2007 24 Hours of Le Mans
The dates for the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans were confirmed by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) in September 2006.
[2][3] The race was first held in 1923 after the automotive journalist Charles Faroux, the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) general secretary Georges Durand and the industrialist Emile Coquile agreed to hold a test of vehicle reliability and durability.
The new corner was moved inward, to create a long flowing curve instead of the single point apex it had been previously, shortening the lap distance by 21 meters to a revised 13.629 km.
The paddock behind the garages was also re-organized with more facilities added for spectators, including more shops, new landscaping, and the Audi Tower monument.
LMP2, GT1, and GT2 class vehicles had to be fitted with 5 per cent smaller air restrictors than they had run in 2006, in order to decrease power.
[10] Additionally, entries were also granted to the winners and runners-up of the LMGT1 and LMGT2 categories of the 2006 FIA GT Championship under an agreement with the ACO president Claude Plassart, and Stéphane Ratel, the president of the FIA GT Championship organising body, the Stephane Ratel Organisation.
[12] As entries were pre-selected to teams, they were restricted to a maximum of two cars and were not allowed to change their vehicles from the previous year to the next.
Penske Racing turned down both of its invitations, and Ray Mallock Ltd. rejected its second entry due to a lack of funding.
[16] Although drivers were not listed, Tom Kristensen's injury in the opening round of the 2007 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season made his participation in the race questionable.
[19] Eight days later, Petersen/White Lightning withdrew its GT2 Ferrari entry had as a consequence of financial strain to the team, leaving it to concentrate solely on the American Le Mans Series.
A total of eight hours of track time was allowed for teams to find their set-ups and for rookie drivers to get in their required ten laps to learn the circuit.
24 Noël del Bello entry going off the track at the same location in the hands of Vitaly Petrov, becoming briefly airborne after contact with the concrete wall.
[27] The damage to the Arena Zytek led to the car being withdrawn during scrutineering a week and a half later, just before the actual race.
New drivers were again required to run a set number of laps to learn the circuit and be allowed to race: three in daylight and three at night.
[13] The first qualifying session began under the threat of rain, so most of the teams tried to set a good lap time before the conditions deteriorated.
81 LNT Panoz were the only cars not to set a lap time before the session briefly returned to green as rain began.
5 Swiss Spirit Lola a few minutes after the session began due to the car being stopped at the side of the track.
It was later announced by the ACO that JLOC Isao Noritake would be allowed to use another Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT chassis, borrowed from the French DAMS team, but Marco Apicella was not allowed to drive in the race due to the head injuries he sustained in his accident during qualifying, leaving the team with two drivers.
Although some cars attempted to carry out wet weather testing, the conditions forced all the teams back to their garages.
70 PSI Corvette had a minor accident in the last five minutes of the session, bringing out the only red flag of the day and ending all of qualifying.
The drivers took to the track at 09:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) for a 45-minute warm-up session,[13] which was used to check car functionality and components on a circuit dampened by overnight rainfall.
[35] Sébastien Bourdais's Peugeot 908 HDi FAP led the field into the Dunlop Chicane, which he overshot, handing the lead to the No.
3 Audi R10 TDI on the exit from Tertre Rouge, hitting the safety barriers on the Mulsannes Straight backwards.
Gavin attempted to return to the pits using battery power but was stopped by the marshals, forcing him to abandon the car.
The Corvette was forced to take evasive action through the Dunlop Chicane's gravel trap, and the Audi required replacement rear bodywork on its next pit stop.
[41] A third safety car period was caused by the Creation Autosportif entry, which ran into the tire barriers at the Porsche Curves and needed to be extracted.
This caused numerous competitors to spin, and required the Ferrari to undergo major front-end repairs, resulting in the car falling several laps behind.
2 Audi of Rinaldo Capello lost the left rear wheel at high speed at the Indianapolis corner.
7 Peugeot made an unscheduled garage stop and retired one lap after re-entering the race, claiming oil pressure problems.
The second place Corvette had been quicker in the wet conditions, but it was not allowed to further close on the Aston Martin during the safety period.
