Audi wins tragic 24 Hours of Le Mans

After just 10 minutes in the 2013 24 Hours of Le mans race, it was clear that this year would be an emotionally and physically draining event. The death of Allan Simonsen in the first few laps of the race was the penumbra with which the following 23 hours would be raced. The death is the first Le Mans has experienced since 1986.

So too was the real clouds and constantly changing conditions that had all the teams and drivers on high alert at all times.

There was no rest or respite from the constantly changing conditions from rain to track surface temperatures to mechanical problems and crashes. Hours of caution flag time impacted the race and fuel mileage as drivers slowly ran behind the Safety Cars for nearly 9 hours in total. Armco repairs seemed to be the biggest job at hand for 2013 as track workers ground, bent and welded pieces back together after they were ripped from their posts by errant race cars.

In the end, the old guard at Audi secured the victory giving Tom Kristensen his 9th, Allan McNish his 3rd and Loic Duval his 1st victory at Le Mans. McNish said this year was the toughest race he’d ever faced as a professional and while the cloak of mortality draped over the event, it was the physical and constantly changing conditions that added to the mental drain the diminutive Scot faced. For Tom Kristensen, his record 9th win came on a day that a fellow Dane was killed and this was just a 3 months after the death of his father creating a very emotional day for the man known as Mr. Le Mans.

Pos Cl      Car       Drivers                         Laps  Gap
 1. P1  #2  Audi      Kristensen/McNish/Duval         348   
 2. P1  #8  Toyota    Davidson/Sarrazin/Buemi         347   +     1 Lap
 3. P1  #3  Audi      Gene/Jarvis/di Grassi           347   + 1m55.252s
 4. P1  #7  Toyota    Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima          341   +    7 Laps
 5. P1  #1  Audi      Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler       338   +   10 Laps
 6. P1  #21 HPD       Leventis/Kane/Watts             332   +   16 Laps
 7. P2  #35 Morgan    Baguette/Plowman/Gonzalez       329   +   19 Laps
 8. P2  #24 Morgan    Pla/Brundle/H Hansson           328   +   20 Laps
 9. P2  #26 Oreca     Rusinov/Martin/Conway           327   +   21 Laps
10. P2  #42 Zytek     Krumm/Mardenborough/Ordonez     327   + 1m07.075s
11. P2  #49 Oreca     P-Companc/Kaffer/Minassian      325   +   23 Laps
12. P2  #43 Morgan    Gachnang/Mailleux/Lombard       320   +   28 Laps
13. P2  #48 Oreca     Hartley/Chandhok/Patterson      319   +   29 Laps
14. P2  #38 Zytek     Dolan/Turvey/Luhr               319   + 4m01.549s
15. P2  #36 Alpine    Ragues/Panciatici/Gommendy      317   +   31 Laps
16. GTP #92 Porsche   Lieb/Lietz/Dumas                315   +   33 Laps
17. GTP #91 Porsche   Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhard      315   + 2m10.631s
18. GTP #97 Aston     Mucke/Turner/Dumbreck           314   +   34 Laps
19. P2  #34 Oreca     Frey/Niederhauser/Bleekemolen   314   + 1m27.131s
20. GTP #73 Corvette  Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor         312   +   36 Laps
21. GTP #71 Ferrari   Beretta/Kobayashi/Vilander      311   +   37 Laps
22. GTP #51 Ferrari   Bruni/Fisichella/Malucelli      311   + 1m57.110s
23. GTP #74 Corvette  Gavin/Milner/Westbrook          309   +   39 Laps
24. P2  #41 Zytek     Rossi/K-Smith/Lux               307   +   41 Laps
25. GTP #53 SRT       Farnbacher/Goossens/Dalziel     306   +   42 Laps
26. GTA #76 Porsche   Narac/Vernay/Bourret            306   + 1m51.302s
27. GTA #55 Ferrari   Perazzini/O'Young/Case          305   +   43 Laps
28. GTA #61 Ferrari   Gerber/Griffin/Cioci            305   + 1m26.507s
29. GTA #77 Porsche   Dempsey/Foster/Long             305   + 2m51.114s
30. GTA #50 Corvette  Bornhauser/Canal/Taylor         302   +   46 Laps
31. GTA #96 Aston     Goethe/Campbell-Walter/Hall     301   +   47 Laps
32. GTP #93 SRT       Wittmer/Kendall/Bomarito        301   + 1m58.599s
33. P2  #40 Oreca     Dagoneau/Downs/Younessi         300   +   48 Laps
34. GTA #67 Porsche   Gibon/Milesi/Henzler            300   +   32.348s
35. GTP #66 Ferrari   Bertolini/Faisal/Qubaisi        300   +   51.765s
36. GTA #88 Porsche   Ried/Roda/Ruberti               300   + 1m28.639s
37. GTA #75 Porsche   Collard/Perrodo/Crubile         298   +   50 Laps
38. GTA #81 Ferrari   Potolicchio/Aguas/Bright        294   +   54 Laps
39. P2  #39 Lola      Porta/Brandela/Raffin           280   +   68 Laps
40. P1  #12 Lola      Prost/Jani/Heidfeld             275   +   73 Laps
41. P1  #13 Lola      Beche/Belicchi/Cheng            275   + 1m27.020s
42. GTA #70 Corvette  MacNeil/Rodrigues/Dumas         268   +   80 Laps
43. P2  #33 HPD       Tucker/Franchitti/Briscoe       242   +  106 Laps
44. P2  #46 Oreca     Thiriet/Badey/Martin            310      Retired
45. GTP #99 Aston     Makowiecki/Senna/Bell           248      Retired
46. P2  #45 Morgan    Nicolet/Merlin/Mondolot         246      Retired
47. P2  #47 Morgan    Imperatori/Howson/Tung          241      Retired
48. GTP #98 Aston     Dalla Lana/Lamy/Auberlen        221      Retired
49. P2  #32 Lotus     Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz        219      Retired
50. P2  #30 Lola      Mowlem/Burgess/Hirschi          153      Retired
51. GTA #54 Ferrari   Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank        147      Retired
52. GTA #57 Ferrari   Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani           111      Retired
53. P2  #25 Oreca     Graves/Hamilton/Nakano          101      Retired
54. P2  #28 Lola      Giroix/Haezebrouck/Ihara        22       Retired
55. P2  #31 Lotus     Weeda/Rossiter/Bouchut          17       Retired
56. GTA #95 Aston     Simonsen/Nygaard/Poulsen        2        Retired