Sunday in Le Mans

09. September 2007Le Mans - Even though it wasn’t as hot as the forecast had promised, there was a most favourable weather for the races, and most of the approximately 40,000 spectators certainly preferred the partly cloudy sky to a blazing sun. In the morning there were some irritations and commotion, when - while the timed practice was still on - Markus Bösiger’s absolutely fastest lap time was cancelled as, so it was said, he had hit a corner marker. But the Swiss could swear to it, that in no way he ever touched it. There was no photograph or video available to prove it - only the statement of the marshal. There was no possibility to lodge a protest against this decision. This meant that Bösiger’s team mate, David Vrsecky would start from the pole position. Second on the grid was Jochen Hahn ahead of Antonio Albacete. And Bösiger started from the second row, alongside the Spaniard.
In the Qualy race Vrsecky took the lead right from the starting line, with Hahn in tow. Behind them there was a lot of action, and as a result some parts of Bösiger’s Freightliner went loose and were grinding a tyre. The Swiss had to settle for the 4th position behind Albacete, followed by Gerd Körber, Egon Allgäuer and Chris Levett. But by then the leading trio was already far ahead. While Vrsecky could effortlessly hold his leading position, Hahn had some problems with his tyres, and three laps before the finish he offered almost no resistance when Albacete passed him. The tyre damages at Bösiger’s truck became worse, but fortunately for the Swiss, when the tyre packed up he was already some metres behind the finish line.
Tough luck, however, had Gerd Körber. The trigger event why, in the end, he couldn’t finish the race, was a defective tyre. The parts coming off from the tyre damaged some of the electronics and the German was forced to give up. He then let out his frustration at the Cup race; after all, he had to line up at the back of the grid behind the other 22 contestants. But first there was a frantic scrabble at the start. After only some hundred metres, still in the starting straight, there was a serious crash which several trucks fell victim to, involving also title favourite Bösiger. First one of the trucks caused Bösiger’s Freightliner to spin. Then another truck crashed fully into the still spinning vehicle. So after the first lap only 19 trucks were left. Yellow flags were waved, while several observers thought it could have been red ones instead. But the race went on, with some trucks still obstructing the safety zone.
In the leading group there was a fight between the threesome Vrsecky, Albacete and Hahn, but then the Mercedes pilot again had problems with one of his truck’s rear tyres. When there were only two more laps to go the German could no longer fend of the fiercely charging Levett and had to let him pass. On fifth position, Körber - giving the best performance of the weekend - crossed the finish line. Starting from the back of the grid, the man from Rheinau charged his way through the pack and was quickly gaining positions, and after only one lap he had fought his way up onto 13th. He powered ahead and after each lap he left one or two of his opponents behind, until he came onto the back of Stuart Oliver’s truck. The European Championship of the year 2004 fought back fiercely. The chasing went on for two laps and then Körber went past. His next target was Markus Altenstrasser. The Austrian, who joined the Frankie Team as fill-in driver at short notice, turned out to be the surprise of the weekend and was the show-stopper of the day. Two laps before the chequered flag, Körber went the whole hog. In doing so he hit the side of Altenstrasser’s Renault and sent it spinning, while Körber dashed off. But the Renault pilot - after doing an accurate 360 degree spin - stepped on the gas again and drove on rather unimpressed, and with screeching tyres he could only just hinder the charging Oliver from passing him, thus securing his 6th position at least. Behind Allgäuer, Adua and Pascal Robineau completed the top ten.
When the victory ceremony was over, there were discussions and hearings for more than two hours. In the end, Markus Bösiger who is actually the one who was most affected by the accident at the start, got a 1,000 Euro penalty. The stewards had come to the result that the Swiss wanted to provoke a stop of the race. But Bösiger had only observed the instructions of the marshals, namely to get out of his truck at once and to leave the truck behind. Körber got a 5 seconds penalty because of the incident with Altenstrasser, and thus swapped places with the Austrian.
Bösiger is of course still leading the overall standing with 337 points despite his having gained no points in the Cup race. Second is Albacete (302), followed by Vrsecky (272), Hahn (203) and Körber (197).
The team ranking was again won by Buggyra, followed by Team Allgäuer and Team Hahn.