Audi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the ninth time on Sunday by taking the first three places.
The Audi No. 9 car was first at the 13.6km Circuit de la Sarthe, setting a record number of 397 laps. The No. 8 and No. 7 cars took second and third places, while all the Peugeot cars retired.
Audi tied Ferrari for second place on the list of the most successful manufacturers at Le Mans. Porsche has the best record with 16 wins.
Winning driver Timo Bernhard, teaming up with fellow German driver Mike Rockenfeller and Romain Dumas of France, was a lap ahead of the Audi No. 8, driven by Benoit Treluyer of France with Switzerland’s Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer of Germany.
“It’s unbelievable, I didn’t expect it,” Rockenfeller said. “We did a good, clean job and we were lucky that our main competitor had so many problems.”
Italy’s Dindo Capello — in the No. 7 Audi with Tom Kristensen of Denmark and Britain’s Allan McNish — was third, three laps back.
Bernhard, Rockenfeller and Dumas won for the first time, while Audi secured its fourth treble after sweeping the three top spots in 2000, 2002 and 2004.
Defending champions Peugeot were considered a huge favorite after monopolizing the top four spots on the starting grid. They clearly had the fastest cars, but ran into problems during the race, while Audi took advantage of their better reliability.
“At the beginning it was a little unlucky for us, but at the end it worked out fine,” Audi team chief Wolfgang Ullrich said. “It’s a great reward for all the work everyone has done. I think this has to be the hardest Le Mans we’ve ever done.”
The remaining No. 1 Peugeot 908 HDI, driven by Alexander Wurz, Marc Gene and Anthony Davidson, dropped out with engine failure with just two hours remaining. That setback occurred four hours after the leading No. 2 of Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Nicolas Minassian retired with turbo failure.
The No. 1 Peugeot had made an impressive comeback after being forced to pit for 12 minutes with electric problems, dropping in the process from first to seventh place. The No. 1 Peugeot moved back to second, with Gene and Davidson alternately improving the best time.
Peugeot’s problems started immediately this year. The car driven by former Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, which had started from pole, retired because of suspension damage after less than three hours on Saturday.
The non-factory Oreca Peugeot of Olivier Panis, Nicolas Lapierre and Loic Duval also retired with engine failure. Duval was attempting to catch the No. 7 Audi and was within 10 seconds of third place when his car’s engine blew up.
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