Audi have won the Le Mans 24-Hour race for the thirteenth time overnight.
NZ Herald Motorsport Editor Eric Thompson reports exclusively from the Le Mans 24-Hour race The weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours was a war of attrition for many of the cars
especially in the LMP1 top class where all the factory prototype cars hit
various problems at different stages in the race.
As the chequered flag came out it was an Audi one-two with Benoit
Treluyer, Marcel Fassler
and Andre Lotterer crossing the line ahead of Tom
Kristensen, Lucas di Grassi and Marc Gene.
It wasn't all plain sailing though, with both Audis having their fair
share of trouble with turbo charger issues that allowed the Porsche 919
Hybrid of New Zealander Brendon Hartley, Australian Mark Webber and German
Timo Bernhard to take the lead with three hours left on the clock.
Once the number two Audi with Lotterer behind the wheel re-joined the
fray, it wasn't long before the Porsche was hunted down and dispatched into
second place. Adding insult to injury, Webber soon slowed with less than
two hours to go and limped back to the pits where the car was retired. It
was later joined by the second Porsche hybrid car with gearbox issues.
"Brendon did a fantastic job driving through the night with car handling
like it was [problems with the front of the car]," said Webber. We had to
have the brakes so heavy on the front to get the rear to work and it made
the car difficult to handle at speed.
