LE MANS, France (AFP) — Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello, driving an Audi R10 TDI, overcame wet conditions and stiff opposition from the Peugeot stable to win the 76th Le Mans 24 Hour Race here on Sunday.
It was a record eighth win for Dane Kristensen, a third for Italian Capello and a second for Scotsman McNish after a previous win in 1998.
The victory was also the third consecutive one for the Audi R10 TDI and the German constructor's eighth overall in the endurance event.
The winning trio, who completed 381 circuits of the 13.63km course, seized the lead after 14 hours and refused to cede it, negotiating slick conditions to finish one lap ahead of a Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP driven by Jacques Villeneuve, the former Formula One world champion, Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene.
"I'm very, very pleased and extremely proud," McNish said, quoted by autosport.com. "We did it with our backs against the wall, but we did it."
Audi's head of motorsport, Wolfgang Ullrich, said this year's race was one of the best ever seen, especially after Peugeot had dominated qualifying and seized the top three starting spots.
"It was a really great race," Ullrich said. "Le Mans hasn't seen such a race in many years. We did it by staying calm, and we used our technology to win.
"And now, we are going to celebrate."
Peugeot were left mulling over a tyre change one hour from the end of the race that could have been decisive.
"Our information was telling us that it would be dry through to the end so we tried to continune with the same tyres without changing them," said Michel Barge, head of Peugeot Sport.
"It was a premature decision and one that was not perhaps completely the right one."
Peugeot also claimed third place through the trio of Franck Montagny, Christian Klien and Ricardo Zonta.
In finishing second, Villeneuve missed out on his bid to become just the second man in history, after Graham Hill, to win the Triple Crown of the Formula One world title, Indy 500 and Le Mans race.
The remaining Audis of Alexandre Premat, Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller and that of Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner finished in fourth and sixth respectively.
The pole-sitting Peugeot of Stephane Sarrazin, Pedro Lamy and Alexander Wurz were 13 laps off the pace in fifth position.
Sarrazin set the fastest lap of the race as he tried to recover from his disastrous start which saw him slip six laps off the pace following gearbox trouble.
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