The Audi #2 drivers had been the fastest Audi for the whole
weekend and in addition, Tom K drove an impressive qualifying
session on Saturday. The race started out equally as promising for
the duo. As early as on lap one Allan McNish managed to pass one of
the two Peugeots and to take over positions two. On lap 18 the
"yellow" Audi overtook the Peugeot of Sébastien Bourdais, which had
been leading up to that point. Things were going according to
plan.
But the Audi squad was not able to enjoy the lead for very long:
Allan McNish lost a lap early on when during the first refuelling
stop the rear bodywork of the Audi R18 TDI had to be exchanged as a
result of contact with a GT car in which he had not been at fault.
More serious consequences were caused by the mistake of a rival in
the LMP1 class who made a braking mistake in front of Turn 1 and
slid into the rear of the Audi that was running in front of him
causing a cable harness to be severed. The resulting short circuit
caused irreparable damage to the on-board electronics of the R18
TDI. Following several unscheduled pit stops Audi Sport Team Joest
took the car out of the race after three hours and 46 minutes.
"A frustrating end for our 'yellow' car. Until today it's been a
perfect weekend. The tests in wet and dry conditions, the
qualifying session - everything went according to plan or even
better. From the start, Allan (McNish) and Timo (Bernhard) were
running really fast. But when Allan was hit in the rear by the
Rebellion car, the impact apparently caused a short circuit. We had
to change the battery several times but that didn't eliminate the
problem. That was a shame because we were definitely quick enough
to be able to win the race - and that was clearly our goal. It's
been a character-building year," Tom K said after the race.
Marcel Fässler and Timo Bernhard in the other Audi managed to
secure third place in the race behind the two Peugeots.
From 2012 the ILMC series will be replaced by a new FIA World
Championship called World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Results
1 Bourdais/Davidson (Peugeot) 249 laps in 6h 01m 24.879s
2 Montagny/Sarrazin (Peugeot) + 38.651s
3 Bernhard/Fässler (Audi R18 TDI) - 1 lap
4 Jani/Prost (Lola-Toyota) - 7 laps
5 Nicolet/Premat/Pla (Oak-Pescarolo-Judd) - 9 laps
6 Meyrick/Mücke/Primat (Lola-Aston Martin) - 10 laps
7 Lahaye/Moreau/Ragues (Oak-Pescarolo-Judd) - 11 laps
8 Mailleux/Ordonez/Vernay (Oreca-Nissan) - 21 laps
9 Farfus/Müller (BMW) - 28 laps
10 Priaulx/Alzen (BMW) - 29 laps