Emotional Audi hail 'best race' in years

After years of dominating at Le Mans with little to no competition, Audi came into the 76th event as arguably the underdogs in the LMP1 class, with rivals Peugeot - competing in their second year - thoroughly dominating the pre-race sessions, including a 1-2-3 result in qualifying.

But a combination of reliability issues, some errors, and constantly changing weather conditions allowed Audi to take the lead and not relinquish it for the last ten hours - despite constant pressure from the No.7 Peugeot.

"I'm very, very pleased and extremely proud," an emotional Allan McNish said, as his co-driver Tom Kristensen crossed the finish line in the No.2 Audi. "We did it with our backs against the wall, but we did it."

"It's unbelievable," co-driver Dindo Capello added. "This was the best Le Mans ever. And we won it!"

Audi's head of motorsport Wolfgang Ullrich praised his team, and said this was the best race seen at Le Mans in a while.

"It was a really great race," the German said. "Le Mans hasn't seen such a race in many years. We did it by staying calm, and we used our technology to win.

"And now, we are going to celebrate."