2009 24 Hours of Le Mans
It took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, and was organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) over 13–14 June 2009 and was started by Fiat and Ferrari chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo at 15:00 local time (13:00 UTC).
A test day was initially scheduled for 31 May that year, but was canceled by the ACO due to economic concerns.
[2] Peugeot succeeded in winning the race in the third year of the 908 HDi FAP program with drivers David Brabham, Marc Gené, and Alexander Wurz driving the No.
[4] New for 2009 was an automatic invitation awarded to the team which accumulated the most points in the Michelin Energy Endurance Challenge, as part of the Le Mans Series.
Prior to the deadline for applications, 82 separate entries by teams representing 17 countries were received by the ACO.
This amount is only six less than the total of applications received for the previous running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
[7] On 26 February, the ACO announced their list of 55 entries which will be invited to take part in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The GT1 category was fought amongst three manufacturers, as Corvette Racing and Luc Alphand Aventures attempted to overcome the two private Aston Martin and Lamborghini entries.
[8] On 31 March, Gigawave Motorsport withdrew their Aston Martin from the GT1 category of the entry list in order to concentrate on their development of the Nissan GT-R program.
[9] Three days later Epsilon Euskadi withdrew their LMP1 entry which was replaced by the Endurance China Team.
[13] The only major incident of the practice session was an accident by KSM's driver Jean de Pourtales.
[14] Stéphane Sarrazin claimed his third consecutive pole position at Le Mans,[15] planting the No.
Peugeot planned to practice race setups during the entire qualifying session, and were not seeking to obtain the pole position.
[18] At the end of qualifying Peugeots filled the next three places on the grid behind the front row with the car of Pescarolo Sport settling in at fourth fastest.
Jetalliance Racing's privately entered Aston Martin was under two seconds behind, and followed immediately by the two Luc Alphand Corvettes.
Risi Competizione led the Ferrari fight with a third place qualifying time, joined by JMB Racing and BMS Scuderia Italia.
The Pescarolo Peugeot drive by Jean-Christophe Boullion spun at the Tetre Rouge corner and ripped the left front fender off the car after impacting the wall.
007 Aston Martin also hit a wall after losing control during braking for the second chicane on the Mulsanne Straight.
The race began at 15:00 local time (UTC+2) 13 June 2009, with Franck Montagny in the pole position Peugeot 908 HDi FAP leading the field.
In GT1, the final outing of the Chevrolet Corvette C6.R as a factory team at Le Mans ended well, with the #63 car driven by O'Connell, Magnussen and García sitting on the pole and finishing first in class.
Magnussen was sick early on, which left O'Connell and Garcia to finish the race as a two-driver team.
Another team with a driver that was excluded was Kolles' Narain Karthikeyan as he dislocated his shoulder going over the pitwall before the race, leaving Charles Zwolsman Jr. and André Lotterer to do the whole 24 hours, yet they finished a respectable 7th in P1 and 7th overall.
New rules requiring only one man with one airgun in the pits were aimed to lower the overall costs of the event by causing teams to double or triple stint tires due to the time needed to replace them.
Peugeot, as well as fellow competitors Aston Martin Racing and Oreca, initially questioned these aerodynamic elements at the 2009 12 Hours of Sebring in March, but were assured that the ACO would evaluate them prior to Le Mans.
The ACO stated that they have the ability through their own regulations to determine if an aerodynamic element's sole purpose is to create downforce.
