Thierry Mabillat's Fatal Crash @ Le Mans 1981 (Aftermath)
- 7 months ago
Contrary to tradition, the 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans started at 15h00 - one hour earlier than usual due to the French Presidential elections - on Saturday, 13 June 1981. The event was the fifth round of the 1981 FIA-World Sportscar Championship, officially named World Endurance Championship for Makes. Jacky Ickx who shared the works Porsche 936/81 with Derek Bell, had set the pole position time and established an early lead
At 16h06 Thierry Boutsen was halfway through his seventeenth lap when he suffered a massive accident just after the Hunaudières kink, some 400 meters before the Mulsanne bosse ("the hump"). While traveling at over 320 km/h (200 mi/h) in his WM P81-Peugeot #82, a suspension piece failed and the car hit the guardrail, losing the entire rear half which was detached as it rolled on the wrong side of the barrier. Boutsen was untouched, but the debris field of hurled parts and bodywork was spread over 150 meters. Three marshals were struck by flying debris. One of them, Thierry Mabillat was struck in the chest by a detached piece of the guard rail and was killed almost instantly. Two of his colleagues were seriously injured, Claude Hertault and Serge David, who lost an arm.
The race was placed under a full-course yellow flag and, for the first time in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the field was led by the pace car around the circuit at slow speed. Racing resumed twenty-nine minutes later. Serge Saulnier and Michel Pignard, who were scheduled to share the WM P81-Peugeot with Thierry Boutsen, did not drive in the race.
Nearly an hour later, the pace car returned to the track because of a second accident on the Mulsanne straight. At 17h03 the Rondeau M379C-Ford #25 crashed near the café on Les Hunaudières and its driver Jean-Louis Lafosse was instantly killed.
R.I.P
At 16h06 Thierry Boutsen was halfway through his seventeenth lap when he suffered a massive accident just after the Hunaudières kink, some 400 meters before the Mulsanne bosse ("the hump"). While traveling at over 320 km/h (200 mi/h) in his WM P81-Peugeot #82, a suspension piece failed and the car hit the guardrail, losing the entire rear half which was detached as it rolled on the wrong side of the barrier. Boutsen was untouched, but the debris field of hurled parts and bodywork was spread over 150 meters. Three marshals were struck by flying debris. One of them, Thierry Mabillat was struck in the chest by a detached piece of the guard rail and was killed almost instantly. Two of his colleagues were seriously injured, Claude Hertault and Serge David, who lost an arm.
The race was placed under a full-course yellow flag and, for the first time in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the field was led by the pace car around the circuit at slow speed. Racing resumed twenty-nine minutes later. Serge Saulnier and Michel Pignard, who were scheduled to share the WM P81-Peugeot with Thierry Boutsen, did not drive in the race.
Nearly an hour later, the pace car returned to the track because of a second accident on the Mulsanne straight. At 17h03 the Rondeau M379C-Ford #25 crashed near the café on Les Hunaudières and its driver Jean-Louis Lafosse was instantly killed.
R.I.P