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H24: Audi victorious, Aston win GT1

Audi have extended their remarkable Le Mans record with a comprehensive win at this year's 75th edition of the race

Marco Werner had the honour of taking the No. 1 Audi R10 that he co-drove with Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela across the line for the finish.

History was made in GT1, as Aston Martin finally managed to break Corvette's stranglehold on the class by getting the No. 009 David Brabham/Rickard Rydell/Darren Turner across the line in first place.

Much of the final hour had been run behind a safety car due to heavy rain that left rivers of water running along the track.

But although the downpour continued, the race returned to green flag conditions for the final 10 minutes.

Common sense among the drivers prevailed to the point where the Audi was so keen to get to the finish in one piece that it was overtaken by two GT1 cars at a single corner.

Sebastien Bourdais managed to get the No. 8 Peugeot across the line in second to give the French marque a podium in its Le Mans comeback campaign.

The 908 stopped at the final chicane at the beginning of the last lap so that it could follow the lead pack across the line.

The car had spent part of the final hour in the garage, but returned to the track with 20 minutes remaining. At the end, Bourdais delayed steering his car into parc ferme to climb out and give his hometown grandstand an impromptu salute.

Pescarolo scored one for the petrol power by taking third place.

Binnie Motorsports claimed the LMP2 win, but despite a massive margin over the only other LMP2 car left running at the finish, the final hour was anything but relaxing for them.

The car was brought into the pits for a touch of soldering when water began seeping into the radio, but while it was there the team discovered that they actually had a major electrical problem.

This left them needing to virtually rewire the car in the final hour, and they managed to get Chris Buncombe back out onto the circuit with just two minutes remaining.

The IMSA Porsche team of Raymond Narac, Richard Lietz and Patrick Long picked up the GT2 silverware.

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