24 Hours of Le Mans 2014 – Circuit de la Sarthe

[tbtstt]

I think there are a few of you on here interested in endurance racing, so that seems as good an excuse as any to post up some pictures from this year’s Le Mans!

Forgive the lack of variety: Le Mans is ringed with high fences and, despite much walking, I could only find a few obstruction-free spots.





We arrived way too late to do the Friday pit walk last year, but we had loads more time in 2014 so I was able to check it out.



Really cool to see the cars being tweaked before the race. The AF Corse guys were fiddling with this 458 for most of the afternoon which provided a pretty nice soundtrack for the pit lane.



There was a 10 lap Group C race before the main 24 hour race: very cool to see some 90’s classics out on track!





This was one of my favourite spots last year, so I had a walk back and check it out again. Such a great spot for listening to the cars (though I only lasted about 20 minutes before the ringing in my ears was too much!).



The Toyota TS 040’s were the fastest cars in qualifying and they led as the race went into the night. Unfortunately the leading Toyota retired in the early hours of Sunday with a melted wiring loom. Damn shame, as it would have nice to have seen Toyota take the win.







I love the prototypes, but especially the open-top LMP2 cars. Don’t know quite what it is about them, but they just look like proper racing cars!







There were big entries in the GTE classes as well. Aston Martin were the dominant force in GTE-AM.







GTE-Pro was way more open, with the win eventually going to one of the Ferrari 458’s.







The return of Porsche to LMP1 was probably the biggest story of 2014. Porsche provided some serious competition and the number 20 919 did hold the lead for a short while…



…but it was Audi who prevailed in the end. Their cars had been slowest of the LMP1-H entries in practise, but Le Mans isn’t always won with outright speed. I would really like to have seen the Audi stranglehold on Le Mans broken, but it was a hard fought (and I would say well deserved) win for them.

Another absolutely quality weekend. Really didn’t think it would be better than last year, but it was!

[Steve_PPP]

Cracking stuff mate. One day i'll get to this!

[Bolesroor]

Cracking photo`s as always
My brother-in-law is out there at the moment has been watching the `classic`.

[Hongkongfooi]

great photos again

[Scruff]

Very good pics! I'm desperate to get out and see this again! Too much other stuff always seems to get in the way

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by Steve_PPP

Cracking stuff mate. One day i'll get to this!

You won't regret it mate: the atmosphere is unlike any UK circuit event I've ever been to.

Originally Posted by Bolesroor

Cracking photo`s as always
My brother-in-law is out there at the moment has been watching the `classic`.

I saw the entry list for the classic: he should have had an excellent weekend!

Originally Posted by Hongkongfooi

great photos again

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Scruff

Very good pics! I'm desperate to get out and see this again! Too much other stuff always seems to get in the way

Annoyingly Le Mans is right in the middle of the busy season. Now I've caught the bug though I shall be going as often as possible!