LE MANS, France — L'histoire repeated itself for Peugeot in 2008. For the second year in a row, the French automaker had the fastest diesel-powered racing cars but came up short in its bid to unseat Audi as the dominant car in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance sports-car race.
Audi's R10 TDI scored its third straight victory in the classic event Sunday, with a pair of Peugeot 908 HDIs completing the podium.
The winning Audi Sport North American entry was co-driven by Tom Kristensen, who garnered his eighth overall victory at Le Mans, along with Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish. Their win was the fifth in a row for Audi and the eighth in the past nine years, the earlier wins having been with the R8 gasoline-fueled entry.
Much of the 76th running of the twice-round-the-clock event was rain dampened, and Audi parlayed the weather and its race strategy into victory. The winners covered 381 laps and won by 4 minutes, 31.094 seconds.
Second went to the No. 7 Peugeot co-driven by Jacques Villeneuve, Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian. Third went to the No. 9 Peugeot of Franck Montagny, Ricardo Zonta and Christian Klien, two laps off the pace.
The Audi Sport Team Joest entry of Lucas Luhr, Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller was 4th, seven laps down, with pole winner Stéphane Sarrazin's Peugeot 5th. Alex Wurz and Pedro Lamy shared driving duties with Sarrazin.
Marco Werner, Frank Biela and Emanuele Pirro, who teamed to win the last two victories here, ended up 6th in the other Audi Sport North America entry.
LMP2 honors went to the Porsche RS Spyder of Peter van Merksteijn, Jos Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen. The car was 10th overall.
Aston Martin upended Corvette for the second year in a row, with co-drivers David Brabham, Antonio Garcia and Darren Turner taking the win over the C6.R of Johnny O'Connel, Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows. The winning DBR9 was 13th overall.
GT2 honors went to the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT of Mika Salo, Jaime Melo, Jr., and Bruno Gianmaria, 19th overall.
What it means to you: It's disappointment again for Peugeot, but that only makes the anticipation of the next 12 months that much greater. — David Green, Correspondent
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