Le Mans 2009

15th June 2009

French firm Peugeot scored a memorable home victory in last weekend’s Le Mans 24-hour race. The squad took a convincing one-two win ahead of Audi, ending the German outfit’s domination of the classic event.

The winning car of Alexander Wurz, Marc Gene and David Brabham completed 382 laps of the 8.5 mile circuit, finishing over a lap ahead of the pole-sitting 908 HDI of team mates Sebastien Bourdais, Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin.

After various mistakes cost Peugeot a win in the previous two years, bosses were determined not make any errors. However, their hopes for a faultless race were dashed within an hour when pit crew released the 908 HDI of Pedro Lamy into the path of the privately entered Pescarolo Peugeot.

The impact damaged both cars, with the factory backed machine losing an hour on the leaders as it underwent repairs. Disaster then struck the leading Peugeot of Bourdais, Montagny and Sarrazin after a suspension problem sidelined their car for 10 minutes.

But these issues were minor compared to trials of eight-times winners Audi. The usually well-organised German team had a chaotic race, with reliability problems and crashes holding up its trio of R15 TDI racers.

After only two laps the car of Alexandre Premat, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas suffered power steering failure, which resulted in a minor accident. Further off track excursions and repairs in the pits then sidelined it before finishing in a lowly seventeenth place.


The machine of Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner had an even more disappointing race, crashing heavily into retirement with less than seven hours of the race already run.

It was left to last year’s winner Allan McNish to defend Audi’s honour, securing the final podium place on the R15’s Le Mans debut. However, he and fellow drivers Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen still had their fair share of niggling faults, which required a number of unscheduled trips to the pits.

Behind the leading trio, Aston Martin scored the honours for top petrol-powered car with Jan Charouz, Tomas Enge and Stephane Mucke finishing in fourth place.

Further down the field, Corvette celebrated its final appearance in the GT1 category with a dominant victory. The American squad was on course for a one-two result, with both cars within seconds of each other after 21 hours of flat-out racing. Sadly a mechanical fault sidelined one of the V8-powered machines with less than two-hours remaining.

However, there were no such concerns for the winning Peugeot of Wurz, Gene and Brabham. Their 908 HDI ran almost faultlessly for the 24 hours, taking the lead after only 7 hours racing.

“We had a great team behind us, and a phenomenal car”, exclaimed Wurz. “It’s a fantastic feeling to have won in France in a French car”.

Results

1. Brabham/Gene/Wurz    Peugeot 908 HDi FAP     382 laps
2. Bourdais/Montagny/Sarrazin     Peugeot 908 HDi FAP     381 laps
3. Capello/Kristensen/McNish     Audi R15 TDI     376 laps
4. Charouz/Enge/Mucke    Lola-Aston Martin    373 laps
5. Panis/Lapierre/Ayari    Oreca 01-AIM     370 laps
6. Minassian/Lamy/Klien     Peugeot 908 HDi FAP     369 laps
7. Zwolsman/Karthikeyan/Lotterer        Audi R10 TDI     369 laps
8. Tinseau/Juoanny/Barbosa     Pescarolo 01-Judd     368 laps
9. Albers/Bakkerud/Mondini     Audi R10 TDI     360 laps
10. Elgaard/Poulsen/Collard     Porsche RS Spyder     357 laps
11.Ragues/Mailleux/Andre         Courage-Oreca LC70E-Judd     344 laps
12. Leuenberger/Pompidou/Kane     Lola B08/80-Judd     343laps
13. Davidson/Turner/Verstappen     Lola-Aston Martin    342 laps
14. Belicchi/Prost/Jani     Lola B08/60-Aston Martin     342 laps
15. O'Connell/Magnussen/Garcia     Corvette C6.R     342laps
16. Maassen/Jousse/Clairay     Corvette C6.R     336 laps
17. Bernhard/Premat/Dumas    Audi R15 TDI     333 laps
18. Melo/Kaffer/Salo    Ferrari F430 GT2    329 laps
19. Babini/Malucelli/Ruberti     Ferrari F430 GT2     327 laps
20. Nicolet/Hein/Yvon    Pescarolo Mazda     325 laps
21. Hardman/Leventis/Watts    Ginetta-Zytek 09S     325 laps
22. Krohn/van de Poele/Jonsson    Ferrari F430 GT2     323 laps
23. Bell/Kirkaldy/Sugden         Ferrari F430 GT2     320 laps
24. Campbell-Walter/Ickx/Ianetta     Creation CA07-Judd     319 laps
25. Coronel/Bleekemolen/Janis    Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2-R     319 laps
26. Bruni/Perez Companc/Russo     Ferrari F430 GT2     317 laps
27. Mansell/Ehret/Rusinov     Team Ferrari F430 GT2     314 laps
28. Barazi/Moseley/Bennett    Zytek 07S/2     306 laps
29. Rodrigues/Lebon/Bouchut     Ferrari F430 GT2     304 laps
30. Dempsey/Kitch Jr/Foster     Ferrari F430 GT2     301 laps
31. Lichtner-Hoyer/Gruber/Muller     Aston Martin DBR9     294 laps
32. McInerney/McInerney/Vergers     Ferrari F430 GT2     280 laps

Tell us about your car in our Driver Power survey.