The 79th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 79e 24 Heures du Mans) was a 24-hour automobile endurance race for 56 teams of three drivers in Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars, held before 249,500 spectators on 11 and 12 June 2011 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France. It was the third round of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup and the race's 79th edition as organised by the automotive group the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. This was the first time the race had been part of a championship or series since 1992. On 24 April, six weeks prior, a test day was held.
An Audi R18 TDI—driven by Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, and Benoît Tréluyer—started from the pole position after Tréluyer set the fastest lap in the third qualifying session. The car battled a trio of Peugeot 908s and secured the first Le Mans victory for the drivers, and Audi's tenth Le Mans victory. The Peugeot 908 driven by Sébastien Bourdais, Pedro Lamy, and Simon Pagenaud finished second, 13.854 seconds behind, in the race's fourth-closest result; and their teammates Nicolas Minassian, Franck Montagny, and Stéphane Sarrazin completed the podium in third, two laps behind the race-winning Audi.
The Greaves Motorsport team of Tom Kimber-Smith, Olivier Lombard, and Karim Ojjeh won the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category after leading for the race's final 137 laps in a Zytek Z11SN-Nissan car. The trio finished six laps ahead of Signatech Nissan's Oreca 03 vehicle driven by Soheil Ayari, Franck Mailleux, and Lucas Ordóñez, and seven laps in front of Level 5 Motorsports' Lola B08/80 car driven by João Barbosa, Christophe Bouchut, and Scott Tucker. Corvette Racing took their seventh class win—courtesy of drivers Olivier Beretta, Antonio García, and Tommy Milner—finishing first in a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R in the new Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) category. An AF Corse-fielded Ferrari 458 Italia GT2—driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Toni Vilander—and BMW Motorsport's BMW M3 GT2—driven by Joey Hand, Dirk Müller, and Andy Priaulx—in second and third, respectively, completed the class podium. Larbre Compétition took the first two positions in the new Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) class with their Chevrolet Corvette C6.R—driven by Patrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal, and Gabriele Gardel—ahead of the sister Porsche 997 GT3-RSR—driven by Jean-Philippe Belloc, Christophe Bourret, and Pascal Gibon.
Audi's victory moved them closer to Peugeot in the LMP1 Manufacturers' Cup, while Corvette's class victory moved it past BMW and Ferrari for the LMGTE Manufacturers' Cup lead. Audi Sport Team Joest took over the LMP1 Teams' Cup lead from Peugeot Sport Total, and Larbre overtook Proton Competition for the LMGTE Am Teams' Cup lead. Signatech and AF Corse maintained their advantage in the LMP2 and LMGTE Pro Teams' Cups, respectively, with four rounds remaining in the season.
Background The 24 Hours of Le Mans began in 1923 when automotive journalist Charles Faroux, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) general secretary Georges Durand, and the industrialist Emile Coquile agreed to hold a test of vehicle reliability and durability. The 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport. The race's 79th iteration was held on 11 and 12 June 2011 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans, France. It was the third of seven automobile endurance races in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.
Peugeot led the LMP1 Manufacturers' Cup with 55 points, 17 ahead of second-place Audi after winning the 1000 km of Spa six weeks earlier. BMW led the LMGTE Manufacturers Cup with 49 points, 11 more than second-placed Ferrari and 14 more than third-place Corvette. Peugeot Sport led the LMP1 Teams' Cup with 27 points, followed by Audi Sport Team Joest, Team Oreca, and Rebellion Racing, each 19, 18, and 12 points. Signatech Nissan led the LMP2 Teams' Cup with 22 points, and OAK Racing was second with four less. AF Corse led the LMGTE Pro Teams' Cup, with 27 points, followed by BMW Motorsport, with 26 points. Proton Competition led the LMGTE Am standings with 24 points, followed by Krohn Racing with 21 points.
Regulation changes The ACO authored the 2011 regulations to respect the environment and support sustainable development by encouraging the use of new technologies and techniques that reduce carbon emissions and fuel consumption. Le Mans Prototype (LMP) cars could now be equipped with four-wheel or kinetic energy recovery system hybrid powertrains, to recover energy otherwise lost by braking, exhaust, or heat generated by the engine and suspension dampers. Each hybrid system was limited to between braking zones, and driver aids such as push-to-pass were prohibited. The ACO reduced fuel capacity for petrol and diesel vehicles and decreased engine sizes for turbocharged and diesel engines. To reduce lift, all prototype cars had to weigh and have vertical fins atop the engine cover.
The second-tier Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category was overhauled to keep costs low and affordable for privateer entries. All LMP2 vehicles had to be equipped with production-series engines, with the required engine life gradually increasing over the following three years from 30 hours to 50 hours. 2010 LMP2 cars could be entered until , but they had to be heavier than 2011 vehicles, with no bodywork modifications permitted and made slower than all 2011-specification cars. Each LMP2 team had to sign at least one silver or bronze-rated driver.
The ACO dropped the LM GT1 category and created a single set of regulations for the GT Endurance category, which was divided into two classes: LM GTE Pro and LM GTE Am, based on 2009 LMGT2 rules. This was done to avoid multiple calendar clashes with several other racing series and because there were few entrants in the class other than the Le Mans race, as well as the category being exclusively for short-distance sprints. The LM GTE Pro category featured new cars that could be driven by any driver, whereas the LM GTE Am class featured one-year-old cars driven by a minimum of two Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) silver or bronze licensed drivers per team.
Entries The ACO received 71 applications by the entry deadline, 19 January 2011. Its eight-member Selection Committee granted 56 invitations to the race, and entries were divided between the LMP1, LMP2, LMGTE Pro, and LMGTE Am categories on 25 January. 40 per cent of the applications were for entry to the LMGTE Am class.
Automatic entries Teams received automatic entries based on their results in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, or Le Mans-based series and events such as the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC), the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), the Le Mans Series (LMS), and the Petit Le Mans, and the Michelin Green X Challenge. Because teams received automatic entries, they could change their cars from the previous year to the next, but not their category. Automatic invitations in the two GTE categories could be swapped based on the driver line-ups chosen by those teams. As the ALMS did not differentiate between the Pro and Am categories, only a single GTE invitation was granted to their entries.
On 3 December 2010, the ACO announced the list of automatic entries.
+Automatic entries for the 2011 24 Hours of Le MansReason EnteredLMP1LMP2LMGTEResult in the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans Audi Sport North America Strakka Racing Team Felbermayr-Proton Luc Alphand Aventures Audi Sport Team Joest OAK Racing Hankook Team Farnbacher Larbre CompétitionResult in the Le Mans Series Team Oreca Matmut RML Team Felbermayr-Proton Larbre Compétition Signature Plus Strakka Racing AF CorseResult in the 2010 Petit Le Mans Team Peugeot Total OAK Racing Corvette RacingResult in the American Le Mans SeriesN/A Patrón Highcroft Racing Flying Lizard Motorsports Muscle Milk Team Cytosport Risi CompetizioneResult in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Team Peugeot Total OAK Racing Team Felbermayr-ProtonResult in the Michelin Green X Challenge OAK Racing IMSA Performance Matmut
Entry list and reserves
The ACO announced the full 56-car entry list and 10-vehicle reserve list at a press conference at Radio France's headquarters in Paris, on the afternoon of 9 February, in conjunction with the announcement of entries for the 2011 ILMC, In addition to the 26 full-season entries from the ILMC, the field included ALMS and LMS entries, along with one-off entries competing only at Le Mans. The ACO initially nominated ten reserves: two from LMP1, three from LMP2, and the remaining five from the two LMGTE classes. Withdrawals after 1 February were replaced class-by-class: an LMGTE entry would be replaced by another LMGTE car, and an LMP vehicle replaced by another LMP entry.
Signatech Nissan withdrew its second vehicle, the 27 Oreca 03-Nissan, from the entry list on 12 April. Consequently, the ACO promoted the No. 44 Extrême Limite AM Paris Norma MP200P-Judd BMW car to the race; and the Kronos Racing Lola-Aston Martin entry moved to first on the reserve list. The Pegasus Racing and Rangoni Motorsport entries were subsequently removed from the reserve list. The Highcroft Racing team withdrew its LMP1 ARX-01e-Honda car on 16 May, citing a lack of financial support as the reason, while also announcing the end of their partnership with Honda and HPD, due to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The Kronos Racing Lola-Aston Martin was then promoted to the entry list. At the start of the event, the No. 69 Robertson Racing Ford GT-R-Doran and the No. 86 Young Driver AMR Vantage were the two cars still on the reserve list.
Testing and practice For the 2011 race, the test session was reintroduced to Le Mans for the first time since to allow manufacturers and teams enough time to develop the new technologies on their cars by the ACO's aim to improve safety. On April 24, seven weeks before the race, two four-hour test sessions were held. During testing, there were 54 cars from the race entry and reserve lists, including three Formula Le Mans-class Oreca-FLM09s from Hope Racing, Genoa Racing, and JMB Racing. The United States-based Flying Lizard Motorsports, Highcroft Racing, and Krohn teams did not participate in the test due to cost and logistics. The European-based JMW Motorsport, Prospeed Competition, Quifel-ASM Team, and Strakka Racing squads also did not participate in the test session.
Romain Dumas set the fastest time in the first test session in the No. 1 Audi R18 TDI—with a lap of 3:27.900. His teammate Tom Kristensen—in the sister No. 3 Audi—improved that time to 3:27.687 in the second session. Mike Rockenfeller followed, two-tenths of a second behind, in second place, while the fastest Peugeot 908 car was the No. 8 of Stéphane Sarrazin, in third. André Lotterer's No. 2 Audi was fourth, with Sébastien Bourdais's No. 7 Peugeot fifth, and the No. 10 Team Oreca Matmut Peugeot 908 HDi FAP sixth after a lap from Loïc Duval. The fastest non-diesel LMP1 car was Emmanuel Collard's eighth-place No. 16 Pescarolo. The time of 3:42.992 set by Franck Mailleux for Signatech led LMP2 with the Oreca-Nissans, ahead of Alexandre Prémat's No. 48 Team Oreca Matmut car and Alex Brundle's No. 41 Greaves Motorsport entry. Allan Simonsen, in the No. 89 Hankook Team Farnbacher Ferrari 458 Italia, was the only driver to go below the 4-minute mark in LMGTE Pro, with a 3:59.966 lap to top the class. Tommy Milner helped Larbre Compétition's Chevrolet Corvette C6.R to the lead in LMGTE Am with a 4:04.222 lap. Separate incidents led to disruptions during practice: Dominik Kraihamer at Arnage corner, Andrea Belicchi on the Mulsanne Straight with a fractured right-rear toe link, and Guy Smith in the gravel trap at the PlayStation chicane due to a broken front toe link.