So it all turned out fine for the French after all, as they got their very own Le Mans winner. Admittedly, it wasn't quite the dream ticket of a Peugeot driven by Frenchmen, but at least it was Peugeot – albeit crewed by the foreigners Marc Gené, Alexander Wurz and David Brabham. Still, the home crowd at last got to cheer a home-grown model past the chequered flag. This year as every year, though, you get the impression that the locals are outnumbered by the British fans who have crossed the Channel to support the likes of Aston Martin.
The icing on the cake for the home nation was the second-placed Number 8 entry driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Sebastien Bourdais, which made it a Peugeot one-two. The best that those serial winners from Ingolstadt could manage this time was third podium spot, but Audi have already responded with fighting talk about next year's race. Still, that's some way off in the future, so let's take a look back at what has happened over the last few days in general and over the last 24 hours in particular...
The icing on the cake for the home nation was the second-placed Number 8 entry driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Franck Montagny and Sebastien Bourdais, which made it a Peugeot one-two. The best that those serial winners from Ingolstadt could manage this time was third podium spot, but Audi have already responded with fighting talk about next year's race. Still, that's some way off in the future, so let's take a look back at what has happened over the last few days in general and over the last 24 hours in particular...
What would Le Mans be without its racing cars? Not much, except a rather long circuit, a lot of disappointed fans and even more rubbish strewn over the surrounding campsites. That's how things will look on Monday, but autoblog preferred to interview former F1 driver Olivier Panis about his red-hot LMP1 projectile.
Everyone wants to talk about the winners such as record-breaker Tom Kristensen, Gené, Wurz and Brabham, perhaps even about the unlucky contestants such as Lucas Luhr. But there are a host of unsung heroes. For example, the 17-year-old British driver Nigel Moore who entered the race for Ginetta Zytek. This is what he had to tell us...
And who else was at Le Mans this year? Autoblog chatted to former race winner Marco Werner about the minor ailments that creep up on drivers and to Bruno Senna, nephew of racing legend Ayrton, about his race preparations on a Playstation.
What is it that drives the Le Mans contestants on? Obviously the will to win, but more literally the fuel in their tanks. We got Shell to tell us about this aspect of the event.
Le Mans is a cult occasion that attracts a fair number of celebrity guests. There were rather a lot of well-wishers in the Audi camp: we've drawn up a list and compiled a few anecdotes.
So sadly we have to take our leave for another year from the LMGT1, the Chevrolet Corvettes and that incredible sound. They will be sorely missed!
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