By finishing third, Allan McNish missed out on claiming his Le Mans 24 Hour "hat-trick" and a second consecutive win. The 39-year-old Scotsman had been aiming to repeat last year's victory along with co-drivers Dindo Capello (44, Italy) and Tom Kristensen (41, Denmark). "Overall we can be relatively happy with third place," reflected Dumfries-born McNish who has now finished on the top-three podium at Le Mans six times from ten starts.
Obviously it was our aim to win and retain Audi's fantastic Le Mans record. It had to stop at some point, as all good things do. The competition from Peugeot had been fierce for the past two years, but we previously came out on top. This time they got the better of us, but everyone at Audi Sport and Team Joest, as well as the drivers, will go home, regroup, rebuild and come back next year even stronger.
McNish started from second on the 55-car grid - only the R15 TDI's second race after the same driver "combo" scored a dbut race win for the car in the Sebring 12 Hours in March. The car slipped to fourth before briefly leading in the opening hour and thereafter remained in the top-three for the duration.
The Briton drove for a total time of 8hrs 16mins on three separate occasions - setting his car's fastest lap (3min 26.632, at an average speed of 147.54mph) at 11am. Thirty minutes later the car lost 13mins with suspension and electronics issues, but it still retaining third place in front of a crowd of over 250,000.
Before the start of the race, and in keeping with past tradition, tire manufacturer Michelin honored last year's winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This year Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish were each awarded a high-quality mountain bike.
Further enjoyable duties resulting from last year's Audi victory were performed by Capello, Kristensen and McNish in the Le Mans town center, where they made the traditional handprints in the pedestrian zone. Audi also produced something unique in the process: For the first time ever there were not only three but four handprints on the plaque - Dr Wolfgang Ullrich was also given the opportunity to immortalize himself.
Year after year, tens-of-thousands of Danish fans make the pilgrimage to Le Mans, more than 30,000 of them were expected again this year. Tom Kristensen visited his compatriots in three different Danish camps. Team mates Dindo Capello and Allan McNish accompanied the Danish Audi driver, who was warmly greet in `tent town' in the Parc du Raccordement.
The Le Mans organizers ACO conjured up a special offer for the many German fans by staging an autograph session at the "German Quarter" at Arnage for every German competitor - including music from a German brass band. The four German Audi drivers Timo Bernhard, Lucas Luhr, Mike Rockenfeller and Marco Werner attended the autograph session on Audi's behalf.