2007 24 Hours of Le Mans

2007 24 Hours of Le Mans
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Index: Races | Winners

The 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans was the 75th Grand Prix of Endurance, and took place at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France from 16–17 June 2007. Four classes of cars raced together, with each class having honors for its highest finishers. The faster LMP1 and LMP2 classes were for custom-built Le Mans Prototypes (LMP), and the slower GT1 and GT2 classes were for modified grand tourer (GT) road cars.

The LMP1 class saw the first competition between the new diesel engined Peugeot 908 HDi FAP prototype and the diesel Audi R10 TDI, the 2006 Le Mans winner; the Audi once again achieved an overall victory. There was heavy attrition in the LMP2 class, in which only two competitors finished the race. In the GT1 class, Aston Martin achieved its first win over the Corvette since returning to the event in 2005. The GT2 class was a battle between Ferrari and Porsche, won by Porsche. The race was attended by over 250,000 spectators.

Between the 2006 and 2007 races, the Circuit de la Sarthe was upgraded, most obviously by the reprofiling of the Tertre Rouge corner. The new corner was moved inward, to create a long flowing curve instead of the single point apex it had been previously, shortening the lap distance by 21 meters to a revised 13.629 km. A new pedestrian tunnel – below the Mulsanne Straight, immediately after Tertre Rouge – was also built. The work had been planned to be carried out before the 2006 event, but it was delayed because of budgetary concerns.

Nine new garages were built at the end of the pit lane, replacing the four temporary garages that had been built a few years earlier. The additional garages allowed the ACO to increase the number of entries it could grant from 50 to 55. The paddock behind the garages was also re-organized with more facilities added for spectators, including more shops, new landscaping, and the Audi Tower monument.

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