The 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans () was a non-championship 24-hour automobile endurance race from 14 to 15 June 2003 at the Circuit de la Sarthe near Le Mans, France for teams of three drivers each entering Le Mans Prototype and Grand Touring cars before approximately around 220,000 to 250,000 spectators. It was the race's 71st edition, as organised by the automotive group, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) since 1923. A test day was held seven weeks prior to the race on 4 May.
A Bentley Speed 8 shared by Dane Tom Kristensen, Italian Rinaldo Capello and Brit Guy Smith started from pole position after Kristensen set the fastest overall lap time in the second qualifying session. The team won the race by two laps over Mark Blundell, David Brabham and Johnny Herbert's sister Bentley. It was Capello and Smith's first Le Mans victory and Kristensen's fifth. Bentley's sixth overall victory was their first since the 1930 edition. Champion Racing's Audi R8 of JJ Lehto, Emanuele Pirro and Stefan Johansson in third overall won the Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900) category from Audi Sport Japan Team Goh's entry of Seiji Ara, Jan Magnussen and Marco Werner.
A Noël del Bello Racing Reynard 2KQ-LM driven by Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière, Christophe Pillon and Didier André won the Le Mans Prototype 675 (LMP675) class, 32 laps ahead of the second-placed RN Motorsport DBA4 03S-Zytek car of John Nielsen, Casper Elgaard and Hayanari Shimoda. In a Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello, the Veloqx Prodrive Racing team of Jamie Davies, Tomáš Enge and Peter Kox won the Le Mans Grand Touring Sport (LMGTS) class, giving Ferrari its first GT victory since the 1981 race. Corvette Racing finished second and third in the category with their two C5-Rs ten laps behind. Porsche took the first six places in the Le Mans Grand Touring (LMGT) category, with an Alex Job Racing (AJR) 911-GT3 RS driven by Sascha Maassen, Emmanuel Collard and Lucas Luhr winning on the team's debut.
Background and regulation changes
The 71st edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans took place from 14 to 15 June 2003 at the Circuit de la Sarthe road racing circuit close to Le Mans, France, from 14 to 15 June. The race was first held in 1923 after the 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 ACO reduced the overall horsepower for the Le Mans Grand Touring Prototype (LMGTP), Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900), Le Mans Prototype 675 (LMP675), Le Mans Grand Touring Sports (LMGTS), and LMGT (Le Mans Grand Touring) categories by 10 per cent following the 2002 race. It permitted the use of carbon fibre chassis in the LMGTS class as well as the use of original automatic and semi-automatic gearboxes in a homologated road vehicle entered in the LMGTS and LMGT categories. Every engine had air restrictors installed and boost pressures were adjusted to try to achieve performance parity across all four categories. At a public meeting, drivers were told that crossing two wheels of a car over the white line denoting the circuit's boundaries and onto the kerbing would result in a stop-and-go penalty that would increase in severity if the transgression was repeated.
Entries By the entry deadline on 20 February 2003, the ACO had received 72 applications (31 for the Prototype classes and 41 for the Grand Touring categories). It issued 50 race invitations, with entries divided between the LMP900, LMGTP, LMP675, LMGTS, and LMGT classes.
Automatic entries 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. Because entries were limited to teams, squads were not permitted to switch cars from last year to the next. They were allowed to change categories as long as the car's make did not change and the ACO approved the switch. Audi Sport Team Joest in both LMP categories, Corvette Racing in the LMGTS class and The Racer's Group (TRG) in the LMGT category received automatic entries based on class victories at the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans. Audi Sport North America and Corvette also qualified after winning their respective classes at the Petit Le Mans, as did Alex Job Racing (AJR) in the LMGT category. However, Audi declined their automatic invitations after it withdrew its factory operations and forwent its defence of the overall victory.
Entry list On 25 March 2003, the ACO selection committee announced the full 50-car entry list for Le Mans, plus six reserves. The field consisted of an equal number of Prototype and GT cars representing 22 different car manufacturers (14 in the GT classes and 8 in the Prototype categories). After a protest was raised by Larbre Compétition owner Jack Leconte and alpine skier Luc Alphand over their respective teams being allocated one entry, ACO president Michel Cosson stated that the entries chosen appeared to be of high quality and that the automotive group wanted a heterogeneous field. He said that it was not the proper way to select race entries but disliked those who sought to detract from the event's excitement.
Bio-ethanol car Team Nasamax, based in Sittingbourne, England, entered the first renewable-fuelled sports prototype racing car at the Le Mans event to raise awareness of renewable fuels. The Reynard 01Q had a Cosworth V8 turbocharged engine that ran on bio-ethanol fuel, which does not release new carbon dioxide into the atmosphere because it is produced from crops. The car's fuel and inlet air systems were modified to allow for more efficient fuel combustion. An alternative exhaust system was built and the turbocharger's housing and vanes were modified.
Testing On 4 May, the circuit hosted a mandatory pre-Le Mans testing day divided into two daytime sessions of four hours each, involving all 50 entries as well as all six reserve cars. The weather was clear and dry. In the final minutes of testing, Tom Kristensen in the 7 Bentley Speed 8 set the fastest lap of 3:34.820. Jan Magnussen was the fastest privateer Audi R8 for Team Goh in second and the No. 7 Bentley was third. Audi Sport UK and Champion Racing were fourth and fifth, respectively. Late in testing, Frank Biela lost control on an oil patch laid by a Pagani Zonda at the Porsche Curves, crashing into a barrier at and damaging the Audi Sport UK car's right-rear corner. The No. 26 RN Motorsport DBA4 03S-Zytek car led in LMP675 with a 3:47.708 lap, followed by the No. 29 Noël del Bello Racing Reynard 2KQ-LM and the No. 27 Intersport Racing MG-Lola EX257 vehicles. Tomáš Enge's No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello lapped fastest in LMGTS at 3:57.180, followed by Kelvin Burt's sister No. 80 car and Jérôme Policand's No. 72 Luc Alphand Aventures entry. Jörg Bergmeister's No. 81 TRG Porsche 911 GT3-RS led the LMGT class in 4:08.636, followed by Sascha Maassen's No. 93 AJR car.
Qualifying On the 11 and 12 June, all entrants had eight hours of qualifying divided into four two-hour sessions. To qualify for the race, all entrants were required to set a time that was within 110 per cent of the fastest lap set by the fastest vehicle in each of the four categories during the session. The weather was overcast and humid, and teams focused on car setup. Bentley took the lead early on with a flying lap from Mark Blundell's No. 8 car, followed by Kristensen and Johnny Herbert. Blundell eventually led with a lap of 3:35.321. In second, Kristensen's No. 7 car was a quarter-second slower and Jan Magnussen was the fastest Audi privateer in third. Jan Lammers' No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome S101 improved on each of his timed laps to finish fourth, and Champion Racing's JJ Lehto was fifth. John Nielsen drove RN Motorsport's DBA4 03S-Zytek car to provisional pole in LMP675 with a time of 3:45.243, eight seconds faster than the Intersport and Automotive Durango SRL teams. Oliver Gavin's No. 50 Chevrolet Corvette C5-R led the LMGTS category with a lap of 3:55.613 he set with five minutes left, demoting Enge's Prodrive Ferrari to second. After setting a lap in the final ten minutes, Johnny O'Connell's No. 53 car was third. In LMGT, AJR's Porsche of Maassen was almost three seconds faster than Timo Bernhard's TRG car and another seven-tenths faster than Marc Lieb's No. 87 Orbit entry. Separate spins from Chris McMurry, Kevin Buckler, Peter Kox and Andrew Bagnall did not disrupt the session.
Wednesday night's qualifying session was held with lower asphalt temperatures and teams performed scheduled simulation runs to see how their cars would perform under darkness with heavy fuel loads and worn tyres in the final 75 minutes. A lack of slower traffic and better grip allowed Kristensen to displace Blundell and twice improved the overall fastest lap to 3:32.843, followed by David Brabham's sister No. 8 Bentley in second and Biela's No. 10 Audi third. Emanuele Pirro put the No. 6 Audi fourth as Lammers fell to fifth. Marco Werner's Team Goh Audi went into a gravel trap but continued driving. In LMP675, Nielsen improved the RN Motorsport Zytek car's lap by a second to 3:44.343, increasing the gap over the Intersport team to almost ten seconds. 75 minutes into the session, the Team Bucknum Racing Pilbeam-JPX MP91 car's engine failed at Indianapolis corner and spilled oil on the track. Marshals took 20 minutes to dry the spilled oil before qualifying resumed. Enge's Prodrive Ferrari led the LMGTS class from the start. He improved on Corvette Racing's first-session lap to 3:53.278. After a session-long battle with Bernhard, Maassen in the AJR Porsche maintained his lead in the LMGT category. Bagnall lost control of the Seikel Motorsport Porsche and was beached in a gravel trap. A collision with a Prototype in the Dunlop Chicane damaged David Warnock's PK Sport car's track rod.
An accident stopped Thursday's first qualifying session after seven minutes. Jamie Campbell-Walter spun a Lister Storm LMP car after hitting a bump on the exit of the Dunlop Esses. He crashed backwards into a left-hand side barrier at the Dunlop Curve at and . Marshals and safety teams spent ten minutes extricating Campbell-Walter from the car, removing a section of carbon fibre bodywork trapping his legs and put him into an ambulance. The Lister Storm was withdrawn owing to a lack of spare parts. Later, Ian Khan's Thierry Perrier Porsche engine failed, spilling oil on the Dunlop Chicane circuit. Robin Liddell was caught out and spun into a gravel trap after hitting the oil. Simultaneously, Roland Bervillé spun, collided with a barrier with his front-right corner, and broke the rear wing of the T2M Motorsport car, temporarily stopping the session. Herbert's No. 8 Bentley led with a lap of 3:35.126, but remained second on the provisional grid. Magnussen used lower air temperatures to improve Team Goh Audi's lap and pass Lammers for third at the session's end. Lehto outperformed Champion Racing's entry to go fourth. Despite not lapping faster, the RN Motorsport Zytek car retained provisional pole in LMP675, while the Intersport Lola vehicle improved by more than five seconds to remain second in class. Enge's second-session lap kept him atop in LMGTS as Darren Turner in the sister Prodrive Ferrari passed the No. 50 Corvette for second. Because of the previous day's lap, AJR maintained its lead in LMGT.