The 2010 Le Mans Series was the seventh season of Automobile Club de l'Ouest's Le Mans Series. It featured five events between 11 April and 12 September 2010. For the first time in 2010, Formula Le Mans (FLM) cars were run in a fifth class in the series, running alongside Le Mans Prototype cars and GT cars, rather than as a support series. [1] It was also the final season when GT1 cars were allowed to run in the series.
Stéphane Sarrazin won the LMP1 championship despite sharing his car with Nicolas Lapierre for most of the season; Sarrazin did not run with his usual Team Oreca Matmut outfit at the 1000 km of Spa, instead gaining championship points with his Peugeot Sport teammates in a precursor to the 24 Hours of Le Mans the following month. Despite this, Sarrazin won only one race, winning at the 1000 km of Algarve with Lapierre and Olivier Panis. Lapierre was second ahead of Rinaldo Capello, who won at Paul Ricard with Allan McNish. Other class victories went to Sébastien Bourdais, Pedro Lamy and Simon Pagenaud at Spa, Greg Mansell and Leo Mansell at the Hungaroring, and Nicolas Minassian and Anthony Davidson at Silverstone. In LMP2, Thomas Erdos and Mike Newton claimed the championship for the second time, after their more consistent finishes helped them to fend off Strakka Racing's Jonny Kane, Danny Watts and Nick Leventis, who won three races to one for Erdos and Newton. The only other win was taken by Miguel Amaral and Olivier Pla at Spa.
The GT1 championship went to Larbre Compétition pairing Gabriele Gardel and Patrice Goueslard, as they were the only team to attempt every race in the championship. Julien Canal and Fernando Rees joined them in various races but were not a factor in the championship. The only team to beat Larbre during the season was the Marc VDS Racing Team car of Eric De Doncker, Bas Leinders and Markus Palttala, who won at Spa. GT2 proceedings saw a second successive title for Felbermayr-Proton duo Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz, winning three of the season's five races. The other two were taken by AF Corse duo Gianmaria Bruni and Jaime Melo at Algarve and at Silverstone. Another tight championship battle was fought out in the Formula Le Mans class, with DAMS' Andrea Barlesi and Gary Chalandon holding off Hope Polevision Racing driver Steve Zacchia by just two points. The season's five races were shared between four different entries, with Barlesi and Chalandon only winning at the Hungaroring with Alessandro Cicognani. Zacchia won at Spa with Wolfgang Kaufmann and Luca Moro, Damien Toulemonde, Ross Zampatti and David Zollinger won at Paul Ricard, while Jody Firth and Warren Hughes won twice, in the Algarve, and at Silverstone.
On 27 October 2009 the ACO released a preliminary calendar for the 2010 season featuring three named events and two unconfirmed events, plus the traditional pre-season test session at Circuit Paul Ricard. [2] The calendar was further revised with two additional events at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve and the Hungaroring. The Paul Ricard race was also extended to eight hours in length. [3] The 1000 km of Silverstone was also the part of the inaugural Le Mans Intercontinental Cup for LMP1s, [4] and it was also the first time that the race had been run on the circuit's "Arena" configuration.
Except for the 8 Hours of Castellet, as the name implied an eight-hour time limit, all races ran for either 1000 km or six hours, whichever came first; [5] partially wet weather and a red flag period caused the 2010 1000 km of Spa to run slightly less than the 143 laps it was originally scheduled; the top three finishers completed 139 laps at the end of six hours. The 2010 1000 km of Hungaroring race was also run at a distance shorter than the 1000-km scheduled distance after six hours.
Rnd | Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|---|
– | Official Test Session | Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France | 7–9 March |
1 | 8 Hours of Castellet | Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France | 11 April |
2 | 1000 km of Spa | Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium | 9 May |
3 | 1000 km of Algarve | Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimão, Portugal | 17 July |
4 | 1000 km of Hungaroring | Hungaroring, Mogyoród, Hungary | 22 August |
5 | Autosport 1000 km of Silverstone | Silverstone Circuit, United Kingdom | 12 September |
Overall winner in bold.
Points were awarded to all race finishers, with unclassified entries failing to complete 70% of the race distance or entries failing to reach the finish not earning championship points. One bonus point was awarded for winning pole position (denoted by bold), and a further bonus was awarded for the entry which sets the fastest race lap (denoted by italics). Entries which changed an engine prior to the required two race minimum were penalized two points, with a four-point penalty for every subsequent engine change.
Points were allocated in one of two ways, dependent on race length.
Points System [6] | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Race Distance | Position | Pole Position | Fastest Lap | |||||||||||
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th And Lower | |||
1000 km | 15 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Over 1500 km | 30 | 26 | 22 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
The top two finishers in the LMP1, LMP2 and GT2 championships earned automatic entry to the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans, provided that the team was running for the full season. Partial season entries (teams that run on a part-time basis, e.g. race-by-race) were not eligible for automatic entries for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
GT1 championships were not awarded any automatic entries as the GT1 category was phased out by the end of the year (see New 2011 regulations section).
Pos | No. | Team | Chassis | Engine | Rnd 1 | Rnd 2 | Rnd 3 | Rnd 4 | Rnd 5 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 25 | RML | Lola B08/80 | HPD AL7R 3.4 L V8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 75 |
2 | 42 | Strakka Racing | HPD ARX-01C | HPD AL7R 3.4 L V8 | 1 | Ret | Ret | 1 | 1 | 69 |
3 | 24 | OAK Racing | Pescarolo 01 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 53 |
4 | 35 | OAK Racing | Pescarolo 01 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | 2 | 3 | Ret | 7 | 3 | 52 |
5 | 41 | Team Bruichladdich | Ginetta-Zytek GZ09SB/2 | Zytek ZG348 3.4 L V8 | 5 | Ret | 2 | 5 | 8 | 46 |
6 | 40 | Quifel ASM Team | Ginetta-Zytek GZ09SB/2 | Zytek ZG348 3.4 L V8 | Ret | 1 | Ret | 2 | 2 | 44 |
7 | 30 | Racing Box | Lola B09/80 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 39 | |
8 | 36 | Pegasus Racing | Courage-Oreca LC75 | AER P07 2.0 L Turbo I4 | 7 | 6 | 3 | Ret | Ret | 34 |
9 | 39 | KSM Motorsport | Lola B08/47 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | 8 | Ret | 9 | 17 | ||
10 | 27 | Race Performance | Radical SR9 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | Ret | 7 | 9 | 10 | 17 | |
11 | 29 | Racing Box | Lola B09/80 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | Ret | 6 | 7 | 15 | ||
12 | 31 | RLR MSport | MG-Lola EX265 | AER P07 2.0 L Turbo I4 | 8 | NC | 7 | |||
- | 37 | WR / Salini | WR LMP2008 | Zytek ZG348 3.4 L V8 | Ret | 0 |
All teams in the Formula Le Mans category utilized the Oreca FLM09 chassis and General Motors 6.3 L V8.
Pos | No. | Team | Rnd 1 | Rnd 2 | Rnd 3 | Rnd 4 | Rnd 5 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 43 | DAMS | 3 | Ret | 2 | 1 | 4 | 59 |
2 | 47 | Hope Polevision Racing | 4 | 1 | Ret | 3 | 2 | 57 |
3 | 45 | Boutsen Energy Racing | Ret | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
4 | 46 | JMB Racing | Ret | 3 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 40 |
5 | 48 | Hope Polevision Racing | 2 | Ret | Ret | 3 | 39 | |
6 | 49 | Applewood Seven | 1 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 32 | |
7 | 44 | DAMS | Ret | 1 | Ret | 1 | 31 |
Pos | No. | Team | Chassis | Engine | Rnd 1 | Rnd 2 | Rnd 3 | Rnd 4 | Rnd 5 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 50 | Larbre Compétition | Saleen S7-R | Ford 7.0 L V8 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 97 |
2 | 66 | Atlas FX-Team FS | Saleen S7-R | Ford 7.0 L V8 | 6 | 2 | Ret | 25 | ||
3 | 70 | Marc VDS Racing Team | Ford GT1 | Ford 5.3 L V8 | 1 | 18 | ||||
4 | 60 | Matech Competition | Ford GT1 | Ford 5.3 L V8 | 2 | 15 | ||||
5 | 61 | Matech Competition | Ford GT1 | Ford 5.3 L V8 | 3 | 13 | ||||
6 | 72 | Luc Alphand Aventures | Corvette C6.R | Corvette LS7.R 7.0 L V8 | 5 | 10 | ||||
- | 52 | Young Driver AMR | Aston Martin DBR9 | Aston Martin 6.0 L V12 | Ret | 0 |
Pos | No. | Team | Chassis | Engine | Rnd 1 | Rnd 2 | Rnd 3 | Rnd 4 | Rnd 5 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 77 | Team Felbermayr-Proton | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 87 |
2 | 95 | AF Corse | Ferrari F430 GT2 | Ferrari 4.0 L V8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 66 |
3 | 96 | AF Corse | Ferrari F430 GT2 | Ferrari 4.0 L V8 | Ret | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 59 |
4 | 88 | Team Felbermayr-Proton | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 55 |
5 | 76 | IMSA Performance Matmut | Porsche 997 GT3 | Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 47 |
6 | 91 | CRS Racing | Ferrari F430 GT2 | Ferrari 4.0 L V8 | Ret | 6 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 40 |
7 | 94 | AF Corse | Ferrari F430 GT2 | Ferrari 4.0 L V8 | 5 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 38 |
8 | 85 | Spyker Squadron | Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2-R | Audi 4.0 L V8 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 38 |
9 | 90 | CRS Racing | Ferrari F430 GT2 | Ferrari 4.0 L V8 | 4 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 33 |
10 | 92 | JMW Motorsport | Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2 | Aston Martin 4.5 L V8 | Ret | NC | 4 | 6 | 3 | 30 |
11 | 78 | BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M3 GT2 | BMW 4.0 L V8 | 6 | 12 | 8 | 26 | ||
12 | 75 | Prospeed Competition | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 | Ret | 9 | Ret | Ret | 2 | 19 |
13 | 79 | BMW Team Schnitzer | BMW M3 GT2 | BMW 4.0 L V8 | 4 | 18 | ||||
14 | 89 | Hankook Team Farnbacher | Ferrari F430 GT2 | Ferrari 4.0 L V8 | Ret | 10 | 7 | 10 | Ret | 17 |
15 | 86 | Team Felbermayr-Proton | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 | 11 | 4 | ||||
16 | 99 | Gulf Team First | Lamborghini Gallardo LP560 | Lamborghini 5.2 L V10 | 11 | 4 | ||||
17 | 98 | Prospeed Competition | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 | 13 | 3 | ||||
18 | 93 | JWA Racing | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 | 14 | 3 |
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Stéphane Sarrazin | 78 |
2 | Nicolas Lapierre | 63 |
3 | Rinaldo Capello | 57 |
4= | Vanina Ickx | 55 |
4= | Franck Mailleux | 55 |
4= | Pierre Ragues | 55 |
7= | Neel Jani | 52 |
7= | Nicolas Prost | 52 |
9= | Allan McNish | 45 |
10= | Andrea Belicchi | 14 |
10= | Jean-Christophe Boullion | 44 |
12 | Olivier Panis | 39 |
13= | Greg Mansell | 34 |
13= | Leo Mansell | 34 |
15= | Adrián Fernández | 28 |
15= | Stefan Mücke | 28 |
15= | Harold Primat | 28 |
18 | Anthony Davidson | 27 |
19 | Guy Smith | 23 |
20 | Timo Bernhard | 23 |
21= | Sébastien Bourdais | 18 |
21= | Simon Pagenaud | 18 |
21= | Pedro Lamy | 18 |
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1= | Thomas Erdos | 75 |
1= | Mike Newton | 75 |
3= | Jonny Kane | 69 |
3= | Nick Leventis | 69 |
3= | Danny Watts | 69 |
6= | Matthieu Lahaye | 53 |
6= | Jacques Nicolet | 53 |
8= | Richard Hein | 52 |
8= | Guillaume Moreau | 52 |
10= | Thor-Christian Ebbesvik | 46 |
10= | Karim Ojjeh | 46 |
12= | Miguel Amaral | 44 |
12= | Olivier Pla | 44 |
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1= | Andrea Barlesi | 59 |
1= | Gary Chalandon | 59 |
3 | Steve Zacchia | 57 |
4 | Alessandro Cicognani | 46 |
5 | Luca Moro | 44 |
6= | Dominik Kraihamer | 41 |
6= | Nicolas de Crem | 41 |
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1= | Gabriele Gardel | 97 |
1= | Patrice Goueslard | 97 |
3 | Fernando Rees | 64 |
4 | Julien Canal | 33 |
5= | Julien Schroyen | 25 |
5= | Carlo van Dam | 25 |
7= | Bas Leinders | 18 |
7= | Markus Palttala | 18 |
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1= | Marc Lieb | 87 |
1= | Richard Lietz | 87 |
3= | Jean Alesi | 66 |
3= | Giancarlo Fisichella | 66 |
3= | Toni Vilander | 66 |
6= | Martin Ragginger | 55 |
6= | Christian Ried | 55 |
8= | Gianmaria Bruni | 50 |
8= | Jaime Melo | 50 |
10= | Patrick Pilet | 47 |
10= | Raymond Narac | 47 |
12= | Andrew Kirkaldy | 40 |
12= | Tim Mullen | 40 |
14= | Luis Pérez Companc | 38 |
14= | Matías Russo | 38 |
16 | Peter Dumbreck | 38 |
17 | Patrick Long | 35 |
The European Le Mans Series is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the former American Le Mans Series (ALMS) based in the United States and Canada that was running with ACO and IMSA between 1999 and 2013. ELMS team champions and runners-up receive an automatic entry to the following year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Originally titled the Le Mans Endurance Series before becoming simply the Le Mans Series in 2006, the series was renamed once more in 2012, reusing a name previously utilized by IMSA in 2001.
Stéphane Jean-Marc Sarrazin is a French racing and rally driver. He has won races across a number of single-seater, sportscar and rallying disciplines and competitions, was French Formula Renault champion in 1994, and Le Mans Series champion in both 2007 and 2010. Although he has never won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, he has finished on the podium six times, including four outright second positions. He participated in one Formula One Grand Prix, the 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix, for Minardi as a replacement for Luca Badoer, who had injured his wrist. He suffered a big spin in the race coming up to the start-finish straight on lap 31 and scored no championship points. He also carried out testing duties for the Prost Grand Prix team during the 1999–2001 Formula One seasons and for Toyota Racing in their first season in 2002.
Fernando Rees is a retired Brazilian racecar driver. He started his career racing with go-karts back in 1993 at age 8. Fernando made his international single-seaters' debut in 2001, his endurance racing debut in 2007, and has recently competed in various international racing championships.
Warren Hughes is a racing driver from Sunderland, England.
The 2009 Le Mans Series was the sixth season of Automobile Club de l'Ouest's Le Mans Series. It was contested over five events between 5 April and 13 September 2009.
Thor–Christian Ebbesvik is a professional racing driver from Norway.
The FIA GT1 World Championship was a world championship sports car racing series, developed by the SRO Group and regulated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), that was held from 2010 to 2012. It featured multiple grand tourer race cars—based on production road cars and conforming with the GT1 (2010–2011) and GT3 (2012) regulations—that competed in one-hour races on multiple continents. All cars were performance balanced, with weight and restrictor adjustments, to artificially equalise their performance. Championships were awarded each season for drivers and teams.
The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup was an endurance sports car racing tournament organised by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) started in 2010. The plans were first announced in June 2009 and confirmed in December of the same year.
Strakka Racing was a British auto racing team founded by Nick Leventis. The team was based at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire. The team made history at the 2010 1000 km of Hungaroring when they became the first team in Le Mans Series history to win overall in an LMP2 class car. They also became the first team in LMS history to take overall pole position in an LMP2 class car.
The 2010 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup was the inaugural running of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's (ACO) Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, an international auto racing championship for manufacturers and teams. The Cup featured endurance races from the American Le Mans Series, Le Mans Series, and Asian Le Mans Series, as well as teams representing each of the three series. Winning teams were awarded with automatic invitations to the 2011 24 Hours of Le Mans. As with the three racing series based on Le Mans, the Intercontinental Cup featured the ACO's four premiere classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. Six manufacturers and eighteen teams vied for the Cup in each of the four classes utilized in Le Mans racing.
Nicholas Leventis is a retired British racing driver and founder of Strakka Racing. One of his most memorable successes was winning the 2010 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 category with Danny Watts and Jonny Kane, breaking five records in the process.
Nick Catsburg is a Dutch professional racing driver, currently competing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship with Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports. He was also a factory driver for BMW from 2011 to 2022.
Steve Zacchia is a Swiss racing driver, currently competing in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup for Hope Racing.
The Toyota TS030 Hybrid is a Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) sports car built by Toyota Motorsport GmbH and used by the manufacturer in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2012 and 2013. It was Toyota's first all new prototype since the GT-One last competed in 1999, and was the first petrol-hybrid engine car to participate in the World Endurance Championship. Work on designing the car began in late 2010 when early chassis designs were presented to Toyota Motorsport. The project was stopped briefly after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, but the car's building was approved six months later. The TS030 Hybrid featured a Kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) regenerative braking device to charge a super capacitor. Its engine, a naturally aspirated petrol 3.4-litre (210 cu in) V8 power unit, was mounted at a 90-degree angle, produced 530 horsepower, and was based on Toyota's Super GT project.
Gary Chalandon is a French racing driver. He is most notable for competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Formula Le Mans Cup and the Le Mans Series. He won the Formula Le Mans class of the Le Mans Series in 2010, whilst driving for DAMS.
Jody Firth is a British racing driver, who most recently competed in the British GT Championship.
Greaves Motorsport is a British racing team, currently competing in the European Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
John Timothy Greaves is a British former racing driver and the team principal of Greaves Motorsport. He raced in various Radical series during the 2000s and also drove in the Le Mans Series and 24 Hours of Le Mans between 2004 and 2010.
The Toyota TS040 Hybrid is a Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1) sports car built and used by Toyota Motorsport GmbH in the 2014 and 2015 seasons of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Work on the car's design began in November 2012, when the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) published its 2014 technical regulations and Toyota utilised its resources after the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans. The car is an aerodynamic improvement on its predecessor, the TS030 Hybrid, and its design allowed four-wheel drive. It has two kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) regenerative-braking devices at the front and rear axles to charge a supercapacitor and, in accordance with the 2014 regulations, was placed in the 6 MJ (1.7 kWh) class. The TS040's engine was carried over from the TS030; its displacement was increased from 3.4 L (210 cu in) to 3.7 L (230 cu in) for better efficiency, producing 513 horsepower (383 kW) to the rear wheels.
The 2018 European Le Mans Series was the fifteenth season of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's (ACO) European Le Mans Series. The six-event season began at Circuit Paul Ricard on 15 April and finished at Algarve International Circuit on 28 October. The series is open to Le Mans Prototypes, divided into the LMP2 and LMP3 classes, and grand tourer-style racing cars in the LMGTE class.