Peugeot finally made the 908 a winner and broke the dominance of the Germans

One hour before the end of the 77th edition of Les 24 Heures du Mans there was just as much agitation, excitement and uncertainty as at the start of this legendary race that marked the end of Audi’s nine years of dominance.

It was the end of an era, with a Peugeot victory after two attempts and two 2nd positions in past editions. It is also the first time since 1993 that a non-German engine wins this legendary 24-hour endurance race. There were four Peugeot cars in the top five spots on the grid.

The week began with controversy as Peugeot was protesting against Audi, however the Peugeot team and Olivier Quesnel, the newly appointed Manager, dealt with their situation and went on to race without losing the lead from start to finish.

The official start took place when the Rolex clock struck 15:00 on Saturday, as Luca di Montezemolo waved the green flag. The chequered flag dropped next day, twenty-four hours later, over a Peugeot win with the #9 LM P1 driven by Marc Gene, Alex Wurz and David Brabham taking the top position. It was an exciting race although all participants were plagued with different mechanical problems and in the top league, the race became a bit of a struggle to solve unplanned problems as quickly as possible. These issues came up from the very beginning when two Peugeots (#17 and #7) collided in the pit lane.

In addition, it was an eventful end of the race as a number of teams lost their cars in a sequence of accidents, just as things were coming to a close. At Kruse Shiller Motorsport, the #39 car, a Lola Mazda bearing Hong Kong colours driven by Hideki Noda, Jean de Pourtales and Matthew Marsh, stopped at the entrance of the pit lane and a fire had to be put out. The car was then later pushed into the garage and the safety car was deployed for the seventh time.

At the same moment, there was an accident with car #5, the Porsche from Team Navi Goh, driven by Japan’s Seiji Ara. Coming up to the Playstation chicane, Ara lost control of the car provoking a massive impact crash against the safety barrier and the car was literally torn to pieces. Although in a state of shock, Ara managed to get out of the car on his own. The Safety Car was called out in order for the marshals to clean up the oil and debris on the track. Apparently the driver, travelling at 270 km/h, was braking at the normal place but the wheels locked up and spun on oil dropped by car #39. Luckily, the Japanese driver walked away from the wreck a bit dizzy, but uninjured. The car was ranked 12th in the first 23 hours of the race.

The race may not have had the drama of last year but it was still a tense affair

Meanwhile, the Peugeot #9 stopped in the pits and restarted. On the British fans’ front, emotions were stirred when the #008 Lola Aston Martin began going slowly and smoking from the Arnage corner just 80 minutes before the end of the race. Driver Darren Turner’s LM P1 had a gearbox problem and he was forced to pit. Until that incident, he had been in 13th place.

With 45 minutes left in the race the pace car was still on the track and to the British fans’ disappointment, the Lola #13 and the Aston Martin #008 both had to stop in their garages.

At this time, Le Mans-born Sebastien Bourdais in the #8 Peugeot, was ranking 2nd, but then his car slowed down with six laps to go. Marc Gene had one lap over his team-mate and there was a close battle until the end of the race, with the #9 eventually solidifying the winning position.

After Peugeot’s win, Dr. Wolfgang Ulrich, the Audi Team Sports Director, commented officially: “At Peugeot, our competitors have completed a superb race. They were fast and consistent. We at Audi had a number of small problems and bad luck. We were never able to build a good rhythm and then we had problems with our Audis.” Audi Sport confirmed that the German brand will be back next year for another exciting race.

Audi suffered a lot this year and, although they had a team on the podium in 3rd place, they lost one of their cars very early in the race. On the podium, winners Marc Gene, Alex Wurz and David Brabham were awarded their Rolex Cosmograph Daytona trophies along with the 24 Heures du Mans trophies from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest.

Risi had a great race, successfully defending their title and Krohn Racing teaming up with Risi to take third. Their second podium at Le Mans

Results from Les 24 Heures du Mans 2009 follow (also available here ).

LMP1 Group
#9 Peugeot Sport Total – Gene Marc – Wurz Alexander – Brabham David
#8 Team Peugeot Total – Sarrazin Stéphane – Montagny Franck – Bourdais Sébastien
#1 Audi Sport Team – Capello Rinaldo – Kristensen Tom – McNish Allan

LMP2 Group
#31 Porsche Team Essex – Casper Elgaard – Collard Emmanuel – Poulsen Kris
#33 Speedy Racing Sebah – Jonny Kane – Benjamin Leuenberger – Xavier Pompidou
#24 OAK Racing – Nicolet Jacques – Hein Richard – Yvon Jean-François

LMGT1 Group
#63 Corvette Racing – O’Connell Johny – Magnussen Jan – Garcia Antonio
#73 Alphand Aventures – Clairay Yan – Jousse Julien – Maassen Xavier
#66 Jetalliance Racing Gmbh – Lichtner-Hoyer Lukas – Muller Alex – Gruber Thomas

LMGT2 Group
#82 Risi Competizione – Melo Jaime – Kaffer Pierre – Salo Mika
#97 BMS Scuderia Italia – Mlucelli Matteo – Ruberti Paolo – Babini Fabio
#83 Risi Competizione – Krohn Tracy – Jonsson Nic – Van de Poele Eric

Rolex is the “Official Timekeeper” for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Le Mans Series. The new Asian Le Mans Series is set to launch this winter with events in Japan and China, and, in North America, Rolex has been the title sponsor for the Rolex 24 At Daytona since 1992.

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