For its third participation, Peugeot managed to maintain a very high pace in order to beat Le Mans masters for the past ten years, Audi.
Peugeot put two of their three works cars in the top two places, ahead of an Audi R15. The Marc Gene, David Brabham & Alexander Wurz crew won the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans in the #9 Peugeot 908, one lap ahead of the #8 Peugeot 908 driven by Sébastien Bourdais, Franck Montagny & Stéphane Sarrazin.
The race was very intense throughout, with the Safety Car coming out for 2 hours and 42 minutes altogether. Audi quickly lost two of their three works cars to an accident and mechanical problems. The Ingolstadt team was never really in a situation to beat the Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP cars.
The #1 car was one lap behind most of the time, with Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen having to put up with many mechanical problems which prevented last year's winners from taking the lead and beating the Peugeots. The #1 Audi R15 TDI finished third overall, six laps down, just ahead of the #007 Lola Aston Martin of the AMR Eastern Europe. LMP2 was won by the #31 Porsche RS spyder of Casper Elgaard, Emmanuel Collard and Kristian Paulsen. LM GT1 was won by the #63 Corvette C6.R of Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia. LM GT2 was won by the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT of Jaime Salo, Pierre Kaffer and Mika Salo.
There were 32 classified finishers.
Final classification :
1 - Gené-Wurz-Brabham (Peugeot 908) - Peugeot - 382 laps (1st LMP1)
2 - Montagny-Sarrazin-Bourdais (Peugeot 908) - Peugeot - 1 lap
3 - Kristensen-McNish-Capello (Audi R15) - Audi - 6 laps
4 - Charouz-Enge-Mucke (Lola Aston Martin) - AMR Eastern - 9 laps
5 - Panis-Lapyerre-Ayari (Oreca-AIM) - Oreca - 12 laps
6 - Minassian-Lamy-Klien (Peugeot 908) - Peugeot - 13 laps
7 - Lotterer-Zwolsman (Audi R15) - Kolles - 13 laps
8 - Jouanny-Tinseau-Barbosa (Pescarolo-Judd) - Pescarolo - 14 laps
9 - Albers-Bakkerud-Mondini (Audi R10) - Kolles - 22 laps
10 - Collard-Elgaard-Poulsen (Porsche Rs Spider) - Essex - 25 laps (1st LMP2)
(...)
15 - Magnussen-O'Connell-Garcia (Corvette C6.R) - Corvette - 40 laps
(...)
18 - Melo-Kaffer-Salo (Ferrari F430) - Risi - 53 laps
Etc.
Peugeot put two of their three works cars in the top two places, ahead of an Audi R15. The Marc Gene, David Brabham & Alexander Wurz crew won the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans in the #9 Peugeot 908, one lap ahead of the #8 Peugeot 908 driven by Sébastien Bourdais, Franck Montagny & Stéphane Sarrazin.
The race was very intense throughout, with the Safety Car coming out for 2 hours and 42 minutes altogether. Audi quickly lost two of their three works cars to an accident and mechanical problems. The Ingolstadt team was never really in a situation to beat the Peugeot 908 Hdi FAP cars.
The #1 car was one lap behind most of the time, with Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen having to put up with many mechanical problems which prevented last year's winners from taking the lead and beating the Peugeots. The #1 Audi R15 TDI finished third overall, six laps down, just ahead of the #007 Lola Aston Martin of the AMR Eastern Europe. LMP2 was won by the #31 Porsche RS spyder of Casper Elgaard, Emmanuel Collard and Kristian Paulsen. LM GT1 was won by the #63 Corvette C6.R of Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia. LM GT2 was won by the #82 Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT of Jaime Salo, Pierre Kaffer and Mika Salo.
There were 32 classified finishers.
Final classification :
1 - Gené-Wurz-Brabham (Peugeot 908) - Peugeot - 382 laps (1st LMP1)
2 - Montagny-Sarrazin-Bourdais (Peugeot 908) - Peugeot - 1 lap
3 - Kristensen-McNish-Capello (Audi R15) - Audi - 6 laps
4 - Charouz-Enge-Mucke (Lola Aston Martin) - AMR Eastern - 9 laps
5 - Panis-Lapyerre-Ayari (Oreca-AIM) - Oreca - 12 laps
6 - Minassian-Lamy-Klien (Peugeot 908) - Peugeot - 13 laps
7 - Lotterer-Zwolsman (Audi R15) - Kolles - 13 laps
8 - Jouanny-Tinseau-Barbosa (Pescarolo-Judd) - Pescarolo - 14 laps
9 - Albers-Bakkerud-Mondini (Audi R10) - Kolles - 22 laps
10 - Collard-Elgaard-Poulsen (Porsche Rs Spider) - Essex - 25 laps (1st LMP2)
(...)
15 - Magnussen-O'Connell-Garcia (Corvette C6.R) - Corvette - 40 laps
(...)
18 - Melo-Kaffer-Salo (Ferrari F430) - Risi - 53 laps
Etc.