Sarrazin/Montagny/Bourdais on pole at 24 heures du Mans

[Yannick]

The 24 hours du Mans this year will yet again have quite a significance for drivers who have a profile on the site, or are eligible for one. Peugeut has scored the prestigious pole position with their #8 car of Stephane Sarrazin (ex-Minardi), Franck Montagny (ex-SuperAguri) and Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso). And there are more drivers on the grid that are important to this website. Look for Alan McNish, Pedro Lamy, Christian Klien, J-C Boullion, Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz, David Brabham, Tomas Enge, Anthony Davidson, Jos Verstappen, Neel Jani, Christian Albers, Narain Karthikeyan, Tiago Monteiro (sharing a car with Bruno Senna), Olivier Panis, Hideki Noda, Jan Magnussen, Olivier Beretta, Mika Salo, Gianmaria Bruni and Eric van de Poele all lined up on the grid there.

[RAK]

I guess that it's the only time this year Bourdais is going to score a pole position.

[dr-baker]

But he's already scored a podium... at this year's 12 Hours of Sebring in a Peugeot alongside Montagny and Sarrazin a week before the Australian Grand Prix.

[RejectSteve]

Alan McNish

There is likely to be one of your winners. The Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs might have the single lap speed advantage on the Audis, but Peugeot lack the race craft and teamwork that are the hallmark of Reinhold Joest's operation. If it doesn't strike problems, the best of the Peugeots could be the Pescarolo Sport run car with chicken-flavoured reject Jean-Christophe Boullion Cube.

[Debaser]

The Le Mans 24 hours could be called "The F1 rejects in heaven" GP as the race is full of rejects, even a soon to be reject is in the race (Bourdais is yet to exit reject status). Audi will probably win but the Peugeot's are fast enough to give them a hard race.

[Fitch]

with chicken-flavoured reject Jean-Christophe Boullion Cube.

I woke up my Baby girl, I was laughing so hard....thanks.............

[Waris]

Am I the only one who thinks the name "Peugeot 908 HDi FAP" is hilarious?

[Henrique]

I hope Pedro Lamy and Tiago Monteiro get to fight each other somewhere, to decide who's the best in Portugal once and for all.

[GinShaiman]

and lets not forget Jan Magnussen and Marco Apicella.

[Ross Prawn]

According to the summary on my Sky box, Eurosport are televising the whole 24 Hours from the Le Mans Bugatti circuit. That'll be lots of pictures of the campsite then !

[StoneColdSpider]

who drove the car to get pole???

also... GO AUDI!!!!

[Jack O Malley]

who drove the car to get pole???

Sarrazin

[StoneColdSpider]

i didnt think it was going to b Bourdais....

[Yannick]

Apparently, Narain Karthikeyan is not in the race and his two co-drivers will have to do the job without him, since he was declared unfit to drive, after he had dislocated his shoulder in a jump over the pit wall that didn't go as planned just shortly before the start of the race.

And Peugeot are looking good.

[Alianora La Canta]

And there I was thinking Franck Montagny breaking a leg standing on a football the week before Le Mans was a badly-timed injury... ...Poor Narain must be really unhappy .

[CarlosFerreira]

The race is, as far as I can tell from the commentary on Autosport, truly and utterly decided for the Pugs, the question is if the team is going to play a hand at trying to make the all-French car win. We'll see. From what I gather, Wurz is doing a superb drive - Frank Williams is probably going to replace Nakajima with him again, any time soon.

I have to say, much as I have sympathy for Audi, it's good to see Peugeot win this time around. Also, good effort on the Astons, they're running a very respectable race - I never thought they'd survive the night.

[StoneColdSpider]

at least Ferrari are leading the GT2 class...
GO FERRARI!!!!

[Henrique]

I guess that it's the only time this year Bourdais is going to score a pole position.

And the only time he gets a podium finish
Congratz to F1 reject David Brabham for the win.

[dr-baker]

I guess that it's the only time this year Bourdais is going to score a pole position.

And the only time he gets a podium finish
Congratz to F1 reject David Brabham for the win.

It's Bourdais's 2nd podium this year. Sebring 12 Hours...? Mentioned it earlier above?

[Henrique]

It's Bourdais's 2nd podium this year. Sebring 12 Hours...? Mentioned it earlier above?

Oops, sorry. He has a future at these races then.

[RejectSteve]

and lets not forget Jan Magnussen and Marco Apicella.

Apicella had a rejectworthy Le Mans appearance as he never got in the JLOC Lamborghini Murcielago RGT. Not really a surprise considering the car broke down during practice, qualifying, and on the opening lap of the race never to be seen again. One of the Radio Le Mans presenters suggested it was an entry just to get the car on track to sell it at a higher price with Le Mans pedigree. JLOC, the Japanese Lamborghini Owners' Club, had an entry two years ago which crashed in practice but the ACO allowed them to bring in a spare car which also failed on the opening lap. The Life of Le Mans?

[StoneColdSpider]

since Bourdais didnt drive to car to get pole..... he didnt really get pole did he

[Ross Prawn]

Did you notice Bourdais sulking on the podium, because he didn't manage to win.

I'll bet he's great company at the post-race Peugeot party.

[dr-baker]

It's Bourdais's 2nd podium this year. Sebring 12 Hours...? Mentioned it earlier above?

Oops, sorry. He has a future at these races then.

No problem. But sportscar racing, particularly Le Mans, always seems to be an area of success for F1 drivers, rejects or not. After all, only 6 F1 Rejects in the top two cars at the race this year. At least if Bourdais doesn't continue in F1 next year, and doesn't return to the USA, he'll have a future somewhere.

[Bleu]

On quick count I found 24 drivers who have participated in F1 race.

15 of them are rejects: Bourdais (at least to date), Albers, Apicella, Beretta, Bruni, Brabham, Davidson, Enge, Lamy, Magnussen. McNish, Montagny, Noda, Sarrazin and van de Poele.

9 non-rejects: Boullion, Gene, Karthikeyan, Klien, Monteiro, Panis, Salo, Verstappen, Wurz
(only one race winner though)

4 official test drivers or Friday testers: Bobbi, Collard, Jani, Mondini

Honorary mentions for Fässler and Gavin who have driven safety car. Gavin in 1997-99 and Fässler substituted Mayländer in one race.

[deCrasheris]

and lets not forget Jan Magnussen and Marco Apicella.

Apicella had a rejectworthy Le Mans appearance as he never got in the JLOC Lamborghini Murcielago RGT. Not really a surprise considering the car broke down during practice, qualifying, and on the opening lap of the race never to be seen again. One of the Radio Le Mans presenters suggested it was an entry just to get the car on track to sell it at a higher price with Le Mans pedigree. JLOC, the Japanese Lamborghini Owners' Club, had an entry two years ago which crashed in practice but the ACO allowed them to bring in a spare car which also failed on the opening lap. The Life of Le Mans?

The 2007 and 2009 24 hours of Le Mans sounded like Apricella's F1 career

[Jack O Malley]

and lets not forget Jan Magnussen and Marco Apicella.

Apicella had a rejectworthy Le Mans appearance as he never got in the JLOC Lamborghini Murcielago RGT. Not really a surprise considering the car broke down during practice, qualifying, and on the opening lap of the race never to be seen again. One of the Radio Le Mans presenters suggested it was an entry just to get the car on track to sell it at a higher price with Le Mans pedigree. JLOC, the Japanese Lamborghini Owners' Club, had an entry two years ago which crashed in practice but the ACO allowed them to bring in a spare car which also failed on the opening lap. The Life of Le Mans?

The 2007 and 2009 24 hours of Le Mans sounded like Apricella's F1 career

Yep, I lolled hard at seeing Apicella's car out on 1st lap... sorry for the schadenfreude!!

Congrats to Wurz (winner again, after 13 yrs!) David Brabham (unforgettable Simtek stalwart) and Gené (very talented driver but imho eligible for "lucky bastard" award)!!! And congrats to the 2nd-classified "all-reject-team".

[watka]

It's Bourdais's 2nd podium this year. Sebring 12 Hours...? Mentioned it earlier above?

Oops, sorry. He has a future at these races then.

No problem. But sportscar racing, particularly Le Mans, always seems to be an area of success for F1 drivers, rejects or not. After all, only 6 F1 Rejects in the top two cars at the race this year. At least if Bourdais doesn't continue in F1 next year, and doesn't return to the USA, he'll have a future somewhere.

Always a chance he'll be at USF1.

[RAK]

and lets not forget Jan Magnussen and Marco Apicella.

Apicella had a rejectworthy Le Mans appearance as he never got in the JLOC Lamborghini Murcielago RGT. Not really a surprise considering the car broke down during practice, qualifying, and on the opening lap of the race never to be seen again. One of the Radio Le Mans presenters suggested it was an entry just to get the car on track to sell it at a higher price with Le Mans pedigree. JLOC, the Japanese Lamborghini Owners' Club, had an entry two years ago which crashed in practice but the ACO allowed them to bring in a spare car which also failed on the opening lap. The Life of Le Mans?

I believe there's usually a car in Le Mans which has to retire hilariously early. In 2000, a Chrysler-powered Oreca entry in the LMP900 class retired on the second lap; in 1990, a Nissan R90CK retired on the first lap; in 1986, there were two retirements on the first lap; in 1977, a Renault Alpine A442 retired on the first lap; in 1973, a BMW 3.0 CSL retired on the second lap; in 1972, a Matra-Simca MS670 retired on the second lap, and in 1970, three cars retired within the first two laps - but maybe that last one isn't funny at all, because it led to the death of John Woolfe in his privately-owned Porsche 917.

What makes some of these especially hilarious is the fact that even the 1923 24 Hours of Le Mans had its last-ranked car complete 14 laps, in an era when even the fastest car only completed 128 laps. Of course, nearly every car managed to complete that race as well.

[Cynon]

Did you notice Bourdais sulking on the podium, because he didn't manage to win.

I'll bet he's great company at the post-race Peugeot party.

I believe he's actually from Le Mans, and I think he may have been irked that the #8 Peugeot was in line to take the win but had a long long pit stop.

[Ross Prawn]

Did you notice Bourdais sulking on the podium, because he didn't manage to win.

I'll bet he's great company at the post-race Peugeot party.

I believe he's actually from Le Mans, and I think he may have been irked that the #8 Peugeot was in line to take the win but had a long long pit stop.

Yep, he is from Le Mans, so it would have been a great story if he had won.

And Peugeot would have loved it, an all French team with a local boy winning at Le Mans. I don't think there is any suggestion that Bourdais' car was held back, it was just the way the race panned out.

I saw an interview with Sarrazin & Montagny on Eurosport just before the end of the race. Obviously they would have liked to win but they were really up for the Peugeot team victory. Bourdais seemed much less so.