Peugeot Teach Audi a Lesson at the 2009 24h of Le Mans
Monday, June 15, 2009 at 14:44 
The 2009 24h of Le Mans was one of the most epic races in history in which two factory teams battled it out around the clock. Although it was unexpected, the Peugeot 908 HDI FAP took 1st and a 2nd place in front of the Audi R15 TDI.
The winning Peugeot car, number 9 was driven by the ex-f1 drivers Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham. The Peugeot car number 8 which finished in 2nd was driven by the French trio Sébastien Bourdais, Franck Montagny and Stéphane Sarrazin. In third came the Audi number 1 driven by the legendary Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen.
Audi was clearly caught off guard as their two other cars failed to finish because of an accident and a faulty high-pressure injection pump. Audi said they were defeated due to the fact that the official test day prior to the race was canceled as well as bad luck. The R15 also experienced a problem with the sidepod-mounted intercoolers which would clog up and result in decreased horsepower but graciously congratulated Peugoet for their victory.
Audi's Chairman of the Board of Management, Rupert Stadler said, "If you win the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times in succession and eight times overall this doesn't happen by chance." He added that "We know how difficult it is to win Le Mans. Also Peugeot, who we congratulate on this well deserved victory, needed three attempts."
Audi's Head of Audi Motorsport, Dr Wolfgang Ullrich, said that "There is absolutely no doubt that race did not run as we had imagined. We have once again seen why the 24 Hours of Le Mans is justifiably regarded as the world's toughest car race and why absolutely everything must be correct if you want to win. This was definitely not the case with us this time. We had unexpected problems with our new R15 TDI, which we will now analyze in peace and must solve. However, especially in the second half of the race we saw just how much potential the car has. We will build on this before making a new attempt next year."
In LMP2 it was no surprise to see the Team Essex Porsche RS Syder driven by Casper Elgaard, Emmanuel Collard and Kristian Poulsen take home the gold. The GT1 category was won by the factory Corvette Racing team driven by Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell and Antonio Garcia. Last but not least, the GT2 category was won by the Risi Competition Ferrari F430 GT driven by Jaime Melo, Mika Salo and Pierre Kaffer.
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