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| | Sunday, 16 June, 2002, 14:58 GMT 15:58 UK Audi claim record win
The winning trio started in second place but took the lead after three hours and remained in front until the end. "It's a dream come true," Kristensen said. "It was so, so hard. Everyone said we could do this. Everything worked perfectly. "Every time we had problems we were ready to solve them." Audi's closest early rivals either withdrew due to mechanical trouble or were delayed by skidding on the slick track. The victors also covered a record 375 laps around the 13.61 kilometre (8.44 mile) track, topping their own record of 368 laps set in 2000. The main challenge to Audi came from the Bentley team of Briton Andy Wallace, Eric van de Poele of Belgium and American Bruce Leitzinger. They finished 10 laps behind the third-place Audi team after being delayed when Van de Poele spun out at a bend in the course.
MG cars had threatened to challenge Audi on Saturday evening, but by dawn both were out. "It's a huge disappointment," said MG driver Mark Blundell. "It wasn't to be." Blundell, who qualified sixth along with Julian Bailey and Kevin McGarrity, had risen as high as third at one stage, but fell away due to technical problems and was forced out when his engine failed.
Fellow MG driver Warren Hughes, who was sharing with Anthony Reid and Jonny Kane, was forced to quit the race after the car suffered a broken transmission when running in fourth place. "Our ultimate aim when coming to Le Mans this year was to complete the race," said MG sport chief Rob Oldaker. "We clearly made improvements over last year and have shown that the [car] is capable of performing with the fastest cars in the race." "We are bitterly disappointed that we've not made enough progress in durability and reliability sufficient to complete 24 hours of hard racing." Useful contribution However, Hugh Chamberlain, in charge of the Chamberlain team that ran the two cars, thought MG had made a useful contribution. "I think a few people noticed we were around this year," he said. In the pre-dawn hours, Courage driver Eric Helary of France spun out, spilling oil onto the track. The red flag went up, prompting a 37-minute delay in the race as cleaning crews mopped up the spill. | |
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