Audi's seventh Le Mans prize

Audi equalled Jaguar’s tally of victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours with a seventh victory in nine attempts. This year’s triumph means only Porsche and Ferrari now have more wins in the world’s most prestigious sportscar race. Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner took a clear victory aboard one of the three Audi R10 turbo-diesel prototypes entered for the race on June 16/17. They finished 10 laps ahead of best of the Peugeot 908s in second place.

However, Audi Sport boss Wolfgang Ullrich denied that this year’s win was predictable. “This victory is the most difficult we have had at Le Mans,” he said. “We were put under pressure by Peugeot right to the end of the race.” The task was made more difficult because the winning car was the only R10 to finish. The other two cars crashed out, one as a result of driver error, the other when a wheel came off.

Aston Martin claimed GT1 honours after a thrilling race between the two Prodrive-run factory cars. David Brabham, Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell came out on top after the other car lost time making bodywork repairs after Johnny Herbert had a minor incident.