Audi made history last weekend by becoming the first ever manufacturer to win the Le Mans 24 Hours with a diesel powered car.

The Joest team lulled their rivals into a false sense of security before unleashing the massive speed of the R10 in a devastating performance.

Trackside's Keith Collantine pays tribute to an extraordinary engineering achievement.

At Le Mans last year Tom Kristensen made history by becoming the first driver to win the race seven times.

This year the car was the star - Audi's remarkable R10, which has a 5.5 litre 650 hp V12 diesel engine at its heart.

After last year's race it seemed as though Audi had nothing left to achieve at Le Mans. In the last six years they had won five times - and on the one occasion they had been beaten, it was by a Bentley with an Audi engine.

 What would they do next? The answer came last winter in the shape of the radical new R10, which would contest the Sebring 12 Hours as a warm-up to an all-out attack on the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The diesel idea made perfect marketing sense - half of all Audis sold have TDI engines - but it posed enormous challenges for the racing team.

The engine produces 1,100Nm of pulling power - so much that a conventional traction control system cannot be used, which presents an additional challenge for the drivers. Tyre supplier Michelin had to produce special rubber that could handle the immense power of the engine.

The extra torque also required a stronger gearbox and transmission system. The larger engine required a chassis with a longer wheelbase, and all of these requirements added to the car's weight.

Yet in spite of these obstacles the cars raced quickly and, on the whole, reliably. The number eight R10, driven by Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner, suffered few problems on the way to victory. 

In 24 hours they covered 380 laps. That's 5,187 km at an average speed of 215 kph (133 mph) - an awesome testament to the reliability of the R10.

To put that into perspective, just 22 of the 50 starters finished the race. The BMS Scuderia Italia team managed only three laps!

Britain's Allan McNish and his team mates Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen suffered problems in the sister R10. Having led the early stages the car developed fuel injection problems, dropping them to 16th at one point before finishing third.

However Le Mans veteran Kristensen set the race's fastest lap at 3m 31.211s. On its debut, the R10 took pole position, set the fastest lap, and won the race.

Diesels used to be slow and boring - not any more.

Racing round-up

Champ Car World Series

Sheffield's Justin Wilson took a fourth successive second place at the Portland round and closed in on championship leader Sebastian Bourdais, who finished third. AJ Allmendinger won his first race for Forsythe having switched teams.

Briton Dan Clarke ran as high as second before finishing seventh, and Katherine Legge was 13th. Clarke and Legge are now first and second in the Rookie of the Year competition.