Posted at 6:32 a.m., Sunday, June 17, 2007
Audi captures fourth 24 Hours of Le Mans in a row
Associated Press
LE MANS, France — Audi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the fourth straight year, overcoming the challenge of two Peugeot cars and a slippery track Sunday in the world's most famous endurance race.Frank Biela and Marco Werner of Germany and Emanuele Pirro of Italy drove diesel-powered Audi No. 1 to victory, taking the lead in the morning after Dindo Capello's Audi No. 2 crashed out. Fifty-four cars started the 75th edition of Le Mans, and 25 failed to finish.
"We had nine stressful hours with the Peugeot right behind us," Pirro said. "But the more you suffer, the greater the pleasure."
Audi No. 1 completed 369 laps in 24 hours and was 10 laps ahead of Peugeot No. 8, which was driven by Sebastien Bourdais, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy. On the last lap, Bourdais slowed to wait for Audi No. 1 to cross the finish line together.
"Finishing second is like a victory for Peugeot," Bourdais said.
His car dropped to eighth Saturday evening after twice losing time because of mechanical problems, then rallied through the night.
Emmanuel Collard's Pescarolo Judd No. 16 finished third, 12 laps behind Werner.
Peugeot No. 7 _ driven by Marc Gene, Nicolas Minassian and Jacques Villeneuve _ held second for most of the race, but had to stop after its engine failed because of a loss of oil pressure in the 22nd hour.
After 262 laps and more than 16 hours of racing, Capello had a three-lap lead over Biela, but the Italian driver's Audi No. 2 crashed into a tire barrier after losing its left rear wheel and had to stop.
"It's never easy to sustain an accident at high speed like the one experienced by Dindo," Pirro said. "But fortunately for him he was driving a very solid Audi."
Tom Kristensen and Capello had led since the first lap. Capello's co-pilot, Allan McNish, had the fastest lap in 3 minutes, 27.176 seconds on the 8.45-mile circuit.
The safety car came out for the first time after one hour, with rain forcing drivers to change to wet-weather tires because of the slippery track.
Mike Rockenfeller crashed his Audi No. 3 into a guard rail after a 24th-lap curve, and the safety car came out for more than an hour. Rockenfeller was unhurt but retired from the race.
Werner bumped his Audi into Jan Magnussen's Corvette Racing No. 63 at the end of the seventh hour, prompting a change of hood for his car and the deployment of the safety car for a third time.
Aston Martin No. 009 — driven by David Brabham, Rickard Rydell, and Darren Turner — completed 342 laps to finish fifth overall, but No. 1 in the GT1 class, six minutes ahead of Corvette Racing No. 63.
