Audi Sport Team Joest finishes 1-2-3 at the fastest Le Mans race ever. French threat fizzles.
The three Audi R15 TDI cars of Audi Sport Team Joest ran without the slightest technical problems over the entire distance and occupied the top three places after the fastest Le Mans race of all time. After 2000, 2002 and 2004, Audi managed to achieve a one-two-three podium finish at Le Mans for
the fourth time.
The ninth triumph – in total – of the brand at Le Mans was also made possible by a technology which Audi Sport developed for racing during the past three years in strict secrecy: the V10 TDI engine of the Audi R15 TDI. It features a turbocharger with Variable Turbine Geometry (VTG). VTG turbo-chargers are standard with Audi TDI engines in production vehicles. Their use at Le Mans helps the Audi engineers to continue to develop the technology for smaller, highly efficient turbo engines to be used in the future.
"At Le Mans we’re dealing with temperatures above 1,000 degrees centigrade which have not been encountered with production engines so far,” explains Ulrich Baretzky, Head of Engine Development at Audi Sport. "As a result of downsizing, production development will enter into similar temperature ranges. This makes VTG another good example of how the technology transfer between motorsport and the production side of the house works at Audi.”
The victorious Audi R15 TDI (#9) with Timo Bernhard (Germany), Romain Dumas (France) and Mike Rockenfeller (Germany) completed a total of 397 laps in the 24 hours. With the covered distance of 5,410 kilometers, the trio broke the 1971 record set by Dr. Helmut Marko and Gijs van Lennep in the legendary Porsche 917. It had been considered unbeatable because the Hunaudières straight at that time had no chicanes – another demonstration of the performance capabilities of Audi TDI technology. Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller drove an absolutely flawless race on their way to their first Le Mans victory and the new historic record. Except for a slow puncture shortly before the end of the race and a right-hand mirror that had come off, the race went without the slightest problems for the winners. Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer took second place in the #8 R15 TDI.
The 2008 winners, Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish, who were the best-placed Audi team in the early phase, were struck by major misfortune. Le Mans record winner Tom Kristensen had to evade a slow GT2 vehicle in #7 R15 TDI on Saturday night and slid backwards against the track barrier of the Porsche corners. With fast lap times, Capello, Kristensen and McNish pushed back into the group of the front runners and in the end were rewarded with a third place podium finish.
For videos and more information about the 78th 24 Hours of Le Mans, please visit
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/motorsport/le-mans/