Le Mans 24 Hour - Peugeot win at Le Mans
Eurosport - Sun, 14 Jun 21:25:00 2009
The Peugeot of David Brabham, Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene won the Le Mans 24 hour race here on Sunday to record the French manufacturer's first victory in the competition since 1993.
The trio beat home another Peugeot driven by Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and F1 star Sebastien Bourdais while defending champions Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish in an Audi were third.
It was Audi's first defeat in the race since 1999.
Brabham was delighted to have emulated his brother Geoff, who also won in a Peugeot in 1993.
"I am just happy to have won," said Brabham. "I recall my brother Geoff saying that he was the only Brabham to have won Le Mans and I am proud to have had the chance to do this.
"However, it is not a one man show and there are a lot of people at the heart of this team who are responsible for this victory."
Kristensen was generous in defeat.
"I believe that Peugeot have performed perfectly," said Kristensen.
"They deserved their victory and I have a lot of respect for them. We congratulate them from the bottom of our hearts.
"Of course we will try and learn from this and come back and win. However, we also have to recognise the work done by the Peugeot pilots, Alex, Marc et David. It is fantastic."
Peugeot had been in charge after seven hours of action on Saturday with the French team in three of the top four places.
Montagny, on pole position, enjoyed the best possible start in bright sunshine and team-mates Sarrazin and Bourdais stayed in front for almost six hours until their car suffered a transmission problem.
The car lost nine minutes as mechanics worked to change the left rear axle.
The second Audi with German driver Lucas Luhr at the wheel had to retire after a spectacular accident when it had been running in third place.
Luhr lost control of the Audi at the Porsche curve and crashed into the trackside barriers.
Le Mans 24hr results
1. David Brabham (Australia) / Marc Gene (Spain) / Alexander Wurz (Austria), Peugeot Sport Total (Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP), 382 laps
2. Sebastien Bourdais (France) / Franck Montagny (France) / Stephane Sarrazin (France), Team Peugeot Total (Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP), 381 laps
3. Tom Kristensen (Denmark) / Dindo Capello (Italy) / Allan McNish (Scotland), Audi Sport Team Joest (Audi R15 TDI), 376 laps
4. Jan Charouz (Czech Republic) / Tomas Enge (Czech Republic) / Stefan Muecke (Germany), AMR Eastern Europe (Lola-Aston Martin LMP1), 373 laps
5. Nicolas Lapierre (France) / Olivier Panis (France) / Soheil Ayari (France), Team Oreca Matmut-AIM (Courage-Oreca LC70 AIM), 370 laps
6. Nicolas Minassian (France) / Pedro Lamy (Portugal) / Christian Klien (Austria), Team Peugeot Total (Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP), 369 laps
7. Narain Karthikeyan (India) / Charles Zwolsman (Netherlands) / Andre Lotterer (Germany), Kolles (Audi R10), 369 laps
8. Bruce Jouanny (France) / Christophe Tinseau (France) / Joao Barbosa (Portugal), Pescarolo Sport (Pescarolo LMP1 Judd), 368 laps
9. Christijan Albers (Netherlands) / Christian Bakkerud (Denmark) / Giorgio Mondini (Italy), Kolles (Audi R10), 360 laps
10. Casper Elgaard (Denmark) / Kristian Poulsen (Denmark) / Emmanuel Collard (France), Team Essex (Porsche RS Spyder), 357 laps
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Comment 1 - 9 of 29
I have been watching a closely fought Peugeot-Audi battle for 2nd place, followed by a key pit stop, followed by a car going out of the pits without its lights on, yet none of these things were commented, because the commentators were in a world of their own whittering on about the history of British motorsport. I was glad when the adverts came in.
Great coverage and commentary eurosport, BUT WAY WAY TOO MANY ADVERT BREAKS !!!!! but thankfully they are fairly short, nowhere near as unforgivable as Spa 24hrs few years ago on another rival/ now deceased channel, who unbelievably missed both the START and FINISH of the race due to religious 11 mins programme, 5mins adverts, absolutely disgraceful !!! and in total disregard of the viewers.
I've also had trouble with eurosport 2 this week, still exists, tiny 4:3 picture only, so yeah had to change settings on digibox.
PULL THE PLUG ON THE ADVERTS, only thing spoiling millions of loyal fans/viewers enjoyment of this annual classic.
Was it, Lamy's Peugeot who crashed in the pit's!?
I pointed this out to Eurosport that channel 411 eurosport 2 that it's using forced 4.3 on Wednesday night and E-mailed them and they have done nothing about it not even replied, you can't even fix it with your TV remote apart from changing the aspect ratio on your sky box. by why should you when it's normal 16.9 on eurosport 1.
Very poor may be they shouldn't bother and allow Motors TV to cover it all one channel!
been at work allday until now can someone fill me in with the leaderboar as it stands (with gaps if possible)?
I'm not sure if the coverage I am watching in Australia is the feed from Eurosport but can someone inform the commentators that Gil De Ferran did win the Indianapolis 500 in 2003 and that Sebastien Bourdais has won the ChampCar title four times and not three. Just badly incorrect and the co-host is not correcting these errors.
Why is my picture not widescreen on eurosport 2
Good luck Team Ginetta !
True British underdog spirit !
And the car is British - not like Aston Martin...
Why did they just go yellow, to help the Peugeot home after crashing in the pit lane! COME ON AUDI...............
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