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If you have the 24 hours of Le Mans on your DVR and don't want to know which diesel crew landed at the top of the podium then don't follow the jump. If you want to know who covered the most distance today go right ahead.


There were six diesel-powered prototypes running at Le Mans this year, three each from Audi and Peugeot. In qualifying it was the French cars that dominated the time sheets. But come race time, intermittent rain mixed things up a bit. In the end though, the nearly bulletproof Germans took victory for the third time in a row with the R10 TDI. The trio of Tom Kristensen (who took the checkered flag), Dindo Capello and Alan McNish beat the leading Peugeot 908 of Marc Gene, Nicolas Minassian, and Jacques Villeneuve across the line by 4m 31s. The Peugeot in the hands of Minassian was charging in the final hour on slick tires when rain struck and he had to make a late stop to switch back to rain tires. Throughout the 24 hours and 3,200 miles the winning Audi and leading Peugeot were never more than a lap apart. Behind the leaders it was Peugeot, Audi, Peugeot, Audi for the top six places. The top gasoline-fueled car a Pescarolo-Judd finished 19 laps back in 7th place. Two of the three Peugeots lost time to electrical issues. In their tenth running at Le Mans the Audis won for the eighth time (plus a 2003 victory by an Audi powered Bentley prototype).

[Source: Audi]