The2010 Le Mans Series was the seventh season ofAutomobile Club de l'Ouest'sLe Mans Series. It featured five events between 11 April and 12 September 2010. For the first time in 2010,Formula Le Mans (FLM) cars were run in a fifth class in the series, running alongsideLe Mans Prototype cars andGT cars, rather than as a support series.[1] It was also the final season when GT1 cars were allowed to run in the series.
Stéphane Sarrazin won the LMP1 championship despite sharing his car withNicolas Lapierre for most of the season; Sarrazin did not run with his usualTeam Oreca Matmut outfit at the1000 km of Spa, instead gaining championship points with hisPeugeot Sport teammates in a precursor to the24 Hours of Le Mans the following month. Despite this, Sarrazin won only one race, winning at the1000 km of Algarve with Lapierre andOlivier Panis. Lapierre was second ahead ofRinaldo Capello, who won at Paul Ricard withAllan McNish. Other class victories went toSébastien Bourdais,Pedro Lamy andSimon Pagenaud at Spa,Greg Mansell andLeo Mansell at theHungaroring, andNicolas Minassian andAnthony Davidson at Silverstone. In LMP2,Thomas Erdos andMike Newton claimed the championship for the second time, after their more consistent finishes helped them to fend offStrakka Racing'sJonny Kane,Danny Watts andNick Leventis, who won three races to one for Erdos and Newton. The only other win was taken byMiguel Amaral andOlivier Pla at Spa.
The GT1 championship went toLarbre Compétition pairingGabriele Gardel andPatrice Goueslard, as they were the only team to attempt every race in the championship.Julien Canal andFernando Rees joined them in various races but were not a factor in the championship. The only team to beat Larbre during the season was theMarc VDS Racing Team car ofEric De Doncker,Bas Leinders andMarkus Palttala, who won at Spa. GT2 proceedings saw a second successive title for Felbermayr-Proton duoMarc Lieb andRichard Lietz, winning three of the season's five races. The other two were taken byAF Corse duoGianmaria Bruni andJaime Melo at Algarve and at Silverstone. Another tight championship battle was fought out in the Formula Le Mans class, withDAMS'Andrea Barlesi andGary Chalandon holding offHope Polevision Racing driverSteve Zacchia by just two points. The season's five races were shared between four different entries, with Barlesi and Chalandon only winning at the Hungaroring withAlessandro Cicognani. Zacchia won at Spa withWolfgang Kaufmann andLuca Moro,Damien Toulemonde,Ross Zampatti andDavid Zollinger won at Paul Ricard, whileJody Firth andWarren Hughes won twice, in the Algarve, and at Silverstone.
On 27 October 2009 the ACO released a preliminary calendar for the 2010 season featuring three named events and two unconfirmed events, plus the traditional pre-season test session atCircuit Paul Ricard.[2] The calendar was further revised with two additional events at theAutódromo Internacional do Algarve and theHungaroring. The Paul Ricard race was also extended to eight hours in length.[3] The 1000 km of Silverstone was also part of the inauguralLe Mans Intercontinental Cup for LMP1s,[4] and it was also the first time that the race had been run on the circuit's "Arena" configuration.
Except for the 8 hours of Castellet, as the name implied an eight-hour time limit, all races ran for either 1000 km or six hours, whichever came first;[5] partially wet weather and a red flag period caused the2010 1000 km of Spa to run slightly less than the 143 laps it was originally scheduled; the top three finishers completed 139 laps at the end of six hours. The2010 1000 km of Hungaroring race was also run at a distance shorter than the 1000-km scheduled distance after six hours.
| Rnd | Race | Circuit | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| – | Official Test Session |  Circuit Paul Ricard,Le Castellet,France | 7–9 March |
| 1 | 8 Hours of Castellet | Circuit Paul Ricard,Le Castellet,France | 11 April |
| 2 | 1000 km of Spa |  Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps,Belgium | 9 May |
| 3 | 1000 km of Algarve |  Autódromo Internacional do Algarve,Portimão,Portugal | 17 July |
| 4 | 1000 km of Hungaroring |  Hungaroring,Mogyoród,Hungary | 22 August |
| 5 | Autosport1000 km of Silverstone |  Silverstone Circuit,United Kingdom | 12 September |
Overall winner inbold.
Points were awarded to all race finishers, with unclassified entries failing to complete 70% of the race distance or entries failing to reach the finish not earning championship points. One bonus point was awarded for winningpole position (denoted bybold), and a further bonus was awarded for the entry which sets the fastest race lap (denoted byitalics). Entries which changed an engine prior to the required two race minimum were penalized two points, with a four-point penalty for every subsequent engine change.
Points were allocated in one of two ways, dependent on race length.
| Points System[6] | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race Distance | Position | Pole Position | Fastest Lap | |||||||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th And Lower | |||
| 1000 km | 15 | 13 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Over 1500 km | 30 | 26 | 22 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
The top two finishers in the LMP1, LMP2 and GT2 championships earned automatic entry to the2011 24 Hours of Le Mans, provided that the team was running for the full season. Partial season entries (teams that run on a part-time basis, e.g. race-by-race) were not eligible for automatic entries for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
GT1 championships were not awarded any automatic entries as the GT1 category was phased out by the end of the year (seeNew 2011 regulations section).
| Pos | No. | Team | Chassis | Engine | LEC | SPA | ALG | HUN | SIL | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 | RML | Lola B08/80 | HPD AL7R 3.4 L V8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 75 |
| 2 | 42 | Strakka Racing | HPD ARX-01C | HPD AL7R 3.4 L V8 | 1 | Ret | Ret | 1 | 1 | 69 |
| 3 | 24 | OAK Racing | Pescarolo 01 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 53 |
| 4 | 35 | OAK Racing | Pescarolo 01 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | 2 | 3 | Ret | 7 | 3 | 52 |
| 5 | 41 | Team Bruichladdich | Ginetta-ZytekGZ09SB/2 | Zytek ZG348 3.4 L V8 | 5 | Ret | 2 | 5 | 8 | 46 |
| 6 | 40 | Quifel ASM Team | Ginetta-ZytekGZ09SB/2 | Zytek ZG348 3.4 L V8 | Ret | 1 | Ret | 2 | 2 | 44 |
| 7 | 30 |  Racing Box | Lola B09/80 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 39 | |
| 8 | 36 | Pegasus Racing | Courage-OrecaLC75 | AER P07 2.0 L Turbo I4 | 7 | 6 | 3 | Ret | Ret | 34 |
| 9 | 39 |  KSM Motorsport | Lola B08/47 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | 8 | Ret | 9 | 17 | ||
| 10 | 27 |  Race Performance | RadicalSR9 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | Ret | 7 | 9 | 10 | 17 | |
| 11 | 29 | Racing Box | Lola B09/80 | Judd DB 3.4 L V8 | Ret | 6 | 7 | 15 | ||
| 12 | 31 | RLR MSport | MG-Lola EX265 | AER P07 2.0 L Turbo I4 | 8 | NC | 7 | |||
| - | 37 | WR /Salini | WR LMP2008 | Zytek ZG348 3.4 L V8 | Ret | 0 |
All teams in the Formula Le Mans category utilized theOreca FLM09 chassis andGeneral Motors 6.3 L V8.
| Pos | No. | Team | LEC | SPA | ALG | HUN | SIL | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 43 | DAMS | 3 | Ret | 2 | 1 | 4 | 59 |
| 2 | 47 | Hope Polevision Racing | 4 | 1 | Ret | 3 | 2 | 57 |
| 3 | 45 | Boutsen Energy Racing | Ret | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 4 | 46 |  JMB Racing | Ret | 3 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 40 |
| 5 | 48 | Hope Polevision Racing | 2 | Ret | Ret | 3 | 39 | |
| 6 | 49 | Applewood Seven | 1 | Ret | Ret | Ret | 32 | |
| 7 | 44 | DAMS | Ret | 1 | Ret | 1 | 31 |
| Pos | No. | Team | Chassis | Engine | LEC | SPA | ALG | HUN | SIL | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50 | Larbre Compétition | Saleen S7-R | Ford 7.0 L V8 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 97 |
| 2 | 66 |  Atlas FX-Team FS | Saleen S7-R | Ford 7.0 L V8 | 6 | 2 | Ret | 25 | ||
| 3 | 70 | Marc VDS Racing Team | Ford GT1 | Ford 5.3 L V8 | 1 | 18 | ||||
| 4 | 60 | Matech Competition | Ford GT1 | Ford 5.3 L V8 | 2 | 15 | ||||
| 5 | 61 | Matech Competition | Ford GT1 | Ford 5.3 L V8 | 3 | 13 | ||||
| 6 | 72 | Luc Alphand Aventures | Corvette C6.R | CorvetteLS7.R 7.0 L V8 | 5 | 10 | ||||
| - | 52 | Young Driver AMR | Aston Martin DBR9 | Aston Martin AM04 6.0 L V12 | Ret | 0 |
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stéphane Sarrazin | 78 |
| 2 | Nicolas Lapierre | 63 |
| 3 | Rinaldo Capello | 57 |
| 4= | Vanina Ickx | 55 |
| 4= | Franck Mailleux | 55 |
| 4= | Pierre Ragues | 55 |
| 7= | Neel Jani | 52 |
| 7= | Nicolas Prost | 52 |
| 9= | Allan McNish | 45 |
| 10= | Andrea Belicchi | 14 |
| 10= | Jean-Christophe Boullion | 44 |
| 12 | Olivier Panis | 39 |
| 13= | Greg Mansell | 34 |
| 13= | Leo Mansell | 34 |
| 15= |  Adrián Fernández | 28 |
| 15= | Stefan Mücke | 28 |
| 15= | Harold Primat | 28 |
| 18 | Anthony Davidson | 27 |
| 19 | Guy Smith | 23 |
| 20 | Timo Bernhard | 23 |
| 21= | Sébastien Bourdais | 18 |
| 21= | Simon Pagenaud | 18 |
| 21= | Pedro Lamy | 18 |
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1= |  Thomas Erdos | 75 |
| 1= | Mike Newton | 75 |
| 3= | Jonny Kane | 69 |
| 3= | Nick Leventis | 69 |
| 3= | Danny Watts | 69 |
| 6= | Matthieu Lahaye | 53 |
| 6= | Jacques Nicolet | 53 |
| 8= | Richard Hein | 52 |
| 8= | Guillaume Moreau | 52 |
| 10= |  Thor-Christian Ebbesvik | 46 |
| 10= |  Karim Ojjeh | 46 |
| 12= | Miguel Amaral | 44 |
| 12= | Olivier Pla | 44 |
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1= | Andrea Barlesi | 59 |
| 1= | Gary Chalandon | 59 |
| 3 | Steve Zacchia | 57 |
| 4 | Alessandro Cicognani | 46 |
| 5 | Luca Moro | 44 |
| 6= | Dominik Kraihamer | 41 |
| 6= | Nicolas de Crem | 41 |
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1= | Gabriele Gardel | 97 |
| 1= | Patrice Goueslard | 97 |
| 3 | Fernando Rees | 64 |
| 4 | Julien Canal | 33 |
| 5= | Julien Schroyen | 25 |
| 5= |  Carlo van Dam | 25 |
| 7= | Bas Leinders | 18 |
| 7= |  Markus Palttala | 18 |
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1= | Marc Lieb | 87 |
| 1= | Richard Lietz | 87 |
| 3= | Jean Alesi | 66 |
| 3= | Giancarlo Fisichella | 66 |
| 3= | Toni Vilander | 66 |
| 6= | Martin Ragginger | 55 |
| 6= | Christian Ried | 55 |
| 8= | Gianmaria Bruni | 50 |
| 8= | Jaime Melo | 50 |
| 10= | Patrick Pilet | 47 |
| 10= | Raymond Narac | 47 |
| 12= | Andrew Kirkaldy | 40 |
| 12= | Tim Mullen | 40 |
| 14= |  Luis Pérez Companc | 38 |
| 14= | Matías Russo | 38 |
| 16 | Peter Dumbreck | 38 |
| 17 |  Patrick Long | 35 |
