LMP2 at Le Mans - Some Answers?

Less than three weeks have passed since the dramatic events of the 2016 Le Mans 24-hour race, but somehow it seems longer than that. I seem to have spent a lot of time discussing the emotions of the week with a lot of people. Having been to Le Mans every year since 1981, it remains a very special week, but somehow perhaps not as much of a highlight as it once was. That said, the impressions of 2016 will remain with me for a long time. I have read a lot of what has been written, and listened to a lot of what has been said in the last three weeks – but there has been so much that I have probably missed most of it. Undoubtedly the rights and wrongs of the stories from the LMP1 and GTE classes warranted the extensive coverage, and yet, somehow I feel that there are elements of the stories that might never be known – at least not in public.

But before moving on, I want to spend some time reflecting on the LMP2 class, which may have been put into the shade a little by the shenanigans in the other classes, but nevertheless holds stories of its own. It was interesting that the winning Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre, Stéphane Richelmi and Gustavo Menezes not only had a slower average lap time, but also spent longer in the pits than the second-placed G-Drive Oreca 05 of René Rast, Will Stevens and Roman Rusinov. As regular readers will know, I use the average of the best 20% of green laps to establish the ultimate performance of the car, and the results of the class were as follows.

Pos.	No.	Team	Race Best Lap Time	Race Average Lap Time
1	36	Signatech Alpine	3m 37.195s	3m 39.038s
2	26	G-Drive Oreca	3m 36.558s	3m 38.739s
3	37	SMP Racing BR01	3m 40.065s	3m 42.476s
4	42	Strakka Gibson	3m 38.795s	3m 41.968s
5	33	Eurasia Oreca	3m 38.605s	3m 41.700s
6	41	Greaves Ligier	3m 41.806s	3m 44.820s
7	27	SMP BR01	3m 39.445s	3m 42.371s
8	23	Panis Barthez Ligier	3m 39.629s	3m 42.721s
9	49	Michael Shank Ligier	3m 37.339s	3m 41.315s
10	43	RGR Morand Ligier	3m 38.734s	3m 41.406s
11	30	ESM Ligier	3m 42.146s	3m 44.037s
12	25	Algarve Pro Ligier	3m 40.450s	3m 43.218s
13	40	Krohn Ligier	3m 39.998s	3m 43.442s
14	22	SO24! Ligier	3m 43.769s	3m 47.349s
15	48	Murphy Oreca 03	3m 41.582s	3m 44.470s
16	31	ESM Ligier	3m 39.156s	3m 42.189s
17	34	Race Performance Oreca	3m 43.647s	3m 46.774s

And the time spent in the pit lane was:

Pos.	No.	Team	No. of Pit Stops	Total Time in Pits
1	36	Signatech Alpine	33	46m 53s
2	26	G-Drive Oreca	35	41m 12s
3	37	SMP Racing BR01	32	41m 05s
4	42	Strakka Gibson	33	39m 52s
5	33	Eurasia Oreca	33	52m 49s
6	41	Greaves Ligier	33	45m 07s
7	27	SMP BR01	36	1h 05m 13s
8	23	Panis Barthez Ligier	33	51m 33s
9	49	Michael Shank Ligier	32	49m 49s
10	43	RGR Morand Ligier	32	1h 16m 23s
11	30	ESM Ligier	30	45m 38s
12	25	Algarve Pro Ligier	34	1h 08m 37s
13	40	Krohn Ligier	32	59m 12s
14	22	SO24! Ligier	32	1h 39m 50s
15	48	Murphy Oreca 03	32	2h 10m 07s
16	31	ESM Ligier	31	3h 57m 50s
17	34	Race Performance Oreca	33	3h 33m 57s

There were also noteworthy performances from the Oreca 05s of both Manor and Thiriet by TDS Racing. Roberto Merhi, Matt Rao and Tor Graves held the class lead for 44 laps in the British-entered car and also set the fastest lap in LMP2, thanks to a lap of 3m 36.259s by Merhi. In the Thiriet car, Pierre Thiriet, sharing with Mathias Beche and Ryo Hirakawa, exchanged the lead for much of the race before Pierre came to grief early on Sunday morning in the gravel at Mulsanne corner. Their average lap times were: 44 (Manor) – 3m 39.448s and 46 (Thiriet by RDS Racing) – 3m 39.697s, so which compare well with the leading two cars.

However, it seems to me that not only the battle between Signatech and G-Drive is worth a more detailed look, but also the fight for the final step on the podium between the SMP Racing BR01 of Kirill Ladygin, Victor Shaitar and Vitaly Petrov and the Strakka Racing Gibson of Danny Watts, Jonny Kane and Nick Leventis.

It seems counter-intuitive that a car spending less time in the pits and with a faster average lap time (the G-Drive Oreca) should lose out to one (Signatech) that spends more time in the pits and has a slower average lap time. Inevitably, and obviously, something else is going on.

Examine the “Rising Lap Time” graph, shown below. This sorts the lap times for each car into ascending order and the plots them, best to worst, from left to right. Whichever line is closer to the x-axis is faster.

Hopefully this shows clearly enough – click on the graph to make it bigger – that the Signatech (blue line) is above (i.e. slower than) the G-Drive (brown line) at the left hand (fast) end of the range, but below for the larger, right hand end of the range. The conclusion is that although G-Drive was quicker for the fastest 80 or so laps, Signatech was quicker for the rest of the time.

The graph does not show – but I am not convinced it is relevant – that the no. 36 Signatech pitted during each of the three SC periods (ignoring the first SC period at the start of the race), shortening the planned stint as it did so… the 26 G-Drive didn’t come in at all during SC periods, hence its shorter time in the pit lane. The average pit stop time for a ‘normal’ stop was 1m 11s for #36 and 1m 12s for #26. Note that G-Drive also had a drive through penalty which would have cost it about 28 secs.

It is interesting that Slow Zones / Safety Cars, nor which driver was at the wheel, seem to have much impact on this pattern. What can be established is that the majority of G-Drive’s quicker times came in the final eight hours of the race, whereas the Signatech Alpine set its quicker times earlier in the race – when the track temperatures were cooler. All this merely goes to show that looking at the average of the best 20% may show the true potential of the car, but doesn’t always reflect its performance over a 24-hour period.

It is a very relevant feature of the LMP2 class that the crew composition must include at least one silver or bronze driver, of course, and in addition, each driver must be at the wheel for a minimum of six hours. To a large extent, this explains the fact that the all-Russian crew in the SMP Racing BR01 was able to bring their car home onto the third step of the podium ahead of the all-British Gibson 015S.

The following table shows the driver comparison for the first four cars in the class.

36 - Signatech Alpine

Name	Grade	Driving Time	Best Lap	Average Lap
Gustavo Menezes	Silver	7h 08m 53s	3m 37.452s	3m 38.8s
Nicolas Lapierre	Platinum	9h 07m 13s	3m 37.195s	3m 38.8s
Stéphane Richelmi	Gold	6h 57m 39s	3m 38.112s	3m 40.2s

26 - G-Drive Oreca

Name	Grade	Driving Time	Best Lap	Average Lap
Roman Rusinov	Silver	6h 54m 13s	3m 36.558s	3m 39.0s
Will Stevens	Platinum	6h 54m 11s	3m 36.891s	3m 39.7s
René Rast	Platinum	9h 33m 43s	3m 36.563s	3m 38.2s

37 - SMP Racing BR01

Name	Grade	Driving Time	Best Lap	Average Lap
Vitaly Petrov	Platinum	9h 30m 32s	3m 40.065s	3m 41.8s
Victor Shaitar	Silver	7h 37m 02s	3m 41.268s	3m 42.5s
Kirill Ladygin	Gold	6h 14m 36s	3m 43.489s	3m 45.1s

42 - Strakka Gibson

Name	Grade	Driving Time	Best Lap	Average Lap
Jonny Kane	Platinum	9h 25m 28s	3m 38.795s	3m 40.7s
Danny Watts	Platinum	7h 53m 38s	3m 41.860s	3m 42.9s
Nick Leventis	Silver	6h 02m 55s	3m 45.090s	3m 47.8s

The Average Lap time above is calculated as the average of the best 25 laps achieved, and it is clear that the star drivers are Rast, Lapierre (no surprises there) and Menezes, performing particularly well on his début. But G-Drive car is quicker (when it is quick), no matter who is driving, than Signatech. The French squad won as a result of being quicker when the competition was slower - and that was when the track was cooler. Twenty-four hour racing is all about consistency.

Just go back and look at that “Rising Lap Time” chart!