12 Hours
18 Hours
24 Hours
Quotes
Click a link to go directly to that story!
12 Hours
The ORECA 01 no.11 is ticking over at a good rhythm, while car no.10 is gaining ground after an accident.
The two ORECA 01s continue along with their Le Mans journey and finished running their first 12 hours on the Sarthois race circuit. Now heading into the second half of the race, car no.11, driven by Olivier Panis, Nicolas Lapierre and Soheil Ayari are still running in the Top Ten just behind the Audis R10. The three men are religiously following Hugues de Chaunac's race strategy: keep out of trouble on the track but keep up the rhythm and wait for an opportunity to strike. No.11 is turning out stints flawlessly: just stopping in the pits for tyre changes and refuelling. Car no.10 shared between Bruno Senna, Stephane Ortelli and Tiago Monteiro hold the 17th place, the trio having been victim to two spin offs: the first at the end of the second hour, and the second during the 10th hour as the car was rapidly gaining ground in the team's position.
Coming off the last of his three stints Soheil Ayari entrusted the ORECA 01 no.11 to Olivier Panis just moments ago. At the wheel of the sister car - Tiago Monteiro is in the middle of finishing his triple stint.
Race notes:
Despite having suffered a slight set back involving a problem with the acceleration peddle (torn rubber covering) during the second hour, car no.11 quickly reached the heady heights of the Top Ten. At the close of the afternoon, Olivier, Nicolas and Soheil were rapidly motoring through their triple stints before temporarily dropping down to doubles. For the last few hours the team has been fighting for race position with three cars: two Audis R10 and the Pescarolo no.16. These three cars are constantly changing position in their battle for the 7th place slot in the general standings.
Car no.10 started the second quarter of the race with a strong run through the pack, and as the sun began to set, Tiago Monteiro continued the progression of Bruno Senna, before handing over the drive to Stephane Ortelli in the 8th hour.23rd at the 2th hour, the three men fought back to the 12th place at the toll of midnight. But unfortunately car no.10 spun off 30 minutes later at the new section of the circuit. The technician team had some major reputations at hand, notably having to replace the splitter, flat bottom, and the rear end. After 20 minutes in the pits, no.10 returned to the circuit in the 21st position. Picking up the reins later in the evening Tiago rode off with 4 spots during the night.
18 Hours
The early morning brought mixed emotions to Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM with car no.11 placed in the Top 5 and car no.10 forced to retire.
A new day had just dawned at Le Mans and Olivier Panis, Nicolas Lapierre and Soheil Ayari's ORECA 01 were putting on a sterling performance on the Sarthois circuit. Figuring amongst the top ten at mid race, car no.11 is holding firm: running at a fast pace, but not taking any risks. Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM seems to be reaping the benefits of their pre- race strategy with their current 5th overall position, synonym of a 2nd place with the petrol engine prototypes. Olivier, Nicolas and Soheil continue to rally on, focusing on the checked flag and conserving their current position!
After having to make up for lost time after two racing incidents, car no.10 was forced to retire after an accident. Team ORECA-Matmut decided not to take a risk of continuing after careful examination of the car's rear suspension.
Race Notes :
From the begining car no.11 has carefully constructed their race and their efforts are starting to pay. Starting from 16th place, the ORECA 01 driven by Panis/Lapierre/Ayari has progressively risen up the ranks. Despite the accelerator pedal's ripped " rubber matting " during the second hour, nothing has been able to stop the ascension of no.11. The team has flawlessly been knocking off triple stints at a rapid pace for the last 18 hours. Their performance which demonstrated the carefully managed strategy has enabled them to run with the top 5. After a struggle for 7th place during the night, the car was in 5th place upon early morning. Thanks to Soheil and Olivier's exception stints, Nicolas was able to pass Pescarolo no.16 and Audi no.15 early into the 16th hour. His team-mates are driven by the same desire: preserve this position!
Nicolas Lapierre (ORECA 01, no.11): " I have really enjoyed my stints since the start of the race. I had to battle it out with a Pescarolo and an Audi, I was faster, but had trouble getting past them and I had to take some risks in order to take profit from my advantage: it was too important for me to get past and put some distance between us. You always need to be careful but our strategy is now becoming more and more aggressive. There are only 7 hours remaining and we have some cars close behind us. We need to quicken the pace and our car will allow for it. During my stints the car was really well balanced, I found it even better than on my first run ! "
Car 10 will miss out on this glory. After a good start, which saw them in 9th place in the second hour, the car suffered it`s first racing incident at Tertre Rouge, resulting in a complete replacement of the car's rear end. Bruno Senna, Tiago Monteiro and Stephane Ortelli started to make up for lost position and flew from 23rd to 12th ! Unfortunately just after midnight the car had another shunt, in the " nouvelle portion ", and they dropped to 21st place. The three men were racing against the clock and fought their way back to 14th place due to their exception triple triple-stints. Sadly their adventure came to a end during 16th hour when the rear suspension was damaged following an accident with a GT2 at the first corner of Hunaudières.
24 Hours
Less then two months after its first testing miles, the ORECA 01 finished the Le Mans
24 Hours at its first attempt - conquering its very own Mount Everest.
Olivier Panis, Nicolas Lapierre and Soheil Ayari enjoyed a perfect race in the No 11 car, taking the chequered flag in fifth place. The perfect ending for the legendary race around the clock...despite the presence on the grid of nine nine factory-backed diesel-engined prototypes. Thanks to perfect reliability, ORECA's first 100% designed and built prototype, ended the race with over 5000km on the clock. Is there a better way of demonstrating the qualities of this LMP1 sports car, which has been developed in less than a year?
Hugues de Chaunac and his team's wise race strategy was to remain careful, stay out of trouble and spend as little time as possible in the pits. The ORECA 01 did exactly that. The brilliant work achieved by Panis, Lapierre and Ayari helped to overcome the disappointment of the sister car, the No 10 driven by Bruno Senna, Stephane Ortelli and Tiago Monteiro. This clearly demonstrated its potential but after three incidents the team was forced to retire the car after 15 hours.
After taking the first steps in 2008, Team ORECA-Matmut-AIM moved up to the next level: ending the race as the highest-placed petrol-powered car.
Race Report:
The two ORECA 01s started side by side on the eighth row of the grid. They got off to a good start and quickly moved up towards the top 10. In the second hour the No.11 car pitted briefly to remove a rubber lining on the throttle pedal, and car No.10 had a spin at Tertre Rouge. The two cars were split up after that.
For the next 22 hours the No.11 ran like clockwork. Panis, Lapierre and Ayari took turns doing triples stints... while staying under control in order to preserve the car, while at the same time improving the performance all the time. The mechanics were only needed to change tyres and refuelling. Early in the morning the three drivers upped the pace and slowly moved into the top five. From the 16th hour onwards, they were among the frontrunners. The No.11 stopped in the 19th hour for precautionary changes of the brakes pads and the extractors.
Olivier, Nicolas and Soheil kept up the pace all the way and were able to resist the attacks of No.7 Peugeot to finish fifth.
After hour 16, they never left the front runners. No.11 was in the garage for just one short moment: for a precautionary intervention (changing the extractor and brakes pads during hour 19). The No.10 car had a more difficult race. Senna, Ortelli and Monteiro. The first accident occurred just before the end of the second hour at Tertre Rouge. Repairs were made and the car went back out in 23th place. The three drivers then battled back to 12th but at 00.23 suffered a second accident at Maison Blanche. Repairs were completed in record time, just 20 minutes being needed to change the spitter, the front and rear bodywork, the undertray and the rear axle! Having falling back to 21st position the drivers attacked again and were back up to 14th when the car was involved in a collision at the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. After assessing the rear-end damage the ORECA- Matmut-AIM team decided to retire the car.
Quotes
Hugues de Chaunac (Group ORECA President): " This was such a great satisfaction, a true recompense for all that work done by ORECA. Our race was well managed with a perfect performance by the drivers and the team. However this does not take away from the dissatisfaction I felt throughout the entire week. That was hard. With our 5th place we have now entered into the second phase of our challenge with our cars racing next to that of the major manufacturers. We couldn't afford to make mistakes: no.10 had the capacity to perform as well as no.11, but unfortunately three mistakes were made. These cost us dearly but also served to remind us that this is Le Mans. Whatever the situation the team proved their motivation and professionalism. No one gave up, and I never doubted for a moment. We now need to move on to our third year challenge, but for that the regulations have to change. "
David Floury (Technical Director): " The technical team did a fantastic job, really showing team spirit. This is our reward for one and a half years of very hard work: there were difficult moments, and we had to face certain critics, but today we proved our potential. It is a shame that we did not have car no.10 cross the finish line as she was just as competitive as no.11. One of the positive points was the cars' reliability as neither suffered from mechanical difficulty during the race. Our 5th place finish symbolises the progress that we have made. We have really taken one giant step forward. "
Nicolas Lapierre (ORECA 01, no.11) : " That felt good ! This was the best result we could have hoped for and to achieve it, it took an incredible amount of work from the team and drivers. Faire mieux que la 8e place d'ORECA l'an dernier, cela montre tous les progrès qui ont ete faits depuis douze mois.5e ici, c'est comme une victoire compte-tenu du règlement. Les essais n'ont pas ete faciles, mais nous avons su bien preparer l'epreuve. La strategie etait parfaite ! "
Soheil Ayari (ORECA 01 no.11) : " 5e, c'est assez incroyable! Le plateau etait reellement très releve cette annee. Nous avons pu compter sur une voiture constante : que ce soit mon premier ou mon dernier relais, elle a ete identique. En un an, ORECA a fait de gros progrès, aussi bien en fiabilite qu'en performance pure. Le dernier relais n'etait pas simple : j'ai d'abord dû resister à la Lola-Aston Martin, avant la Peugeot. Nous avons bien gere les neutralisations et la consommation. Cela a fait la difference sur la fin." Olivier Panis (ORECA 01, no.11): " The entry list was magical with a lot of tough competition to face. ORECA proved that it could run with the best of them. The team devised a perfect race strategy, including the pit stops and during the interventions. I take my hat off to my team mates, ainsi qu'aux trois pilotes de la no.10. Entre nous six, il y a eu une superbe ambiance. Le debut d'annee n'a pas ete facile : je suis un gagneur et cela me fait mal de ne pas être sur la plus haute marche du podium. Cette 5e place pour nous, c'est comme la victoire pour Peugeot. J'espère desormais me battre pour un succès à l'avenir. "
Bruno Senna (ORECA 01, no.10): " I came into Endurance car racing for the experience. I have already learned a lot on many different levels. You cannot make mistakes if you want to continue farther. I don't know if I will be back next year at the Le Mans 24 Hours, perhaps with better preparation... but I really appreciated this experience and the circuit is so unique. My objective is to drive in F1, but I think that I still have many things to accomplish with Team ORECA. "
Stephane Ortelli (ORECA 01, no.10): " During the week I had a fantastic time with the ORECA 01. We still lack a bit of pure performance but the car is agreeable and very comfortable to drive, exactly what you need here. I know the team really well and I was amazed by what they achieved in the project development and management: at the tests and during the race they knew what was needed to repair the car. I am a bit frustrated that we did not finish the race, but... "
Tiago Monteiro (ORECA 01, no.10): " After two GT events here, I discovered Le Mans in prototypes: something completely different! I had the greatest pleasure driving the ORECA 01. The team did a simply amazing job. I already knew them through the WTCC but I got to know them better during this event. I was impressed by their professionalism and I spent a wonderful week with my co-drivers and mechanics. At Le Mans, anything can happen and unfortunately we did not cross the finish line, but we still believe in car no.11. This edition was a great learning curve for me, I can't wait to race here again ! "