Narain Karthikeyan managed to rule himself out of the 2009 Le Mans 24-hour race by dislocating his shoulder while jumping over the pit wall in the moments before the start was given. It was a sad moment for the Indian A1GP driver and for India as well. The endurance 24- hours race which got kick-started on June 13 at 3 p.m. local time on the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans in France finally finished on June 14 with 32 classified finishers from a total of 55 who had qualified on Thursday for the final 24 hour race.
The race which finished just a couple of hours before the filing of this story saw Peugeot dominate Audi and finish 1st & 2nd respectively. This was also their third participation, and significant that the French diesel prototypes managed to beat Le Mans masters of past ten years, Audi. Spain's Marc Gene, Australia's David Brabham and Alexander Wurz of Austria (all three former F1 drivers) drove their diesel-powered Peugeot number nine car to victory. The trio completed 382 laps, one lap more than the Peugeot number eight car driven by Frenchmen Sebastien Bourdais, Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin. Audi's Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello and Tom Kristensen were third. The trio, who won the race last year, were well in contention until they had to pit their Audi R15 twice in the space of a few minutes during the 21st hour of the race. 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. Peugeot also lost a private-run car when Benoit Treluyer spectacularly crashed out overnight. His car was destroyed and the French driver was taken to the medical centre but his team said he was fine. Apicella’s Lamborghini managed just a single lap, while underdogs Aston Martin, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their first Le Mans victory, were fourth - nine laps off the pace.
The Fastest Lap was set by Nicolas Minassian on lap 259 in a time of 3:24.352. 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.
Race result:
1) D Brabham (Aus), M Gene (Spa), A Wurz (Aut), Peugeot, 382 laps 2) S Bourdais, F Montagny & S Sarrazin (Fra), Peugeot, 381 laps 3) R Capello (Ita), T Kristensen (Den), A McNish (GB), Audi, 376 laps 4) J Charouz & T Enge (Cze), S Mucke (Ger), Lola Aston Martin, 373 laps 5) O Panis, N Lapierre and S Ayari (Fra) Oreca, 370 laps 6) C Klien (Aut), P Lamy (Por), N Minassian (Fra), Peugeot, 369 laps 7) N Karthikeyan (Ind), A Lotterer (Jpn), C Zwolsman (Ned), Kolles, 369 laps 8) C Tinseau & B Jouanny (Fra), J Barbosa (Por), Pescarolo, 368 laps 9) C Albers (Ned), C Bakkerud (Den), G Mondini (Ita), Kolles, 360 laps 10) C Elgaard & K Poulsen (Den), E Collard (Fra), Porsche RS Spyder, 357 laps
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