Le Mans. 24 hours of vehicular carnage. 24 hours of human endurance. 24 hours of emotions that range from confidence to hope to excitement to fear to disappointment to joy; sometimes within minutes of each other. Audi's 3 car effort once again triumphed, but not without drama and a few harrowing moments. Like McNish's horrific crash barely an hour into the event.
Watch it again and notice that not one spectator or worker got impaled by shards of carbon fiber moving at ludicrous speeds. Now that we know everyone walked away, we can giggle at the photographer that was chased by the rogue wheel...
10 hours later, Audi team driver Mike Rockenfeller met the same fate. Although he did walk away on his own accord, he was brought to a local hospital and suffered what was described as a "flesh wound", and will be fine. A real testament to the safety built into these cars. Not only Audi, but the sport as a whole has come a long way. 5 years ago this type of impact would not have had a happy ending.
Did the Ferrari close the door on Rockenfeller? I'm sure it will debated for weeks to come.
The rest of the race was an epic display of driving prowess. With the 1 remaining Audi R18 fending off and battling the Peugeot's like a gladiator. The Audi team rallied all their might around the last car piloted by the Marcel Fassler / Andre Lotterer / Benoit Treluyer line-up, and the Peugeot's kept the pressure on.
When your down, someone will always kick you. With barely 2 hours left in the contest, Marc Gene figured if you can't win playing clean, play dirty. OK, I'm being a little harsh; all is fair in love and war.
And war it was.
A mere 13 seconds separated the winner from the runner-up. After 24 hours of sensational racing, to have that small of a margin is remarkable to say the least.
Congratulations to Audi on it's 10th Le Mans win in 13 years, and a speedy recovery to McNish and Rockenfeller. A job well done to all involved for another memorable race.
Thanks to Speedtv.com for providing us with some great coverage here in the USA; LeMans.org for the live timing and scoring; a very special thanks to Motorsport Videos (MT89Motorsport2 on YouTube) for the clips.
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