2003 24 Hours of Le Mans

Six automatic entry invitations were earned by teams of two cars that won their class in the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans or in the 2002 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season-closing round, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, designated a qualifying race by the ACO as part of an agreement with the ALMS.[8] As entries were designated for teams, the squads were not allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next. They were permitted to change category provided there was no change in the make of car and the ACO consented to the switch.[9] The teams who received an automatic entry based on victory in their class at the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans were Audi Sport Team Joest in both of the LMP categories, Corvette Racing for the LMGTS class and The Racer's Group (TRG) in the LMGT category. Audi Sport North America and Corvette also earned berths for securing victories in their respective classes at the Petit Le Mans and Alex Job Racing in the LMGT category.[9] However, Audi chose not to accept its automatic invitations after the manufacturer announced the withdrawal of its factory operations and forwent its defense of the overall victory.[10]

On 25 March 2003, the selection committee of the ACO announced the full 50-car entry list for Le Mans, plus six reserves. The field was composed of an equal amount of Prototype and GT cars, representing 22 different makes of car (14 in the GT classes and 8 in the Prototype categories).[11] After a protest was raised by Larbre Compétition owner Jack Leconte and alpine skier Luc Alphand over their respective teams being allocated one entry,[12][13] Michel Cosson, the president of the ACO, said that entries selected appeared to be of high quality and the automotive group wanted the field to be heterogeneous. He stated it was not the right way to select entries for the race, but he disliked those who sought to spoil the excitement of the event.[12]

Team Nasamax, an operation based in Sittingbourne, England, entered the first renewable-fuelled sports prototype racing car at the Le Mans event to increase awareness of renewable fuels.[14][15] The car, called the Reynard 01Q, ran a 2.65 l (0.58 imp gal; 0.70 US gal) Cosworth V8 turbocharged engine on bio-ethanol fuel,[14] which does not release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because it is produced from crops.[15] The car's fuel systems and inlet air system were modified to allow for the efficient combustion of fuel. An alternative exhaust system was built and the housing and vanes on the turbocharger were altered.[14]

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

Notes:

• ^1 — The No. 20 Lister Storm LMP was withdrawn due to accident damage in the third qualifying session.[28]

Thunderstorms were forecast, and despite an earlier heavy rain shower, the weather at the start of the race was clear. The air temperature approached 28 °C (82 °F).[38] Approximately 220,000 people attended the event.[39] The two Bentley Speed 8s underwent checks to their ride heights,[40] Ray Mallock rectified a faulty gearbox that leaked oil in the No. 64 Saleen S7-R, and Kondo Racing replaced the No. 9 Dome S101's V8 engine after a water leak.[41] The French tricolour was waved by the founder of the ALMS Don Panoz at 16:00 Central European Summer Time to signal the start of the race,[42] led by the starting pole sitter Capello's No. 7 Bentley.[38] 49 cars planned to take the start following the withdrawal of the Lister Storm LMP,[43] but the No. 25 Gerard Welter WR LMP02 was in the pit lane with a mechanical fault.[41] Capello maintained the lead and Lammers' Racing for Holland car passed Magnussen's Team Goh Audi for third.[38] At the end of the first lap, Gavin brought the No. 50 Corvette into the pit lane with a throttle linkage problem that lost the car 26 minutes and dropped it to last overall.[44] Lammers fell from second to sixth when the three privateer Audis passed him as Bentley quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Herbert briefly took the lead from Capello before making the No. 8 Bentley's first pit stop of the event on lap 10. Meanwhile, Intersport's Lola-MG vehicle moved to the front of LMP675 after the RN Motorsport Zytek developed car trouble and AJR led the LMGT category.[45]

The first hour of the race ended with the first crash as the No. 91 TVR Tuscan T400R of Richard Stanton was hit from behind by a Gerard Walter WR LMP02 car in the Porsche Curves, sending him into the outside concrete barrier at the exit to the complex.[46] The impact broke the Tuscan's right-rear suspension, stranding Stanton at the complex of turns.[46] The car was retired after repairs made to its differential by Stanton to make it drive-able for a return to the pit lane proved unsuccessful.[41] Not long after, Capello locked the No. 7 Bentley's brakes going into the right-hand Mulsanne Corner and he slowed to stop the car from spinning into a gravel trap. He held off Herbert in a large amount of slower traffic until Herbert passed him to retake the lead on the 23rd lap. Kristensen relieved Capello in the No. 7 Bentley and retook the overall lead from Lehto's Audi R8 three laps later. Brabham's sister No. 8 car was called into the pit lane to have a loose door frame fixed in a ten-second stop. Casper Elgaard had been the fastest driver in LMP675 at the time, returning the RN Motorsport Zytek to the lead of the class.[47] Audi Sport UK instructed Birla to enter the pit lane on lap 28. He was prevented from doing so by a Panoz prototype vehicle to his right and was required to complete an additional lap.[48] The R8 slowed with a lack of fuel through Mulsanne Corner and it was retired at the side of the track after Biela's attempt to weave and keep the car running on its starter failed.[47]

In the third hour, Kristensen almost made contact with Jean-Marc Gounon's Courage Compétition Judd exiting the pit lane.[49] Beppe Gabbiani's Racing for Holland car hit Kelly Collins' No. 50 Corvette at Arnage corner and both cars spun.[41] Brabham's No. 8 Bentley passed Werner's Team Goh Audi R8 for second at the Dunlop Curve though Werner used slower traffic to retake the position. Brabham returned to second when Werner entered the pit lane as the RN Motorsport Zytek car lost the lead of the LMP675 class to Noël del Bello Racing's Reynard car of Didier André as its alternator was changed.[49] Safety cars were deployed after 3 hours and 40 minutes to slow the race because oil was laid by an unknown car between the Mulsanne and Indianapolis turns.[50] This prompted several cars to make pit stops and brought much of the field closer.[51] In the main LMP categories, the safety cars separated the field, leaving the Bentleys more than 2 minutes and 17 seconds of each other, 50 seconds ahead of Werner's Team Goh Audi and another 50 seconds in front of Stefan Johansson's Champion Racing car.[52] The lead of LMGT changed as Emmanuel Collard's AJR Porsche was forced into the pit lane with a malfunctioning gearshift, allowing Buckler's TRG vehicle to take the category lead until Bernhard made an unscheduled pit stop to replace a heavily slipping clutch.[50] The No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari of Jamie Davies came to the pit lane for a two-minute stop to rectify a water leak, ceding the lead to the sister No. 80 car of Kelvin Burt.[50]

As night fell, the lead of the LMP675 category switched from the No. 29 Noël del Bello Racing's Reynard vehicle to the Intersport Racing MG-Lola car,[50] which later had an anxious moment when driver Duncan Dayton spun at the PlayStation chicane. He managed to retain the lead in the class.[53] Soon after, Tom Coronel's St Team Orange Spyker C8 Double-12R stopped at the entry to the pit lane with a clutch failure. He exited the car to push it beyond a white line denoting where his pit crew could provide assistance. Coronel was then told by a trackside marshal that he was not permitted to push the car any further and it dropped out of reach of completing the laps necessary for classification.[50] At the front of the field, the gap between Smith and Capello's No. 7 Bentley and Blundell and Herbert's sister No. 8 car was 33 seconds. Third position was the Champion Racing Audi R8 of Pirro and Seiji Ara's Team Goh entry was fourth.[53] The LMGTS category was a close battle between the Prodrive pair of Kox and Anthony Davidson,[54] as both cars set next to identical lap times during the seventh hour.[55] Ron Fellows' No. 53 Corvette equalled their pace until the Ferraris responded by increasing their speed.[54] In the eighth hour, Davidson spun into a gravel trap at the PlayStation chicane.[56] The resulting pit stop to change the No. 80 Prodrive Ferrari's tyres and a precautionary check lost Davidson two laps and third place in LMGTS to Fellows.[54][56][57]

Eighth place overall became a multi-car battle between David Saelens' Panoz, the Courage Compétition of Gounon and Christophe Tinseau's Riley & Scott Mk III C-Ford; all three drivers were within 20 seconds of each other. Tinseau bowed out of the battle after a routine pit stop, leaving Saelens and Gounon 18 seconds apart.[56] On lap 116, Herbert's No. 8 Bentley made a pit stop; a miscommunication between the mechanic holding a jack and a rear tyre fitter lost him ten seconds.[56][57] 19 laps later, Lammers' Racing for Holland car lowered a 15-second gap through its faster pace to pass Olivier Beretta's Riley & Scott Ford in the final third of the lap for fifth overall.[58] Soon after, Beretta picked up a puncture from hitting debris on the dirty side of the Mulsanne Straight at 190 mph (310 km/h) and slowed en route to the pit lane.[59] The second-place car in the LMGTS category, the No. 50 Corvette of Fellows, was hindered by a suspected alternator belt failure and entered the pit lane. Mechanics found it was a broken pulley operating the vehicle's oil pump. They replaced the support and the battery, enabling Fellows to rejoin the circuit fourth in class.[60] Kristensen's No. 7 Bentley had a 1-minute and 40-second pit stop to have minor damage at the front of the car repaired; he retained the overall lead over Brabham's sister No. 8 car. Luhr's No. 83 AJR Porsche succumbed to raised oil and water temperatures caused by a sharp rock penetrating its radiator. It spent 24 minutes and five laps having its radiator replaced and Luhr ceded the LMGT class lead to Kazuyuki Nishizawa's No. 77 Team Taisan Advan car.[61][62]

Magnussen spun at the Ford chicane and damaged the front suspension on Team Goh's Audi R8.[63] He drove the car to the pit lane and mechanics took 8 minutes and 53 seconds to make repairs. The car rejoined in fourth place with Werner driving.[61] Noël del Bello Racing had an anxious moment when driver Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière spun into a gravel trap at the Dunlop Curves. He recovered with assistance from trackside marshals without losing the LMP675 class lead. Soheil Ayari's No. 18 Courage vehicle overtook Scott Maxwell's No. 12 Panoz LMP01 Evo car for ninth overall and pulled away.[64] All three of the top cars in LMGT were within a lap of each other, led by Johnny Mowlem's No. 94 Risi Competizione Ferrari after Team Taisan Advan made a pit stop to replace the driver's-side door. Mowlem held it until his car's engine failed on the Mulsanne Straight and ceded the lead of the class to Lieb's Orbit Porsche.[63] Werner's Team Goh Audi R8 twice drove into its garage for repairs to its engine control unit and lost 10 minutes and 14 seconds. Werner rejoined 3 minutes and 20 seconds in front of Andy Wallace's No. 15 Racing for Holland car.[64][65] As the race approached its halfway point, the No. 7 Bentley of Smith lapped two to five seconds faster than Blundell's No. 8 car and increased the vehicle's overall lead to 1 minute and 20 seconds.[64]

In the 12th hour, the second-placed car in LMGTS, Davidson's No. 80 Prodrive Ferrari had a right-front wheel bearing fault at 175 mph (282 km/h) and was sent into a barrier at the end of the Mulsanne Straight.[66] He extricated himself from the car and was tended to by trackside marshals. Davidson was transported by ambulance to the infield medical centre for circuit doctors to examine him.[67] They found he had sustained bruising and a head concussion from hitting his head against a door; he was taken to Centre Hospitalier Le Mans for a brain scan.[67][68] The Ferrari's retirement elevated the No. 50 Corvette C5-R of Gavin to second in LMGTS. Prodrive asked Kox in the No. 88 Ferrari to enter the pit lane for a precautionary brake check. Not long after, a low voltage indicator warning and no radio communication to the No. 8 Bentley's pit stall prompted Blundell to make a pit stop for a replacement battery, losing the car two laps to the sister No. 7 entry. The lead of LMGT continued to be closely fought with the No. 93 AJR Porsche heading the field until a front splitter problem forced it into the pit lane for four minutes, giving the position to Lieb's Orbit vehicle. Because of the mechanical attrition affecting the Porsche 996s in the LMGT category, only two Porsches remained in contention for a victory and Ferrari was unable to challenge the marque.[69] Front suspension problems for the No. 12 Panoz car and an engine failure curtailing the No. 4 Riley & Scott Mk III C's race promoted the No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari to tenth overall.[69][70]

Luhr and Maashen's No. 93 AJR Porsche was able to fight with Lieb and later Leo Hindery's No. 87 Orbit car and eventually retake the lead of the LMGT category it had lost when it entered the pit lane for car repairs.[71] An hour and 20 minutes later, Lammers picked up a left-rear puncture, losing control of the No. 15 Racing For Holland car under braking.[71] He spun several times backwards into a gravel trap at Indianapolis corner and damaged a rear wheel. The car was pushed back onto the circuit by track marshals and Lammers drove to the pit lane to repair the damage. At the same time, Gunnar Jeannette's No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo car locked up and made light contact with the tyre barrier at Arnage corner.[72][73] Further up the field, Brabham made an unscheduled pit stop in the No. 8 Bentley to undergo a second battery replacement. The change took 3 minutes, 32 seconds and the car returned to the race in second overall. Not long after Collins' No. 50 Corvette bowed out of the battle for the LMGTS lead to have its transmission bearing replaced and it was completed in 15 minutes. Lehto's Champion Racing R8 could not take advantage of the No. 8 Bentley's mechanical impairments and lost one additional lap after a spin.[71][72] At the start of the 18th hour, Saelens in the No. 12 Panoz car lost grip through Mulsanne corner and made left-front contact with a tyre barrier at high speed. Saelens was unhurt but the damage to the car forced its retirement.[74]

The No. 93 AJR Porsche of Maassen entered the garage with loss of voltage corrected by changing the alternator in six minutes. Maassen returned to the track still leading the LMGT category.[75] Soon after, Wallace's No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome had a flat battery that dropped the car from fifth to eighth overall.[76] Gabbiani's sister No. 16 car had its front-left tyre delaminate and carbon fibre debris was launched from the car's front-left corner. Safety cars were required for the second time as the track needed cleaning and prompted several cars to make pit stops. Beretta's No. 11 Panoz car was the main beneficiary from the safety car period and he passed Jonathan Cochet's No. 13 Courage C60 vehicle on the Mulsanne Straight for fifth overall.[74] Towards the end of the 20th hour, the LMP675 class leading Noël del Bello Reynard slowed with a misfiring engine but the car's 35-lap advantage kept it in the category lead.[77] The No. 15 Racing for Holland car of John Bosch returned to seventh[76] when Ayari's No. 18 Courage C60 began leaking fluids at its rear and entered the pit lane for a 22-minute repair.[78] With the first four positions stable, attention focused on the battle for fifth place between the No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo and the No. 13 Courage C60 cars.[79] The No. 99 XL Racing Ferrari of Gaël Lasoudier had an rear engine bay fire at the PlayStation Chicane, causing the deployment of the safety cars for the third time in the race.[78]

As the safety car period ended, Max Papis in the No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo car caught and passed Stéphan Grégoire's No. 13 Courage C60 vehicle at Tetre Rouge corner. Fellows overtook his Corvette Racing teammate Collins in the final third of the lap for second in LMGTS. Collins retook the position from Fellows two laps later until they made pit stops for fuel, tyres and a change of driver. O'Connell relieved Fellows and returned to second by having a faster stop than Andy Pilgrim. The No. 17 Pescarolo Courage 60 car of Jean-Christophe Boullion's had a flash fire when fuel ignited during a pit stop. An intervention from the team's mechanics to extinguish the fire allowed him to continue driving.[78] The Champion Racing Audi of Johansson stalled during a pit stop for tyres, fuel and a driver switch with co-driver Pirro. The fault was rectified by replacing the car's battery at the right-hand corner of its cockpit. It rejoined the track still in third place and ahead of Ara's Team Goh Audi.[80] Lammers' No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome car in seventh caught and overtook Gounon's No. 13 Courage Compétition C60 vehicle on the race's final lap to claim sixth overall for his team. In the meantime, Tristan Gommendy crashed at the Indianapolis corner. He drove the No. 16 Racing for Holland car into the pit lane to retire.[81]

Unhindered in the final hours of the race, Smith took the chequered flag for the No. 7 Bentley, two laps ahead of the No. 8 Bentley of Brabham.[81] Audi, in their first defeat at Le Mans since the 2000 edition, were a further three laps behind in third to win the LMP900 class with Champion Racing's R8 and Team Goh took fourth.[82][83] It was Smith and Capello's first Le Mans victory and Kristensen's fifth.[84] Kristensen became the first driver in history to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times in a row.[85] He also equalled Derek Bell's record of five victories and was one behind Jacky Ickx's all-time record of six wins.[85] It was Bentley's sixth overall Le Mans victory and its first since the 1930 race.[86] Prodrive held their ten-lap lead in the LMGTS category,[87] earning Enge, Kox and Davies their first class victories and the first for Ferrari in a GT class since the 1981 edition.[88] Corvette Racing completed the class podium with the No. 50 ahead of the No. 53.[39] Porsche took the first six places in the LMGT class with AJR taking the category win on the team's first visit to Le Mans. Orbit Racing and Thierry Perrier were the final two category podium finishers in second and third.[89] Noël del Bello Racing, unchallenged since the night, were victorious in the LMP675 class,[90] 31 laps ahead of the RN Motorsport Zytek and 84 laps in front of Rachel Welter's WR LMP01.[39]