The French lion finally roared to a win at the 24 hours of Le Mans with a wire-to-wire victory. The Peugeot 908 HDI FAP team of Alex Wurz, David Brabham, and Marc Gene led for most of the race, and had few problems. Second place was the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP of Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny, and local Sabastien Bourdais .
Te win seemd to prove that Peugeot’s reliability issues are a thing of the past.
The third place Audi R15 TDI driven by Tom Kristensen, Dindo Cappelo, and Allan McNish suffered problems thoughout the race, including overheating of the turbos, and also requiring a steering wheel, replacement, and ECU change Sunday. The vaunted Audi team which had won eight of the last 10 years finished six laps off the Peugeot pace.
Wolfgang Ullrich, the Audi Director of Racing, indicated that if it were up to him the Audi team would return to take up the Peugeot challenge — but the decision lies with the Audi Board and no decision either way has been made at this writing.
In the end, the winning LMP1 Peugeot 908 HDI FAP drove 382 laps for approxamatly 3235 miles, roughly driving from Seattle, WA USA, to Miami, FL USA in the 24 hour period.
Final Results by Class:
Pos # Team Driver in Pit Laps
LMP1
1. 9 Peugeot Sport Total GENE Marc 382
2. 8 Team Peugeot Total BOURDAIS Sebastien 381
3. 1 Audi Sport Team Joest KRISTENSEN Tom 375
4. 007 AMR Eastern Europe ENGE Thomas 373
5. 11 Team Oreca Matmut AIM AYARI Soheil 370
6. 7 Team Peugeot Total MINASSIAN Nicolas 369
7. 14 Kolles LOTTERER Andre 369
8. 16 Pescarolo Sport TINSEAU Christophe 368
9. 15 Kolles ALBERS Christian 360
10. 12 Signature Plus RAGUES Pierre 344
LMP2
1. 31 Team Essex ELGAARD Casper 357
2. 33 Speedy Racing Sebah POMPIDOU Xavier 343
3. 5 Navi Team Goh ARA Seiji 339
4. 24 OAK Racing NICOLET Jacques 325
5. 32 Team Barazi Epsilon MOSELEY Stuart 306
6. 25 RML ERDOS Tommy 273
7. 39 KSM NODA Hideki 261
8. 35 OAK Racing LAHAYE Matthieu 208
9. 30 Racing Box PICCINI Andrea 203
10. 41 G.A.C. Racing Team PETER Philipp 102
GT1
1. 63 Corvette Racing O CONNELL Johny 342
2. 73 Alphand Aventures JOUSSE Julien 336
3. 64 Corvette Racing FASSLER Marcel 311
4. 66 Jetalliance Racing Gmbh LICHTNER-HOYER Lukas 294
5. 72 Alphand Aventures GOUESLARD Patrice 99
6. 68 JLOC YAMAGISHI Yutaka 1
GT2
1. 82 Risi Competizione MELO Jaime 329
2. 97 BMS Scuderia Italia BABINI Fabio 327
3. 83 Risi Competizione KROHN Tracy 323
4. 92 JMW Motorsport BELL Robert 320
5. 85 Snoras Spyker Squadron JANIS Jarek 319
6. 78 AF Corse RUSSO Matias 317
7. 84 Team Modena MANSELL Leo 314
8. 99 JMB Racing RODRIGUES Manuel 304
9. 81 Advanced Engineering DEMPSEY Patrick 301
10. 96 Virgo Motorsport McINERNEY Michael 280
Steve June 14, 2009
Great reporting! Loved the pictures and all the inside info on what was going on. It makes me want to be there myself!