2003 24 Hours of Le Mans

The winning Bentley, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, 2009

The 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 71st Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place on 14 and 15 June 2003.

Race

After three consecutive wins, the Audi factory team officially did not field a team, although several privateers did use R8 chassis. Bentley, with an Audi engine and support from Audi works team Joest Racing, won its first Le Mans title since 1930 with a Bentley Speed 8, driven by Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Guy Smith. In the process, Danish driver Kristensen set a record with his fourth straight victory. The other Team Bentley entry, driven by David Brabham, Mark Blundell and Johnny Herbert, finished second, ahead of the customer Audis.

In GTS-class, the Prodrive Ferraris went on to beat the fastest Corvette by a margin of 10 laps, ending their streak of class wins. American Alex Job Racing took the GT-class victory, while Noel del Bello survived to take LMP675.

Official results

Class winners marked in bold. Cars not completing 75% of the winner's distance are listed as Not Classified (NC).

Pos	Class	No	Team	Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
					Engine
1	LMGTP	7	Team Bentley	Rinaldo Capello Tom Kristensen Guy Smith	Bentley Speed 8	M	377
					Bentley 4.0L Turbo V8
2	LMGTP	8	Team Bentley	Mark Blundell David Brabham Johnny Herbert	Bentley Speed 8	M	375
					Bentley 4.0L Turbo V8
3	LMP900	6	Champion Racing	JJ Lehto Emanuele Pirro Stefan Johansson	Audi R8	M	372
Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
4	LMP900	5	Audi Sport Japan Team Goh	Seiji Ara Jan Magnussen Marco Werner	Audi R8	M	370
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
5	LMP900	11	JML Team Panoz	Olivier Beretta Gunnar Jeannette Max Papis	Panoz LMP01 Evo	M	360
					Élan 6L8 6.0L V8
6	LMP900	15	Racing for Holland	Jan Lammers John Bosch Andy Wallace	Dome S101	M	360
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
7	LMP900	13	Courage Compétition	Jonathan Cochet Stéphane Grégoire Jean-Marc Gounon	Courage C60	M	360
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
8	LMP900	17	Pescarolo Sport	Jean-Christophe Boullion Franck Lagorce Stéphane Sarrazin	Courage C60	M	356
					Peugeot 3.2L Turbo V6
9	LMP900	18	Pescarolo Sport	Éric Hélary Nicolas Minassian Soheil Ayari	Courage C60	M	352
					Peugeot 3.2L Turbo V6
10	GTS	88	Veloqx Prodrive Racing	Tomáš Enge Peter Kox Jamie Davies	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	M	336
					Ferrari F133 5.9L V12
11	GTS	50	Corvette Racing	Oliver Gavin Kelly Collins Andy Pilgrim	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	G	326
					Chevrolet 7.0L V8
12	GTS	53	Corvette Racing	Ron Fellows Johnny O'Connell Franck Fréon	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	G	326
					Chevrolet 7.0L V8
13	LMP900	9	Kondo Racing	Masahiko Kondo Ukyo Katayama Ryo Fukuda	Dome S101	Y	322
					Mugen MF408S 4.0L V8
14	GT	93	Alex Job Racing Petersen Motorsports	Sascha Maassen Emmanuel Collard Lucas Luhr	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	M	320
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
15	LMP675	29	Noël del Bello Racing	Jean-Luc Maury-Laribière Christophe Pillon Didier André	Reynard 2KQ-LM	M	319
					Volkswagen HPT16 2.0L Turbo I4
16	GTS	86	Larbre Compétition	Patrice Goueslard Christophe Bouchut Steve Zacchia	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	M	317
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
17	GT	87	Orbit Racing	Leo Hindery, Jr. Peter Baron Marc Lieb	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	M	314
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
18	GT	75	Thierry Perrier Perspective Racing	Michel Neugarten Nigel Smith Ian Khan	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	P	305
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
19	GT	77	Team Taisan Advan	Atsushi Yogo Akira Iida Kazuyuki Nishizawa	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Y	304
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
20	GT	81	The Racer's Group	Kevin Buckler Timo Bernhard Jörg Bergmeister	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	M	304
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
21	GTS	72	Luc Alphand Aventures	Luc Alphand Jérôme Policand Frédéric Dor	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	M	298
					Ferrari F133 6.0L V12
22	LMP675	26	RN Motorsport Ltd.	John Nielsen Hayanari Shimoda Casper Elgaard	DBA4 03S	D	288
					Zytek ZG348 3.4L V8
23	GT	78	PK Sport, Ltd.	Robin Liddell David Warnock Piers Masarati	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	P	285
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
24	LMP900	19	Automotive Durango SRL	Sylvain Boulay Michele Rugolo Jean-Bernard Bouvet	Durango LMP1	D	277
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
25	GT	70	JMB Racing	David Terrien Fabrizio de Simone Fabio Babini	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	P	273
					Ferrari F131 3.6L V8
26	GT	94	Risi Competizione	Anthony Lazzaro Ralf Kelleners Terry Borcheller	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	M	269
					Ferrari F131 3.6L V8
27	GT	84	T2M Motorsport	Vanina Ickx Roland Bervillé Patrick Bourdais	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	M	264
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
28 NC	GTS	64	Graham Nash Motorsport Ray Mallock Ltd.	Pedro Chaves Thomas Erdos Mike Newton	Saleen S7-R	D	292
					Ford 7.0L V8
29 NC	GT	85	ST Team Orange Spyker	Norman Simon Tom Coronel Hans Hugenholtz	Spyker C8 Double-12R	D	229
					Audi 4.0L V8
30 NC	LMP675	24	Rachel Welter	Yojiro Terada Olivier Porta Gavin Pickering	WR LMP01	M	235
					Peugeot 2.0L Turbo I4
31 DNF	LMP900	16	Racing for Holland	Felipe Ortiz Beppe Gabbiani Tristan Gommendy	Dome S101	M	316
					Judd GV4 4.0L V10
32 DNF	LMP900	12	JML Team Panoz	Benjamin Leuenberger David Saelens Scott Maxwell	Panoz LMP01 Evo	M	233
					Élan 6L8 6.0L V8
33 DNF	GTS	68	Scorp Motorsport Communication	Luis Marques Olivier Thévenin Denis Dupuis	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	D	229
					Chrysler 8.0L V10
34 DNF	GT	99	XL Racing	Ange Barde Michel Ferté Gaël Lasoudier	Ferrari 550 Maranello	P	227
					Ferrari F131 5.5L V12
35 DNF	LMP900	4	Riley & Scott Racing	Jim Matthews Marc Goossens Christophe Tinseau	Riley & Scott Mk III C	M	214
					Ford (Yates) 6.0L V8
36 DNF	LMP675	25	Gerard Welter	Bastien Brière Jean-René de Fournoux Stéphane Daoudi	WR LMP02	M	176
					Peugeot 3.0L V6
37 DNF	GTS	80	Veloqx Prodrive Racing	Anthony Davidson Kelvin Burt Darren Turner	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	M	176
					Ferrari F131 5.9L V12
38 DNF	LMP900	14	Team Nasamax McNeil Engineering	Romain Dumas Robbie Sterling Werner Lupberger	Reynard 01Q	G	138
					Cosworth XDE 2.7L Turbo V8 (Bioethanol)
39 DNF	GT	95	Risi Competizione	Shane Lewis Butch Leitzinger Johnny Mowlem	Ferrari 360 Modena GT	Y	138
					Ferrari F133 3.6L V8
40 DNF	GT	83	Seikel Motorsport	Anthony Burgess David Shep Andrew Bagnall	Porsche 911 GT3-RS	Y	134
					Porsche 3.6L Flat-6
41 DNF	LMP675	27	Intersport Racing	Jon Field Duncan Dayton Rick Sutherland	MG-Lola EX257	G	107
					MG (AER) XP20 2.0L Turbo I4
42 DNF	GT	92	Dewalt Racesports Salisbury	Mike Jordan Michael Caine Tim Sugden	TVR Tuscan T400R	D	93
					TVR Speed Six 4.0L I6
43 DNF	GTS	66	Konrad Motorsport	Franz Konrad Toni Seiler Walter Brun	Saleen S7-R	D	91
					Ford 7.0L V8
44 DNF	LMP900	21	Edouard Sezionale	Patrice Roussel Edouard Sezionale Lucas Lasserre	Norma M2000-2	D	82
					Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8
45 DNF	LMP675	31	Courage Compétition	David Hallyday Philippe Alliot Carl Rosenblad	Courage C65	M	41
					JPX 3.4L V6
46 DNF	LMP900	10	Audi Sport UK Arena Motorsport	Frank Biela Perry McCarthy Mika Salo	Audi R8	M	28
					Audi 3.6L Turbo V8
47 DNF	LMP675	23	Team Bucknum Racing	Jeff Bucknum Bryan Willman Chris McMurry	Pilbeam MP91	D	27
					JPX 3.4L V6
48 DNF	GT	91	Dewalt Racesport Salisbury	Rob Barff Richard Hay Richard Stanton	TVR Tuscan T400R	D	11
					TVR Speed Six 4.0L I6
49 DNF	GTS	61	Carsport America	Mike Hezemans Anthony Kumpen David Hart	Pagani Zonda GR	P	10
					Mercedes-Benz AMG 6.0L V12
DNS	LMP900	20	Lister Racing	Jamie Campbell-Walter Nathan Kinch Vincent Vosse	Lister Storm LMP	D	-
					Chevrolet LS1 6.0L V8

Statistics

• Pole Position — #7 Team Bentley — 3:32.843
• Fastest Lap — #8 Team Bentley — 3:35.529
• Distance — 5146.05 km
• Average Speed — 214.33 km/h
• Highest Trap Speed — Dome Mugen & Dome Judd - 337 km/h (qualifying, Source?), #15 Dome-Judd S101 Racing for Holland 331 km/h (race)^[1]

References