Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas were the winning crew for Audi, as they finished one lap ahead of Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer. Third overall were the actual Audi favorites for the race Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello.
The 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours race saw all diesel-powered Peugeot 908s drop out of the race on Sunday, as also less than half of the 55 contestants went on to actually cross the finish line. Following the retirement of their #1 and #2 crews, ORECA saw their third team record a DNF only 70 minutes to go, due to a massive oil fire experienced by Loic Duval’s car.
At the time, Duval was trying hard to catch Rinaldo Capello’s Audi for 3rd place overall, being less than 10 seconds behind the Italian when fire struck the rear of his Peugeot 908.
That handed Soheil Ayari, Andy Meyrick and Didier Andre a 4th place finish in their petrol-powered LMP1, as their main rivals for that spot, Aston Martin’s #009 Hancock/Turner/Barazi had to retire due to an engine failure with less than an hour to go.
Fifth overall were the LMP2 champions for this edition of the race, Strakka Racing, whose Jonny Kane, Danny Watts and Nick Leventis finished 7 laps ahead of #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo-Judd’s Jan Charouz, Guillaume Moreau and Matthieu Lehaye.
In the GT1 class, it was Larbre Saleen’s Gabriele Gardel, Roland Berville and Julien Canal who clinched the 1st place honors, handing S7R its first class win in the history of the race. However, in the overall classification, they finished 7 laps behind GT2 class winners Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler, driving for #77 Felbermayr Porsche 911.
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