Audi wins Le Mans despite crashes

The #2 Audi R18 driven by Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer won the 79th 24 Hours of Le Mans from the pole, but their result belies a much more complicated, exciting race. Due to two massive crashes by Audi, Peugeot took places two through five at the checkered flag.

Allan McNish's accident came 46 minutes into the race when he collided with a Ferrari 458 in a corner. Despite the violent nature of the crash, neither McNish nor the people behind the tire wall were reported injured. McNish walked away from the car, and the Ferrari was repaired and rejoined the race. However, it was ultimately unable to finish. The incident caused the safety car to come out for about an hour in order to repair the tire wall and fences.

About 7 hours and 41 minutes into the race Mike Rockenfellar experienced a horrifying crash. Near the exit of the Mulsanne straight, he lost control while passing a Ferrari sending him into a spin and backwards into the the armco. Because of the remote location of the incident there is no definitive video of the crash. The car's in-car camera cuts out as soon as it makes contact with the wall, and the CCTV at the site only captures the explosion of debris. Rockenfellar was able to exit the car under his own power but was immediately taken to the hospital for overnight observation. The incident caused the safety car to come out for about two hours for track repairs.

The excitement was not just contained to the LMP1 cars; in LMP2 Greaves Motorsport won the class in a Nissan-powered Zytek despite qualifying sixth in their class. The #73 Corvette Racing Corvette went from qualifying sixth in the GTE Pro class to winning. Larbre Compétition's Corvette won the GTE Am class while qualifying in eighth.

Of the 56 cars that started the race only 27 finished.