(Mon 15 Jun 09)

In its third consecutive year of racing the diesel-powered 908 HDi FAP sports car, Peugeot has won the Le Mans 24 Hours event, bringing Audi's dominance to an end.

The winning car, driven by Marc Gené, David Brabham and Alex Wurz (who was the youngest Le Mans victor back in 1996) ran faultlessly and led the field from the five-hour mark to the finish. It took over from the Stéphane Sarrazin/Franck Montagny/Sébastien Bourdais Peugeot, which had qualified on pole position and led the first part of the race before Bourdais had to make an unscheduled pit stop and shortly afterwards collided with a backmarker.

The third Peugeot's chances of victory were dashed in another collision immediately after the first pit stop. That car dropped to 51st while it was being repaired, but fought back to take sixth overall, and set fastest lap of the race in the hands of Nicolas Minassian.

Audi had a tough race with the new R15 diesel. One car was lost in an accident, another finished 17th after a fuel injection pump had to be changed, and last year's winning drivers Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish came home third - a fine result, of course, but not what Audi had been hoping for.

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, Audi's motorsport boss, admitted to being "a little disappointed about the result", which probably understated the case significantly. The general message from the team was that Peugeot had deserved its victory but that Audi had every intention of winning again in 2010.

Under the current regulations, you need a diesel engine in your car if you are to have any hope of winning Le Mans. The top petrol-fuelled car, finishing fourth, was the Aston Martin LMP1 driven by Czechs Jan Charouz and Tomas Enge and German Stefan Mücke.

"We came to Le Mans with modest expectations and we've exceeded all of them," said Aston Martin Chairman David Richards after the race. "Once again, Aston Martin has punched well above its weight and it's a fantastic achievement from everyone involved. Now we have to ask ourselves some serious questions about where we go from here."

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