Le Mans 2001
2001 June 14 Thursday: Rinaldo Capello in Audi #2 gained pole position for Saturday's race, from Tom Kristensen in Audi #1. American Champion Racing Audi #3 was third fastest.
2001 June 16, 4pm:
Shortly after the rolling start of the
Le Mans 24-hour race
with Laurent Aiello (#2)
Infineon Audi R8
in front of Frank Biela in the (#1) car.
There was heavy rain during the early stages of the race.
A Bentley
Exp8 led in the first hour.
Right: A Champion Racing Audi R8 in the wet;
it retired about 10.30pm with a clutch problem.
June 17, 4am: After twelve hours, Audi R8s were one and two with the #8 Bentley in third place.
8am: That was still the order with eight hours to go. Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen and Emanuele Pirro in #1 led Laurent Aiello, Rinaldo Capello and Christian Pescatori in #2 (right, in the pits) by three laps. 28 cars, out of 48 starters, remained in the race.
10am:
Top six of 24 running,
Audi #1,
Audi #2,
Bentley #8,
Chrysler 5999A #16
(Olivier Beretta, Karl Wendlinger, Pedro Lamy),
Courage Peugeot 3200T #17
(Sebastien Bourdais, Jean-Christophe Boullion, Laurent Redon),
Corvette C5R 6991A #63
(Ron Fellows, Scott Pruett, Johnny O'Connell).
4pm: 1st Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro, Audi #1 321 laps, 2nd Laurent Aiello, Rinaldo Capello, Christian Pescatori, Audi #2 (-1 lap), 3rd Andy Wallace, Butch Leitzinger, Eric van de Poele, Bentley #8 (-15 laps), 4th Beretta, Wendlinger, Lamy, Chrysler (-23 laps), 5th Deletraz, Fabre, Gene, Reynard-VW (-37 laps), 6th Rosa, Babini, Drudi, Porsche (-38 laps),
Go to the
x-refs
and
Classic Car
pages
Thanks to Audi
