Ultimatecarpage.com update (05-01-08)

[Wouter Melissen]

Dear Ultimatecarpage.com visitor,

For the first time in its five year history the Le Mans Series grabbed the attention of the world news, but not for the best of reasons; an absolutely horrendous accident for Stephane Ortelli in the Courage-Oreca during the Monza 1000 km. He was very fortunate to get away with 'just' a broken ankle. The massive crash showed both that while the current cars are safer than ever, motorsport is still very dangerous. It was just one of many incidents in a very eventful weekend on the classic Italian track.
Amidst the crashes, collisions and flat tyres there was an actual race going on. For the overall win, the fight was again between the two Audis and two Peugeots. Despite the speed advantage of the French machine, the outcome was not decided until the absolute closing stages of the race. There was also plenty of drama in the GT2 and LMP2 classes with surprise winners in both. The GT1 class win was closely competed with both top runners never further than a few hundred metres apart.
Our reporters were trackside to capture the action and returned with a head full of thoughts and a hard drive full of pictures. These were compressed in a full report and a compact 100-shot slideshow.

Monza 1000 km report and slideshow

Regards,
Wouter Melissen