Photo : P.SAIVET - VSC Pictures

Petit Le Mans was disappointing for Audi, and the failure of both cars to finish the race handed the ILMC team and manufaturers' titles to rivals Peugeot'. It was a clash of Titans but a shortened one.

At the start, the pole position Peugeot of Bourdais maintaned the lead. This advantage was destroyed when debris from another car lying on the track clogged one of the radiator ducts of the R18 TDI, which required an unscheduled pit stop. A 20-second stop-and-go penalty cost additional time.

Bernhard/Dumas/Fässler consistently stayed on the lead lap and managed to close the gap to the leading Peugeot again. At the end of the seventh hour Romain Dumas launched a first attack against Franck Montagny during which there was some slight body contact in the chicane before the start and finish and the Audi driver lost five seconds. Only a few laps later Dumas caught up with the Peugeot again. When the Peugeot touched a GT vehicle Dumas at the start of the parallel straight was able to move alongside Montagny but was squeezed out by the Peugeot driver in the acceleration phase. While trying to avoid a collision with the Peugeot, Dumas brushed a GT vehicle and made heavy contact wth the wall. That put a disappointingly early end to the race of the #1 Audi R18 TDI.

Audi #2 lost all chance of victory quite early in the race. Tom Kristensen had two incidents of body contact with slower cars in the first few laps. The first one led to a puncture and damaged bodywork. Later on, Allan McNish was hit in the rear by a GT vehicle. In addition to suspension and body parts, the clutch had to be exchanged which caused #2 to lose over an hour and drop back out of contention. Because the various body contacts had also caused problems with the steering, Audi Sport Team Joest decided to take the car driven by Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish out of the race after 302 laps for safety reasons.

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): "I’m very disappointed. We were battling for victory for seven hours and were leading several times. Our best car and the best Peugeot were always just separated by a few seconds. Unfortunately, Romain Dumas was barged off by the leading Peugeot while he was trying to overtake it. This resulted in contact with a GT vehicle that had to be lapped and an accident leading to retirement. This was an extreme shame because we had the performance to win this race. I think it wasn’t necessary to fend off Romain’s attack in such a brutal way - that’s not the way to act in endurance racing, especially at such high speeds. The second car became entangled in several minor collisions early on and was out of contention for victory after a longer repair despite driving the times of the front runners. We congratulate Peugeot on their victory and the ILMC title. Nevertheless, there is an aftertaste today which is not so pleasant."

(Source: Audi Sport press information)

Photo : BRASELTON (GEORGIA, USA), ATLANTA, PETIT LE MANS, RACE, 1st OCT 2011. The battle between Audi and Peugeot went in favour of Peugeot.