Le Mans – The Audi drivers put on a show

Audi could hope to achieve a quadruple with its four crews but the No. 18 R3 was beaten to the wire by the No. 12 Lola of Rebellion Racing (Cheers-Jani-Heidfeld) after Romain Dumas and Marc Gené made a mistake. The pace was high at the front of the race even after the double retirement of Toyota, the hybrid R18s going blow for blow until the error of Allan McNish who hit the wall in the turns Porsche while the R18 n°2 was in the lead. Victory thus went to Benoît Tréluyer, Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer, already winners last year, who have the satisfaction of celebrating their success gained under the pressure of the competition.

“The new Audi R18 e-tron quattro is very competitive and gives us a lot of confidence, it’s wonderful to win again”, assures André Lotterer who takes his second victory in Sarthe in just four appearances after taking pole. “It was a really tough race. Last year we were fighting against Peugeot and this year against Toyota at the start of the race. Unfortunately, our opponent retired, but we put up a very good battle against the sister car #2 within our team. Audi Sport allowed us to give everything. It was a real, very interesting duel since it was fought within our team. We were alone against Peugeot last year after the two serious accidents. Driving with Audi remains something very special. »

Benoît Tréluyer also has two victories in Sarthe. The Frenchman from the winning crew admits that the traffic on the track was particularly difficult to manage in the duel against the No. 2 Audi. 35 cars finished the race compared to 27 the previous year. “This race was particularly difficult because the traffic on the track was very busy this year. We had to be very careful not to leave the line because the track was very slippery outside. There were some particularly risky maneuvers. In the early hours of the morning we had an exciting duel against the sister car. This duel between the two Audi R18 e-trons demonstrated the potential of hybrid cars. »

Marcel Fässler also suffered a scare by damaging the rear wing of the victorious R18 while trying to avoid a Corvette in distress in the Arnage corner. “This race has been incredible, there have been lots of ups and downs…especially with me.”, comments the Swiss pilot. “I’m part of a great team. The mechanics did everything after the accident to repair the car as quickly as possible. As always, my teammates also did a fantastic job. It’s a great day for Audi not only with the victory but also with the double signed by the e-tron quattro. »

Discover the complete analysis of the 80th edition of 24 Hours of Le Mans produced by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.