Peugeot's lead car has an all-F1 driver squad

The Le Mans 24 Hours has been won by 64 different F1 drivers since it was first held in 1923. Last year the winning car was piloted by three former F1 racers – Alexander Wurz, Marc Gene and David Brabham.

This year 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell is among the 24 F1 drivers taking part in the great race. He’s joined by, among others, recent F1 racers Giancarlo Fisichella and Romain Grosjean.

Find out which cars each of the F1 drivers are in for this year’s race below.

LMP1 class

Peugeot 908

Anthony Davidson
Team Peugeot, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #1

Last F1 start: 2008 Spanish Grand Prix, Super Aguri-Honda, DNF (radiator)

Davidson, who drove for Aston Martin last year, has joined two of last year’s outright winners, Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene. Car number one is the only all-F1 driver team in this year’s race.

His F1 career was limited to two appearances for Minardi in 2002, a stand-in drive for Takuma Sato at BAR in 2005 (which lasted a handful of laps) and a season-and-a-bit for Super Aguri as Sato’s team mate from 2007-2008.

Alexander Wurz
Team Peugeot, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #1

Last F1 result: 2007 Chinese Grand Prix, Williams-Toyota, 12th

Shared the winning Peugeot last year for his second Le Mans win. His first was in 1996, the year before he made his F1 debut for Benetton.

Spent three years with Benetton before being dropped by Flavio Briatore. After a long stint as a McLaren test driver – including a one-off start and third place at Imola in 2005 – he returned to race for Williams in 2007. But Wurz retired from the sport before the season finale at Interlagos.

Marc Gene
Team Peugeot, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #1

Last F1 result: 2004 British Grand Prix, Williams-BMW, 12th

Became the first Spanish driver to win the race last year.

Ferrari test driver Gene raced for Minardi and also made three starts for Williams as a substitute in 2003 and 2004. But he was replaced by Antonio Pizzonia following his last F1 start at Silverstone.

Stephane Sarrazin
Team Peugeot, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #2

Last F1 result: 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix, Minardi-Ford, DNF (accident)

His F1 career lasted 31 laps when he substituted for Luca Badoer at Minardi in the 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Franck Montagny
Team Peugeot, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #2

Last F1 result: 2006 French Grand Prix, Super Aguri-Honda, 16th

Another driver who only raced in F1 as a substitute. Former Renault development driver Montagny drove for Super Aguri in 2006 after the team were forced to drop Yuji Ide, and stayed only until the team replaced him with Sakon Yamamoto.

Sebastien Bourdais
Peugeot Sport, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #3

Last F1 result: 2009 German Grand Prix, Toro Rosso-Ferrari, DNF (hydraulics)

Dropped by Toro Rosso halfway through last year after lagging behind rookie team mate Sebastien Buemi rather too often.

Bourdais is one of few drivers in recent years to have driven at Le Mans while being an active F1 driver, as he did last year.

Pedro Lamy
Peugeot Sport, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #3

Last F1 start: 1996 Japanese Grand Prix, Minardi-Ford, 12th

Best remembered for a shocking testing crash at Silverstone in 1994 where his Lotus cleared the barriers at the old Abbey curve, following which the corner was changed into a chicane for that year’s British Grand Prix.

Lamy returned for Minardi in the middle of 1995 and stayed until the end of the following season. He claimed just one point during his F1 career, finishing sixth at Adelaide in 1995.

Olivier Panis
Team ORECA, Peugeot 908 HDi FAP #4

Last F1 result: 2004 Japanese Grand Prix, Toyota, 14th

The 1996 Monaco Grand Prix winner is driving for ORECA for the third year in a row at Le Mans, but this time he has the benefit of driving the same make car which won the race last year.

Panis spent the first seven years of his F1 team driving for Ligier, which in 1997 became Prost. Following a year as a McLaren test driver he returned to racing with BAR in 2001 before moving to Toyota. Even after retiring from F1 racing at the end of 2005 he remained a Toyota test driver for two more years.

Nigel Mansell
Beechdean Mansell Motorsport, Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S #5

Last F1 start: 1995 Spanish Grand Prix, McLaren-Mercedes, DNF (handling)

The 1992 world champion finally makes his first start at Le Mans having tried to do so while racing for Lotus in the 1980s, and being denied the opportunity by Colin Chapman.

Mansell and sons Leo and Greg are driving a Ginetta run by themselves and British GT team Beechdean. Appropriately enough, it’s car number five. They aren’t likely to trouble the frontrunners in the LMP1 class – but can they keep running to the end of the 24 hours?

Audi R15-plus

Allan McNish
Audi Sport Team Joest, Audi R15-plus TDi #7

Last F1 start: 2002 United States Grand Prix, Toyota, 15th

While Peugeot have seven ex-F1 drivers in their factory squad, McNich is the only former Formula 1 pilot in the Audi camp. He drove for Toyota in 2002 but missed the last race of the season after a savage crash in qualifying at Suzuka.

A two-time Le Mans winner in 1998 and 2008, McNish is part of Audi’s crack squad including Rinaldo Capello and eight-time winner Tom Kristensen seeking to reclaim the supermacy at the event they lost to Peugeot last year.

Emanuele Pirro
Drayson Racing, Lola-Judd B09/60 #11

Last F1 start: 1991 Australian Grand Prix, Scuderia Italia Dallara-Judd, 7th

Five-times Le Mans 24 Hours winner returns to the race having missed it last year. He joins the team run by Lord Drayson (who also drives for them), who have moved up to LMP1 having raced an Aston Martin in the GT2 class last year.

Pirro drove for Benetton and Scuderia Italia during his F1 career which lasted from 1989 to 1991.

Jean-Christophe Boullion
Rebellion Racing, Lola-Judd B08/60 #13

Last F1 result: 1995 Pacific Grand Prix, Sauber-Ford, DNF

Drove the Pescarolo-run 908 last year, this year Boullion is with Rebellion Racing.

During his F1 career he also had the opportunity to sample the dominant Williams-Renaults of the early 1990s, though only as a test driver. He raced in 1995 for Sauber, standing in for Karl Wendlinger for much of the season.

Christijan Albers
Kolles, Audi R10 TDi #14

Last F1 result: 2007 British Grand Prix, Spyker-Ferrari, 15th

Albers was dropped by Spyker in 2007 one race after he dragged his fuel hose out of the pit lane in Magny-Cours during the French Grand Prix.

He is reunited with former team boss Colin Kolles who has entered a pair of last-generation diesel Audis – the R10s. This is his first appearance at Le Mans.

LMP2 class

ARX-01c

David Brabham
Highcroft Racing, HPD ARX-01c #26

Last F1 result: 1994 Australian Grand Prix, Simtek-Ford, DNF (engine)

David Brabham drove for father Jack’s team in 1990 and Simtek in 1994 – neither of which were especially competitive prospects.

He’s had better machinery at his disposal at Le Mans. Last year he was an outright winner in a Peugeot 908. This year he’s driving the first of the ARX-01 cars to compete at Le Mans. These were created by Virgin designer Nick Wirth and, like his VR-01, were produced entirely using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

Hideki Noda
KSM Lola-Judd B07/40 #39

Last F1 result: 1994 Australian Grand Prix, Larrousse-Ford, DNF

This will be Noda’s third time at Le Mans, giving him as many starts in the 24 Hours as he had in F1. He drove for Larrousse in 1994.

He suffered a massive crash during qualifying in his first appearance at La Sarthe in 2008, flipping his Lola-Mazda several times.

GT1 class

Tomas Enge
Young Driver AMR, Aston Martin DBR9 #52

Last F1 start: 2001 Japanese Grand Prix, Prost-Acer, DNF (gearbox)

Enge drove one of the gorgeous works Aston Martins last year. This year he’s in an Aston again but this time it’s a GT1 DBR9.

His single seater career is best remembered for the failed drugs test which cost him the 2002 F3000 championship. He made three F1 starts for Prost in 2001 after Jean Alesi left to join Jordan.

Romain Grosjean
Match Competition, Ford GT #60

Last F1 start: 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Renault, 18th

Having failed to land an LMP1 seat for his first Le Mans 24 Hours, Grosjean is driving a Ford GT for Matech, as he does in the GT1 World Championship.

He made seven starts for Renault last year after taking Nelson Piquet Jnr’s place at the team. But he was not retained for 2010, the team preferring to promote his former GP2 team mate Vitaly Petrov instead.

GT2 class

Jan Magnussen
Corvette Racing, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R #63

Last F1 result: 1998 Canadian Grand Prix, Stewart-Ford, 6th

Magnussen stays with Corvette for this year’s race. But having won the GT1 class with them last year, this year they are competing in GT2.

He made a single start for McLaren in the Pacific Grand Prix in 1995 and showed some promise. But he rarely delivered on that when he spend a year-and-a-half with Stewart Grand Prix from 1997 to 1998, eventually being dropped for Jos Verstappen.

Olivier Beretta
Corvette Racing, Chevrolet Corvette C6.R #64

Last F1 result: 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix, Larrousse-Ford, 9th

Also sticking with Corvette this year, Monegasque driver Beretta made ten starts for Larrousse in 1994.

Gianmaria Bruni
AF Corse Ferrari 430 GT #78

Last F1 result: 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, 17th

Bruni has had a successful career in sports cars since his sole F1 season for Minardi in 2004.

Eric van de Poele
Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GT #83

Last F1 result: 1992 Italian Grand Prix, Fondmetal-Ford, DNF

Van de Poele is in the same car as last year, which is probably not that much slower than the Modena and Brabham cars he drove during his F1 stint in 1991 and 1992.

His last three appearances for Fondmental were a step forward in that he at least had a car that was capable of qualifying – having started just two of the previous 26 races he’d entered.

Giancarlo Fisichella
AF Corse, Ferrari 430 GT #95

Last F1 result: 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Ferrari, 16th

Fisichella’s F1 career came to an end last year after 231 starts for teams including Jordan, Benetton, Sauber, Renault, Force India and finally Ferrari. He won three times and nearly gave Force India their maiden victory at Spa last year.

Now a Ferrari F1 test driver he competes for them in GT racing and this will be the 37-year-old’s first Le Mans 24 Hours.

Jean Alesi
AF Corse, Ferrari 430 GT #95

Last F1 result: 2001 Japanese Grand Prix, Jordan-Honda, DNF (accident)

Fisichella is sharing his car with another veteran of over 200 F1 races, Jean Alesi. This is the only car which isn’t a Peugeot to feature more than one F1 driver.

Alesi scored on his debut for Tyrrell in 1989 and famously jousted with Ayton Senna at Phoenix the following year. He switched to Ferrari as the team were heading into one of their periodic slumps but finally won for the team at Montreal in 1995.

After drives for Benetton, Sauber and Prost he ended his career at Jordan – suffering a heavy crash with Kimi Räikkönen during the 2001 Japanese Grand Prix.

Mika Salo
AF Corse, Ferrari 430 GT #96

Last F1 result: 2002 Japanese Grand Prix, Toyota, 8th

Forever remembered as the driver who gave up what would have been his only F1 win at the Hockenheimring to support Ferrari team mate Eddie Irvine’s failed bid for the world championship.

After being unceremoniously dumped out of F1 by Toyota in 2002, Salo eventually moved to GT racing, winning the American GT2 championship in 2007. This is his fourth appearance at Le Mans, he won the GT2 category last year driving for Risi Competizione.

Other famous names

Lola-Aston Martin B09/60

As well as the Mansell brothers, Alain Prost’s son Nicolas is driving one of the Rebellion Racing Lolas.

Prost shares his car with Marco Andretti, grandson of 1978 F1 champion Mario, who competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours several times but never managed to win it.

And Vanina Ickx, daughter of six times Le Mans winner and 1970 F1 championship runner-up Jacky Ickx, drives the LMP1 Lola-Aston entered by Signature Plus.

Five former F1 drivers who competed in last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours are not present this year. They are Jos Verstappen, Christian Klien, Tiago Monteiro, Narain Karthikeyan and Marco Apicella.

Are you watching this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours? How do you think the F1 drivers will fare in this year’s race? Have your say in the comments.

Le Mans 24 Hours

• F1 drivers who won at Le Mans
• How quick would F1 lap at Le Mans?
• Wurz, Brabham and Gene win 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours for Peugeot

Ferrari F-duct as seen in China

Ferrari test driver Giancarlo Fisichella shook down a new F10 chassis at the Vairano circuit yesterday – featuring the latest version of the team’s blown rear wing.

The new chassis, number 284, will be used by Felipe Massa in the Spanish Grand Prix next weekend.

The blown rear wing is Ferrari’s implementation of the F-duct introduced by McLaren at the start of the season. The team did not say whether the device is driver-operated, as McLaren’s is.

The car also featured other new aerodynamic upgrades which the team will use at the Circuit de Catalunya, including revised wing mirrors to satisfying the FIA’s rules clarification banning sidepod-mounted mirrors.

Ferrari will decide which of the upgrades to use on it car after further tests in Friday practice in Barcelona.

Read more: Ferrari’s F-duct design and more pictures from Chinese GP Friday practice

Top 50 fastest laps

Vettel took an emphatic win in the final race of 2009

Sebastian Vettel took advantage of problems for Lewis Hamilton to win his fourth Grand Prix of 2009.

It was a one-two for Red Bull as Mark Webber kept Jenson Button at bay to take second place in an exciting end to an otherwise predictable race.

With KERS and a clear run to the first corner Lewis Hamilton was never in much danger of losing the lead. But even on the first lap there were tell-tales signs of the problem that was going to end his race – he braked too deep into the turn six chicane, allowing Vettel to briefly close up, but KERS kept him safe on the straight.

Webber took up third despite making contact with Rubens Barrichello at the first turn. The impact knocked part of the Brawn’s wing off, and while he got used to the car’s impaired handling Button seized the opportunity to squeeze past and take fourth.

Given his pace in practice and qualifying Hamilton was expected to tear off into the distance. But it didn’t happen – he edged a few tenths away from Vettel here and there, but on lap 11 he out-braked himself again and lost almost all of his small lead.

It was clear he was not going to hold onto the lead after the first round of pit stops but he hardly made it any further than that. His braking problems were traced to the right-rear of the car and Hamilton was told to park up – the first time an F1 car had let him down in 52 races.

Vettel’s pit stop passed without drama – but only just. Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari had been pit-bound with a gearbox problem and accidentally swung into Vettel’s pit box. The Red Bull mechanics hurried him out as Vettel arrived. Alguersuari, meanwhile, failed to complete the next lap and retired.

Webber had pitted before Vettel, so after their pit stops Vettel had a helathy lead of more than six seconds.

After the early pit stops Kamui Kobayashi rose to third place and the highest placed single-stopper. That was partly thanks to smart driving on the first lap keeping Kimi Raikkonen boxed in, preventing the Ferrari driver from being able to exploit his KERS boost.

Button came out in front of Kobayashi after the Brawn had been serviced, and the pair resumed their battle from Interagos. But this time it was the lighter-fuelled Kobayashi who seized the advantage, passing Button down the inside at turn eight.

That delay cost Button in the dying stages of the race. Once the second round of pit stops had been dispensed with he found himself quickly catching Webber, who was struggling in the braking zones. Button only had the last lap to launch an attack and Webber repelled his advances in brilliant fashion.

Their duel meant Vettel enjoyed an untroubled run to victory, which he took by over 17 seconds. Barrichello finished fourth behind his team mate and one place ahead of Nick Heidfeld in the final race for BMW. Heidfeld had worried about his team mate’s pace during practice but Robert Kubica slipped down the order after spinning while trying to pass Sebastien Buemi.

Kobayashi finished a remarkable sixth which could serve as a boost to the chances of Toyota approving a budget for the team later this month. Jarno Trulli backed him up in seventh, and Buemi scored the final point.

Kubica finished tenth behind Nico Rosberg, with Heikki Kovalainen behind him in 11th having started 18th. Raikkonen’s inability to make progress early on meant he finished hislast race for Ferrari in 12th.

His replacement, Fernando Alonso, ended his last race for Renault in 14th behind Kazuki Nakajima.

Vitantonio Liuzzi beat team mate Adrian Sutil in his final race, the Italian finishing 15th ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella. Romain Grosjean was the last classified runner in 18th.

F1 now heads into the off-season with many unanswered questions about next year’s line-up. The likes of Kobayashi and Liuzzi made cases for why their teams should retain them for 2010, but Grosjean is surely among those worrying he might not get another crack next year.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix result
• Final 2009 F1 championship standings
• Rate the race: Abu Dhabi

Constructors’ championship

Evening turned to night during Abu Dhabi qualifying

With a spanking new multi-million pound venue and a golden sunset, F1′s photographers have outstripped themselves capturing some truly gorgeous pictures from today’s qualifying session. Here’s the pick of the bunch.

Read more: F1 cars in action at Abu Dhabi (pictures)

Images (C) Ferrari spa, Brawn GP, Renault/LAT, Williams/LAT, Bridgestone, www.mclaren.com, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India F1 Team, Toyota F1 World, BMW ag

Hamilton kept the two Red Bull drivers behind to take pole position

Lewis Hamilton dominated qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to take pole position by two-thirds of a second.

The two Red Bulls will line up behind him but team mate Heikki Kovalainen was left 13th after his McLaren broke down during Q2.

Q1

Hamilton began qualifying with an impressive show of strength, reeling off a series of quick laps on the medium tyre. He finished off with a 1’39.873, which at that point was 1.4s faster than anyone else, and spent the rest of the session in the pits.

Button got closest to Hamilton’s time, setting a 1’40.378 later in Q1. Kovalainen, however, only escaped the drop zone with his final lap, almost a whole second down on Hamilton.

Kazuki Nakajima also made a late escape from the bottom five and those two 11th-hour improvements left Fernando Alonso dropping to a disastrous 16th – ending his final qualifying session for Renault.

The Force Indias, having shown some promise in practice, were also knocked out in the first part of the session.

Drivers eliminated in Q1

16. Fernando Alonso, Renault – 1’41.667
17. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India-Mercedes – 1’41.701
18. Adrian Sutil, Force India-Mercedes – 1’41.863
19. Romain Grosjean, Renault – 1’41.950
20. Giancarlo Fisichella, Ferrari – 1’42.184

Q2

A few drivers, including the McLaren duo, tried to get through Q2 using just the soft tyre to set a time, but generally found the medium tyres better. Kovalainen, however, was in real trouble – his McLaren came to a halt shortly after he’d set a 1’40.983.

Once again, Hamilton was the man to beat, setting a 1’39.695 to snatch the top spot from Vettel by three-tenths. There was nothing his team mate could do about being eliminated however.

The other Finish driver was also in trouble. Kimi Raikkonen was left in 11th as Nico Rosberg burst free of the drop zone with his final lap.

Sebastien Buemi made it into the final ten comfortably, but team mate Jaime Alguersuari was over half a second slower than anyone else, ending up 15th.

Drivers eliminated in Q2

11. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari – 1’40.726
12. Kamui Kobayashi, Toyota – 1’40.777
13. Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren-Mercedes – 1’40.983
14. Kazuki Nakajima, Williams-Toyota – 1’41.148
15. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1’41.689

Q3

A host of different drivers took provisional pole position during Q3 – but with Hamilton biding his time it seemed inevitable they would be disappointed.

And so it proved, as the McLaren driver timed his final lap to perfection and set a 1’40.948 to demote Vettel to second.

Webber lined up behind his team mate. The two Brawns followed with Button, who complained of tyre vibrations, beaten by Barrichello once again.

The only Toyota driver to reach Q3 was Trulli, who managed sixth, while the BMWs start their final Grand Prix from the fourth row.

The fuel weights will be published in a few hours’ time, but they’re not likely to offer Hamilton’s rivals any realistic hope they can keep him from victory. Tomorrow’s race already looks like being a fight for second place.

Top ten drivers in Q3

1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren-Mercedes – 1’40.948
2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull-Renault – 1’41.615
3. Mark Webber, Red Bull-Renault – 1’41.726
4. Rubens Barrichello, Brawn-Mercedes – 1’41.786
5. Jenson Button, Brawn-Mercedes – 1’41.892
6. Jarno Trulli, Toyota – 1’41.897
7. Robert Kubica, BMW – 1’41.992
8. Nick Heidfeld, BMW – 1’42.343
9. Nico Rosberg, Williams-Toyota – 1’42.583
10. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1’42.713

*Five-place penalty for a gearbx change

Button and Kobayashi went wheel-to-wheel several times

From the explosive start to the jubilant scenes as Felipe Massa waved the chequered flag at the new world champion Jenson Button, the Brazilian Grand Prix was a spectacular race.

Take a look back at some of the highlights with this collection of pictures.

2009 Brazilian Grand Prix

• Webber wins in style as Button races to title (Brazilian Grand Prix race report)
• Jenson Button is F1 world champion
• Brawn win 2009 F1 constructors’ title
• Brazilian Grand Prix stats & facts
• Brazilian Grand Prix fastest laps analysis
• Brazilian Grand Prix – rate the race
• Championship standings after Brazil
• Brazilian Grand Prix result

Images (C) Ferrari spa, Brawn GP, Renault/LAT, Williams/LAT, Bridgestone, www.mclaren.com, Getty Images/Red Bull, Force India F1 Team, Toyota F1 World, BMW ag