The
Audi team became the first winner of the
24 Hours of
Le Mans with a hybrid engine after accidents in the fourth hour hit
Toyota's return to the race.
Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer drove an Audi R18 e-tron Quattro to victory, covering 378 laps of the 8.5-mile circuit southwest of Paris. Audi also took second with its other hybrid in the field, while one of its R18 Ultra diesels was third.
Race organizer
Automobile Club de L'Ouest changed the rules for the top class last year to allow part-electric engines, allowing a boost of recouped energy from braking at the expense of a smaller fuel tank. The Audi power train also included a flywheel developed by
Formula One team owner
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd. It's the eighth win in nine years for Audi, the first winner with a diesel car in 2006. Toyota, at its first Le Mans race since 1999 and also using two hybrids, was the only other team owned by a major carmaker.
Both Toyotas failed to finish. The team's chances of victory evaporated just after driver
Nicolas Lapierre had taken the lead by passing Audi's Treluyer on the Mulsanne straight...