Audi wins 24 Hours of Le Mans for 4th year running

The #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of drivers Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loic Duval came out on top at the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans this past weekend. The race, largely overshadowed by the death of Danish Aston Martin driver Allan Simonsen, marked Audi’s fourth consecutive and 12th overall victory at Le Mans. The Audi crossed the finish line one lap ahead of the #8 Toyota TS030 driven by  Anthony Davidson, Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Buemi.

The race was incredibly close at the end – after 23 straight hours of competition, the leading Audi and Toyota cars were on the same lap before Kristensen was able to pass Sebastien Buemi’s Toyota with just minutes remaining to win by one lap over his rival. This victory also marks Kristensen’s ninth career win at Le Mans, which is an extension of the record he already owned and a remarkable feat on its own. Kristensen dedicated his win to fellow Danish driver Allan Simonsen, who died as a result of injuries sustained on the fourth lap of the race, when his Aston Martin spun off the track and hit the barrier at high speed.

Karun Chandhok returned to Le Mans this year and finished a respectable 13th overall, and 7th in the P2 class in the Murphy Prototypes’ ORECA-Nissan 03 with team regular Brendon Hartley and experienced US sportscar driver Mark Patterson. Last year Chandhok managed an impressive, sixth placed finish overall with the JRM Racing HPD P1 team.

Third place overall was snatched by the No. 3 Audi driven by Lucas Di Grassi, Marc Gene and Oliver Jarvis. In LMP2, Oak Racing’s Nissan-powered Morgan racers came in first and second, followed by G-Drive Racing’s Oreca, also powered by Nissan. The LMGTE Pro class was won by the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR, followed by the No. 91 Porsche and No. 97Aston Martin Vantage V8. Corvette Racing finished fourth with its No. 73 C6-ZR1 while their fellow Americans from SRT Motorsports finished in eighth and ninth positions in their brand-new Viper GTS-R racers.

For more information on what the 24 Hours of Le Mans is about, click here!

These are the final positions after 24 hours.

Pos Cl      Car       Drivers                         Laps  Gap
 1. P1  #2  Audi      Kristensen/McNish/Duval      348   
 2. P1  #8  Toyota    Davidson/Sarrazin/Buemi      347   +     1 Lap
 3. P1  #3  Audi      Gene/Jarvis/di Grassi        347   + 1m55.252s
 4. P1  #7  Toyota    Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima       341   +    7 Laps
 5. P1  #1  Audi      Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler    338   +   10 Laps
 6. P1  #21 HPD       Leventis/Kane/Watts          332   +   16 Laps
 7. P2  #35 Morgan    Baguette/Plowman/Gonzalez    329   +   19 Laps
 8. P2  #24 Morgan    Pla/Brundle/H Hansson        328   +   20 Laps
 9. P2  #26 Oreca     Rusinov/Martin/Conway        327   +   21 Laps
10. P2  #42 Zytek     Krumm/Mardenborough/Ordonez  327   + 1m07.075s
11. P2  #49 Oreca     P-Companc/Kaffer/Minassian   325   +   23 Laps
12. P2  #43 Morgan    Gachnang/Mailleux/Lombard    320   +   28 Laps
13. P2  #48 Oreca     Hartley/Chandhok/Patterson   319   +   29 Laps
14. P2  #38 Zytek     Dolan/Turvey/Luhr            319   + 4m01.549s
15. P2  #36 Alpine    Ragues/Panciatici/Gommendy   317   +   31 Laps
16. GTP #92 Porsche   Lieb/Lietz/Dumas             315   +   33 Laps
17. GTP #91 Porsche   Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard   315   + 2m10.631s
18. GTP #97 Aston     Mucke/Turner/Dumbreck        314   +   34 Laps
19. P2  #34 Oreca     Frey/Niederhauser/Bleekemolen314   + 1m27.131s
20. GTP #73 Corvette  Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor      312   +   36 Laps
21. GTP #71 Ferrari   Beretta/Kobayashi/Vilander   311   +   37 Laps
22. GTP #51 Ferrari   Bruni/Fisichella/Malucelli   311   + 1m57.110s
23. GTP #74 Corvette  Gavin/Milner/Westbrook       309   +   39 Laps
24. P2  #41 Zytek     Rossi/K-Smith/Lux            307   +   41 Laps
25. GTP #53 SRT       Farnbacher/Goossens/Dalziel  306   +   42 Laps
26. GTA #76 Porsche   Narac/Vernay/Bourret         306   + 1m51.302s
27. GTA #55 Ferrari   Perazzini/O'Young/Case       305   +   43 Laps
28. GTA #61 Ferrari   Gerber/Griffin/Cioci         305   + 1m26.507s
29. GTA #77 Porsche   Dempsey/Foster/Long          305   + 2m51.114s
30. GTA #50 Corvette  Bornhauser/Canal/Taylor      302   +   46 Laps
31. GTA #96 Aston     Goethe/Campbell-Walter/Hall  301   +   47 Laps
32. GTP #93 SRT       Wittmer/Kendall/Bomarito     301   + 1m58.599s
33. P2  #40 Oreca     Dagoneau/Downs/Younessi      300   +   48 Laps
34. GTA #67 Porsche   Gibon/Milesi/Henzler         300   +   32.348s
35. GTP #66 Ferrari   Bertolini/Faisal/Qubaisi     300   +   51.765s
36. GTA #88 Porsche   Ried/Roda/Ruberti            300   + 1m28.639s
37. GTA #75 Porsche   Collard/Perrodo/Crubile      298   +   50 Laps
38. GTA #81 Ferrari   Potolicchio/Aguas/Bright     294   +   54 Laps
39. P2  #39 Lola      Porta/Brandela/Raffin        280   +   68 Laps
40. P1  #12 Lola      Prost/Jani/Heidfeld          275   +   73 Laps
41. P1  #13 Lola      Beche/Belicchi/Cheng         275   + 1m27.020s
42. GTA #70 Corvette  MacNeil/Rodrigues/Dumas      268   +   80 Laps
43. P2  #33 HPD       Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe    242   +  106 Laps
44. P2  #46 Oreca     Thiriet/Badey/Martin         310      Retired
45. GTP #99 Aston     Makowiecki/Senna/Bell        248      Retired
46. P2  #45 Morgan    Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot      246      Retired
47. P2  #47 Morgan    Imperatori/Howson/Tung       241      Retired
48. GTP #98 Aston     Dalla Lana/Lamy/Auberlen     221      Retired
49. P2  #32 Lotus     Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz     219      Retired
50. P2  #30 Lola      Mowlem/Burgess/Hirschi       153      Retired
51. GTA #54 Ferrari   Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank     147      Retired
52. GTA #57 Ferrari   Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani        111      Retired
53. P2  #25 Oreca     Graves/Hamilton/Nakano       101      Retired
54. P2  #28 Lola      Giroix/Haezebrouck/Ihara     22       Retired
55. P2  #31 Lotus     Weeda/Rossiter/Bouchut       17       Retired
56. GTA #95 Aston     Simonsen/Nygaard/Poulsen     2        Retired