Patronise F1

The 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup saw Peugeot dominate the season from start to finish, but Audi win the biggest race of them all at Le Mans. Patronise F1 takes a look back at the hectic season of sportscar action.

In many ways, the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup was more of a full-on dry run for future seasons of world sportscar entertainment, after the primordial season of the championship in 2010, which featured a limited calendar of three late-season races. The challenge for the ILMC this year was to prove that the often convoluted world of sportscar racing could sustain a full-on world championship, and the answer appears to have been a very solid 'yes'.

The fuller 2011 schedule saw the ACO cobble together an impressive calendar, taking in the blue riband American Le Mans Series rounds at Sebring and Petit Le Mans, Le Mans Series rounds at Spa, Imola and Silverstone, and the Le Mans 24 Hours itself, the famous endurance race forming a part of an actual championship for the first time since the demise of the World Sportscar Championship in 1992.

The result was impressive. Packed grids across all four ILMC classes, close racing throughout the field and some truly dramatic races, despite the long-distance nature of many of them. So good was the quality of the ILMC that before we had even got as far as Le Mans, the FIA and the ACO confirmed the formation of a new, fully FIA-backed World Endurance Championship from 2012.

Unsurprisingly, the fight for overall glory at each race was almost exclusively the realm of the factory diesels from Audi and Peugeot, with the French manufacturer sweeping to the ILMC title in dominant fashion. But while Audi themselves will be disappointed with their showing in 2011, they did at least carry off the most famous win of the year, in one of the all-time classic Le Mans 24 Hours showdowns.

For the future, things look good for the new WEC. Despite the likely withdrawal of Aston Martin from the leading prototype division, after a disastrous season for the Prodrive-run team with their new AMR-One car, and new reports suggesting BMW will not enter a factory team in the GT category next year to concentrate on the DTM, there is still a buzz about 2012.

Toyota have already confirmed their return to frontline LMP competition with an initial one-car effort next season, while Porsche have confirmed that they will be back with a prototype of their own for 2014. Further rumours link at least one more big manufacturer entering in the near future, possibly for next year, and sportscar racing could well be set for a return to the glory years.

Things aren't entirely perfect, and the new 2012 WEC calendar has come in for some mild criticism for it's underwhelming spread of events. Gone are Petit Le Mans and the race at Imola, replaced by questionably expensive flyaways at Interlagos, Fuji and (worst of all) a trip to Bahrain, proving that the FIA just can't help but inflict Tilkedromes on any championship they touch.

But, it should nevertheless attract a strong line-up of teams and machinery, with a number of entries in all four classes already confirmed, and while the fun and frolicks of 2011 are all over, there is no sign that the good times will end any time soon.

2011 ILMC Review - Race-by-Race

- 20th March - 12 Hours of Sebring
The season kicked off with a shock result at the historic Sebring enduro. Audi turned up with their venerable R15 open-top prototype, with the debut of their new-for-2011 R18 coupe still some months away, but still took the fight to Peugeot's all-new 908s over the first half of the race.

But after a string of punctures dropped one Audi out of contention, a collision between Marc Gene and Dindo Capello left just a single factory Peugeot in the hunt for the win, in a close-run fight with the privateer 908 of Team Oreca and the ALMS-based Highcroft Racing HPD.

After a dismal stint from Pedro Lamy in the works car towards the end of the race, the race swung towards the Oreca machine, and Hughes de Chaunac's squad took their first-ever overall win in international motor racing, holding off the Highcroft car over the final hour.

- 7th May - 1000km of Spa-Francorchamps
After a qualifying disaster for Peugeot, which saw all three cars stuck well down the grid when they were wrong-footed by a red flag during the qualifying session, the 908s fought back through the field at the traditional pre-Le Mans acid test at Spa to take a comfortable victory.

For most of the race, the three factory 908s ran 1-2-3 after surging through from the back of the grid in the early stages, and although a suspension failure on Simon Pagenaud's #9 car dropped him down the order, the marque hung on for a 1-2 finish.

Audi had dominated qualifying as Peugeot struggled, but the debut of the new R18 TDI was an underwhelming one. The German marque's first closed-top sportscar since 1999 couldn't live with the pace of Peugeot, though they at least managed to get all three to the finish with only minor delays.

- 11th/12th June - 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours produced a classic showdown between Audi and Peugeot, with battle raging between the two marques all through the day-long race, but the #2 Audi of Benoit Treluyer, Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler held on against the Peugeot hoards to take an emotional win.

Victory came after two appalling accidents had ended the challenge of the other two R18s inside the first ten hours of the race. Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller both survived enormous crashes after clipping GT traffic, but that left the #2 car all alone for the rest of the race.

The racing was as close as any Le Mans in living memory, and as the fight boiled down to a straight fight between the #2 car and Peugeot's #9 machine, the two were separated by just seven seconds after completing their last stops with half an hour to go. But Audi hung on - just - to take a glorious win.

- 3rd July - 6 Hours of Imola
The Imola round saw a return to Peugeot domination following Audi's sensational triumph at La Sarthe, as the French squad exacted a modicum of revenge over their rivals with a comfortable 1-2 finish at the Italian circuit.

The two factory Audis kept pace early on, particularly the #1 car of Marcel Fassler, but once Peugeot established themselves at the front of the field, the two French cars eased away from their German rivals to eventually finish a lap clear of the field.

Audi were left to mop up a 3-4 finish with their R18s, and at least avoided any sort of repeat of their horrific Le Mans shunts, but the result meant that Peugeot were now in total control of the ILMC championship.

- 11th September - 6 Hours of Silverstone
Onward to Silverstone went the sportscar field, but the change of location didn't change the result, as Peugeot continued to dominate. Simon Pagenaud, standing in for the injured Anthony Davidson, took pole position, and that #7 car went on to win the race.

Audi's #1 machine of Fassler and Timo Bernhard rallied strongly throughout the six hours of racing, and Fassler had led the early stages of the race, but the car lost time in the latter stages with an enforced stop to repair a damaged 'legality panel' on their rear bodywork.

That left the #7 car to win by around a minute from the Audi, while the two other diesel machines both hit trouble, after Franck Montagny spun off at Copse in the #8 Peugeot, causing the car a long delay, and Allan McNish hit a slower car with the #2 Audi, forcing repairs.

- 2nd October - Petit Le Mans
At the 14th running of the Petit Le Mans, the ILMC field again converged on, and largely stole the limelight from, the ALMS regulars, and Peugeot clinched the title in both the manufacturers and teams championships with a somewhat controversial victory.

The race was set for a nailbiting finale with just over two hours to go, as the long-time leading Peugeot of Montagny came upder huge pressure from Romain Dumas in the #1 Audi, but as the duo negotiated a GT-class Porsche, Dumas was squeezed into the slower car and into the wall.

That settled the result for the #8 Pug, and the title for the French squad, and with the #7 Peugeot retiring and the second Audi suffering all manner of delays, the Oreca-run Peugeot came through to take second place.

- 13th November - 6 Hours of Zhuhai
The season came to a conclusion with a mildly dubious trip to China, and one thing the WEC organisers will be hoping is that a stronger Far East presence on the calendar will boost grid numbers for 2012, given the measly 29-car entry at Zhuhai.

Again, it was Peugeot that took a comfortable triumph, with Audi's pace once again evaporating in the second half of the race despite a competitive first few hours. Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Bourdais cemented Pug's dominance with the win.

A dismal campaign for Audi's premier pairing of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen ended when the car sustained more damage in contact with a GT car, and eventually retired from the race, as Audi's season ended with a whimper.

2011 ILMC Review - Class-by-Class

- LMP1
The Audi and Peugeot squabbling was of course the main focus for the LMP1 division in 2011, but behind them there were plenty more stories being written, as the petrol-powered also-rans fought it out for honours in their own unofficial class.

The premier entries from that class were the Toyota-powered Rebellion Lolas, which more often than not found themselves in a scrap with the works Pescarolo for top status. Both teams proved themselves deserving of better things for 2012, and they will hope that yet another attempt to equalise the performance of the petrol and diesel cars for 2012 has more success than previous efforts.

Throughout the season there were strong cameos from the likes of the Highcroft Racing HPD car at Sebring, before the company was forced to withdraw from the rest of the ALMS season, and the odd flash of talent from the pair of OAK Racing-entered Pescarolos, while the diesel Oreca Peugeot notched up a rare success for privateers with victory at Sebring.

It was Rebellion that finished as the best of the rest behind the diesel teams though, thanks largely to the Oreca team missing the races at Imola and Silverstone races due to a lack of spare parts following their Le Mans adventure.

At the other end of the impressive scale, though, was the Aston Martin factory effort. Two brand new Prodrive-built AMR-One machines showed up at Le Mans, limped through qualifying, and were then both out of the running inside the first ten minutes of the race.

By the end of the season, the squad rolled out their old Lola coupe to take a morale-boosting podium at Petit Le Mans, but all the signs appear to be that the underfunded Aston dream is over in the prototype division, the AMP-One abandoned and Prodrive set to announce a GT-class programme for 2012. Oh Aston.

Final Standings
ILMC LMP1 Manufacturers Championship: 1 Peugeot 211pts, 2 Audi 119pts.
ILMC LMP1 Teams Championship: 1 Peugeot Sport Total 113pts, 2 Audi Sport Team Joest 85pts, 3 Rebellion Racing 50pts, 4 Team Oreca Matmut 47pts, 5 Oak Racing 33pts, 6 Aston Martin Racing 22pts, 7 Hope Racing 0pts.

- LMP2
The secondary LMP2 protoype division suffered from fluctuating grid numbers, with only three teams officially entered as full-season ILMC championship scorers. The European races featured packed grids, thanks to the boost from Le Mans Series teams, but in America and China this class was almost non-existent.

The teams also struggled with a switch to production engines and lower-cost cars, which drove down reliability in the class and often made races more of a battle of attrition than an actual fight of raw speed.

In the championship itself, the Signatech Nissan crew took a comfortable title win, benefiting from their main rivals - the ALMS-based Level 5 Motorsports team - skipping two races late on and also suffering a huge repair bill for their Lola Coupe after Christophe Bouchut crashed at Eau Rouge in the Spa round.

At the showpiece event at Le Mans though, it was the LMS-entered Greaves Motorsport squad that triumphed, with Karim Ojjeh, Olivier Lombard and Tom Kimber-Smith finishing six laps clear of Signatech to take the class win. That victory, and follow-up wins at Imola and Silverstone, has convinced the team to commit full-time to the WEC in 2012. They may be hard to beat.

Final Standings
ILMC LMP2 Teams Championship: 1 Signatech Nissan 95pts, 2 Oak Racing 63ts, 3 Level 5 Motorsports 57pts.

- GTE-Pro
The main GT category was the only one where the championship fight went down to the final race, even though Ferrari and the AF Corse team had all-but wrapped up the crowns before then, and duly went on to complete their sweep of the trophies with the minimum of fuss.

It was a worthy win as well, because although the GT class remained hard-fought all season long, AF Corse secured four class wins across the seven rounds, with their main rivals BMW managing a pair of wins in the Sebring and Zhuhai rounds, in what may well have been the M3 GT2 car's swansong in the series. The German marque is yet to confirm their participation in the WEC.

The only other marque to take a class win was Corvette, who were not full-season ILMC entrants, but nevertheless secured the big prize of the GTE-Pro class win at Le Mans, trumping AF Corse in what might have been seen as a close finish but for the ludicrously-tight fight at the very front of the field.

It was a disappointing year for Porsche, with the former mainstay of the GT categories, the venerable 911, failing to take a single class victory, though the marque benefited from Corvette's part-season entry to secure third in the manufacturers championship. Le Mans represented arguably their best chance of a win, but the challenge from the crack Flying Lizard team fell apart over the 24 hours.

Elsewhere, it was a season of toil for the poorly-backed Aston Martin and Lotus efforts, with neither team ever looking like threatening the big-money teams at the front. Still, it was always going to be a development year for the new Lotus Evoras, while a Prodrive-backed Aston assault on GT is on the cards for 2012, so they will be looking for bigger and better things in 2012.

Final Standings
ILMC GTE-Pro Manufacturers Championship: 1 Ferrari 171pts, 2 BMW 152pts, 3 Porsche 114pts, 4 Corvette 95pts, 5 Aston Martin 18pts, 6 Lotus 15pts.
ILMC GTE-Pro Teams Championship: 1 AF Corse 108pts, 2 BMW Motorsport 101pts, 3 Luxury Racing 38pts, 4 Lotus Jetalliance 27pts.

- GTE-Am
The least-glamorous of the ILMC categories was a new venture for 2011, in an attempt to continue the traditional two-tier GT class despite the demise of GT1. The amateur class allowed year-old machinery, and a maximum of one professional driver per car, to allow teams a cheap and easy way to not only join in the ILMC grid, but also compete for a championship of their own.

Grids in the class were healthy throughout the year, but the title was taken by Larbre Competition's ex-works Corvette, the French team only taking one class win all season, in the double points-paying Le Mans race, and then using consistent point scoring to stay ahead for the rest of the year.

Elsewhere, the wins were largely concentrated around two teams. Former ALMS entrants Krohn Racing took class wins on home turf at Sebring and Petit, while the IMSA Porsche squad took three class wins at Spa, Imola and Silverstone, which really should have been enough for them to take the title, had they actually been signed up as an official ILMC entrant.

Still, despite the mild championship confusion around who was actually eligible to win the thing, it was a positive grid-boosting year for GTE-Am, and with more cut-price machinery available for 2012, the class should grow further next year.

Final Standings
ILMC GTE-Am Teams Championship: 1 Larbre Competition 93pts, 2 Krohn Racing 62pts, 3 Proton Competition 52pts, 4 CRS Racing 50pts, 5 AF Corse 47pts, 6 Gulf AMR Middle East 22pts.