Le Mans 24 Hours final hour: #1 Audi crew wraps up victory

It was the second successive victory for the #1 crew of Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler, and in the last hour it was a case of cruise and collect for the German as he kept the R18 on the black stuff.

The #1 car led for much of the race, interrupted only twice when Nicolas Lapierre cheekily put the Toyota briefly in front in the early stages, and more recently in the morning when Allan McNish put on a burst before crashing behind a Ferrari at the Porsche Curves.

The #2 hybrid driver kept on pushing post repairs, but in the last hour handed over to co-driver Tom Kristensen who it seemed was intent on securing second for his squad on Dindo Capello's last appearance at Le Mans. There are, after all, World Endurance Championship points at stake.

Former winner Mike Rockenfeller brought home the #4 R18 ultra, three laps off the lead, to make it an Audi 1-2-3.

Neel Jani meanwhile completed a monster quadruple stint to deliver Rebellion Lola its best finish at Le Mans in fourth.

The other Audi ultra - #3 - in the hands of Loic Duval kept the afterburners lit right to the flag, but in all honesty the car was never going to recover fourth after all its problems.

Peter Dumbreck brought home the JRM HPD in sixth ahead of LMP2 winner and Daytona 24 Hours runner-up Ryan Dalziel, who brought the Starworks HPD home a creditable seventh.

Giancarlo Fisichella took the flag in GTE Pro with a brilliant win for AF Corse after racing through from the back, following the Italian's massive Porsche Curves shunt on Wednesday.

Adrian Fernandez never did quite catch Frederic Makowiecki in the end, so second place in class went to Luxury Racing, but Aston Martin has certainly signalled its intent.

The battle for GTE Am honours raged right to the end, and it was only after the last stops when Pedro Lamy's Larbre Corvette passed Anthony Pons's IMSA Porsche 911 RSR with 17 minutes to go that the matter was settled even before a puncture for Imsa.

So, in the end, Lamy proved to be the only Peugeot refugee to stand on the top step of the podium in 2012.

NOTES

- #2 and #3 Audis both crash in the 22nd hour requiring substantial front end repairs, ending McNish's challenge for the lead and further delaying Dumas's recovery.

- #1 Audi gets rear bodywork damage in incident with #74 Corvette, then goes wheel to wheel with #2 after repairs in next pitstop

- Mucke damages the #97 Aston Martin in a crash at Indianapolis, dropping it away from GTE Pro leaders

- The #48 ORECA-Nissan driven by Brendon Hartley has retired after contact with the Status

Lola

- Faisal spins the #75 Porsche at Porsche Curves, hitting the wall to bring the safety car out

- Marcel Fassler spins the #1 Audi e-tron at the Porsche curves, handing the lead to McNish

- Dumas tipped into a spin while passing traffic at Ford chicane

- Davidson confirms he sustained a broken back as a result of huge earlier crash

- Westbrook loses a wheel, and with it the lead of the GTE Pro class

- Peter Dumbreck suffers blow-out in the #22 JRM HPD

- Spin at Ford chicane for #21 Strakka HPD

- Problems for the #7 Toyota following collision with DeltaWing at the restart

- #29 Gulf Racing Lola B12 the first official retirement

- #40 hit with a two-minute stop and go penalty for second pitlane speeding offence

- 30s pit stop penalties for #40 and #49 LMP2s for speeding in pitlane

- Audi hits early niggles, with Tom Kristensen the third unexpected delay for the marque across its four cars

- Early GTE Pro scrap between Corvette, Aston Martin and Ferrari

- #99 Aston Martin Vantage suffers early misfire and then retires with damage

POSITIONS AFTER 24 HOURS

Pos Car            Drivers                      Class  Laps  Gap
 1. #1  Audi       Lotterer/Fassler/Treluyer    LMP1   378   
 2. #2  Audi       McNish/Capello/Kristensen    LMP1   377   +     1 Lap
 3. #4  Audi       Jarvis/Bonanomi/Rockenfeller LMP1   375   +    3 Laps
 4. #12 Lola       Prost/Heidfeld/Jani          LMP1   367   +   11 Laps
 5. #3  Audi       Gene/Dumas/Duval             LMP1   366   +   12 Laps
 6. #22 HPD        Brabham/Dumbreck/Chandhok    LMP1   357   +   21 Laps
 7. #44 HPD        Potolicchio/Dalziel/K-Smith  LMP2   354   +   24 Laps
 8. #46 Oreca      Thiriet/Beche/Tinseau        LMP2   353   +   25 Laps
 9. #49 Oreca      Perez Companc/Kaffer/Ayari   LMP2   352   +   26 Laps
10. #26 Oreca      Ragues/Panciatici/Rusinov    LMP2   351   +   27 Laps
11. #13 Lola       Belicchi/Bleekemolen/Primat  LMP1   350   +   28 Laps
12. #41 Zytek      Zugel/Julian/Gonzalez        LMP2   348   +   30 Laps
13. #25 Oreca      Martin/Charouz/Graves        LMP2   346   +   32 Laps
14. #35 Morgan     H Hansson/Leinders/Martin    LMP2   341   +   37 Laps
15. #42 Zytek      Brundle/Brundle/Ordonez      LMP2   340   +   38 Laps
16. #23 Oreca      Tresson/Mailleux/Lombard     LMP2   340   + 2m47.469s
17. #51 Ferrari    Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander    GTEP   336   +   42 Laps
18. #59 Ferrari    Makowiecki/Melo/Farnbacher   GTEP   333   +   45 Laps
19. #97 Aston      Mucke/Fernandez/Turner       GTEP   332   +   46 Laps
20. #50 Corvette   Bornhauser/Canal/Lamy        GTEA   329   +   49 Laps
21. #67 Porsche    Pons/Armindo/Narac           GTEA   328   +   50 Laps
22. #71 Ferrari    Bertolini/Beretta/Cioci      GTEP   326   +   52 Laps
23. #73 Corvette   Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor      GTEP   326   + 3m10.910s
24. #45 Oreca      Briere/Nakano/Petersen       LMP2   325   +   53 Laps
25. #57 Ferrari    Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo         GTEA   323   +   55 Laps
26. #40 Oreca      Frey/Hirschi/Meichtry        LMP2   320   +   58 Laps
27. #79 Porsche    Neiman/Pumpelly/Pilet        GTEA   313   +   65 Laps
28. #70 Corvette   Bourret/Gibon/Belloc         GTEA   309   +   69 Laps
29. #43 Norma      Rosier/Haezebrouck/Thirion   LMP2   308   +   70 Laps
30. #21 HPD        Leventis/Kane/Watts          LMP1   303   +   75 Laps
31. #61 Ferrari    Kauffman/Aguas/Vickers       GTEA   294   +   84 Laps
32. #83 Ferrari    Rodrigues/Illiano/Ferte      GTEA   292   +   86 Laps
33. #55 Porsche    Daniels/Palttala/Camathias   GTEA   290   +   88 Laps
34. #74 Corvette   Gavin/Westbrook/Milner       GTEP   215   +  163 Laps
35. #17 Dome       Minassian/Bourdais/Ara       LMP1   202   +  176 Laps
36. #38 Zytek      Hancock/Dolan/Kurosawa       LMP2   271   Retired
37. #33 HPD        Tucker/Bouchut/Diaz          LMP2   240   Retired
38. #30 Lola       Sims/Buurman/Iannetta        LMP2   239   Retired
39. #88 Porsche    Ried/Roda/Ruberti            GTEA   222   Retired
40. #15 OAK        Montagny/Kraihamer/Baguette  LMP1   219   Retired
41. #66 Ferrari    Walker/Cocker/Wills          GTEP   204   Retired
42. #48 Oreca      Firth/Hartley/Hughes         LMP2   196   Retired
43. #77 Porsche    Lietz/Lieb/Henzler           GTEP   184   Retired
44. #75 Porsche    al Faisal/Curtis/Edwards     GTEA   180   Retired
45. #31 Lola       Holzer/Schultis/Moro         LMP2   155   Retired
46. #58 Ferrari    Ehret/Jeannette/Montecalvo   GTEA   146   Retired
47. #24 Morgan     Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla           LMP2   139   Retired
48. #7  Toyota     Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima       LMP1   134   Retired
49. #80 Porsche    Bergmeister/Long/Holzer      GTEP   114   Retired
50. #28 Lola       Giroix/Badey/Johansson       LMP2   92    Retired
51. #8  Toyota     Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin      LMP1   82    Retired
52. #0  DeltaWing  Franchitti/Krumm/Motoyama    CDNT   75    Retired
53. #81 Ferrari    Perazzini/Cadei/Griffin      GTEA   70    Retired
54. #99 Aston      Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen     GTEA   31    Retired
55. #16 Pescarolo  Collard/Bouillon/Hall        LMP1   20    Retired
56. #29 Lola       Ihara/Deletraz/Rostan        LMP2   17    Retired