1999 24 Hours of Le Mans

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1999 24 Hours of Le Mans
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Le Mans in 1999

The 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 67th 24 Hours of Le Mans, and took place on 12 and 13 June 1999. The race had a large number of entries in the fastest Le Mans Prototype classes, with Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lola Cars, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Panoz, Riley & Scott, and Toyota all represented.

The BMW V12 LMR of Yannick Dalmas, Pierluigi Martini, and Joachim Winkelhock won overall, with their car's reliability and fuel economy allowing them to beat their faster rivals.[1]

Pre-race[edit]

The winning #15 BMW V12 LMR
Toyota was a top challenger throughout the race. This #3 Toyota GT-One was the lone finisher for Toyota, finishing second.
When this #8 Audi R8R came home in third place, it marked the beginning of what was soon to become the era of Audi dominance at Le Mans.

1999 saw another increase in manufacturers involvement. Although Porsche did not send a team to contest in the prototype classes, Toyota retained their three updated GT-Ones, now moved to the LMGTP class due to the demise of GT1, while Mercedes-Benz debuted three new CLR LMGTPs. Nissan instead moved from GT1 to an open cockpit LMP, as did Panoz.

Newcomer Audi attempted to try their hand at both classes, with two open cockpit R8Rs and two closed cockpit R8Cs. BMW continued with their open cockpit LMPs, updating to the new V12 LMR. The works V12 LMR's were run by Schnitzer Motorsport, while two of the previous year's cars were privately entered.[1]

Mercedes CLR incidents[edit]

The event saw three major crashes involving the team of Mercedes-Benz CLRs during qualifying and the race itself. The CLR had a very short wheelbase and a large amount of overhang (the bodywork outside the wheelbase), resulting in high pitch sensitivity. The amount of overhang and its resulting pitch sensitivity was enough to cause aerodynamic and chassis design flaws with the car. The large amount of overhang allowed for amounts of air to build up underneath the nose of the car, and the amount of air that built up underneath the CLR thanks to the car's frontal pitch being high enough was enough to imbalance the frontal aerodynamics, giving this section more lift than downforce, which allowed the car to take off into the air, especially when following another car and at the tops of hills, when a car's front pitch is at its highest- such as on the run to Indianapolis and on the Mulsanne Straight.

Mark Webber's CLR #4 went airborne at Indianapolis during Thursday night qualifying. On Friday, the team was allowed to rebuild #4 on a new chassis, with tweaks to the rear suspension, in an attempt by Mercedes to cure the problem. Winglets were fitted to the front to increase downforce. All cars had qualified, but during the brief warm-up on Saturday morning, Webber again went airborne when tailing his teammates over the hump of the Mulsanne, landing on his roof and skidding to a stop in the Mulsanne corner.[2] This car was withdrawn from the race, but the two other CLRs continued on, again with emergency tweaks in yet another attempt to alleviate the instability.

A few hours into the race on lap 75, Peter Dumbreck's CLR #5 also went airborne at a crest just before the Indianapolis corner (a very bumpy section of the track), this time flying off the side of the track and landing in the trees. This incident, unlike the previous two, was actually caught by TV cameras and thus broadcast worldwide. Mercedes-Benz immediately withdrew the remaining CLR #6 and dropped out of sportscar racing for the immediate future.

This was the second time Mercedes-Benz had dropped out of Le Mans and sportscar racing following an incident with one of their cars becoming airborne and leaving the track, the first being the 1955 Le Mans disaster.

Race[edit]

In the early part of the race, the top qualifying #1 and #2 Toyotas driven by Martin Brundle and Thierry Boutsen fought with the #6 Mercedes driven by Bernd Schneider, and the #5 Mercedes driven by Christophe Bouchut. The #17 BMW was never far behind and used its superior fuel economy to gain the lead through the pit stops. Toyota #1, #2, Mercedes #6 and BMW #17 all led the race at various points. At 8pm, 5 hours into the race the #17 BMW lead the race with #2 Toyota 2nd, #5 Mercedes 3rd and #6 Mercedes 4th. It was during this fight for second and third place when Dumbreck's crash occurred. This led to the immediate withdrawal of the remaining #6 Mercedes.

Following a lengthy safety car period as a result of Dumbreck's accident, Brundle retired the #1 Toyota at 11:30pm. He was trying to claw back time from an earlier mechanical issue when he suffered a puncture at high speed on braking for the first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight. The puncture sent the car veering sideways into the barrier, badly damaging the rear suspension. Brundle tried to get the car back to the pits but eventually stopped at Arnage.[citation needed] At the front the race was still between the #17 BMW and the #2 Toyota, the Toyota having the superior pace but the BMW able to go further on each tank of fuel. Following them were the #15 BMW and the #3 Toyota. At around 2am, the #2 Toyota being driven by Thierry Boutsen suffered a high speed crash under the Dunlop bridge, following a collision with a slower car that was being overtaken. The car was destroyed and Boutsen had to be extracted from the car suffering from an injury to his lower back. The Belgian driver ended his racing career after this accident.

By dawn, the #17 BMW was four laps in front of its sister 15 BMW. At approximately 10am, JJ Lehto driving #17 BMW suffered a stuck throttle and crashed in the Porsche curves. The front of the car was badly damaged and it could not continue. This left the sister #15 BMW almost a lap ahead of the #3 Toyota. With this sniff of a win Ukyo Katayama set the fastest lap of the race of 3:35. He narrowed the gap to less than a minute when another tyre blowout befell the Toyota team. However, Katayama was able to return to the pits for new tyres and continue. By then bar any problems for the BMW the race was out of reach. Audi came in 3rd at their first attempt at Le Mans.

The 1999 race was the last for several of the major manufacturers. Only Audi returned for 2000. Mercedes pulled out of sports car racing altogether following the CLR incidents and concentrated on the new German Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) series, BMW concentrated their efforts on their supply of engines to the Williams team in Formula One (who had built the BMW LMRs). Toyota also pulled out as despite their pace over 1998 and 1999, only one of their cars finished the race over both of those years.

Toyota would eventually return to Le Mans in 2012, as well as the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship and eventually won the race for the first time in 2018.

Official results[edit]

Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tyre Laps Time/Reason
Engine
1 LMP 15 Germany Team BMW Motorsport Germany Joachim Winkelhock
Italy Pierluigi Martini
France Yannick Dalmas
BMW V12 LMR M 365 24:00:00.000‡
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
2 LMGTP 3 Japan Toyota Motorsports Japan Ukyo Katayama
Japan Keiichi Tsuchiya
Japan Toshio Suzuki
Toyota GT-One M 364 +1 lap
Toyota R36V 3.6 L Turbo V8
3 LMP 8 Germany Audi Sport Team Joest Germany Frank Biela
Belgium Didier Theys
Italy Emanuele Pirro
Audi R8R M 360 +5 laps
Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8
4 LMP 7 Germany Audi Sport Team Joest Italy Michele Alboreto
Italy Rinaldo Capello
France Laurent Aïello
Audi R8R M 346 +19 laps
Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8
5 LMP 18 United Kingdom Price+Bscher Germany Thomas Bscher
United States Bill Auberlen
United Kingdom Steve Soper
BMW V12 LM Y 345 +20 laps
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
6 LMP 13 France Courage Compétition Italy Alex Caffi
Italy Andrea Montermini
Italy Domenico Schiattarella
Courage C52 B 342 +23 laps
Nissan VRH35L 3.5 L Turbo V8
7 LMP 12 United States Panoz Motor Sports Australia David Brabham
France Éric Bernard
United States Butch Leitzinger
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S M 336 +29 laps
Ford-Élan 6.0 L V8
8 LMP 21 Japan Nissan Motorsports France Didier Cottaz
Belgium Marc Goossens
Sweden Fredrik Ekblom
Courage C52 B 335 +31 laps
Nissan VRH35L 3.5 L Turbo V8
9 LMP 14 France Pescarolo Promotion Racing Team France Henri Pescarolo
France Michel Ferté
France Patrice Gay
Courage C50 P 327 +38 laps
Porsche 3.0 L Turbo Flat-6
10 LMGTS 51 France Viper Team Oreca Monaco Olivier Beretta
Austria Karl Wendlinger
France Dominique Dupuy
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 325 +40 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
11 LMP 11 United States Panoz Motor Sports United States Johnny O'Connell
Denmark Jan Magnussen
Italy Max Angelelli
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S M 323 +42 laps
Ford-Élan 6.0 L V8
12 LMGTS 52 France Viper Team Oreca United States Tommy Archer
United Kingdom Justin Bell
Belgium Marc Duez
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 318 +47 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
13 LMGT 81 Germany Manthey Racing GmbH Germany Uwe Alzen
Netherlands Patrick Huisman
Italy Luca Riccitelli
Porsche 911 GT3-R P 317 +48 laps
Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6
14 LMGTS 56 United Kingdom Hugh Chamberlain Portugal Ni Amorim
Netherlands Hans Hugenholtz
Switzerland Toni Seiler
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 314 +51 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
15 LMGTS 50 France CICA Team Oreca Portugal Manuel Mello-Breyner
Portugal Pedro Mello-Breyner
Portugal Tomaz Mello-Breyner
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 312 +53 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
16 LMGTS 55 France Paul Belmondo Racing France Emmanuel Clérico
France Jean-Claude Lagniez
France Guy Martinolle
Chrysler Viper GTS-R D 309 +56 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
17 LMGTS 54 France Paul Belmondo Racing France Paul Belmondo
Portugal Tiago Monteiro
France Marc Rostan
Chrysler Viper GTS-R D 299 +66 laps
Chrysler 8.0L V10
18 LMGTS 64 Germany Konrad Motorsport Austria Franz Konrad
United States Peter Kitchak
United States Charles Slater
Porsche 911 GT2 D 293 +72 laps
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
19 LMGT 80 United States Champion Racing Dave Maraj Germany Dirk Müller
France Bob Wollek
Germany Bernd Mayländer
Porsche 911 GT3-R P 292 +73 laps
Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6
20 LMGTS 62 Germany Roock Racing International Motorsport Germany Claudia Hürtgen
Germany André Ahrlé
Belgium Vincent Vosse
Porsche 911 GT2 Y 290 +75 laps
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
21 LMGT 84 France Perspective Racing France Thierry Perrier
France Jean-Louis Ricci
France Michel Nourry
Porsche 911 Carrera RSR P 288 +77 laps
Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6
22 LMGTS 57 United Kingdom Hugh Chamberlain Brazil Thomas Erdos
United Kingdom Christian Vann
Germany Christian Gläsel
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 270 +95 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
NC LMGTS 65 France Société Cheréau France Jean-Luc Chéreau
France Patrice Goueslard
France Pierre Yver
Porsche 911 GT2 M 240 Not classified
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNF LMP 17 Germany Team BMW Motorsport Denmark Tom Kristensen
Finland JJ Lehto
Germany Jörg Müller
BMW V12 LMR M 304 Accident
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
DNF LMGTS 53 France Viper Team Oreca United States David Donohue
France Jean-Philippe Belloc
France Soheil Ayari
Chrysler Viper GTS-R M 271 Mechanical
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
DNF LMGTS 63 Germany Roock Racing International Motorsport Germany Hubert Haupt
United Kingdom John Robinson
United Kingdom Hugh Price
Porsche 911 GT2 Y 232 Engine
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNF LMP 19 Japan Team Goh Japan Hiro Matsushita
Japan Hiroki Katoh
Japan Akihiko Nakaya
BMW V12 LM M 223 Gearbox
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
DNF LMP 26 Germany Konrad Motorsport Netherlands Jan Lammers
Netherlands Peter Kox
Netherlands Tom Coronel
Lola B98/10 D 213 Gearbox
Ford-Roush 6.0 L V8
DNF LMGTP 10 United Kingdom Audi Sport UK United Kingdom James Weaver
United Kingdom Andy Wallace
United Kingdom Perry McCarthy
Audi R8C M 198 Gearbox
Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8
DNF LMGTP 2 Japan Toyota Motorsports Belgium Thierry Boutsen
Germany Ralf Kelleners
United Kingdom Allan McNish
Toyota GT-One M 173 Accident
Toyota R36V 3.6 L Turbo V8
DNF LMGTS 61 Germany Freisinger Motorsport Germany Ernst Palmberger
Germany Wolfgang Kaufmann
France Michel Ligonnet
Porsche 911 GT2 D 157 Engine
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNF LMP 27 Germany Kremer Racing Spain Tomás Saldaña
South Africa Grant Orbell
Belgium Didier de Radiguès
Lola B98/10 G 146 Gearbox
Ford-Roush 6.0 L V8
DNF LMGTS 67 France Larbre Compétition France Jean-Pierre Jarier
France Sébastien Bourdais
France Pierre de Thoisy
Porsche 911 GT2 M 134 Engine
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNF LMGTS 66 France Estoril Racing Communication France Manuel Monteiro
France Michel Monteiro
France Michel Maisonneuve
Porsche 911 GT2 P 123 Accident damage
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNF LMP 22 Japan Nissan Motorsports Germany Michael Krumm
Japan Satoshi Motoyama
France Érik Comas
Nissan R391 B 110 Engine
Nissan VRH50A 5.0 L V8
DNF LMGTP 1 Japan Toyota Motorsports United Kingdom Martin Brundle
France Emmanuel Collard
Italy Vincenzo Sospiri
Toyota GT-One M 90 Puncture
Toyota R36V 3.6 L Turbo V8
DNF LMP 25 France DAMS France Christophe Tinseau
France Franck Montagny
France David Terrien
Lola B98/10 P 77 Engine
Judd GV4 4.0 L V10
DNF LMGTP 6 Germany AMG-Mercedes Germany Bernd Schneider
France Franck Lagorce
Portugal Pedro Lamy
Mercedes-Benz CLR B 76 Withdrawn
Mercedes-Benz GT108C 5.7 L V8
DNF LMGTP 5 Germany AMG-Mercedes France Christophe Bouchut
Germany Nick Heidfeld
United Kingdom Peter Dumbreck
Mercedes-Benz CLR B 75 Accident
Mercedes-Benz GT108C 5.7 L V8
DNF LMP 24 Japan Autoexe Motorsports Japan Yojiro Terada
France Franck Fréon
United Kingdom Robin Donovan
Autoexe LMP99 Y 74 Engine
Ford 6.0 L V8
DNF LMP 29 France JB Jabouille-Bouresche France Jérôme Policand
Italy Mauro Baldi
Italy Christian Pescatori
Ferrari 333 SP P 71 Gearbox
Ferrari F130E 4.0 L V12
DNF LMP 32 France Riley & Scott Europe Italy Marco Apicella
Sweden Carl Rosenblad
United States Shane Lewis
Riley & Scott Mk III/2 P 67 Engine
Ford 6.0 L V8
DNF LMGTP 9 United Kingdom Audi Sport UK Sweden Stefan Johansson
Monaco Stéphane Ortelli
Germany Christian Abt
Audi R8C M 55 Gearbox
Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8
DNF LMP 31 France Riley & Scott Europe France Philippe Gache
South Africa Gary Formato
France Olivier Thévenin
Riley & Scott Mk III/2 P 25 Engine
Ford 6.0 L V8
DNF LMGTS 60 Germany Freisinger Motorsport Australia Ray Lintott
Austria Manfred Jurasz
Japan Katsunori Iketani
Porsche 911 GT2 D 24 Accident
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNS LMGTP 4 Germany AMG-Mercedes Australia Mark Webber
France Jean-Marc Gounon
Germany Marcel Tiemann
Mercedes-Benz CLR B - Accident in Practice
Mercedes-Benz GT108C 5.7 L V8
DNS LMP 23 Japan Nissan Motorsports Japan Aguri Suzuki
Japan Masami Kageyama
Belgium Eric van de Poele
Nissan R391 B - Accident
Nissan VRH50A 5.0 L V8
DNS LMGT 83 United Kingdom Gérard MacQuillan Belgium Michel Neugarten
United Kingdom Gérard MacQuillan
United States Chris Gleason
Porsche 911 Carrera RSR Y - Did not qualify
Porsche 3.8L Flat-6
[3]

Statistics[edit]

  • Pole position - #1 Toyota Motorsport / TTE - 3:29.930
  • Fastest lap - #3 Toyota Motorsport / TTE - 3:35.052
  • Distance - 4968 km
  • Average speed - 207 km/h
  • Highest trap speed — Toyota GT-One - 352 km/h (practice)

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Codling, Stuart (8 June 2020). "When BMW was the last team standing at Le Mans". Autosport. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Mulsanne's Corner: 1999 Mercedes-Benz CLR".
  3. ^ "Le Mans 24 Hours 1999 - Photo Gallery - Racing Sports Cars". www.racingsportscars.com. Retrieved 2023-06-11.