Peugeot reign to end Audi's string of triumphs

Peugeot finally broke Audi's recent stranglehold at Le Mans with a comfortable one-two in the famous 24-hour race yesterday. Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham led home the sister factory car of Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Sebastien Bourdais by one lap in front of a crowd of 250,000. "It's a magical feeling to finally win Le Mans, we had a perfect race, no problems whatsoever. I'm overjoyed to win the world's biggest race," said Brabham as Peugeot won for the first time since 1993 after Audi had won the previous five races.

Scotland's Allan McNish, bidding for a second consecutive Le Mans triumph, briefly held the lead in the opening hour before falling back McNish and co-drivers Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello were six laps behind the winning Peugeot after suffering suspension and electronics problems with three hours remaining. They finished three laps clear of the Lola Aston Martin of Jan Charouz, Thomas Enge and Stefan Mucke.

Elsewhere, the No 31 Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder of Casper Elgaard, Emmanuel Collard and Kristian Poulsen posted victory in the LMP2 class ahead of the Speedy Racing Sebah Lola Judd Coupe of Jonny Kane, Benjamin Leuenberger and Xavier Pompidou. The No 63 works Corvette of Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia took the GT1 class win while the No 82 Risi Competizione F430 of Jaime Melo Jr, Mika Salo and Pierre Kaffer claimed the GT2 win.

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