More Le Mans glory for Audi

[TheStig]

Audi have won the Le Mans 24 Hours for the fifth consecutive time, with Allan McNish claiming glory alongside Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello.

The Scot, Dane and Italian enjoyed the wet conditions to defeat the speedier Peugeot cars, as Kristensen earned a record eighth victory in the famous endurance race.

The victorious Audi No.2 team had a major scare in the 22nd hour of the event, when the car collided with a Zytek 07S. However, the eventually-victorious car appeared to suffer little or no significant damage, and carried on to complete 381 laps.

Second place went to the Peugeot No.7, which finished just four minutes, 31.094 seconds behind and was driven by Marc Gene, Nicolas Minassian and Jacques Villeneuve.

Villeneuve was aiming to win motorsports’ prestigious Triple Crown, having been victorious in the 1995 Indianapolis 500, and having been Formula 1 world champion, in 1997.

Peugeot were the fastest on track until the rain began falling and in the fifteenth hour, Audi were able to seize the advantage and take the lead as Kristensen overtook Villeneuve with the French-Canadian in the pits.

Franck Montagny, Ricardo Zonta and Christian Klien drove the Peugeot No.9 to third place, finishing two laps drift.

Lucas Luhr, Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller were fourth in the Audi No3.

Le Mans 24 Hour result, top 10:
1. Kristensen, Capello, McNish. Audi No. 2. 381 laps.
2. Villeneuve, Gene, Minassiam. Peugeot No. 7. 381 laps.
3. Montagny, Klien, Zonta, Peugeot No. 9. 379 laps.
4. Luhr, Rockenfeller, Premat. Audi No. 3. 374 laps.
5. Lamy, Sarrazin, Wurz. Peugeot No. 8. 368 laps.
6. Biela, Werner, Pirro. Audi No. 1, 367 laps.
7. Primat, Pinseau, Treluyer. Pescarolo Judd No. 17. 362 laps.
8. Ayari, Duval, Groppi. Courage-Oreca Judd No. 5. 357 laps.
9. Enge, Charouz, Mucke. Lola Aston Martin No. 10. 354 laps.
10. Van Merksteijn, Verstappen, Bleekemolen. Porsche RS Spyder No. 34. 354 laps.

The Stig