A record crowd of 263,500 spectators witnessed motorsport at the highest level for 24 hours. With a third place, Audi continued its string of podium positions, but missed taking overall victory. Quotes after the race.
Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): “At Le Mans, you can’t assume that you’re going to win the race every year. Still, that was clearly our intention. We showed that, based on last year’s Audi R18, we developed a fast car that was in contention for victory across large parts of the distance. This was also possible because we’ve got three very strong driver pairings. During the night, we lost some time and were a little unfortunate with our two best-placed cars as well. In the morning, we encountered some more difficulties. But when you have as strong a rival as we did at Le Mans, you’ve got to be perfect to win.”
Chris Reinke (Head of LMP at Audi Sport): “We had all the possibilities in our hands when we arrived here. We brought along an outstanding vehicle. And throughout the whole week, the team did an impeccable job as well. The drivers can’t be blamed in any way either. But at Le Mans you simply need that famous bit of fortune in order to be successful – and that was clearly on the side of our strong competitors today. Congratulations to Porsche Motorsport. They had ambitious plans just like we did and achieved everything today.”
Ralf Jüttner (Team Director Audi Sport Team Joest): “Congratulations to Porsche on their one-two result that is completely reserved. They delivered a tremendous and impeccable race. That’s not what we can say about ourselves this time. We started extremely strong and were incredibly faster than we’d been in qualifying. With that, we could have compensated for the disadvantages we had with the pit stops. But there was the early accident of Loïc (Duval), in which he wasn’t at fault, and a slow puncture with André (Lotterer) – from then on, we’d lost a little of our rhythm. During the night, there was another stage in which we were simply lacking speed. When, to top it off, some body parts came adrift in the morning, it was clear that the race was over, no matter how great a job you do in the pits. For me, it’s clear: if we’d fully used the car’s potential across the whole distance we could have won.”
Marcel Fässler (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #7): “The race wasn’t easy because the pace was very high. Obviously, we’d have preferred clinching a better result but to do that you need to get through the race without any difficulties. Le Mans is a sprint race across 24 hours. That means simply everything has got to fit. We had a car to win, but there were too many issues like a slow puncture or the damaged engine hood – that just cost too much time.”
André Lotterer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #7): “It wasn’t an easy race. We fought hard, but unfortunately had a few difficulties too many. That’s why we have to be happy with third place. We’re going to learn from the mistakes and come back stronger next year.Fortunately, in third place we’ve scored a lot of points for the drivers’ world championship. That’s still our goal.”
Benoît Tréluyer (Audi R18 e-tron quattro #7): “Besides our skills, we also had the necessary racing luck on our side for many years. That wasn’t the case this year. Unfortunately, our car was repeatedly affected by some minor issues. That comes as a bit of a surprise because Audi always prepares extremely well, as the long list of successes shows. We superbly completed all the tests again this year. In the race, we attacked non-stop. We had the chance to be in contention for victory. Our R18 e-tron quattro was real fun, which helped me a lot especially in my two four-time stints. But Porsche were better this year and deserve the win.”
