The 24 Hours of Le Mans 2013 came to a close at 3pm this afternoon. A hard fought battle secured the number 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro another victory. The Audi R18 e-tron quattro has now won the event on four consecutive occasions. Drivers this time around were Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval.
Overall, the Audi R18 e-tron quattro covered 348 laps during the course of this year’s event. The closest rival, a Toyota TS030 Hybrid driven by Anthony Davidson, Stéphane Sarrazin and Sébastien Buemi, covered one lap less and finished only slightly ahead of the number 3 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.
Elsewhere, Oak Racing celebrated an LMP2 victory with the Nissan-powered Morgan LMP2 coming first and second in that category. The wining drivers in that category included Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo González.
In the LMGTE Pro category, Aston Martin failed to turn their qualifying dominance into a race result. Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Romain Dumas powered the brand new Porsche 991 GT3-RSR to victory in the name of Team Manthey. They beat the number 91 ca by a narrow margin to take the victory. Overall, both cars completed 315 laps.
The final category, LMGTE Am saw another Porsche victory with the Porsche 997 GT3-RSR of IMSA Performance Matmut taking the honours. The Ferrari 458 Italia GT2’s of AF Corse closed down the podium with second and third place. This category win brings Porsche’s total tally of Le Mans category wins to the 100 mark.
Without a doubt, the 2013 event will be etched into most people’s memory for the tragic events of the first four laps. Allan Simmenson unfortunately lost his life in the number 95 Aston Martin. He had told reporters prior to the race that “just being at Le Mans and to be allowed to drive the car on the track is incredibly special.”
Simonsen’s death is the first driver fatality at Le Mans since Sebastien Enjolras was killed during pre-qualifying in 1997. It is the first fatality during a race since Austrian Jo Gartner died in the 1986 event.
