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Before long, the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans was
under way and it became obvious very quickly, that despite the additional
pressure this year from the diesel engined Peugeots, the Audis still held the
upper hand, particularly the number 2 car of McNish, Capello and Kristensen.
This car, driven from the off by Capello was pulling away from the rest of the
field at a quite dramatic rate.
Here is a selection of shots from the opening
hour or so of the race:
You can from the shots of the Audis and
Peugeots the new light signalling systems fitted as mandatory to all of the cars
this year. The three lights signified the the first three places in each
class, the classes differentiated by the colour of the lights...... Clever
stuff (imported from the US, I believe).
The sunshine was very pleasant and it was
typically hot up there in the pits grandstand, but it was definitely a case of
maximising the photo opportunities now before the weather closed in as we all
knew by now that the rain was on the way.....
As always, one
of the advantages of having a seat in T34 is that you quite literally get a
'grandstand view' of the cars as they come in to the pits./ It's true that
getting a view of the cars down below is quite tricky, the fact is that by the
time of the first pit-stops, enough people have already quit their seats to make
it quite easy to get down to the front of the stand. With the fencing and
and timing boxes at the side of the pit-lane, you just can't get these shots
from the tribunes - or even the grandstands on the other side of the track.
But Audi didn't have it all their own way in the
opening hours. Poor Rockenfeller managed to drop the number three
Audi very heavily indeed at Tertre Rouge, causing irreparable damage to the car
(although he tried for a long time to find a way of getting it going again) and
thereby reducing the Audi complement from three to two.
The safety car
period not only gave everyone the chance to make a stop without losing as much
time as they'd expected but also gave hope to Peugeot......
The flurry of
pit-stops over, it was back to the business in hand.
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