Le Mans 2007
The Tourists' Story
The Opening Laps
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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