The Number One Audi Sport North America R10 TDI of Alan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capelo came out of the night in first place and held top spot for the last third of the race finishing there with Alan McNish at the wheel. Despite a bout of heavy rain an hour from the finish and a potentially race ending tangle by Tom Kristensen with a back marker, Audi scored its eighth win in nine entries in the legendary race and defeated Peugeot in an epic diesel dogfight.

After 381 laps less than one separated McNish from the second place No. 7 team Peugeot Total 908i HD FAP piloted by Jaques Villeneuve, Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian. The Peugeot had led the first half of the race but there had been no more than a lap between both cars for most of the full 24 Hours. It was nailbiter down to the end, when Tom Kristensen, who set a record with his eighth personal Le Mans win tagged a back marker, tearing off a piece of the R10 and putting himself into a full spin. The fact he continued without going off pace demonstrated what a tank the R10 is. Third place on the podium was rounded out by the No. 9 team Peugeot Total 908i HD FAP of Ricardo Zonta, Christian Klien and Frank Montagny and Luca Luhr took the No. 3 Joest Racing Audi  R10 TDI in for fourth. The Peugeot and Audi diesels took the top six spots showing their technical brilliance in endurance racing—the first petrol car was 13 laps behind the top diesel.

It was an epic weekend that we witnessed live and we’ll be bringing more highlights from the closing of the 76^th 24 Hours of Le Mans shortly.

Full results and more details at LeMans.org