Peugeot got some help from the weather, but the French racing team finally broke Audi’s perfect record at Petit Le Mans, finishing first and second in the rain-shortened race.
When the race was red-flagged shortly before the five-hour mark, Franck Montagny was in the lead in the #08 Peugeot HDI FAP he shared with Stephane Sarrazin, followed by teammates Pedro Lamy and Nicolas Minassian, and five seconds ahead of Alan McNish and Dindo Capello’s Audi R15 TDI. Although the Peugeots never passed the Audi in green-flag racing, they were ahead when the checkered flag fell.
Franck Montagny started second but fell to fourth early on. He described his efforts to get back in the race. “At the beginning we struggled, then we put on the dry tires and we went very, very fast, to catch back up as fast as we could. It was like qualifying laps all the time.
“The only problem is that it was half a race. We wanted to race for a complete one and to fight against Joest [Audi Sport Team Joest] for longer.”
The race started on a wet track and rain came and went throughout the event, keeping teams guessing about tires choices and race strategies. The rain was responsible for many spins, many wrecks, and many laps spent in the pits by many cars. And in the end, it was how the drivers dealt with the rain that decided winners of the two classes where the championship is not yet decided. Related Articles
Although Audi led from the green flag and the winning Peugeot only passed the first-place Audi when Allan McNish spun in the rain during a full-course caution, a win is a win, and Peugeot earned it by being in the right place—in this case, in second place, and on the track—at the right time.
While fans didn’t get to see the epic ten-hour Peugeot-Audi battle they had hoped for, they still got to see an exciting five-hour skirmish that culminated in an Audi disaster which proved a racing adage: it doesn’t matter who leads the most laps, it matters who leads the last lap.
Audi led from the first lap until lap 169, when Allan McNish spun and lost two positions.
On lap 177, the rain started pouring down. Both Audis came in for rain tires, gaining ground on the Peugeots, which were circulating slowly on slicks. McNish recaptured second coming out of the pits, but didn’t hold it for long.
As soon as McNish hit the track he told his team on the radio that the rain was too hard and the stewards needed to call a full-course caution.
Almost simultaneously, McNish and teammate Marco Werner spun, as did Pedro Lamy in the Peugeot, and Robert Bell in the Drayson Lola; the stewards then called a caution. Seven minutes later the stewards red-flagged the race, calling all the cars into the pits until the rain abated.
Four hours later, stewards decided that the track could not be ready by the end of the ten-hour time limit and called the race. Peugeot got the win, while Audi had to be satisfied with third place.
When the race was red-flagged shortly before the five-hour mark, Franck Montagny was in the lead in the #08 Peugeot HDI FAP he shared with Stephane Sarrazin, followed by teammates Pedro Lamy and Nicolas Minassian, and five seconds ahead of Alan McNish and Dindo Capello’s Audi R15 TDI. Although the Peugeots never passed the Audi in green-flag racing, they were ahead when the checkered flag fell.
Franck Montagny started second but fell to fourth early on. He described his efforts to get back in the race. “At the beginning we struggled, then we put on the dry tires and we went very, very fast, to catch back up as fast as we could. It was like qualifying laps all the time.
“The only problem is that it was half a race. We wanted to race for a complete one and to fight against Joest [Audi Sport Team Joest] for longer.”
The race started on a wet track and rain came and went throughout the event, keeping teams guessing about tires choices and race strategies. The rain was responsible for many spins, many wrecks, and many laps spent in the pits by many cars. And in the end, it was how the drivers dealt with the rain that decided winners of the two classes where the championship is not yet decided. Related Articles
Although Audi led from the green flag and the winning Peugeot only passed the first-place Audi when Allan McNish spun in the rain during a full-course caution, a win is a win, and Peugeot earned it by being in the right place—in this case, in second place, and on the track—at the right time.
While fans didn’t get to see the epic ten-hour Peugeot-Audi battle they had hoped for, they still got to see an exciting five-hour skirmish that culminated in an Audi disaster which proved a racing adage: it doesn’t matter who leads the most laps, it matters who leads the last lap.
Audi led from the first lap until lap 169, when Allan McNish spun and lost two positions.
On lap 177, the rain started pouring down. Both Audis came in for rain tires, gaining ground on the Peugeots, which were circulating slowly on slicks. McNish recaptured second coming out of the pits, but didn’t hold it for long.
As soon as McNish hit the track he told his team on the radio that the rain was too hard and the stewards needed to call a full-course caution.
Almost simultaneously, McNish and teammate Marco Werner spun, as did Pedro Lamy in the Peugeot, and Robert Bell in the Drayson Lola; the stewards then called a caution. Seven minutes later the stewards red-flagged the race, calling all the cars into the pits until the rain abated.
Four hours later, stewards decided that the track could not be ready by the end of the ten-hour time limit and called the race. Peugeot got the win, while Audi had to be satisfied with third place.
