. In the lead for a long time, KCMG had to give up hope of retaining their title, suffering an electrical issue.
Many pitfalls were awaiting the contenders overnight in La Sarthe and the safety car came on track several times. In the LM P2 class three teams ended up fighting against one another: fast-racing Signatech-Alpine with trio Lapierre/Menezes/Richelmi, Thiriet by TDS Racing with Beche/Thiriet/Hirakawa and G-Drive Racing with Rusinov/Rast/Stevens. Very consistent, Panciatici/Cheng/Ho-Pin Thung’s second Alpine was coming closer to the Top 5, while Eurasia Motorsport gradually caught up in the rankings after enduring a problem with a sensor in H1. As often, the very early hours in the morning were tough and unforgiving to some contenders. Back in the fourth place, the No. 35 Alpine ran off the track at the beginning of H17. Soon after, Thiriet by TDS Racing, in the Top 3 then, crashed. Though the No. 46 ORECA 05 managed to make his way back into the pits, it had to withdraw.
Coming up to the last quarter of the race, Signatech-Alpine is first in class with the Alpine A460 designed and manufactured by ORECA. Lapierre/Menezes/Richelmi are about one lap ahead of G-Drive Racing’s ORECA 05 driven by Rusinov/Rast/Stevens. Eurasia Motorsport is still in fifth row. Murphy Prototypes’s ORECA 03R, Manor’s ORECA 05 and Race Performance’s ORECA 03R are still on the track.