page_title: 1955 Le Mans disaster
section_title: Conclusion of the race
hierarchical_section_title: 1955 Le Mans disaster / Aftermath / Conclusion of the race
caption_attribution_description: English: Phtotgraph of the memorial plaque at the site of the 1955 Le Mans disaster, taken by me at the 2009 Le Mans event from the pit lane on the other side of the pit straight
context_page_description: On 11 June 1955, a major crash occurred during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, France. Large pieces of debris flew into the crowd, killing 83 spectators and French driver Pierre Bouillin and injuring nearly 180 more. It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history, and it prompted Mercedes-Benz to retire from motor racing until 1989.
  The crash started when Jaguar driver Mike Hawthorn pulled to the right side of the track in front of Austin-Healey driver Lance Macklin and started braking for his pit stop. Macklin swerved out from behind the slowing Jaguar into the path of Levegh, who was passing on the left in his much faster Elektron magnesium-alloy bodied Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. Levegh rear-ended Macklin at high speed, overriding Macklin's car and launching his own car through the air.
context_section_description: Mike Hawthorn and the Jaguar team kept racing. With the Mercedes-Benz team withdrawn and the Ferraris all broken, Jaguar's main competition had gone. Hawthorn and Bueb won the race by an easy margin of five laps from Aston Martin. The weather had closed in on Sunday morning and there was no victory celebration. However, an inopportune press photograph showed Hawthorn smiling on the podium swigging from the victor's bottle of champagne. The French magazine L'Auto-Journal published it with the sarcastic caption, "À votre santé, Monsieur Hawthorn!" (In English, "To your health ('Cheers'), Mr. Hawthorn!")
caption: Le Mans Memorial Plaque
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