The 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans () was an 24-hour automobile endurance racing event for teams of three drivers entering Le Mans Prototype and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance cars held from 11 to 15 June 2014 at the Circuit de la Sarthe close to Le Mans, France. It was the 82nd running of the event, as organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since . The race was the third round and the premier event of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship, with half of the race's fifty-five entries contesting the championship. Approximately 263,000 spectators attended the event, the largest crowd since .
The race was won by an Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Swiss Marcel Fässler, German André Lotterer, and Frenchman Benoît Tréluyer, who previously won Le Mans as a trio in and . This victory was Audi's thirteenth since the company debuted at the race in 1999. The Audi team took the lead after a Toyota TS040 Hybrid came to a stop after leading half the race distance, but were challenged by Porsche when two Audi cars required turbocharger replacements. The second of Tom Kristensen, Marc Gené and Lucas di Grassi finished in second place, three laps behind the race winners, while Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre's No. 8 Toyota recovered from an accident in the first hour to finish in third place.
The (Le Mans Prototype 1-Lightweight) LMP1-L category was won by the Rebellion Racing Rebellion-Toyota of Nick Heidfeld, Mathias Beche, and Nico Prost, the sole finisher in the class. The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class finished with the Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan of Simon Dolan, Oliver Turvey, and Harry Tincknell ahead of the TDS Racing Ligier-Nissan by less than a lap's distance. The AF Corse team fielding a Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 won the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) category with drivers Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Toni Vilander, while the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Amateur (LMGTE Am) category was won by Aston Martin Racing's trio of Danish drivers: David Heinemeier Hansson, Kristian Poulsen, and Nicki Thiim.
The result meant Davidson, Lapierre and Buemi remained the Drivers' Championship leaders with 80 points while Fässler, Tréluyer and Lotterer's victory enabled them to move into second on 60 points and di Grassi and Kristensen remained in third place but a further six points behind. Mathias Beche, Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld remained in fourth position on 42 points and Gené's second-place finish moved him to fifth place. Toyota remained the leaders of the Manufacturers' Championship, but their advantage over Audi was now a single point while Porsche maintained third position with five races left in the season.
Schedule and pre-championship standings The 2014 Le Mans schedule was moved forward one week to avoid conflicts with other major motorsports series. It was the 82nd running of the event, held at the Circuit de la Sarthe, near Le Mans in Northwest France from 14 to 15 June 2014, and the third of eight scheduled rounds of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship. Before the race Toyota drivers Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi and Nicolas Lapierre led the Drivers' Championship with 50 points, 16 ahead of their teammates Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima and a further 16 in front of Loïc Duval, Lucas di Grassi and Tom Kristensen. Mathias Beche, Nicolas Prost and Nick Heidfeld were fourth on 18 points and Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber stood in fifth place with 15.5 points. Toyota were leading the Manufacturers' Championship with 84 points, 48 ahead of their rival Porsche in second; the third-placed Manufacturer Audi had scored 28 points. Toyota had so far dominated the championship, winning the season's previous two races. Wurz, Sarrazin and Nakajima along with Duval, di Grassi and Kristensen had finished in second once and Bernhard, Hartley, Webber along with Wurz, Sarrazin and Nakajima had both secured third-place podium finishes.
Circuit and regulation changes
Following the death of Allan Simonsen during the 2013 race, the ACO announced improvements to several sections of the circuit. Tertre Rouge was re-profiled and new barriers and tire walls were added at the corner's exit onto the Mulsanne Straight. Run-off areas in the Corvette corners were expanded, and Tecpro barriers were added behind the tire walls at the start of the Porsche corners. Large kerbs were added to the paved run-off at the second Ford chicane to deter cars from cutting the corner.
A new safety system was implemented, which allowed for the intervention of safety vehicles on a particular section of the circuit without the need for neutralising the entire race with safety cars. The system, termed a slow zone, requires cars to slow and maintain a speed of within a specific zone. Speeds within the zones were monitored by GPS systems that were required on every car. In conjunction with the slow zone procedure an onboard marshalling system warned drivers of the location of slow zones. New regulations required rookies, as well as drivers who have not competed at Le Mans in the past five years, to participate in a half-day simulator training course. The course includes examples of night and wet racing at Le Mans, as well as the new safety car and slow zone procedures.
Entries
Automatic invitations Automatic entry invitations were earned by teams that won their class in the previous running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, or have won Le Mans-based series such as the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), European Le Mans Series (ELMS) and Asian Le Mans Series (ASLMS). Some second-place finishers were also granted automatic invitations in certain series. As with the 2013 race, the ALMS was given two designated entries rather than entries for each class. All current FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) full-season entries also automatically earned invitations. As automatic invitations were granted to teams, the teams were allowed to change their cars from the previous year to the next, but are not allowed to change their category. However, automatic invitations in the two GTE categories were able to be swapped between the two based on the driver line-ups chosen by these teams.
On 20 December 2013, the ACO published its initial list of automatic invitations. Muscle Milk Pickett Racing and Team Endurance Challenge did not take up their automatic entries; Risi Competizione also turned down its invitation, but later submitted a request for another car and was granted a reserve entry.
+Automatic entries for the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans Reason invited LMP1 LMP2 LMGTE Pro LMGTE Am 1st in the 24 Hours of Le Mans OAK Racing 1st in the European Le Mans Series Signatech Alpine Ram Racing 2nd in the European Le Mans Series Proton Competition American Le Mans Series designated entries Risi Competizione 1st in European Le Mans Series FLM category 1st in the Asian Le Mans Series OAK Racing AF Corse 2nd in the Asian Le Mans Series Craft Racing
Garage 56
The ACO continued the Garage 56 concept, started in 2012. Garage 56 allows a 56th entry to the race, using the rigours of the 24 Hours of Le Mans to test new technology. The ACO announced during 2013 that the Nissan Motor Company's Nismo division had been granted the Garage 56 entry for 2014.
Nissan unveiled the car, known as the ZEOD RC, during the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans weekend. The ZEOD RC was designed by Ben Bowlby, who created the 2012 Garage 56 entry DeltaWing with backing from Nissan. The ZEOD RC utilized a hybrid electric drivetrain with lithium ion battery packs in a chassis similar in design to the DeltaWing. The car featured a turbocharged three-cylinder internal combustion engine and two electric drive motors. Nissan planned to attempt a full lap of the Circuit de la Sarthe under all-electric power, a goal achieved during the pre-race warm-up session.
Entry list
In conjunction with the announcement of entries for the 2014 FIA WEC and the 2014 ELMS, the ACO announced the full list of invitations for Le Mans, plus ten reserves. In addition to the 31 guaranteed entries from the WEC, thirteen entries came from the ELMS, five from the IMSA SportsCar Championship, and two from the ASLMS, while the rest of the field was filled with one-off entries competing only at Le Mans.
Following the publication of the invitations, several teams withdrew their entries. SRT Motorsports announced that its Vipers would be withdrawn, citing concentration on the United SportsCar Championship, and bringing the manufacturers in the Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance Professional (LMGTE Pro) category down to four. JMW Motorsports' and Team Taisan's Ferrari cars were promoted to the race entry as a result. On 28 April 2014, the ACO released a revised entry list that confirmed the withdrawal of Millennium Racing's two entries, Craft Racing, and two additional Aston Martin Racing entries. Larbre Compétition, Caterham Racing, Pegasus Racing and second entries of IMSA Performance Matmut and Prospeed Competition were promoted from the reserves to the race entry.
Lotus withdrew its new LMP1-L class prototype due to a delay in completion of the car, leaving only Rebellion Racing cars in the category. Millennium Racing, which had previously withdrawn due to a delay in funding, had one entry reinstated. A week later Strakka Racing withdrew its Strakka Dome S103 after an accident in testing damaged the car, which had been planned to debut in the LMP2 category. Krohn Racing, who had initially withdrawn its joint entry with Risi Competizione from the reserve list, replaced the Strakka. The day before the start of scrutineering, Millennium Racing was unable to secure its funding and was forced to withdraw for the second time. No replacement was found.
Testing and practice A test day was held on 1 June, two weeks prior to the race, and allowed but did not require all entrants for the race to participate in eight hours of track time divided into two sessions. Krohn Racing did not attend the test due to lack of preparation, while Prospeed Competition's second car was also not entered. Millennium Racing had its race entry plus a second car entered for the test but did not arrive. AF Corse brought an additional Ferrari to allow more testing for drivers, bringing the total cars for the day to 54. Toyota set the pace of the day with a 3:23.014 lap recorded by Buemi in the second session, followed by Nakajima in the No. 7 Toyota in second. The No. 3 Audi of Marco Bonanomi was within a second of the top time. The fastest Porsche of Neel Jani was over a second and a half behind Buemi's lap. Roman Rusinov led the LMP2 class for G-Drive Racing with a 3:37.795 lap time ahead of Karun Chandhok's No. 48 Murphy Prototypes and Signatech Alpine. The LMGTE Pro category was led by Frédéric Makowiecki's Porsche with a 3:57.260 time, while the team's second car was damaged beyond repair early in the session after becoming airborne in the gravel traps of the Ford chicane. Paolo Ruberti's 8 Star Motorsports Ferrari was the fastest in LMGTE Am, and the second fastest amongst all LMGTE runners, with a 3:57.403 lap. After the test several prototype teams, including all Audi, Porsche, and Toyota cars participated in an unofficial test on the shorter Bugatti Circuit the following day to ensure car components were working efficiently before the race.