Le Mans 2016

[TornadoRed]

Green flag: June 18, 1500 local time, 0800 Central Daylight Time.

Grid positions:
1) Porsche #2
2) Porsche #1
3) Toyota #6
4) Toyota #5
5) Audi #7
6) Audi #8

Note: only two cars per team this year, instead of three as in previous years.

 

[El Dobro]

Is the race going to be televised here?
Found it, it'll be switching between FS1 and FS2.

 

[RedInk]

Just heard that Audi #7 is out due to turbo problems (after 2 hours of race??)?? :-( :-( Really? Or is it just a rumour?

 

[TDI smile]

# 7 is back in the race
# 8 in 3rd position at this time

 

[RedInk]

Now 4th.
Toyota is going strong for the moment!

 

[TornadoRed]

#7 Audi is back in 22nd or 23rd place, 6 laps behind the leader.

#8 is in 3rd.

 

[TDI smile]

This race is not on TV in my Area.... I got telus with all the channels.... F1 is on, but NO Le Mans.

 

[TornadoRed]

You can try this live streaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoXSKf-fyLk

And as always, great commentary on Radio LeMans: http://www.radiolemans.co

 

[TDI smile]

^^^ thanks......

 

[RedInk]

Just heard @Radio Lemans: it's Audi's worse Lemans, but they have the far most developed car who will be grow to a real weapon over the years. Only Audi have to learn what they have to learn...

 

[bhtooefr]

That is the most devastating finish I've had the misfortune to witness.

Porsche deserved that win, the race was not for 23 hours, 57 minutes, the race was for 24 hours plus the time it took for Porsche to take the flag. It was a crushing defeat for Toyota, but ultimately, it was Toyota's loss, and therefore Porsche's win.

The absolutely disgusting part, and what I have a problem with, was the ruling against #5 even being classified, for having stopped on the track right after the line (at least as far as I can tell - the stewards cited regulation 10.15, and the only applicable part of that regulation is 10.15.2(a)'s requirement to not stop on track to await the checkered flag). #5 completed the same number of laps as the winner, they should have been classified as the winner, especially considering the ACO allowed Peugeot to do the same thing, but even more blatantly, in the past. Audi did not want that podium that way, it's clear.

(This is also the second time Toyota's completed a full race lap under solely hybrid power, the first time being at Spa. They were counted as having completed 384 laps, so I'll count it as completing the lap, but being excluded from classification for the 10.15.2(a) violation.)

Edit: Looks like it was actually Le Mans-specific rule 10.15.2(e), which is for the last lap being over 6 minutes.

 

[TornadoRed]

I missed the last hour as I had volunteered to work Sunday morning, so I don't know what happened. I guess I'll find out.

 

[El Dobro]

Here's the last 6 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-FhewWF5qg

 

[TornadoRed]

The DNF for the #5 Toyota, which moved the Audis into 3rd and 4th places, makes up a bit for the disqualification of the race-leading Audi at Silverstone for an under-spec skid block.

Toyota also had bad luck at Spa, with Audi finishing 1st and 4th and Rebellion taking 2nd and 3rd.

It's always a crap-shoot for Toyota and Porsche as their cars are so reliant on their hybrid systems to make up for their small-displacement gasoline engines. That's not to say that Audi is competitive even when they have electrical problems with their hybrid technology, but at least their cars can make it around the track.

 

[bhtooefr]

The fuel flow regulations mean that Audi is now nearly as reliant on their hybrid systems, though, for performance. (I say nearly, because Audi doesn't have quite as big of a hybrid system, but theirs is big enough to require that they have it for decent braking and acceleration.) All three can limp a car home, though, without hybrid, but lap times will suffer.

In any case, what happened at Spa and at Le Mans for the Toyota #5 was not hybrid system failure, it was engine failure. Both times, they used the hybrid system to complete the last lap to take the flag.

 

[bhtooefr]

And, Toyota has released their postmortem analysis: http://www.toyotahybridracing.com/le-mans-24-hours-post-race-update-2/

Looks like they lost a boost hose and may not have had an appropriate limp mode for that scenario - a loss of control tells me that they were having turbine overspeed issues most likely, due to the underboost being detected and the turbo commanded to increase boost.

And, reprogramming the ECU to add such a limp mode on the fly would best be done directly in front of the engineers, to reduce the likelihood of RF interference preventing a successful reflash, so that explains where they stopped - directly in front of their race engineers.