Audi holding Peugeot pack at bay in Le Mans race – AFP
Audi holding Peugeot pack at bay in Le Mans race
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
LE MANS, France — Audi may have suffered two spectacular crashes but the German marque still enjoyed the upper hand over arch rivals Peugeot as the Le Mans 24 Hours raced towards its climax on Sunday.
At 0900GMT, four hours from the finish of the iconic endurance race, the Audi R18 shared by Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer, continued to hold a trio of Peugeot’s at bay on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
As the rain began to fall, Audi’s number two car was leading by over half a minute from the Peugeot 908 driven by former Formula One pilot Stephane Bourdais, Simon Pagenaud and Pedro Lamy.
When the Frenchman came in after his fifth stint at the wheel, having handed over to Lotterer, he told Eurosport: “I’m off for a nice breakfast now! The team woke me up to jump back in the car and I didn’t have time to eat.”
Alex Wurz, who had been lying second in his 908, put a severe dent in his prospects of claiming this 79th edition of Le Mans when sliding off the track at Indianapolis shortly before 0800.
He hit the tyre wall, shedding bodywork but made it back to the pits before rejoining the action.
“I ran out of talent!” Wurz told official website lemans.org.
“I was pushing hard at the time and made a stupid driving mistake and veered off the ideal line by about half a meter; my first accident since 2008″.
The Austrian is lagging one lap behind the pacesetting Audi in fourth, with Peugeot’s other car sitting third.
The Audi team was left reeling on Saturday after two huge smashes.
Scotland’s two-time winner Allan McNish walked away unhurt after a spectacular crash in the opening hour, and then his teammate, German Mike Rockenfeller also escaped unharmed when his car caught fire after crashing.
Rockenfeller was aiming to follow up his win for Audi last year.
Audi have won six of the past seven races, with Peugeot claiming success in 2009.
With a number of other accidents the safety car has been deployed for five of the 18 hours since the flag was raised on the start of this year’s race on Saturday at 1300GMT.
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