2005 24 Hours of Le Mans

2005 marked major changes in the Le Mans regulations for the two Grand Touring (GT) categories. The Le Mans Grand Touring Sport category was renamed Le Mans Grand Touring 1 (LMGT1) and the Le Mans Grand Touring category became the Le Mans Grand Touring 2 (LMGT2) class. New vehicles in both of the classes were required to undergo homologation by both the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the world governing body of motor racing, and the ACO.[6] 2005 was the final year that cars built to confirm with the Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900) regulations could be entered alongside the newer "hybrid" cars constructed to comply to the updated aerodynamic regulations in the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) category. LMP900 cars were required to run with a smaller air restrictor to lower engine performance and were required to weigh more than "hybrid" cars.[7]

The ACO recommended that LMGT1 cars lapped the Circuit de la Sarthe no faster than 3 minutes, 55 seconds and LMGT2 were not permitted to go quicker than 4 minutes, 8 seconds. Had these rules not been met, the automotive group would immediately intervene to lower the performance of individual cars by altering their aerodynamic efficiency, reducing the size of the air restrictor and the fuel tank for future editions of the Le Mans race.[8][9] GT2-specification vehicles were allowed to complete if a minimum of 100 road-going cars were constructed by "the big manufacturers" and 25 produced by "the small manufacturers." Otherwise, the ACO would suspend holomogation for the 2006 edition.[9]

From late 2004 to early 2005, the circuit was resurfaced from Mulsanne to Arnage corners and a section of road was levelled at the circuit's 89th post.[2]

Automatic entries were earned by teams which won their category in the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans. Teams which won Le Mans-based series and events such as the 2004 Petit Le Mans, the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series and the 2004 American Le Mans Series were also invited. Some second-place finishers were also granted automatic entries in certain series though none were awarded to the winners and runners-up of the GT and N-GT categories of the 2004 FIA GT Championship as had been the case in the previous year.[11] As entries were pre-selected to teams, they were restricted to a maximum of two cars and were not allowed to change their vehicles from the previous year to the next. Entries were permitted to change category provided that they did not change the make of car and the ACO granted official permission for the switch.[12]

On 18 January 2005, the ACO published its final list of automatic invitations.[13] The overall winners of the 2004 race Audi Sport Japan Team Goh and the runners-up Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx were among the teams to decline their automatic entries. Dyson Racing, Prodrive Racing, Barron Connor Racing, ChoroQ Racing Team, JMB Racing and Alex Job Racing also did not accept their automatic entries. No replacements were found.[13]

Automatic entries for the 2005 24 Hours of Le Mans

Reason Entered	LMP1	LMP2	LMGT1	LMGT2
1st in the 24 Hours of Le Mans	Audi Sport Japan Team Goh1	Intersport Racing	Corvette Racing	White Lighting Racing
2nd in the 24 Hours of Le Mans	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx1	Rachel Welter	Prodrive Racing1	ChoroQ Racing Team1
1st in the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series	Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx1	Courage Compétition	Larbre Compétition	Sebah Automotive
2nd in the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series	Team Goh1	PiR Compétition	Barron Connor Racing1	JMB Racing1
1st in the 2004 Petit Le Mans	Champion Racing	Intersport Racing	Corvette Racing	Alex Job Racing1
1st in the 2004 American Le Mans Series	Dyson Racing1	Miracle Motorsports	Corvette Racing	Flying Lizard Motorsports
Source:[11][13]

On 24 March 2005, the ACO announced the full 50-car entry list for Le Mans, plus eight reserves.[14] Following the publication of entries, several teams withdrew their entries. Team Nasamax withdrew its two-year-old bio-ethanol-powered DM139-Judd car, citing financial difficulties causing the team to reduce its schedule for the 2005 racing season. This promoted the No. 91 T2M Motorsport Porsche 911-GT3 RSR to the race entry and it competed in the LMGT2 category.[15] Four days later, ACEMCO Motorsports withdrew its No. 63 Saleen S7-R due to aerodynamic deficiencies caused by a modification of the height of the car's rear wing at the 2004 Petit Le Mans to comply with ACO regulations. This promoted the No. 76 IMSA Performance LMGT2-class Porsche to the race from the reserves.[16]

A revised entry list released by the ACO on 27 April confirmed the withdrawal of the Team Nasamax and ACEMCO Motorsports entries as well as the dropping of the Graham Nash Motorsport Saleen S7-R, Thierry Perrier's Porsche 911-GT3 RSR, a second Racing for Holland Dome S101-Judd car, a Ferrari 360 Modena GTC fielded by G.P.C. Sport and a second Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello purchased by Larbre Compétition from the reserve list.[17] Four days before the start of scrutineering, Lucchini Engineering were unable to rectify a gearbox ratio problem in its LMP2/04 and were forced to withdraw the car, reducing the number of entries to 49.[18]

Although G-Force Racing had qualified more than 115 per cent slower than the fastest qualifying car in the LMP2 category, the stewards applied force majeure after the team's No. 35 Courage C65 vehicle was heavily damaged in the first qualifying session. The team were granted dispensation to start the race from the rear of the grid.[36]

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. 35 G-Force Racing entry was granted dispensation to start the race after failing to qualify within 115 per cent of the fastest LMP2 car.[36]

The weather at the start was dry and clear with an air temperature of 32 °C (90 °F).[42] Approximately 230,000 people attended the race.[43] The French tricolour was waved by Martin Winterkorn, the president of Audi, at 16:00 local time to start the race.[2] Boullion, the pole sitter, led the field.[44] Forty-nine cars planned to take the start but Paul Belmondo's Courage, Bouvet's Gerald Welter WR, the Rollcentre Dallara and the Chamberlain-Synergy Lola vehicles started from the pit lane because they had technical problems.[44] Boullion maintained the lead from his teammate Ayari for the first three laps as the pair pulled away from the rest of the field.[42] Michigami's Jim Gainer Dome car passed Emanuele Pirro around the inside for third entering the Dunlop chicane. Auberlen took the lead of LMGT2 from Rockenfeller on the third lap.[44] Gear selection problems forced the No. 25 Ray Mallock Lola car to the garage and Michigami lost a lap due to a minor paddle shift issue. Towards the close of the first hour the LMGT1-class-leading No. 59 Aston Martin of Turner incurred two stop-and-go penalties for driving across a white line denoting the track boundaries at the Ford Chicane, dropping the car to third.[42]

Mechanical attrition affected several cars in the second hour. Liddell's Panoz vehicle required repairs to a loose undertray, promoting Lieb's Alex Job car to the lead of LMGT2. A left-rear puncture on Gavin's No. 64 Corvette caused by a lack of pressure on the Mulsanne Straight slowed him to 60 mph (97 km/h) and he returned to the pit lane for a replacement wheel. A further delay caused by a water leak delayed Gavin and he fell to third in category.[45] Stefan Eriksson had an anxious moment in the No. 92 Cirtek Ferrari with a spin just before the Ford Chicanes, causing several drivers to scramble for space to avoid hitting his car.[42][45] Not long after, Patrick Bourdais was caught off guard as Ayari lapped his No. 78 Panoz car at Arnage corner, causing Bourdais and Ayari to collide. Bourdais pirouetted into a gravel trap, making minor contact with a tyre barrier.[45] Ayari sustained steering and front bodywork damage to the No. 17 Pesarolo and he drove the car to the garage. Repairs took four minutes and it fell to sixth place with Éric Hélary relieving Ayari.[46]

Enge's No. 58 Aston Martin was elevated into the top ten,[42] when Campbell-Walter had a broken mechanical connection between the No. 7 DBA-Judd's paddle shift and gearbox. Subsequent high water temperatures that took 25 minutes to rectify, dropping the car down the race order.[47] LMP2 was led by Kruse' Courage C65 vehicle of Ian Mitchell, which passed Hancock's Intersport Lola entry and battled the No. 37 Paul Belmondo car. The Petersen Porsche later passed Lieb's Alex Job car to take the lead of LMGT2.[42] Approaching the 2-hour and 30-minute mark, the No. 64 Corvette of Beretta sustained a second rear-left puncture and entered the pit lane for another change of tyres.[48] Shortly after, Comas in the No. 16 Pescarolo ceded the race lead to the No. 2 Audi of Pirro as a gear selection fault required a visit to the garage, dropping the car to fifth. It lost further positions as the problem persisted leaving the first Mulsanne chicane with Collard in the car.[49]

At the conclusion of the second hour, the Chamberlain-Synergy Lola began leaking oil, necessitating the ACO to deploy three safety cars for 15 minutes as marshals scattered cement dust to dry the spilled oil.[42][50] As the safety cars were recalled, Pirro locked his cold tyres heavily on the run to Arnage corner, making contact with a tyre barrier with the left-front corner of the No. 2 Audi. Marshals recovered the car and Pirro drove slowly to the pit lane for repairs to its bodywork. The No. 2 Audi rejoined in fifth position and Marco Werner assumed the race lead and the Team Oreca car of Stéphane Ortelli moved into second.[50][51] A left-rear puncture on the No. 16 Pescarolo C60 car midway through the lap required Hélary to make a pit stop to mend bodywork damage. The vehicle rejoined the race in seventh position after a ten-minute pit stop.[50] The recovering No. 18 Rollcentre Dallara car of Krumm, which had a misfiring engine that was cured, was forced to enter the pit lane to repair a broken power steering pump that required a replenishing of fluid.[51]

As night fell, the lead of LMGT1 changed to the No. 63 Corvette of Max Papis as Lamy made a pit stop to switch control of the No. 58 Aston Martin with his co-driver Peter Kox. The No. 13 Courage C60H of Bruce Jouanny sustained a major rear left puncture on the approach from Mulsanne corner to Indianapolis turn, removing the car's rear wing and bodywork, necessitating its retirement in the garage.[51] The incident briefly delayed Ortelli, who drove into a gravel trap at the Dunlop Esses after striking debris from Jouanny's car but he avoided a collision with the barriers beside the track. A suspension problem on the Team Oreca Audi of Jean-Marc Gounon dropped it to sixth overall, promoting Biela's No. 2 Champion vehicle to second. Gounon returned to fourth by passing Vanina Ickx's No. 18 Rollcentre Dallara and Jan Lammers' No. 10 Racing for Holland Dome cars. In the meantime, Alex Job driver Rockenfeller retook the lead of LMGT2 from White Lighting.[52] The No. 63 Corvette of Ron Fellows was overtaken by Kox's No. 59 Aston Martin for the lead of the LMGT1 category going into the first Mulsanne chicane in the seventh hour and Kox began to pull away from the rest of the class field.[53][54]

Not long after, Donny Crevels' No. 85 Spyker C8 caught fire at its right rear due to a broken oil line spraying oil on its warm exhaust pipe. He retired after a high speed spin into a gravel trap at Indianapolis corner.[55] The safety cars were required for a second time to allow marshals to work for 24 minutes to dry the spilled oil with cement dust. The No. 34 Miracle Courage shed its left-rear wheel at the exit of the pit lane during the safety car period and the vehicle coasted backwards down a small hill and re-entered the pit lane.[53][54] This led to the disqualification of the No. 34 Courage car from the race for "reversing back on track".[54] Turner subsequently incurred a third time penalty for overtaking another car under yellow flag conditions; the gap between the Alex Job Racing Porsche of Lieb and Timo Bernhard's White Lighting car in the first two positions in LMGT2 was 14 seconds.[53][54] At midnight, Ayari's No. 17 Pescarolo C60 and Bobby Verdon-Roe's No. 8 Rollcentre Dallara cars made contact at the first Mulsanne chicane, dropping Ayari to 14th while his car was repaired.[56]

Halliday and later Gregor Fisken twice brought the No. 32 Intersport Lola car from the LMP2 lead straight to the pit lane with a fuel injector problem. The team lost 15 minutes and the category lead to the No. 37 Paul Belmondo Courage car.[57][58] Boullion's No. 16 Pescarolo C60 vehicle was elevated to fourth when driver John Bosch entered the pit lane for debris removal from the Racing for Holland Dome's car sidepod and radiator.[58] Fuel injector problems on the LMP2-category-leading No. 37 Paul Belmondo Courage forced Andre to drive the car into the garage where its fuel pump and filters were replaced,[59] as the No. 32 Intersport Lola vehicle was retired with a broken engine valve.[60] Andre lost his two-lap lead to the sister No. 36 car of Karim Ojjeh and later Adam Sharpe. Approaching the mid-point in the race, Werner's No. 3 Audi led his Champion teammate McNish by a lap after the No. 2 car made an unscheduled stop to replace a slow puncture. Comas returned to third when the No. 5 Jim Gainer Dome car had its engine control unit changed and fell to fourth.[61]

In the early morning, a fast pace from McNish lowered Kristensen's overall lead to less than a minute.[62] Gounon lost control of the Team Oreca R8 and narrowly avoided a collision with Kristensen at the Ford Chicane after he missed his braking point.[63] Soon after, a tyre delamination put the right-front corner of McNish's Audi into a tyre barrier at Indianapolis and it was beached in a gravel trap. He returned to the circuit after marshals recovered the Audi from the gravel but McNish drove straight to the garage. Repairs to the Audi's front-right suspension and rear bodywork took 18 minutes to complete. Boullion in the No. 17 Pescarolo car was promoted to second as the No. 2 Audi now driven by Biela emerged in third position.[64] The No. 91 T2M Motorsport Porsche of Xavier Pompidou had a heavy accident with a tree at 190 km/h (120 mph) at Indianapolis corner after its left-rear wheel bearing failed before his braking point, forcing its retirement. Pompidou was unhurt because the brunt of the impact damaged the car's right-hand corner; he was transported from the circuit via a medical vehicle for a precautionary check-up.[65] Kristsensen had an anxious moment when he selected a gear too early in the No. 3 Audi and ran wide onto the grass at the second Mulsanne chicane; he retained the overall lead from the faster Pescarolo of Boullion.[66] Paul Belmondo Racing's No. 36 Courage vehicle relinquished its four-lap lead in the LMP2 category to the No. 25 Ray Mallock Lola car of Erdos because an overheating problem forced it into the garage.[66][67]

Campbell-Walter locked his front-left tyre on gravel and oil scattered across the track at the first Mulsanne chicane and had an accident against a tyre barrier. He drove the No. 13 Creation Autosportif DBA-Judd car to the garage for a replacement splitter, bodywork and a new brake disc and rejoined the race in 20th position after 1 hour, 10 minutes.[68] After going off the track and onto an escape road at Indianapolis corner, Loeb brought the No. 16 Pescarolo into the pit lane for a three-minute stop to remove debris from the car's air intakes and bodywork.[66] The No. 25 Ray Mallock MG-Lola relinquished the lead of LMP2 to Andre in the No. 37 Paul Belmondo Courage vehicle due to a broken layshaft bearing that forced the car to enter the garage for ¾ of an hour, dropping it to third in the category.[66][69] Soon after, Enge's No. 58 Aston Martin sustained damage to its front splitter. The car lost the lead of LMGT1 to the No. 64 Corvette of Beretta after a five-minute pit stop to repair the damage. Stéphane Sarrazin's No. 59 Aston Martin also passed his teammate Enge for second place in category; though he sustained a left-rear puncture, his pit stop did not lose him second in LMGT1.[70][71]

In the 19th hour, Ayari in fifth place picked up a rear puncture on a bump at the first Mulsanne chicane.[71] He spun through 90 degrees into a tyre wall,[71] damaging the No. 17 Pescarolo car's rear wing, steering and suspension, as well as loosening its bodywork. Ayari slowed for almost an entire lap to enter the garage. Pescarolo were unable to repair the damage after half an hour and retired the car. The No. 17's retirement elevated John Stack's No. 9 Jota Zytek car to fifth overall.[72] The Zytek car maintained the position until Hignett understeered across a gravel trap at Indianapolis corner and he crashed into a tyre barrier. Marshals freed Hignett from the barrier and the car returned to the track in eighth overall. The attrition rate amongst LMP1 cars promoted the LMGT1-class leading No. 64 Corvette to fifth overall.[73] In the meantime, a right-rear suspension failure on the No. 25 Ray Mallock MG-Lola car of Erdos sent him gyrating into a gravel trap at the Ford Chicane. Erdos was able to drive the car to the pit lane for repairs.[69][74] With 90 minutes to go, the No. 59 Aston Martin entered the garage to have a water leak in its radiator rectified and Enge's No. 58 car was retired after it ran out of fuel on track.[74] Soon after, the No. 16 Pescarolo began to fall off the race pace after Boullion made an unscheduled visit to the garage to have debris removed from the radiator. The debris was the result of the opening of duct grilles to prevent the car from overheating.[73]

Tom Kristensen (pictured in 2006) took over from Jacky Ickx as the driver with the most overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Unchallenged since the third hour of the race,[75] Kristensen took the chequered flag for the No. 3 Audi in a time of 24:01:30.901 at an average speed of 210.216 km/h (130.622 mph),[76] two laps ahead of the No. 16 Pescarolo car of Boullion.[74] The No. 2 Champion car was a further four laps behind to complete the podium in third place. The last of the Audi cars was the Team Oreca in fourth, another two laps behind.[77] It was Werner's first Le Mans victory, Lehto's second and Kristensen's seventh.[78] Kristensen eclipsed Jacky Ickx's all-time record of six overall Le Mans wins,[79] and Werner completed the Triple Crown of Endurance Racing (overall wins in the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans).[80] It was also Audi's fifth overall victory and the last for the R8.[77] The No. 64 Corvette maintained its two-lap advantage at the front of the LMGT1 field over the No. 63 car, earning the team their fourth class win. Aston Martin's No. 59 DBR9 completed the category podium in third.[81] Alex Job, unchallenged since the fifth hour of the race, were victorious in the LMGT2 category, two minutes ahead of White Lightning's No. 90 Porsche and seven laps in front of Flying Lizard's No. 80 entry. The battle for the win in the LMP2 class continued into the final hour, as the Ray Mallock Lola car overtook the two Paul Belmondo Courage vehicles after they had mechanical problems with 45 minutes remaining.[82]