Record-breaking seventh Le Mans the best yet, says Kristensen

TOM KRISTENSEN admitted his record breaking seventh Le Mans 24 Hours victory yesterday was his greatest win to date.

The Dane secured a place in motor racing history as he steered home the Champion Audi he was sharing with JJ Lehto and Marco Werner to first place, two laps ahead of the Pescarolo driven by Emmanuel Collard, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Erik Comas, after taking the lead just over three hours into the race.

The second Champion Audi shared by Scotland’s Allan McNish, Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela ended up third to round off a successful seven-year career for the Audi R8 car at Le Mans - which has won five races since its debut back in 1999, but will not return to the event next year.

The win, which sees Kristensen surpass the record he previously held jointly with Jacky Ickx, was his seventh win out of nine starts at Le Mans and he paid tribute to his first race victory which came back in 1997 with Porsche.

He said: “Without the first victory and the fame that follows after that, the rest would never have followed but the one I remember best is this one.”

The Champion Audi victory signals the first win since 1967 for an American privateer team and Kristensen, Germany’s Werner and Finn Lehto had minimal problems and disruption throughout the race. The team also overcame restrictions to the car, as it carried 50kilos of extra ballast and smaller air restrictors than in previous years and Kristensen acknowledged the car’s reliability had played a part as they held off the challenge of the Pescarolo.

“The car has been fantastic and I’d like to thank everyone at Champion Racing. It has been an honour and a privilege for me and I am very happy to have been doing this for so many years.”