Audi overcame the challenge from Peugeot and wet racing conditions on sunday to clinch the 76th edition of 24 Hours of Le Mans for fifth year in a row. Tom kristensen of Denmark, Rinaldo Capello of Italy and Allan McNish of Britain driving the #2 Audi R10 TDI made the best of wet racing conditions on sunday to clinch the title for Audi and in the process beating the faster Peugeot cars which made some mistakes to loose place on the track.

Despite Puegeot’s dominance for the first part of the race, strategy played into the hands of Audi. The Audi sport team Joest decided to chose a setup for the #2 Audi that was the best compromise for both dry and wet track surfaces. In all this Puegeot took the different fateful approach by having to change their cars during the race to a rain set-up, while Audi just had to change tires. This resulted in Audi getting ahead of  the Peugeot by one lap and it reamained the same for the rest of the race, until the end.

Tom Kristensen extended his record to eight Le Mans victories while Rinaldo Capello won for the third time after 2003 and 2004. Allan McNish scored his second Le Mans victory after a long gap of 10 years. His last victory came in the year 1998. For the Audi Sport team Joest, its was their third successive victory with the remarkable Audi R10 TDi, making a hatrick for the second time after victories in 2000, 2001, 2002.

Audi #2 also survived a scare in the 22nd hour when the car collided with the Zytek 07S No. 32 but carried on with no apparent damage. The Zytek car went back into the pits. The Audi #2 completed 381 laps in 24 hours, with a lead of 4 minutes and 31.094 seconds over the second placed #7 Peugeot driven by Villeneuve, Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian.

Peugeot was leading the race up until the 14th hour when rain started which gave an oppurtunity to the Audi cars to make up for their relative lack of speed in the dry conditions. Kristensen overtook Villeneuve in the 15th hour on lap 234 when the latter was getting refueled in the pits.

The Audi No. 3, driven by Lucas Luhr, Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller, came in fourth, seven laps behind Kristensen.

Defending champion Frank Biela’s Audi No. 1 was sixth, one lap behind pole-sitter Stephane Sarrazin’s Peugeot No. 8 that clocked the fastest lap in 3 minutes, 19.394 seconds on the 13.629-kilometer circuit.

Peugeot initially got off to a flying start with its three cars in the lead during the first two hours.

But two of its cars faced electronic problems in the third hour: the Peugeot No. 8 had to stop for 20 minutes in the pits because of a gearbox problem while the Peugeot No. 9’s headlights failed to work.

Capello took the lead at the start of the fourth hour while Minassian’s Peugeot No. 7 was refueling.

But Minassian overtook the Audi No. 2 on the inside in the fifth hour on lap 71 to recapture the top spot.

The safety car came out shortly after midnight for 34 minutes to recover a Courage-Oreca Judd that crashed out.

Benoit Treluyer’s Pescarolo Judd No. 17, seventh overall, was the first petrol car as both Peugeot and Audi fielded diesel-powered cars.

The Aston Martin No. 009, driven by David Brabham, Antonio Garcia and Darren Turner, completed 344 laps to finish 13th overall but first in the GT1 class, 4 minutes, 23.843 seconds ahead of Johnny O’Connell’s Corvette Racing No. 63.

A total of 55 cars started the 76th edition of the French endurance race, but 20 failed to finish.

Le Mans 24 Hour, Full Race Results.

1. Tom Kristensen, Denmark; Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Allan McNish, Britain; Audi No. 2, 381 laps.

2. Jacques Villeneuve, Canada; Marc Gene, Spain; Nicolas Minassian, France; Peugeot No. 7, 381 laps.

3. Franck Montagny, France; Christian Klien, Austria; Ricardo Zonta, Brazil; Peugeot No. 9, 379 laps.

4. Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller, Germany; Alexandre Premat, France; Audi No. 3, 374 laps.

5. Pedro Lamy, Portugal; Stephane Sarrazin, France; Alexander Wurz, Austria; Peugeot No. 8, 368 laps.

6. Frank Biela and Marco Werner, Germany; Emanuele Pirro, Italy; Audi No. 1, 367 laps.

7. Harold Primat, Switzerland; Christophe Pinseau, France; Benoit Treluyer, France; Pescarolo Judd No. 17, 362 laps.

8. Soheil Ayari, Loic Duval and Laurent Groppi, France; Courage-Oreca Judd No. 5, 357 laps.

9. Tomas Enge and Jan Charouz, Czech Republic; Stefan Mucke, Germany; Lola Aston Martin No. 10, 354 laps.

10. Peter Van Merksteijn, Jos Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen, Netherlands; Porsche RS Spyder No. 34, 354 laps.

Source: IHT