LE MANS, France â€" Audi overcame two crashes and held off a charging Peugeot to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday, giving the German carmaker its 10th title at the renowned endurance race.
Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer drove the Audi No. 2 to victory, moving Audi moved into sole possession of second place for most victories at Le Mans behind Porsche with 16 titles. Ferrari is third with nine.
Audi No. 2 completed 355 laps in 24 hours, leading the Peugeot No. 9 driven by Simon Pagenaud, Pedro Lamy and Sebastien Bourdais by 13.854 seconds.
Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Nicolas Minassian finished third in Peugeot No. 8, two laps back.
Peugeot No. 7 driven by Marc Gene, Anthony Davidson and Alexander Wurz came in fourth, four laps off the pace.
The No. 7 and No. 9 Peugeots passed the Audi No. 2 overnight, but crashes of the Lola-Toyota No. 13 and Ferrari No. 59 brought out the safety car in the 15th and 16th hours and helped the Audi make up ground.
In the 19th hour, Lotterer clocked the fastest lap in 3 minutes, 25.289 seconds on the 8.5-mile circuit to build a significant lead.
Audi No. 2 managed to adapt to changing conditions when rain started in the 21st hour, forcing drivers to switch tires.
Peugeot No. 9 was slower than Audi No. 2, but the French manufacturer had a strategy based around the lower fuel consumption of its cars.
Although Peugeot No. 9 made only 28 pit stops compared to 31 for the Audi No. 2, the speed differential was significant enough to give victory to the German manufacturer.
Lotterer and Pagenaud made their last pit stops at the same time, but Audi No. 2 came out of the pits ahead of Peugeot No. 9 to keep the lead.
Audi No. 2 was under heavy pressure from three Peugeots throughout Sunday as Audi’s chances of defending its title came to rest on just one car after two crashed out Saturday.
Defending champion Mike Rockenfeller was in second place in the eighth hour when he tried to pass the slower Ferrari No. 71 driven by Robert Kauffman.
Rockenfeller’s Audi No. 1 was bumped by the Ferrari and slid off the track in darkness to smash into a guardrail, forcing the deployment of the safety car for the second time in the race.
The German driver was able to get out of the cockpit on his own before the wrecked car caught fire. He picked up cuts and grazes in the incident but was otherwise unhurt.
Audi also lost a car in a spectacular crash when Allan McNish’s Audi No. 3 collided with a Ferrari barely 50 minutes after the start.
McNish, in second place, was attempting to overtake the slower Ferrari No. 58 driven by Anthony Beltoise â€" who was trailing by two laps â€" when the cars came together resulting in the Audi smashing into a tire wall and breaking into pieces.
The crash brought out the safety car to allow crews to clear the debris.
McNish was unhurt and walked away from the crash. The Scot was taken to a medical center and then to a hospital for more tests.
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