1999 24 Hours of Le Mans

1999 24 Hours of Le Mans
Previous: 1998	Next: 2000
Index: Races | Winners

The 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 67th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on June 12 and 13, 1999.

Pre-race

1999 saw another increase in manufacturers involvement. Although Porsche did not send a team to contest, 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.

Mercedes CLR incidents

This event became famous for the incidents involving the team of Mercedes-Benz CLRs during qualifying and the race itself. An aerodynamic design flaw in the CLR allowed for large amounts of air to build up underneath the nose of the car, especially when following another car and at the tops of hills, notably on the run to Indianapolis and on the Mulsanne straight.

Mark Webber's CLR became airborne at Indianapolis during qualifying and was repaired with tweaks to the rear suspension in an attempt by Mercedes to cure the problem. All cars qualified, but during the brief warm-up on the day of the race, Webber again became airborne when following his teammates over the hump of the Mulsanne, landing on his roof and skidding to a stop in the Mulsanne corner. This car was withdrawn, but the two other CLRs continued on, again with emergency tweaks to attempt to stop the instability.

Unfortunately, a few hours into the race Peter Dumbreck's CLR also became airborne 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 caught by TV cameras and thus broadcast worldwide. Mercedes-Benz immediately withdrew the remaining CLR and dropped out of sportscar racing for the immediate future.

This would be the second time Mercedes-Benz had been forced to drop 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.

The Race

The race got off to a fast start, the competition was hot. For the first couple of hours the #6 Mercedes driven by Bernd Schneider, and #1 & 2 Toyotas driven by Martin Brundle & Thierry Boutsen fought it out at the front, the #17 BMW was never far behind and used its superior fuel economy to take the lead. The no 5 Mercedes was fighting with the #2 Toyota for second and third place at approximately 8pm when the incident described above took place. This led to the immediate withdrawal of the remaining Mercedes.

Martin Brundle in the #1 Toyota suffered a puncture at high speed on the Mulsanne straight, the cars rear suspension was badly damaged and he was unable (despite his best efforts) to get back to the pits. The #2 Toyota being driven by Thiery Boutsen was next to go when he suffered a high speed crash under the Dunlop bridge. The car was destroyed and Boutsen suffered injury to his lower back.

By dawn the #17 BMW was 4 laps in front of its sister 15 BMW, it looked like nothing could stop the BMW's. 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 could not continue. This left the sister #15 BMW almost a lap ahead of the #3 Toyota which had been quietly cruising around at a steady pace. With this sniff of a win Ukyo Katayama put the foot down in the Toyota and set the fastest lap of the race. He narrowed the gap to less than a minute till again a tyre blowout befell the Toyota team. Ukyo was however able to return to the pits for new tyres and continued. By then bar any problems for the BMW the race was out of reach. Audi came in a respectable 3rd at their first attempt at Le Mans setting them up nicely for the domination that was to come.

The 1999 race was the last for several of the "big" manufacturers. Only Audi returned for 2000. Mercedes pulled out of sports car racing altogether following the CLR incidents, BMW concentrated their efforts on their supply of engines to the Williams team in F1 (who had incidentally built the BMW LMRs). Toyota also pulled out as despite their terrific pace over 98 & 99 disappointingly only one of their cars finished the race over both of those years.

Official results

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
					Engine
1	LMP	15	BMW Motorsport	Joachim Winkelhock Pierluigi Martini Yannick Dalmas	BMW V12 LMR	M	365
					BMW S70 6.0L V12
2	LMGTP	3	Toyota Motorsport Toyota Team Europe	Ukyo Katayama Keiichi Tsuchiya Toshio Suzuki	Toyota GT-One	M	364
					Toyota R36V 3.6L Turbo V8
3	LMP	8	Audi Sport Team Joest	Frank Biela Didier Theys Emanuele Pirro	Audi R8R	M	360
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
4	LMP	7	Audi Sport Team Joest	Michele Alboreto Rinaldo Capello Laurent Aïello	Audi R8R	M	346
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
5	LMP	18	Price+Bscher	Thomas Bscher Bill Auberlen Steve Soper	BMW V12 LM	Y	345
					BMW S70 6.0L V12
6	LMP	13	Courage Compétition	Alex Caffi Andrea Montermini Domenico Schiattarella	Courage C52	B	342
					Nissan VRH35L 3.5L Turbo V6
7	LMP	12	Panoz Motorsports	David Brabham Éric Bernard Butch Leitzinger	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	M	336
					Ford (Élan) 6.0L V8
8	LMP	21	Nissan Motorsports	Didier Cottaz Marc Goossens Fredrik Ekblom	Courage C52	B	335
					Nissan VRH35L 3.5L Turbo V6
9	LMP	14	Pescarolo Promotion Racing Team	Henri Pescarolo Michel Ferté Patrice Gay	Courage C50	P	327
					Porsche 3.0L Turbo Flat-6
10	GTS	51	Viper Team Oreca	Olivier Beretta Karl Wendlinger Dominique Dupuy	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	325
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
11	LMP	11	Panoz Motorsports	Johnny O'Connell Jan Magnussen Max Angelelli	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	M	323
					Ford (Élan) 6.0L V8
12	GTS	52	Viper Team Oreca	Tommy Archer Justin Bell Marc Duez	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	318
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
13	GT	81	Manthey Racing GmbH	Uwe Alzen Patrick Huisman Luca Riccitelli	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	317
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
14	GTS	56	Chamberlain Engineering	Ni Amorim Hans Hugenholtz Toni Seiler	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	314
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
15	GTS	50	CICA Team Oreca	Manuel Mello-Breyner Pedro Mello-Breyner Tomaz Mello-Breyner	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	312
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
16	GTS	55	Paul Belmondo Racing	Emanuele Clerico Jean-Claude Lagniez Guy Martinolle	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	D	309
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
17	GTS	54	Paul Belmondo Racing	Paul Belmondo Tiago Monteiro Marc Rostan	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	D	299
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
18	GTS	64	Konrad Motorsport	Franz Konrad Peter Kitchak Charles Slater	Porsche 911 GT2	D	293
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
19	GT	80	Champion Racing	Dirk Müller Bob Wollek Bernd Mayländer	Porsche 911 GT3-R	P	292
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
20	GTS	62	Roock Racing	Claudia Hürtgen André Ahrle Vincent Vosse	Porsche 911 GT2	Y	290
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
21	GT	84	Perspective Racing	Thierry Perrier Jean-Louis Ricci Michel Nourry	Porsche 911 3.8 RSR	P	288
					Porsche 3.8L Flat-6
22	GTS	57	Chamberlain Engineering	Thomas Erdos Christian Vann Christian Gläsel	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	270
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
23 NC	GTS	65	Chereau Sports Larbre Compétition	Jean-Luc Chereau Patrice Gouselard Pierre Yver	Porsche 911 GT2	M	240
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
24 DNF	LMP	17	Team BMW Motorsport	Tom Kristensen JJ Lehto Jörg Müller	BMW V12 LMR	M	304
					BMW S70 6.0L V12
25 DNF	GTS	53	Viper Team Oreca	David Donohue Jean-Philippe Belloc Soheil Ayari	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	271
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
26 DNF	GTS	63	Roock Racing	Hubert Haupt John Robinson Hugh Price	Porsche 911 GT2	Y	232
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
27 DNF	LMP	19	Team Goh David Price Racing	Hiro Matsushita Hiroki Kato Akihiko Nakaya	BMW V12 LM	M	223
					BMW S70 6.0L V12
28 DNF	LMP	26	Konrad Motorsport Talkline Racing for Holland	Jan Lammers Peter Kox Tom Coronel	Lola B98/10	D	213
					Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8
29 DNF	LMGTP	10	Audi Sport UK Ltd.	James Weaver Andy Wallace Perry McCarthy	Audi R8C	M	198
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
30 DNF	LMGTP	2	Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe	Thierry Boutsen Ralf Kelleners Allan McNish	Toyota GT-One	M	173
					Toyota R36V 3.6L Turbo V8
31 DNF	GTS	61	Freisinger Motorsport	Ernst Palmberger Wolfgang Kaufmann Michel Ligonnet	Porsche 911 GT2	D	157
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
32 DNF	LMP	27	Kremer Racing	Tomas Saldaña Grant Orbell Didier de Radiguès	Lola B98/10	G	46
					Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8
33 DNF	GTS	67	Larbre Compétition	Jean-Pierre Jarier Sébastien Bourdais Pierre de Thoisy	Porsche 911 GT2	M	134
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
34 DNF	GTS	66	Estoril Racing Communication	Manuel Monteiro Michel Monteiro Michel Maisonneuve	Porsche 911 GT2	P	123
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
35 DNF	LMP	22	Nissan Motorsports	Michael Krumm Satoshi Motoyama Érik Comas	Nissan R391	B	110
					Nissan VRH50A 5.0L V8
36 DNF	LMGTP	1	Toyota Motorsports Toyota Team Europe	Martin Brundle Emmanuel Collard Vincenzo Sospiri	Toyota GT-One	M	90
					Toyota R36V 3.6L Turbo V8
37 DNF	LMP	25	Team DAMS	Christophe Tinseau Franck Montagny David Terrien	Lola B98/10	P	77
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
38 DNF	LMGTP	6	AMG-Mercedes	Bernd Schneider Franck Lagorce Pedro Lamy	Mercedes-Benz CLR	B	76
					Mercedes-Benz GT108C 5.7L V8
39 DNF	LMGTP	5	AMG-Mercedes	Christophe Bouchut Nick Heidfeld Peter Dumbreck	Mercedes-Benz CLR	B	75
					Mercedes-Benz GT108C 5.7L V8
40 DNF	LMP	24	Autoexe Motorsport	Yojiro Terada Franck Fréon Robin Donovan	Autoexe LMP99	Y	74
					Ford 6.0L V8
41 DNF	LMP	29	JB Racing	Jérôme Policand Mauro Baldi Christian Pescatori	Ferrari 333 SP	P	71
					Ferrari F130E 4.0L V12
42 DNF	LMP	32	Riley & Scott Europe Solution F	Marco Apicella Carl Rosenblad Shane Lewis	Riley & Scott Mk III/2	P	67
					Ford 6.0L V8
43 DNF	LMGTP	9	Audi Sport UK Ltd.	Stefan Johansson Stéphane Ortelli Christian Abt	Audi R8C	M	55
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
44 DNF	LMP	31	Riley & Scott Europe Solution F	Philippe Gache Gary Formato Olivier Thévenin	Riley & Scott Mk III/2	P	25
					Ford 6.0L V8
45 DNF	GTS	60	Freisinger Motorsport	Ray Lintott Manfred Jurasz Katsunori Iketani	Porsche 911 GT2	D	24
					Porsche 3.8L Turbo Flat-6
DNS	LMGTP	4	AMG-Mercedes	Mark Webber Jean-Marc Gounon Marcel Tiemann	Mercedes-Benz CLR	B	-
					Mercedes-Benz GT108C 5.7L V8
DNS	LMP	23	Nissan Motorsports	Aguri Suzuki Masami Kageyama Eric van de Poele	Nissan R391	B	-
					Nissan VRH50A 5.0L V8
DNS	GT	83	GFB MacQuillan	Michel Neugarten Gerard MacQuillan Chris Gleason	Porsche 911 3.8 RSR	P	-
					Porsche 3.8L Flat-6

Statistics

• 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)

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