In its third attempt at winning the world’s biggest and most important motor race, Peugeot and its 908 diesel finally won the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Although the French automaker had claimed the pole position at Le Mans the last three years, the outfit couldn’t quite find its way to victory, this all becoming excruciatingly frustrating in 2008 when they lost the race despite having a serious performance advantage over the omnipotent Audi R10. The Peugeot Sport team really had to be on is toes in 2009 as Audi showed up in France with its dazzling new R15.

However, in 2009 it all came right for Peugeot as its lead car motored to a relatively smooth victory. The race began with the pole-sitting #8 opening up a large gap on the field with Franck Montagny behind the wheel. The car would eventually experience mechanic challenges and on Saturday night, sat in the garage for 10 minutes, its left-rear upright in need of being rebuilt. When the car left the garage, Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Sebastien Bourdais drove for all they were worth throughout the night, getting the car back into the fray. Nonetheless, the #8 908 was no match for the #9 Peugeot that had already disappeared into the French darkness. In the #9 car, Alexander Wurz took over the lead of the race when the #8 car began to struggle on Saturday, and he, David Brabham and Marc Gene continued to put ground between their car and all others throughout the night.

Audi struggled at Le Mans, although the #1 car of Allan McNish, Tim Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello was pushed to the brink in an effort to keep the Peugeot’s in site. But it was to no avail, the R15 struggling home to an intrepid third.

Following the diesels home was the Aston Martin Racing Lolas of the LMP1 classification. Tomas Enge eventually brought the car home in fourth place, just three laps behind the lead works Audi. The #11 ORECA earned fifth place with a very respectful run. The #7 Peugeot recovered its way up to sixth place from the early pitlane incident, while the #14 Kolles-run Audi R10 finished seventh overall.

The LMP2 class victory was fought for fiercely between the two Porsche RS Spyders. In the end, the Team Essex car was victorious over Team Goh. The #33 Speedy Racing Sebah Lola was the second placed LMP2 car, finishing 14 laps adrift of the Essex machine due to a damaged diffuser.

Two works Chevrolet Corvettes duked I out for the GT1 class victory. For 21 hours, the two American-built cars went at it, the #63 car of Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell and Antonio Garcia claiming the win when the #64 car melted down with just two hours remaining.

In the GT2 class, six GT2 cars were all within a lap of each other six hours into the race, but then the Porsche contingent began to experience a myriad of problems. From there, Risi Competizione and their Ferrari F430 car raced into the lead at the one-quarter distance. With wheelmen Melo, Kaffer and Salo getting the job down, at sunrise on Sunday morning, the machine was still going strong and had no problem making it to the finish line. The BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari of Matteo Malucelli, Paolo Ruberti and Fabio Babini placed second in the second Risi 430.

By Eric Johnson