page_title: 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans / Race
caption_attribution_description: Le Mans 2011 - Qualifying 3 - Labre Competition Corvette C6-ZR1 #50 (GT-Am)
context_page_description: The 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 79th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 11–12 June 2011 at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France, and organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest. It was the third round of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, and was part of a World Championship or International Cup for the first time since 1992, when it was part of the World Sportscar Championship. The race was attended by 249,500 spectators.
  Audi Sport Team Joest's Benoît Tréluyer earned Audi their first pole position in five years while the team's sister car locked out the front row. Early accidents eliminated two of Audi's three entries, but the sole remaining Audi R18 TDI of Tréluyer, Marcel Fässler, and André Lotterer held off the trio of Peugeot 908s and a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP to claim victory by a margin of 13.8 seconds. Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan won the LMP2 category, Corvette Racing secured the GTE Pro class victory, and Larbre Compétition claimed a one-two finish in the GTE Am category with Corvette and Porsche.
context_section_description: Before the race began, many teams were already adopting different strategies. Audi could not make the R18 go on a tank of fuel for longer than 11 laps, so they decided to trade fuel efficiency in favour of speed and downforce. The Peugeot 908 can run 12 laps on the same tank, mostly owing to its low-drag design. The 1-lap deficit in fuel economy that Audi had meant that they had to perform two more pitstops over the 24-hour period. This also forced them to run, on average, at least 0.5 seconds per lap quicker than Peugeot in order to compete effectively with the 908s. This had historically been the opposite, as Audi's cars had won the 2008 and 2010 races through reliability, fuel economy, and tyre-wear efficiency despite Peugeot's quick pace.
  Within the first hour of the race, the Audi R18 #3 car driven by Allan McNish hit the barrier and rolled over near the Dunlop Bridge after a collision with the No. 58 GTE Pro class Ferrari 458 Italia, driven by Anthony Beltoise, after it had rejoined the track from the pit lane and was passing the slower Ferrari just after the Dunlop Bridge. McNish had started from fifth on the grid and by the second lap and was running second. The crash was severe and threw the Audi into the air after hitting the crash barrier beyond the gravel trap. The Audi was effectively destroyed but McNish walked away from the accident, while Beltoise, after assistance, rejoined the track with his car having bodywork damage. The BMW M3s were struggling with grip issues and by the time the field reached Dunlop Bridge, Gavin in the #74 Corvette had already taken the class lead. The early safety car period from McNish's accident gave Gavin a major advantage over the rest of the GTE Pro field, and from that point on the #74 Corvette opened up its lead to a full lap. The #2 Audi, meanwhile, had already made back a single pitstop deficit and was still leading the Peugeots. The total 4:46 hours of safety car periods throughout the race eventually negated any advantage Peugeot had over Audi on fuel economy.
  Eight hours into the race, the Audi R18 #1 car crashed in another massive accident for Joest Racing after making contact with the #71 Ferrari whilst trying to pass in a high-speed section between Mulsanne and Indianapolis corners, but again driver Mike Rockenfeller was able to walk away from the crash. After the accident, the safety car came out for over 2 hours because of massive damage done to the barriers from the crash. For the first time ever at Le Mans, the safety car ran low on fuel and had to be replaced – it was required to drive as fast as possible to maintain the race cars' tyre pressures, but in so doing greatly increased its own fuel consumption.
  By dawn, Jan Magnussen in the #74 Corvette had built up a lead of 2 laps over the 2nd placed GTE Pro car, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari. However, at 8 AM, he lost traction coming out of the Porsche Curves and collided with the #63 Proton Competition Porsche. Both cars were immediately out of the race. With 7 hours to go, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari was back in the lead, more than a lap ahead of the #73 Corvette. When the track became damp late in the race, though, the Corvette at times gained more than 2 seconds per lap on the Ferrari. The Corvette drivers were also doing triple stints, whilst the AF Corse Ferrari only double stinted. Despite the Corvette having to pit twice more due to poorer fuel economy, the #73 team's total pit stop times were up to 2:55 quicker than the AF Corse car. This, combined with their pace advantage was just enough for the Corvette to take the lead. Antonio Garcia took the final stint and brought the #73 to the finish line effectively for the first Le Mans win in the new GTE Pro class.
  The lead Audi and Peugeot pack were never far apart. It appeared that while the Audi R18 could not run as far as the Peugeot on a tank of fuel, its tyres could last 4 stints, while the 908's could only last 3, a direct result of the low-drag design. All 4 cars were leapfrogging each other pitstop after pitstop. Calculations for the pitstop cycles indicated
caption: The GTE-Am class winning No. 50 Corvette of Labre Compétition
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