2003 24 Hours of Le Mans

Background and regulation changes

The 71st edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans took place from 14 to 15 June 2003 at the 8.482 mi Circuit de la Sarthe road racing circuit close to Le Mans, France, from 14 to 15 June. 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 24 Hours of Le Mans is considered one of the world's most prestigious motor races and is part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport.

The ACO reduced the overall horsepower for the Le Mans Grand Touring Prototype (LMGTP), Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900), Le Mans Prototype 675 (LMP675), Le Mans Grand Touring Sports (LMGTS), and LMGT (Le Mans Grand Touring) categories by 10 per cent following the 2002 race. It permitted the use of carbon fibre chassis in the LMGTS class as well as the use of original automatic and semi-automatic gearboxes in a homologated road vehicle entered in the LMGTS and LMGT categories. Every engine had air restrictors installed and boost pressures were adjusted to try to achieve performance parity across all four categories. At a public meeting, drivers were told that crossing two wheels of a car over the white line denoting the circuit's boundaries and onto the kerbing would result in a stop-and-go penalty that would increase in severity if the transgression was repeated.

Entries

By the entry deadline on 20 February 2003, the ACO had received 72 applications (31 for the Prototype classes and 41 for the Grand Touring categories). It issued 50 race invitations, with entries divided between the LMP900, LMGTP, LMP675, LMGTS, and LMGT classes.

Automatic entries

Six automatic entry invitations were earned by teams of two cars that won their class in the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans or in the 2002 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season-closing round, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, designated a qualifying race by the ACO as part of an agreement with the ALMS. Because entries were limited to teams, squads were not permitted to switch cars from last year to the next. They were allowed to change categories as long as the car's make did not change and the ACO approved the switch. Audi Sport Team Joest in both LMP categories, Corvette Racing in the LMGTS class and The Racer's Group (TRG) in the LMGT category received automatic entries based on class victories at the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans. Audi Sport North America and Corvette also qualified after winning their respective classes at the Petit Le Mans, as did Alex Job Racing (AJR) in the LMGT category.

Entry list

On 25 March 2003, the ACO selection committee announced the full 50-car entry list for Le Mans, plus six reserves. The field consisted of an equal number of Prototype and GT cars representing 22 different car manufacturers (14 in the GT classes and 8 in the Prototype categories). After a protest was raised by Larbre Compétition owner Jack Leconte and alpine skier Luc Alphand over their respective teams being allocated one entry, ACO president Michel Cosson stated that the entries chosen appeared to be of high quality and that the automotive group wanted a heterogeneous field. He said that it was not the proper way to select race entries but disliked those who sought to detract from the event's excitement.

Bio-ethanol car

Team Nasamax, based in Sittingbourne, England, entered the first renewable-fuelled sports prototype racing car at the Le Mans event to raise awareness of renewable fuels. The Reynard 01Q had a 2.65 l Cosworth V8 turbocharged engine that ran on bio-ethanol fuel,

Testing

On 4 May, the circuit hosted a mandatory pre-Le Mans testing day divided into two daytime sessions of four hours each, involving all 50 entries as well as all six reserve cars. The weather was clear and dry. In the final minutes of testing, Tom Kristensen in the No. 7 Bentley Speed 8 set the fastest lap of 3 minutes, 34.820 seconds. Jan Magnussen was the fastest privateer Audi R8 for Team Goh in second and the No. 7 Bentley was third. Audi Sport UK and Champion Racing were fourth and fifth, respectively. Late in testing, Frank Biela lost control on an oil patch laid by a Pagani Zonda at the Porsche Curves, crashing into a barrier at 120 mph and damaging the Audi Sport UK car's right-rear corner. The No. 26 RN Motorsport DBA4 03S-Zytek car led in LMP675 with a 3 minutes, 47.708 seconds lap, followed by the No. 29 Noël del Bello Racing Reynard 2KQ-LM and the No. 27 Intersport Racing MG-Lola EX257 vehicles. Tomáš Enge's No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello lapped fastest in LMGTS at 3 minutes, 57.180 seconds, followed by Kelvin Burt's sister No. 80 car and Jérôme Policand's No. 72 Luc Alphand Aventures entry. Jörg Bergmeister's No. 81 TRG Porsche 911 GT3-RS led the LMGT class in 4 minutes, 8.636 seconds, followed by Sascha Maassen's No. 93 AJR car.

Qualifying

On the 11 and 12 June, all entrants had eight hours of qualifying divided into four two-hour sessions. To qualify for the race, all entrants were required to set a time that was within 110 per cent of the fastest lap set by the fastest vehicle in each of the four categories during the session. The weather was overcast and humid, and teams focused on car setup. Bentley took the lead early on with a flying lap from Mark Blundell's No. 8 car, followed by Kristensen and Johnny Herbert. Blundell eventually led with a lap of 3 minutes, 35.321 seconds. In second, Kristensen's No. 7 car was a quarter-second slower and Jan Magnussen was the fastest Audi privateer in third. Jan Lammers' No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome S101 improved on each of his timed laps to finish fourth, Separate spins from Chris McMurry, Kevin Buckler, Peter Kox and Andrew Bagnall did not disrupt the session.

Wednesday night's qualifying session was held with lower asphalt temperatures and teams performed scheduled simulation runs to see how their cars would perform under darkness with heavy fuel loads and worn tyres in the final 75 minutes. A lack of slower traffic and better grip allowed Kristensen to displace Blundell and twice improved the overall fastest lap to 3 minutes, 32.843 seconds, followed by David Brabham's sister No. 8 Bentley in second and Biela's No. 10 Audi third. Emanuele Pirro put the No. 6 Audi fourth as Lammers fell to fifth. 75 minutes into the session, the Team Bucknum Racing Pilbeam-JPX MP91 car's engine failed at Indianapolis corner and spilled oil on the track. Marshals took 20 minutes to dry the spilled oil before qualifying resumed. Enge's Prodrive Ferrari led the LMGTS class from the start. He improved on Corvette Racing's first-session lap to 3 minutes, 53.278 seconds. After a session-long battle with Bernhard, Maassen in the AJR Porsche maintained his lead in the LMGT category. Bagnall lost control of the Seikel Motorsport Porsche and was beached in a gravel trap. A collision with a Prototype in the Dunlop Chicane damaged David Warnock's PK Sport car's track rod.

An accident stopped Thursday's first qualifying session after seven minutes. Jamie Campbell-Walter spun a Lister Storm LMP car after hitting a bump on the exit of the Dunlop Esses. He crashed backwards into a left-hand side barrier at the Dunlop Curve at 146 mph and 14 g0. Marshals and safety teams spent ten minutes extricating Campbell-Walter from the car, removing a section of carbon fibre bodywork trapping his legs and put him into an ambulance. Herbert's No. 8  Bentley led with a lap of 3 minutes, 35.126 seconds, but remained second on the provisional grid. Magnussen used lower air temperatures to improve Team Goh Audi's lap and pass Lammers for third at the session's end. Lehto outperformed Champion Racing's entry to go fourth. Despite not lapping faster, the RN Motorsport Zytek car retained provisional pole in LMP675, while the Intersport Lola vehicle improved by more than five seconds to remain second in class. Enge's second-session lap kept him atop in LMGTS as Darren Turner in the sister Prodrive Ferrari passed the No. 50 Corvette for second. Because of the previous day's lap, AJR maintained its lead in LMGT.

The final session saw more incidents as cars were tested under race conditions. Thomas Erdos' Graham Nash Motorsport Saleen S7-R stopped on his outlap in a gravel trap at the Dunlop Chicane, necessitating trackside assistance. Gavin Pickering's Rachel Welter WR-Peugeot car stopped at the pit lane's exit, its bodywork flailing. Kristensen gave his co-drivers Rinaldo Capello and Guy Smith time to drive the No. 7 Bentley, which led the session and secured the pole position after Kristensen's lap from the second session. Herbert improved the sister No. 8 Bentley's lap on his second attempt by one-tenth of a second; it remained in second overall due to slower traffic delaying Herbert. Audi were unable to challenge, but Biela improved the Audi Sport UK team's fastest lap and went third and Magnussen qualified the Team Goh car fifth, separated by Lammers' Racing for Holland Dome car. Intersport's MG-Lola car was faster, but not fast enough to take the LMP675 pole position from the RN Motorsport Zytek car. which was two seconds slower due to a broken throttle linkage. The GT categories remained mostly unchanged, with Enge's No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari in LMGTS class failing to improve on his second session lap as teammate Turner moved to within four-tenths of a second. Porsche took the first three positions in the LMGT category, with Lucas Luhr's AJR car resetting the category lap record to a 4 minutes, 6.984 seconds and Bernhard's TRG entry qualifying second by four hundredths of a second.

Qualifying results

Pole position winners in each class are indicated in bold The fastest time set by each entry is denoted in gray.

Notes:

• – The No. 20 Lister Storm LMP was withdrawn due to accident damage in the third qualifying session.

Warm-up

The drivers had a 45-minute warm-up session at 09:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00) in overcast and cool weather. Bentley stayed fastest with Blundell's No. 8 car lapping at 3 minutes, 35.319 seconds. He was 2.615 seconds faster than the second-placed Bentley No. 7. The Audi Sport UK R8 was third with Champion Racing fourth and Racing for Holland Home fifth. The No. 50 Corvette led the LMGTS field and the TRG Porsche led in LMGT.

Race

Start

Thunderstorms were forecast, and despite an earlier heavy rain shower, the weather at the start of the race was clear. The air temperature approached 28 C. Approximately 220,000 people attended the event. Both Bentley Speed 8s underwent checks to their ride heights, Ray Mallock rectified a faulty gearbox that leaked oil in the No. 64 Saleen S7-R, and Kondo Racing replaced the No. 9 Dome S101's V8 engine after a water leak. Don Panoz, the ALMS's founder, waved the French tricolour at 16:00 CEST to signal the start of the race, led by the starting pole sitter Capello's No. 7 Bentley. but the No. 25 Gerard Welter WR LMP02 was in the pit lane with a mechanical fault. When three privateer Audis passed Lammers, he dropped from second to sixth place as Bentley quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Herbert briefly led Capello before the No. 8 Bentley made its first pit stop of the race on lap 10. Meanwhile, Intersport's Lola-MG took the lead in LMP675 after the RN Motorsport Zytek developed car trouble and AJR led the LMGT category.

The first hour of racing ended with the first crash, when Richard Stanton's No. 91 TVR Tuscan T400R was hit from behind by a Gerard Walter WR LMP02 car in the Porsche Curves, sending him into the outside concrete barrier at the complex's exit and breaking the car's right-rear suspension, stranding Stanton there. Stanton's repairs to the car's differential to make it driveable for a return to the pit lane were unsuccessful. Soon after, Capello locked the No. 7 Bentley's brakes as he approached the right-hand Mulsanne Corner, slowing to avoid spinning into a gravel trap. He held off Herbert in heavy traffic until Herbert passed him on the 23rd lap to retake the lead. Kristensen took over the No. 7 Bentley from Capello and retook the overall lead from Lehto's Audi R8 three laps later. Brabham's sister No. 8 car was called into the pit lane for a ten-second stop to have a loose door frame fixed. Casper Elgaard was the fastest driver in LMP675 at the time, restoring RN Motorsport Zytek to the class lead. On lap 28, Audi Sport UK instructed Biela to enter the pit lane. A Panoz prototype vehicle to his right prevented him from doing so, forcing him to complete an additional lap. The R8 slowed with a lack of fuel through Mulsanne Corner and was retired at the side of the track after Biela's attempt to weave and keep the car running on its starter failed.

Kristensen almost collided with Jean-Marc Gounon's Courage Compétition Judd exiting the pit lane in the third hour. At Arnage corner, Beppe Gabbiani's Racing for Holland car hit Kelly Collins' No. 50 Corvette, sending both cars spinning. Brabham's No. 8 Bentley passed Werner's Team Goh Audi R8 for second at the Dunlop Curve, but Werner reclaimed the position in slower traffic. Brabham reclaimed second when Werner entered the pit lane, as the RN Motorsport Zytek car lost the LMP675 class lead to Noël del Bello Racing's Reynard car of Didier André while its alternator was changed. After 3 hours and 40 minutes, safety cars were deployed to slow the race because an unknown car laid oil between the Mulsanne and Indianapolis turns. This prompted several cars to pit and brought much of the field closer together. The safety cars separated the field in the main LMP categories, leaving the Bentleys more than 2 minutes and 17 seconds apart, 50 seconds ahead of Werner's Team Goh Audi and another 50 seconds ahead of Stefan Johansson's Champion Racing car. Emmanuel Collard's AJR Porsche was forced into the pits with a faulty gearshift, allowing Buckler's TRG vehicle to take the LMGT lead until Bernhard made an unscheduled pit stop to replace a heavily slipping clutch. Jamie Davies' No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari came to the pit lane for a two-minute stop to fix a water leak, handing the lead to Kelvin Burt's sister No. 80 car.

Night

As night fell, the No. 29 Noël del Bello Racing Reynard car lost the LMP675 lead to the Intersport Racing MG-Lola car, which later saw driver Duncan Dayton spin at the PlayStation chicane but retain the class lead in the class. Tom Coronel's St Team Orange Spyker C8 Double-12R soon stopped at the pit lane entry with clutch failure. He exited the car and pushed it past a white line indicating where his pit crew could help. Coronel was then told by a trackside marshal that he could not push the car any further, and it dropped out of contention for completing the laps required for classification. The lead was 33 seconds between Smith and Capello's No. 7 Bentley and Blundell and Herbert's sister No. 8 car. Pirro's Champion Racing Audi R8 was third with Seiji Ara's Team Goh entry fourth. who set nearly identical lap times during the seventh hour. Ron Fellows' No. 53 Corvette equalled their pace until the Ferraris increased their speed. The resulting pit stop to change the No. 80 Prodrive Ferrari's tyres and perform a precautionary check lost Davidson two laps and third place in LMGTS to Fellows.

David Saelens' Panoz, the Courage Compétition of Gounon, and Christophe Tinseau's Riley & Scott Mk III C-Ford were all within 20 seconds of each other for eighth place overall. Tinseau dropped out after a routine pit stop, leaving Saelens and Gounon separated by 18 seconds. Beretta suffered a puncture after hitting debris on the dirty side of the Mulsanne Straight at 190 mph and slowed en route to the pit lane. Fellows' No. 50 Corvette, second in LMGTS, was hampered by a suspected alternator belt failure and entered the pit lane. A broken pulley operating the vehicle's oil pump was discovered by mechanics. They replaced the battery and the support, allowing Fellows to rejoin the circuit fourth in class. Kristensen's No. 7 Bentley made a 1-minute and 40-second pit stop to repair minor damage to the front of the car; he retained the overall lead over Brabham's sister No. 8 car. Luhr's No. 83 AJR Porsche succumbed to elevated oil and water temperatures caused by a sharp rock penetrating its radiator. The radiator was replaced in 24 minutes and five laps, and Luhr lost the LMGT class lead to Kazuyuki Nishizawa's No. 77 Team Taisan Advan car.

Magnussen spun at the Ford chicane, damaging Team Goh's Audi R8's front suspension. He drove the car to the pit lane, where mechanics worked for 8 minutes and 53 seconds to repair it. Werner drove the car back into fourth place. After Team Taisan Advan made a pit stop to replace the driver's-side door, all three top LMGT cars were within a lap of each other, led by Johnny Mowlem's No. 94 Risi Competizione Ferrari. Mowlem held it until his car's engine failed on the Mulsanne Straight, handing Lieb's Orbit Porsche the class lead. As the race neared its halfway point, Smith's No. 7 Bentley lapped two to five seconds faster than Blundell's No. 8 car, extending the vehicle's overall lead to 1 minute and 20 seconds.

Morning to early afternoon

The second-placed car in LMGTS, Davidson's No. 80 Prodrive Ferrari, had a right-front wheel bearing fault in the 12th hour and was sent into a barrier at the end of the Mulsanne Straight. He extricated himself from the vehicle and was attended to by trackside marshals. Davidson was transported by ambulance to the infield medical centre to be examined by circuit doctors. He had bruising and a head concussion after hitting his head against a door, so he was taken to Centre Hospitalier Le Mans for a brain scan. Gavin's No. 50 Corvette C5-R moved to second in LMGTS after the Ferrari was retired. Prodrive requested that Kox, driving the No. 88 Ferrari, enter the pit lane for a precautionary brake check. Soon after, a low voltage indicator warning and no radio communication to the No. 8 Bentley's pit stall forced Blundell to pit for a replacement battery, losing the car two laps to the sister No. 7 entry. The No. 93 AJR Porsche led the field until a front splitter problem forced it into the pit lane for four minutes, handing the position to Lieb's Orbit vehicle. Owing to mechanical attrition among the Porsche 996s in the LMGT category, only two Porsches remained in contention for victory, and Ferrari was unable to challenge them. Front suspension problems for the No. 12 Panoz car and an engine failure curtailing the No. 4 Riley & Scott Mk III C's race promoted the No. 88 Prodrive Ferrari to tenth overall.

Luhr and Maassen's No. 93 AJR Porsche was able to battle Lieb's and later Leo Hindery's No. 87 Orbit car, eventually retaking the LMGT lead it had lost when it entered the pit lane for car repairs. Lammers suffered a left-rear puncture an hour and 20 minutes later, losing control of the No. 15 Racing For Holland car while braking. Brabham made an unscheduled pit stop in the No. 8 Bentley for a second battery replacement. The change took 3 minutes, 32 seconds, and the car returned to the race in second overall. Collins' No. 50 Corvette transmission bearing was replaced in 15 minutes after bowing out of the battle for the LMGTS lead. Lehto's Champion Racing R8 could not take advantage of the No. 8 Bentley's mechanical issues and lost one additional lap after a spin.

Maassen's No. 93 AJR Porsche entered the garage with a voltage loss corrected in six minutes by changing the alternator. Maassen returned to the track as the LMGT category leader. Wallace's No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome soon after had a flat battery, dropping the car from fifth to eighth overall. Gabbiani's sister No. 16 car's front-left tyre delaminated, launching carbon fibre debris from the car's front-left corner. The track needed cleaning and several cars had to pit again, necessitating the use of safety cars. Beretta's No. 11 Panoz car benefited the most from the safety car period, passing Jonathan Cochet's No. 13 Courage C60 vehicle on the Mulsanne Straight to finish fifth overall. When Ayari's No. 18 Courage C60 began leaking fluids at the rear and entered the pit lane for a 22-minute repair, John Bosch's No. 15 Racing for Holland car reclaimed seventh. With the first four positions stable, attention focused on the battle for fifth place between the No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo and the No. 13 Courage C60 cars. Gaël Lasoudier's No. 99 XL Racing Ferrari had an rear engine bay fire at the PlayStation Chicane, causing the third deployment of the safety cars.

Finish

As the safety car period ended, Max Papis's No. 11 Panoz LMP01 Evo car caught and passed Stéphan Grégoire's No. 13 Courage C60 vehicle at Tetre Rouge turn. Fellows overtook his Corvette Racing teammate Collins in the final third of the lap to take second in LMGTS. Collins retook the lead from Fellows two laps later, before a pit stop for fuel, tyres and a driver change. O'Connell relieved Fellows and returned to second with a faster stop than Andy Pilgrim. Jean-Christophe Boullion's No. 17 Pescarolo Courage 60 car caught fire during a pit stop after fuel ignited. The team's mechanics intervened to extinguish the fire, allowing him to continue driving. On the final lap, Lammers' No. 15 Racing for Holland Dome car caught and passed Gounon's No. 13 Courage Compétition C60 vehicle for sixth overall for his team. Meanwhile, Tristan Gommendy crashed at the Indianapolis turn, retiring the No. 16 Racing for Holland car in the pit lane.

Unhindered in the race's final hours, Smith was first in the No. 7 Bentley, two laps ahead of the No. 8 Bentley of Brabham. It was Smith and Capello's first Le Mans victory and Kristensen's fifth. Kristensen became the first driver in history to win four consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans. He also tied Derek Bell's record of five victories and was one win shy of Jacky Ickx's all-time record of six. It was Bentley's sixth overall Le Mans victory and its first since the 1930 race. Prodrive held their ten-lap lead in the LMGTS category, earning Enge, Kox and Davies their first class victories and Ferrari's first in a GT class since the 1981 edition. Corvette Racing completed the class podium with the No. 50 ahead of the No. 53. Noël del Bello Racing, unchallenged since the night, were victorious in the LMP675 class, 31 laps ahead of the RN Motorsport Zytek and 84 laps in front of Rachel Welter's WR LMP01.

Official results

The minimum number of laps for classification (70 per cent of the overall winning car's race distance) was 264 laps. Class winners are denoted with bold.