Audi wins third straight Le Mans title

June 16, 2002

LE MANS, France -- Audi swept the top three places in the 24 Hours of Le Mans on, as Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen and Emanuele Pirro became the first trio to win the event three years running.

Starting in second place, Biela, Kristensen and Pirro took the lead after three hours and remained in front until the end.

"Everything worked perfect," Pirro said. "Every time we had problems we were ready to solve them."

As he did the last two years, Pirro drove the silver-and-red R8 car across the finish line as the checkered flag swung in the air and thousands of fans in the stands cheered and waved national flags.

Organizers said 220,000 spectators were on hand for at least part of the round-the-clock race.

The No. 2 Audi team of Rinaldo Capello, Chris Pescatori and Johnny Herbert started in pole position but finished second, one lap behind. In third, two laps later, was No. 3 Audi of Michael Krumm, Marco Werner and Philipp Peter.

The top American finisher was Butch Leitzinger, a co-driver of the fourth-place Bentley with Andy Wallace of Britain and Eric Van De Poele of Belgium.

The powerful Audis outperformed their closest early rivals, which either withdrew due to mechanical trouble or were delayed by skidding on the slick track.

The victors, who had nine blown tires between them, also covered a record 375 laps around the 8.46-mile track, topping their own record of 368 said two years ago.

However, their overall distance of 3,173.625 miles was shorter than the record of 3,307.89 miles, set by the Porsche 917 team of Helmut Marko and Gijs Van Lennep in 1971, when the circuit featured fewer chicanes.

Andy Wallace, Van De Poele and Leitzinger finished 10 laps behind the third-place Audi. Bentley got delayed after Van De Poele spun out at a bend in the course.

"Under the circumstances, this was the best result we could have had," said Wallace, whose team placed third in 2001. "Both car and team coped extremely well with the pressure."

Two Oreca Dallara teams ended in fifth and sixth places, but finished two laps back of Bentley. A Cadillac team rose as high as fifth, but it lost ground when Max Angelelli slammed hard into a wall at the Tertre Rouge turn. It finished in ninth.

The sun bore down on the drivers as they crossed the finish line. The weather was in sharp contrast to the heavy rains experienced in last year's edition. However, many drivers reported slick racing conditions.