1999 24 Hours of Le Mans explained

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

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.

Mercedes CLR incidents

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. Dumbreck was unharmed in the incident.[3] 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

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. 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

PosClassNoTeamDriversChassisTyreLapsTime/Reason
Engine
1LMP15 Team BMW Motorsport Joachim Winkelhock
Pierluigi Martini
Yannick Dalmas
BMW V12 LMR36524:00:00.000
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
2LMGTP3 Toyota Motorsports Ukyo Katayama
Keiichi Tsuchiya
Toshio Suzuki
Toyota GT-One364+1 lap
Toyota R36V 3.6 L Turbo V8
3LMP8 Audi Sport Team Joest Frank Biela
Didier Theys
Emanuele Pirro
Audi R8R360+5 laps
Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8
4LMP7 Audi Sport Team Joest Michele Alboreto
Rinaldo Capello
Laurent Aïello
Audi R8R346+19 laps
Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8
5LMP18 Price+Bscher Thomas Bscher
Bill Auberlen
Steve Soper
BMW V12 LM345+20 laps
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
6LMP13 Courage Compétition Alex Caffi
Andrea Montermini
Courage C52342+23 laps
7LMP12 Panoz Motor Sports David Brabham
Éric Bernard
Butch Leitzinger
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S336+29 laps
Ford-Élan 6.0 L V8
8LMP21 Nissan Motorsports Didier Cottaz
Marc Goossens
Fredrik Ekblom
Courage C52335+31 laps
Nissan VRH35L 3.5 L Turbo V8
9LMP14 Henri Pescarolo
Michel Ferté
Patrice Gay
Courage C50327+38 laps
Porsche 3.0 L Turbo Flat-6
10LMGTS51 Viper Team Oreca Olivier Beretta
Karl Wendlinger
Dominique Dupuy
Chrysler Viper GTS-R325+40 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
11LMP11 Panoz Motor Sports Johnny O'Connell
Jan Magnussen
Max Angelelli
Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S323+42 laps
Ford-Élan 6.0 L V8
12LMGTS52 Viper Team Oreca Tommy Archer
Justin Bell
Marc Duez
Chrysler Viper GTS-R318+47 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
13LMGT81 Manthey Racing GmbH Uwe Alzen
Patrick Huisman
Luca Riccitelli
Porsche 911 GT3-R317+48 laps
Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6
14LMGTS56 Hugh Chamberlain Ni Amorim
Hans Hugenholtz
Toni Seiler
Chrysler Viper GTS-R314+51 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
15LMGTS50 CICA Team Oreca
Pedro Mello-Breyner
Tomaz Mello-Breyner
Chrysler Viper GTS-R312+53 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
16LMGTS55 Paul Belmondo Racing Emmanuel Clérico
Jean-Claude Lagniez
Guy Martinolle
Chrysler Viper GTS-R309+56 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
17LMGTS54 Paul Belmondo Racing Paul Belmondo
Tiago Monteiro
Marc Rostan
Chrysler Viper GTS-R299+66 laps
Chrysler 8.0L V10
18LMGTS64 Konrad Motorsport Franz Konrad
Peter Kitchak
Charles Slater
Porsche 911 GT2293+72 laps
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
19LMGT80 Champion Racing Dave Maraj Dirk Müller
Bob Wollek
Bernd Mayländer
Porsche 911 GT3-R292+73 laps
Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6
20LMGTS62 Roock Racing International Motorsport Claudia Hürtgen
André Ahrlé
Vincent Vosse
Porsche 911 GT2290+75 laps
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
21LMGT84 Perspective Racing Thierry Perrier
Jean-Louis Ricci
Michel Nourry
Porsche 911 Carrera RSR288+77 laps
Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6
22LMGTS57 Hugh Chamberlain Thomas Erdos
Christian Vann
Christian Gläsel
Chrysler Viper GTS-R270+95 laps
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
NCLMGTS65 Société Cheréau Jean-Luc Chéreau
Patrice Goueslard
Pierre Yver
Porsche 911 GT2240Not classified
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNFLMP17 Team BMW Motorsport Tom Kristensen
JJ Lehto
Jörg Müller
BMW V12 LMR304Accident
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
DNFLMGTS53 Viper Team Oreca David Donohue
Jean-Philippe Belloc
Soheil Ayari
Chrysler Viper GTS-R271Mechanical
Chrysler 8.0 L V10
DNFLMGTS63 Roock Racing International Motorsport Hubert Haupt
John Robinson
Hugh Price
Porsche 911 GT2232Engine
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNFLMP19 Team Goh Hiro Matsushita
Hiroki Katoh
Akihiko Nakaya
BMW V12 LM223Gearbox
BMW S70 6.0 L V12
DNFLMP26 Konrad Motorsport Jan Lammers
Peter Kox
Tom Coronel
Lola B98/10213Gearbox
Ford-Roush 6.0 L V8
DNFLMGTP10 Audi Sport UK James Weaver
Andy Wallace
Perry McCarthy
Audi R8C198Gearbox
Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8
DNFLMGTP2 Toyota Motorsports Thierry Boutsen
Ralf Kelleners
Allan McNish
Toyota GT-One173Accident
Toyota R36V 3.6 L Turbo V8
DNFLMGTS61 Freisinger Motorsport Ernst Palmberger
Wolfgang Kaufmann
Michel Ligonnet
Porsche 911 GT2157Engine
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNFLMP27 Kremer Racing Tomás Saldaña
Grant Orbell
Didier de Radiguès
Lola B98/10146Gearbox
Ford-Roush 6.0 L V8
DNFLMGTS67 Larbre Compétition Jean-Pierre Jarier
Sébastien Bourdais
Pierre de Thoisy
Porsche 911 GT2134Engine
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNFLMGTS66 Estoril Racing Communication Manuel Monteiro
Michel Monteiro
Michel Maisonneuve
Porsche 911 GT2123Accident damage
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNFLMP22 Nissan Motorsports Michael Krumm
Satoshi Motoyama
Érik Comas
Nissan R391110Engine
Nissan VRH50A 5.0 L V8
DNFLMGTP1 Toyota Motorsports Martin Brundle
Emmanuel Collard
Vincenzo Sospiri
Toyota GT-One90Puncture
Toyota R36V 3.6 L Turbo V8
DNFLMP25 DAMS Christophe Tinseau
Franck Montagny
David Terrien
Lola B98/1077Engine
Judd GV4 4.0 L V10
DNFLMGTP6 AMG-Mercedes Bernd Schneider
Franck Lagorce
Pedro Lamy
Mercedes-Benz CLR76Withdrawn
Mercedes-Benz GT108C 5.7 L V8
DNFLMGTP5 AMG-Mercedes Christophe Bouchut
Nick Heidfeld
Peter Dumbreck
Mercedes-Benz CLR75Accident
Mercedes-Benz GT108C 5.7 L V8
DNFLMP24 Autoexe Motorsports Yojiro Terada
Franck Fréon
Robin Donovan
Autoexe LMP9974Engine
Ford 6.0 L V8
DNFLMP29 JB Jabouille-Bouresche Jérôme Policand
Mauro Baldi
Christian Pescatori
Ferrari 333 SP71Gearbox
Ferrari F130E 4.0 L V12
DNFLMP32 Riley & Scott Europe Marco Apicella
Carl Rosenblad
Shane Lewis
Riley & Scott Mk III/267Engine
Ford 6.0 L V8
DNFLMGTP9 Audi Sport UK Stefan Johansson
Stéphane Ortelli
Christian Abt
Audi R8C55Gearbox
Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8
DNFLMP31 Riley & Scott Europe Philippe Gache
Gary Formato
Olivier Thévenin
Riley & Scott Mk III/225Engine
Ford 6.0 L V8
DNFLMGTS60 Freisinger Motorsport Ray Lintott
Manfred Jurasz
Katsunori Iketani
Porsche 911 GT224Accident
Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6
DNSLMGTP4 AMG-Mercedes Mark Webber

Marcel Tiemann
Mercedes-Benz CLR-Accident in Practice
DNSLMP23 Nissan Motorsports Aguri Suzuki
Masami Kageyama
Eric van de Poele
Nissan R391-Accident
Nissan VRH50A 5.0 L V8
DNSLMGT83 Gérard MacQuillan Michel Neugarten
Gérard MacQuillan
Chris Gleason
Porsche 911 Carrera RSR-Did not qualify
Porsche 3.8L Flat-6
[4]

Statistics

Notes and References

  1. News: When BMW was the last team standing at Le Mans. Codling. Stuart. 8 June 2020. 5 February 2021. Autosport.
  2. Web site: Mulsanne's Corner: 1999 Mercedes-Benz CLR.
  3. Web site: Radu . Vlad . The Story of the Mercedes-Benz CLR, the Silver Arrow That Took Flight at Le Mans . autoevolution . 2021-06-30 . 2024-06-16.
  4. Web site: Le Mans 24 Hours 1999 - Photo Gallery - Racing Sports Cars . 2023-06-11 . www.racingsportscars.com.