Audi Wins the 75th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The last two hours of the 75th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans had its share of excitement, with Mother Nature throwing the proverbial monkey wrench into plans of the teams, by introducing another heavy shower for the remainder of the race.
Teams immediatly switched to rain tires, and continued as best they could until several team managers complained that the conditions were too bad to continue at racing speeds. Initial requests for the safety car were not met, until team managers approached the race director in a group and made their demands.
The safety car was immediately put on the track until there was 10 minutes left in the race. It is important to note that in 75 years of running the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the race has never finished under caution.
The last 10 minutes was spent with the leading Audi R10 cruising it's way to victory, while the Peugeot 908 had several visits to the pits, and was put into the garage. Unofficial word was that the engine bay was filled with oil and the pits outside the Peugeot's garage smelled of oil in the air.
In the last 5 minutes of the race, the Peugeot stopped track side and sat, until the last lap, where it limped in to place Second. Third place would end up going to the #16 Pescarolo Sport.

While winning for the seventh time in eight years may sound like Audi totally dominated the race for an easy victory -- it was anything but easy.

The team was running one, two, three at one time and then two cars dropped out with what is more racing luck than anything else and suddenly the race was strictly Audi versus Peugeot.

While the Audis had a sizeable lead over their French counterparts, it would only take a single misstep for the leading Audi to wind up delayed at best or put out of commission, thereby handing the race to the competition. And while Peugeot was five or more laps off the pace, and finished with a whimper rather than a bag, as mentioned above, they were still there just hanging around waiting for the Audi to make a mistake.

The unofficial final results for the 75th Running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans are:

Pos N° Team Cls Driver in Pit Laps Stop
1 1 Audi Sport North America LMP1 WERNER M 369 35
2 8 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 BOURDAIS S 359 31
3 16 Pescarolo Sport LMP1 COLLARD E 357 34
4 18 Rollcentre Racing LMP1 BARBOSA J 347 36
5 9 Aston Martin Racing LMGT1 BRABHAM D 342 28
6 63 Corvette Racing LMGT1 FELLOWS R 342 28
7 8 AMR Larbre Comp. LMGT1 GOLLIN F 340 30
8 15 Charouz Racing LMP1 CHAROUZ J 337 34
9 7 Aston Martin Racing LMGT1 HERBERT J 337 32
10 54 Team Oreca LMGT1 BELLOC J-P 336 30
11 100 AMR BMS LMGT1 DAVIES J 336 30
12 72 Alphand Aventures LMGT1 ALPHAND L 326 27
13 17 Pescarolo Sport LMP1 PRIMAT H 324 31
14 67 Convers Menx Team LMGT1 VASILIEV A 321 27
15 76 Imsa Performance LMGT2 LONG P 319 27
16 55 Team Oreca LMGT1 AYARI S 318 31
17 59 Team Modena LMGT1 FITTIPALDI C 318 30
18 31 Binnie Motorsports LMP2 BUNCOMBE C 317 28
19 99 Risi Competizione LMGT2 JONSSON N 313 27
20 19 Chamberlain Synergy LMP1 EVANS G 309 31
21 93 Autorlando Sport LMGT2 SIMONSEN A 309 25
22 78 AF Corse LMGT2 AUCOTT B 307 25
23 82 Team LNT LMGT2 BELL R 307 24
24 73 Alphand Aventures LMGT1 BLANCHEMAIN J-L 305 31
25 14 Racing For Holland LMP1 LAMMERS J 305 30
26 12 Courage Competition LMP1 FREI A 304 25
27 33 Barazi Epsilon LMP2 KUROZAWA H 301 28
28 70 PSI Experience LMGT1 SMET D 288 33
29 6 AMR Larbre Comp. LMGT1 BORNHAUSER P 271 25
D.N.F. 2 Audi Sport North America LMP1 CAPELLO R
D.N.F. 3 Audi Sport Team Joest LMP1 LUHR L
D.N.F. 5 Swiss Spirit LMP1 DELETRAZ J-D
D.N.F. 7 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 GENE M
D.N.F. 9 Creation Autosportif Ltd LMP1 CAMPBELL-WALTER J
D.N.F. 13 Courage Competition LMP1 GOUNON J-M
D.N.F. 20 Pierre Bruneau LMP2 ROSTAN M
D.N.F. 21 Bruichladdich Radical LMP2 GREAVES T
D.N.F. 24 Noel Del Bello LMP2 PETROV V
D.N.F. 25 RML LMP2 ERDOS T
D.N.F. 29 T2M Motorsport LMP2 LONGECHAL R
D.N.F. 32 Barazi Epsilon LMP2 BARAZI J
D.N.F. 35 Saulnier Racing LMP2 NICOLET J
D.N.F. 40 Quifel ASM Team LMP2 AMARAL M
D.N.F. 44 Kruse Motorsport LMP2 BURGESS T
D.N.F. 53 JLOC Isao Noritake LMGT1
D.N.F. 64 Corvette Racing LMGT1 BERETTA O
D.N.F. 71 Seikel Motorsport LMGT2 COLLIN P
D.N.F. 80 Flying Lizard Motorsport LMGT2 van OVERBEEK J
D.N.F. 81 Team LNT LMGT2 KIMBER-SMITH T
D.N.F. 83 GPC Sport LMGT2 VILLAROEL J.
D.N.F. 85 Spyker Squadron LMGT2 BELICCHI A
D.N.F. 86 Spyker Squadron LMGT2 JANIS J
D.N.F. 87 Scuderia Ecosse LMGT2 NIARCHOS C
D.N.F. 97 Risi Competizione LMGT2 SALO M