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What a race!

Those 1000 km will stay in the history book for sure. After 4h50 of race, there were still tight battles with dramatic overtaking, including the controversial way Peugeot took the win.

I have to say P.Lamy disapointed me a little by being so "Schumacherish" at the end, going as far as overtaking under yellow (nearly hit a tractor btw), overtaking while cutting a chicane (took him at least half a lap to concede back position...), and colliding with the Audi in a very agressive move, while he had 10 laps remaining to try something "cleaner" with his (1.5 sec per lap) faster car. I like him since a long time, but he and his team showed their dark side today. Dr Ullrich seemed pissed...

I guess it signs the end of the "good spirited" rivalry we had enjoyed so far between the two manufacturers...

I must say: CONGRATULATIONS Ranald for you & your team! A well deserved victory. =D>

I was fortunate enough to witness Enge's decisive move over the corvette after 121 laps of tight racing, (thanks to the spanish Eurosport live stream). GT1 may be wounded by the loss of another car, it still procure impressive battles.

Now I must say Stephane Ortelli's crash is one of the most terrible one I've ever seen in racing, along Kubica's one and Viso's GP2 one too:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=52wUHuZ7fqI[/youtube]

Last news talk about a broken ankle. He's lucky to be alive, but it means no Le Mans for him this year... I wish him a fast recover.

Thanks for the re-direction vyselegend didn't see another one in the "other racing series" before I posted my one

I'm not really a follower of the LMS, but I keep sort-of up to date with some news and video from the Eurosport website. That's as far as it goes really.

What caused the initial drastic change in direction?

It was an epic crash! Very lucky to escape with a broken ankle and not to collect McNish along the way!

Wow, indeed what a race!

Unfortunately, I only got the chance to see a small 30 minute "canned" version of it on Eurosport (vyselegend, where did you find that Spanish feed and is it open for URL's outside Spain?), but there were some epic moments and fearsome crashes (it's amazing how the n.1 Audi was repaired and back on track, the R10 is just as rock solid as the R8 was...).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAP2FJns0M0[/youtube]

Concerning the final overtaking, what was Lamy supposed to do? He had to turn and the Audi just tried to block (and I don't even know if he was going to make the turn without the Pug on the outside). In closed wheel racing that was strictly within the acceptable. Blaim it on the Audi driver (was it Rockenfeller?) that knew that the Pug had a stop-and-go to do and yet raced him as if he needed to...

roost89 wrote:What caused the initial drastic change in direction?

I'm not in position to tell what initially happened to Ortelli, as you say the car suddenly breaked off to the right, before it took off (because of bumps in the grass?). And then it happened what have become a classic whith flat floored cars: It flew... And crashed.

Considering what triggered the direction change, it doesn't seem any tyres got punctured, Eric Hélary on Motors TV said he suspect a brake problem. Maybe the left front brake disc got loose, which would result as the car oversteering to the right suddenly like that (like the way some farming tractors turn, with a left and right brake pedals). I can't think of a better explaination...

roost89 wrote:It was an epic crash! Very lucky to escape with a broken ankle and not to collect McNish along the way!

Indeed! Mac Nish had the stars with him on this one!

dumrick wrote:Unfortunately, I only got the chance to see a small 30 minute "canned" version of it on Eurosport (vyselegend, where did you find that Spanish feed and is it open for URL's outside Spain?), but there were some epic moments and fearsome crashes (it's amazing how the n.1 Audi was repaired and back on track, the R10 is just as rock solid as the R8 was...).

I googled around a lot when both motorsTV and eurosport did quit the live, and I landed on a fantastic forum called "ten-tenth", where a guy had posted a few foreign stream that didn't work for me (it said: this clip is unavailable due to geographical restrictions in your area), and a last link which saved me: [url=mms://ulswmod008.bcst.uls.yahoo.com/slot024?StreamID=63172159&pl_auth=f69a697566eb5d1c0fef50c8406a33e9&ht=30&pl_b=00448ED8EB5870E95832993BEF481456E6&CG_ID=1604560&s=2023169283&br=300&mid=7554350&nid=7554806&pg=MTgxOTQ4NDAxNzQ4MTQ1Nm&q=35d7947a210d03c0c64830&sl=86400&so=%252Feseurosport%252Feseurosport%252Flive%252Fvideo%252FES-LeMansSeries-1000kmMonza]spanish mms-stream for external media player[/url]

This Audi is terrific, indeed. When I saw the crash with at least one broken front left triangle, heavily damaged rear drivetrain, and so much destructed parts, I said to myself "at least 45 min, if reparable." 17 min later Capello was lapping Monza as if nothing happened... You have to laugh when you see that, after it took them about the same time to change a simple brake disc at Sebring. Even funnier, that's the time Peugeot needed to re-attach the little piece of bodywork that was "scalped" by the Aston at Barcelona.

dumrick wrote:Concerning the final overtaking, what was Lamy supposed to do? He had to turn and the Audi just tried to block (and I don't even know if he was going to make the turn without the Pug on the outside). In closed wheel racing that was strictly within the acceptable. Blaim it on the Audi driver (was it Rockenfeller?) that knew that the Pug had a stop-and-go to do and yet raced him as if he needed to...

Yes, now I'm calmed down I agree Rockenfeller is the one who made the strategic error, it cost'em the win, thats why Ullrich was angry. Still, I found Lamy's last few laps just before were quite clumsy, with the overtaking under yellow, even the moves over Rockenfeller felt bungled. But it seem the n°8 was running a very very low downforce setup, and the car suffered from some understeer / snap oversteer (on board showed Parabolica is scarry under these conditions! He had a few moments with oversteer) and braking instability. So true, I'm maybe big-mouthed to lecture him on dirty driving...

What have disapointed me was to see Dr Ullrich pissed, saying he want the ACO to look in the matter etc... And I tought, OMG we will have the political / controversial episodes like F1. The truth is that before that race, the rivality between Audi & Peugeot was exemplary, with all the respect and everything... I wish it could continue like that.

I started watching right befor the horrific flight in the 1st chicane. And the MotorsTV commentators mention some other bad shunt in Parabolica. Anyone has a video of that? What happened?

It was all round a great race! I tipped Team Modena and fortuantely they came through with the goods

It was really nice to see JV on the top step for the first time in 11 years!



I hope for a similar result in three weeks time at Le Mans.

Meanwhile Wurz had an heavy crash. I couldn't see it because I was watching F1, and there is no footage to be seen of the incident, even on youtube! I know he brushed a spyker because of his declarations, but I'd really like to see a clip of the incident, even an amateur one. Anyone have that?

BTW, the related news, from princip: http://www.f1technical.net/news/9084