Audi have been dominant in the LMP1 class for many years, winning outright 11 times since 2000. Returning to endurance racing after an absence of several years, in 2012 Toyota had put up a stiff challenge but collisions put both their entries out of the race.

This year the Audi/Toyota duel was expected to continue in earnest and was eagerly awaited. Qualifying for grid positions was greatly complicated by heavy rain that soaked two-thirds of the track at the start of the second and final qualifying session, as well as by track incidents, proving impossible for anyone to improve on times recorded in the first session with the result that Audi held pole position and Toyota’s two entries had to content themselves with starting fourth and fifth behind the three Audis.

The race got off to a very sad start. After only nine minutes, at 3.09pm, Allan Simonsen driving the No.95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE on his fourth lap went off the track at high speed at the Tertre Rouge curve and crashed heavily.

He was immediately seen on the spot by the race doctors but his condition was very serious and he was promptly transferred to the Circuit Medical Centre, where soon after he succumbed to his injuries. At the request of the family and in tribute to Simonsen, Aston Martin Racing continued with the participation of its other cars. Simonsen was an experienced driver, aged 34, and had already participated seven times in the Le Mans 24 Hours. There has, as yet, been no official explanation of what caused the accident but as no other vehicle appears to have been involved, it was presumably either mechanical failure or a driver blackout.

The Toyota drivers went into attack mode from the start and pursued the Audis relentlessly.

For many hours, the Audis held them at bay and hung on to their lead, but just as night was falling, the situation changed dramatically. After being refuelled, Audi No. 1 (Lotterer/Fassler/Treluyer) had to be pushed back into its garage with an alternator problem, and less than five minutes later Audi No. 3 (Gene/Di Grassi/Jarvis) suffered a puncture and lost time returning to the pits at reduced speed.

This left No. 2 Audi (Duval/McNish/ Kristensen) in the lead but Toyotas No. 8 (Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin) and No. 7 (Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima) were closing in, helped not only by their speed but also by their excellent reliability with neither car experiencing mechanical problems.

Towards the end of the race, Lapierre in Toyota 7 slid off the track in the rain and was passed by Audi 3, losing third place. Toyota 8, lying second, tried hard, but unsuccessfully, to catch up with the leading Audi 2, which took the chequered flag.

This was Audi’s 12th win in the Le Mans 24 Hours and for car No. 2’s drivers, it was Loic Duval’s first win, Allan McNish’s third and as for Tom Kristensen, nothing less than his ninth.

The final result was Audi first, third and fifth, and Toyota second and fourth overall. Sixth was Strakka Racing’s HPD ARX 03c-Honda No. 21. HPD stands for Honda Performance Development.

In the LMP2 class, Oak Racing’s Morgan-Nissans 35 and 24 put in an outstanding performance, both repeatedly recording almost identical lap times from the start.

Showing exemplary consistency and reliability, they took first and second places in their class in the eighth lap and held them to the end. Overall, they placed a very good seventh and eighth, 19 and 20 laps behind the winning Audi.

At the finish, third and fourth in class and ninth and 10th overall respectively were G-Drive Racing’s Oreca 03-Nissan 26 and Greaves Motorsport’s Zytek-Nissan 42. However, Car 26 was excluded because of an illegal capacity petrol tank, so car 42 moved up to third in class and ninth overall.

Alpine, the French manufacturer whose cars were prominent in racing years ago, made its return to Le Mans with No.36 Alpine-Nissan but was unable to do better than ninth in class.

Ferrari won convincingly the GTE Pro class last year and also won this year in the second round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship, the Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours on May 4, which is considered the final rehearsal before the major confrontation at Le Mans.

However, at the 24 Hours, Ferrari could do no better than fifth in class. First and second were two Porsche 911 RSRs (92 and 91 in that order) entered by Porsche AG Team Manthey, third was Aston Martin Vantage V8 No. 97 and fourth Corvette Racing’s Corvette C6-ZR1 No. 73. Back at Le Mans after an absence of some years were two Viper GTS-R (53 and 93) which placed eighth and ninth in class.

In the GTE Am class, Ferrari was also held at bay by Porsche 911 GT3 RSR No. 76 entered by IMSA Performance Matmut, which took first place. Salvaging Ferrari’s honour somewhat, AF Corse’s two Ferrari 458 Italia (55 and 61) placed second and third one lap behind.

Fourth was another Porsche, followed by a Corvette, an Aston Martin and three more Porsches, so all in all Porsche was triumphant in both GTE classes.

Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, the 24 Hours broke several records.

Fee-paying spectators totalled 245,000, 5,000 more than 2012, and 1,405 journalists from 42 countries were present. Thirty international TV networks (23 in 2012), including Eurosport, bought rights to show the race, covering 190 countries and enabling over 700 million viewers to see the race, and also extended its contract for future years.

Millions also followed the race on the web. Clearly the Le Mans 24 Hours is steadily gaining in prestige and popularity and its future, and that of endurance racing looks bright.

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