Audi Le Mans winners shoot up rankings
14 June 2010
Audi's unexpected triumph at last weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours triggered a series of unexpected moves in the Castrol Rankings.
A landslide one-two-three finish for the German manufacturer, and its R15-plus machines, came in spite of it failing to match the pace of its rival, Peugeot.
However, when the demands of round-the-clock racing were put on the machines, it was the French turbodiesels that broke and the German warhorses that kept running, the car of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller winning by a lap.
Bernhard's victory made him only the ninth man to win sportscar racing's triple crown - the German having previously won the Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours.
He gained 108 places to lie 144th in the Castrol Rankings while Dumas climbed up 87 spots to 131st. Rockenfeller, the highest-ranked Audi driver, gained 31 spots and lies 65th.
Marcel Fassler (242) and Benoit Treluyer (211) gained 162 and 130 places as they shared the second Audi with Andre Lotterer to second place.
A crash from Lotterer at Arnage on Sunday morning lost the car around half a lap, but the German still pulled himself up 61 places to 198th in the Castrol Rankings.
The most fancied of the cars, the one driven by Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello, hit trouble in the form of a GT2 BMW while Kristensen was as the wheel.
The Dane, an eight-time winner at Le Mans, dropped five spots to 108th, while McNish (215) gained 27 positions and Capello (223) climbed 32.
While the Audi drivers were celebrating though, there were commiserations aplenty in the Peugeot fold as the three works 908 HDIs and the privateer model run by ORECA all failed to make the finish, despite locking out the front two rows on the grid.
Sebastien Bourdais (96) may have taken pole position, but he still dropped 34 places in the Castrol Ranking. This was not only due to his car retiring from the lead inside three hours, but also due to him losing the points he scored in last year's Turkish Grand Prix.
The car's pole position helped Simon Pagenaud - who did not finish last year either - climb four places to 41st, while Pedro Lamy dropped 26 places to 158th.
The biggest losers from Peugeot were last year's winners Alex Wurz and Marc Gene, both dropping 219 places to 453rd.
Strakka Racing secured the best finish in Le Mans history for an LMP2 car in fifth overall. Nick Leventis (434) supplemented the excellent efforts of Danny Watts (434) and Jonny Kane (372) in the HPD.
Unfortunately, the battle of the HPDs between Strakka and Highcroft Racing never really materialised. The latter car, driven by Marco Werner (864), Marino Franchitti (215) and David Brabham lost lap after lap pitting to top up the water in its cooling system.
For Brabham, who won Le Mans outright with Peugeot last year, this contributed to a 28-place drop in the Castrol Rankings to 82nd.
A weak GT1 field was conquered by the Larbre Saleen of Roland Berville (550), Julien Canal (730) and former FIA GT Champion Gabriele Gardel (669).
All moved up over 270 spots, although Canal's 530-place ascension was the largest jump.
Last year's GT1 winners, Johnny O'Connell (345), Jan Magnussen (303) and Antonio Garcia (188), were all in GT2 this year following the Corvette team's switch to the baby class.
All three fell down the order after an engine failure befell their car during the night while they lay in contention for victory.
The GT2 class therefore went to Porsche machinery for the first time since 2007, as the Felbermayr-Proton line-up of Richard Lietz, Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb triumphed.
Lietz (410) and Lieb (388), the reigning LMS GT2 champions, each gained 109 places while ALMS regular Henzler shot up 73 spots to 260th.
The Risi Ferrari, which was aiming for a third straight GT2 victory, also fell out while in contention, due to a gear selection issue.
That dropped drivers Jaime Melo (255) and Pierre Kaffer (331) over 35 spots each, although Gianmaria Bruni (259) - who was not a member of the crew last year - moved up four places after his good qualifying performance.
The Castrol Rankings is based on drivers' measurable performance over the last 12 months, including everything from their grid position to fastest laps. For further information on how the Castrol Rankings scores are calculated, click here.
