"le mans 2011"

Toil without mercy, speed without compromise: the Le Mans 24 Hours, the planet’s most celebrated endurance race, takes place next Saturday and Sunday.

This year’s primary objective was to maintain safety by stemming ever-escalating lap speeds. Parts of the circuit comprise relatively narrow public roads, too.

For the pace-setting LMP1 prototypes, permissible power is notionally reduced. The changes aim to restrict LMP1 cars to about 520bhp and discourage lap times below 3 min 30 sec (roughly 10 seconds slower than the fastest cars managed last time).

So Audi won the 24 Hours of Le Mans again in 2011.

To get a feeling of how much Audi had riding on the race you only had to visit Le Mans over the big weekend.

Basically, Audi’s presence at Le Mans dwarfed that of any other team this year, including arch rivals Peugeot. In short, Audi had put a lot into winning at Le Mans in 2011, while getting the maximum publicity bang for its bucks before, during and after the race. That fifth place Audi would be the centre of attention in the early stages of the race proper.

Incredibly, McNish climbed out of the wreckage with minor injuries, the R18 TDI’s safety cell having remained intact. Applause echoed through the Audi hospitality areas and around the circuit as the big screens confirmed he was OK.

R18 TDI number one car driven by Mike Rockenfeller was shown slamming into the barriers at high speed after clipping a Ferrari GTE car. Audi now had a single car in the race with a cluster of Peugeots in hot pursuit. As the race entered the closing stages concerns mounted at Audi that the French cars might employ blocking tactics to slow the R18 and give one of their number the chance to catch up but as the pit stops unfolded, Audi held the lead.

The winning margin after 24 hours of racing was 13 seconds.

Audi had come from an apparently perilous position, through two heart-stopping accidents, to grasp glory and a handsome return on its investment.

Le Mans 2011 had action aplenty. The Number 1 Audi also left the circuit after an accident. In the last hour though, a fierce battle raged between Lotterer and Simon Pagenaud in the Peugeot. In the end, Audi took victory over Peugeot by under 14 seconds. Third place went to the Number 8 Peugeot, at that point driven by Nic Minassian.