Audi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2012 at Circuit de la Sarthe. The #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Audi Sport Team Joest covered 378 laps over 24 hours, a race distance of 5,151 km. The winning crew: Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer. The margin to second place was 1 lap — a clear, controlled win. The fastest manufacturer also produced the winner.
How the Lead Was Won
Across the race we counted 8 lead changes among 3 different cars in the LMP1 class. At the closest point, first and second were only 0.7 s apart. For 6 of 11 measured hours the gap stayed under 30 seconds.
The leader was never fully out of reach, but the pressure came in waves rather than all race long.
Figure 1 shows how that gap moved over the distance.
Manufacturer Pace
We rank pace by the average of each manufacturer’s fastest lap. That measures real speed over the distance instead of one lucky lap. The order at the top: Audi (239.4 km/h), Toyota (236.9 km/h), Lola (232.7 km/h).
Between the fastest and the slowest manufacturer in the LMP1 class lie 16.6 km/h. That is a wide spread. At this track, the concept differences show clearly.
Figure 2 sets the pace order side by side.
Reliability by Class
22 of 55 cars did not make the finish — an overall retirement rate of 40%. The heaviest toll fell on LMGTE Pro with 44%, while LMGTE Am came through best at 38%.
Over this distance, reliability is a result in itself. A car that stops scores nothing, no matter how fast it was.
Figure 3 compares the classes directly.
Efficiency Over the Distance
Our efficiency score multiplies average lap speed by laps completed and compares that to the class average. It rewards cars that were fast and stayed out of trouble. A value of 1.000 is exactly class average.
The top score goes to #2 Audi with 1.420. The winner, #1, is not on top here. Track position and strategy turned into a result that raw efficiency alone does not explain.
Figure 4 ranks the cars by that score.
Night Versus Day
Top-class cars averaged 232.3 km/h in daylight and 232.1 km/h at night. The difference is 0.19 km/h — faster in daylight.
In other words: no measurable night effect. Darkness costs concentration and makes traffic harder to read, but it does not slow modern prototypes down.
Figure 5 puts both phases next to each other.
The Closing Phase
In the final hour, 98% of the field held position within ±1 place (n = 56). The race was settled well before the flag. The biggest single move came from #21 Honda, 3 places back.
Figure 6 shows how settled the finish really was.
Fastest Lap and Class Gaps
The fastest single lap of the race belongs to #3 Audi (Audi Sport Team Joest): 3:24.189 at 240.3 km/h. Crew: Romain Dumas, Loic Duval and Marc Gené.
Between LMP1 and LMP2 sits a pace gap of 12.1 s per lap. That number decides how much traffic the leaders have to work through.
Class winners — LMP1: #1 Audi (Audi Sport Team Joest), LMP2: #44 Honda (Starworks Motorsports), LMGTE Pro: #51 Ferrari (Ferrari AF Corse), LMGTE Am: #50 Chevrolet (Larbre Competition), Garage 56: #0 DeltaWing (Highcroft Racing).
Putting the Race in Context
The winner averaged 214.4 km/h across 5,151 km. On a 13.626 km lap, that is the pace the whole strategy had to sustain.
We calculate the same metrics for every race in the archive: pace order, reliability by class, lead changes, winning margin, closing stability and efficiency. That makes this race directly comparable with every other round of the 2012 season — and with the seasons before it.
All figures are derived from the full classification of every race hour and are recalculated with each build.
