Goh Audi takes victory
Tom Kristensen can now say he's a six-time winner at Le Mans. He can add a win on the Bugatti circuit today to his tally of five wins in the 24 Hours. Driving the lone Audi R8 with Team Goh partner Seiji Ara, victory in the Le Mans 1000km came as expected.
Early rain evened things out amongst the leaders, but the Audi pulled away once things cleared up and crossed the line three laps clear of the Pescarolo Courage-Peugeot of Sebastien Bourdais/Stephane Sarrazin/Franck Lagorce. The race in fact ran to less than 900km as it was ended at the six-hour time limit.
"The low fuel consumption of the Audi engine allowed us to be conservative with the tyre choice," said Kristensen. "We could stay out longer and watch what the others did. This was the key to success."
Ara added: "Winning at Le Mans means a lot to me. It was a very difficult race due to the weather conditions, but we had a great car. Tom was a fantastic team-mate. Now my next aim is to win the Le Mans 24 Hours."
Just a lap behind the Courage came the Dome-Judd of Jan Lammers and Andy Wallace. They were rarely far behind and kept up steady pressure on the French car throughout the race.
The Veloqx Ferrari Maranellos took GTS honours, although the Larbre Chrysler Viper did take an early lead in a wet first hour that saw plenty of spins and incidents. The Jamie Davies/Darren Turner car came in a lap ahead of Tim Sugden and Peter Kox. The Viper was eventually third.
The Cirtek Motorsport Ferrari Modena won the usual tight battle in GT, beating off two Porsche entries. The Freisinger GT3 was just 14 seconds behind at the finish, a lap in front of the PK Sport Porsche. The PK car had been leading the class until a late puncture.
Courage's C65 model took victory in the LMP675 category, earning itself a pre-selection for next June's 24 hours, along with the other leading finishers in each category.
1 Ara/Kristensen (Audi R8) 208 laps in 5hrs 59m 53.245s
2 Sarrazin/Lagorce/Bourdais (Courage-Peugeot) +3 laps
3 Lammers/Wallace (Dome-Judd) +4 laps
4 Rusinov/Eyckmans/Muscioni (Courage-JPX) +11 laps
5 Davies/Turner (Ferrari) +13 laps
6 Kox/Sugden (Ferrari) +14 laps
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