McNish was the driver that started the race in the R15 Plus, and the Scottish racer did not wait long before getting his Audi into the lead. In a matter of 3 laps, he overtook both pole sitter Peugeot and Lola-Aston Martin, after which he never looked back. He and his teammate eventually completed 266 laps on the French circuit, while also setting the fastest lap time in the process.
Soon after being passed by rivals Audi, Oreca team Peugeot experienced some technical problems that practically put an end to their winning hopes ahead of their home fans, eventually finishing 8 laps down to Audi Sport Team Joest.
“For sure it is nice to be back on the highest step of the podium – especially at the début of a new car. What makes me happy is that the changes we have done with the car – even the ones after the warm-up – worked quite well. Our next task is to make the R15 plus more consistent,” said Capello.
“We have achieved three things: First of all we gave the R15 plus its début victory. This continues a tradition for Audi’s début wins of new LMP1 cars. We won the race, which for the team and the drivers was very important especially after our difficulties last year. And for the engineers and the drivers it was very good experience for Le Mans. I think we ticked all the boxes and achieved our goals for this one,” added McNish.
Following their maiden success in the 2010 Le Mans, Audi will now head to a 30-hour test for their R15 Plus, before moving on to the 1000-km of Spa-Francorchamps in early May. The Belgian round will actually be Audi's last real test ahead of this year's Le Mans 24 Hours Race, which the German team is looking to clinch back following their defeat to Peugeot last year.
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