The first part of my analysis showed a different speed of the #3 Audi. My suggestion and some rumours came to the result, that Howden „H“ Haynes had a different idea for his car. Probably no blown diffuser? Or not using the special engine mapping. So I took a closer look at the qualifying times, which show a very similar result: Good topspeed, but a Toyota like performance in the Porsche Curves, the highspeed handling part of the track.
In 2012 the first time hybrid cars took part at the Le Mans 24 hour race. Both manufacturers, Toyota and Audi, use evolutions of last years model, so I think it is worth to have a look at them, too.
Laptime:
| Audi_1 | Audi_2 | Audi_3 | Toyota_7 | Toyota_8 | |
| 2013 Race | 03:22,746 | 03:23,269 | 03:24,293 | 03:25,718 | 03:25,151 |
| 2013 Qualifying | 03:23,696 | 03:22,349 | 03:24,341 | 03:26,676 | 03:26,654 |
| 2012 Race | 03:25,706 | 03:24,276 | 03:27,088 | 03:27,101 | |
| 2012 Qualifying | 03:23,787 | 03:25,433 | 03:25,488 | 03:24,842 |
Topspeed:
| Audi_1 | Audi_2 | Audi_3 | Toyota_7 | Toyota_8 | |
| 2013 Race | 330,8 | 325,8 | 326,8 | 324,9 | 325,8 |
| 2013 Qualifying | 326,8 | 324,9 | 323,9 | 322,9 | 325,8 |
| 2012 Race | 326,1 | 326,1 | 329,1 | 330,1 | |
| 2012 Qualifying | 324,2 | 320,4 | 324,2 | 329,1 |
Porsche Curves:
| Audi_1 | Audi_2 | Audi_3 | Toyota_7 | Toyota_8 | |
| 2013 Race | 00:15,081 | 00:15,075 | 00:15,609 | 00:15,654 | 00:15,691 |
| 2013 Qualifying | 00:15,017 | 00:15,178 | 00:15,629 | 00:15,756 | 00:15,593 |
| 2012 Race | 00:15,487 | 00:15,574 | 00:16,213 | 00:16,378 | |
| 2012 Qualifying | 00:15,463 | 00:15,825 | 00:15,819 | 00:15,915 |
You should know, that the times of the #7 and #8 Toyota were incomplete and may not show the maximum.
Compared to last year, #1 and #2 machines show a much faster performance as expected, while the #3 car could be a copy of the 2012 machine regarding lap- and sector times. Toyota clearly didn’t show their performance during this years qualifying which still let me believe in the economic strategy. But a kind of riddle to me is the Toyota strategy in total. Different air intakes, slower performance than 2012 and the #8 quicker than the #7 car, which I believe has the faster crew.
