Team lost two Audi R18 TDI of an accident, but the car has reached the Peugeot win the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France today's marathon.
The car was U.S. # 73 Corvette - directed by Olivier Beretta, Tommy Milner and Antonio Garcia - who completed 314 laps in 24 hours to finish on 11 overall and first in class Pro GTE. The 'Vette finished the class two minutes and 29 seconds ahead of Ferrari in second place. It was the seventh class victory at Le Mans for Corvette Racing and his first Pro GTE.
The Audi No. 2 - Directed by Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fässler and Benoit Treluyer - completed 355 laps for the win. This gave the title Audi 10 and a Le Mans with a diesel - the first time that Audi had in 2006. Audi wins Le Mans 10 took second place among policy makers, behind Porsche and Ferrari on 16 September.
Winner Audi won the pole and won Peugeot No. 9 - led by Simon Pagenaud, Pedro Lamy and Sebastien Bourdais - in 13,854 seconds.
"It's absolutely fantastic to win this," said Treluyer Associated Press. "It takes many opponents have a great victory. With the Peugeot, who were rivals who were very strong."
Peugeot also finished in third place (2 laps down) and fourth (4 laps down), much better than last year when they finished 1-2-3 Audi and Peugeot is not over.
"Last year we had some problems with the car in terms of speed," said Treluyer France 2. "We had a very reliable car ... but lacked a little speed. The goal this year was to make a car faster without sacrificing reliability. And we did."
Peugeot was the third and fourth place after winning Audi at night, but accidents Lola-Toyota # 13 and # 59 Ferrari brought the safety car when 15 and 16 and Audi closed behind them.
At 19 Lotterer recorded the fastest lap in 3 minutes, 25,289 seconds at 13.6K circuit to build a track.
More details from AP:
N ° 2 Audi was able to adapt to the climate and maintain their lead when the rain began at 21 hours, forcing drivers to pass the tires.
Peugeot No. 9 was slower than the Audi, but the French team had a strategy based on fuel consumption. But while Peugeot is only 28 pit stops compared to the victorious Audi 31, this was not enough to offset the increased speed of the Audi brand.
Lotterer Pagenaud and made his final pit stop at the same time, but the Audi No. 2 is out of the pits ahead of them to keep their heads.
"We were beaten by a stronger competitor to us," said Bourdais site of Le Mans. Audi has developed a fast and reliable car. We chose to work on reliability. The goal is reached, but lost by 13 seconds at the end. "
The survivor of the Audi after the accident left only the Audi on the track, has been under pressure from three Peugeot throughout the day.
Defending champion Mike Rockenfeller Audi # 1 was the second in the eighth minute when he tried to pass slower Ferrari # 71 driven by Robert Kauffman. He was impressed with Ferrari and climbed into the dark to break into a guardrail. It was before the car caught fire and had cuts and bruises.
Allan McNish Audi No. 3 also had a Ferrari crashed just 50 minutes of running. He took second place and trying to pass slower Ferrari No. 58 driven by Anthony Beltoise - already trailing by two rounds - when they met and broke the Audi against a tire wall in a spectacular crash. McNish was unhurt.
"Unfortunately, there are two racing incidents having a hard blow for Audi," said Treluyer. "I think for (Rockenfeller), which is in the hospital. I really feel sorry for him. I really wish I could be here. All riders participated in the development of the car. Therefore, a victory for the whole team and not just our victory. "
A total of 56 cars started the 79th edition of the French endurance race, but not more than 28.
