Scotsman McNish shared the winning Audi R10 TDi with Dane Tom Kristensen and Italy’s Rinaldo Capello.

Meanwhile Aston Martin repeated their 2007 victory in the LMGT2 class. Trackside’s Keith Collantine reports.

The 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours may long be remembered as a vintage race. After Peugeot’s return to the race last year the French marque on home ground was expected to give Audi its fiercest competition for race victory in years.

And it did – indeed in the opening stages Peugeot’s 908 HDi FAP streaked away, lapping the 14km Circuit de la Sarthe several seconds faster than the R10s could manage.

But as the race unfolded Audi took advantage of a series of opportunities to get back on level terms with the flying Peugeots.

First the leading number eight 908 was struck down with gearbox problems. As day turned to night it emerged the French cars were struggling with overheating, and had to make occasional visits to the pits in clouds of steam.

As the night wore Peugeot’s star line-up of nine drivers – eight of whom had competed in Formula 1 including 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve – clawed back time to the Audis. Franck Montagny spearheaded the attack with a fearsomely rapid and consistent string of laps.

But then came the next twist in the tale – rain. The R10 has often been the better car in tricky conditions and there was no exception here. Audi’s open-topped sports prototype gave its drivers better visibility as they could clear oil and water from their visors by hand. But Peugeot’s drivers could not do the same with their closed-cockpit car.

A long stint by McNish early on Sunday morning saw his car back in the lead. Now the rain teased the teams, falling sporadically, allowing some sections of the mammoth track to dry while others stayed wet.

Audi’s ultra-experienced line-up mastered the treacherous surface and kept the chasing Peugeot a lap in arrears – still an impressively close gap after 24 hours of racing.
A late slip by Kristensen set Audi hearts racing as he collided with a lapped car, but was able to continue with minimal damage.

As the clock ticked round to the completion of the 24th hour Kristensen was cruising home, flanked by lapped cars. He crossed the line to complete the 382nd lap and score his eighth victory at Le Mans, further extending his own personal record.

It was a magnificent victory for Audi’s diesel R10 (which inspired their forthcoming R8 diesel road car) and a bitter defeat for Peugeot, who for a long time looked set to break Audi’s domination of the French classic,

In the other classes the van Merksteijn Porsche RS Spyder won LMP2. Aston Martin’s Gulf-liveried DBR9 claimed a second consecutive win in LMGT1 with David Brabham, Darren Turner and Antonio Garcia at the wheel. And Ferrari triumphed in LMT2 with the F430 of Mika Salo, Gianmaria Bruni and Jaime Melo.