2013 24 Hours of Le Mans
The race was won by an Audi R18 e-tron quattro shared by Dane Tom Kristensen, Brit Allan McNish and Frenchman Loïc Duval after it led the last 248 laps, taking the manufacturers' twelfth victory at Le Mans since its first in the 2000 edition.
Buemi, Davidson and Sarrazin finished second and Lucas di Grassi, Marc Gené and Oliver Jarvis in another Audi completed the race podium.
The Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) category finished with the OAK Racing Morgan car of Bertrand Baguette, Martin Plowman and Ricardo González ahead of the sister entry of Alex Brundle, David Heinemeier Hansson and Olivier Pla by a distance of one lap.
One of Porsche's Manthey Racing 991 RSR of Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz won the Le Mans Grand Touring Professional (LMGTE Pro) class and the sister No.
76 IMSA Performance Matmut car of Raymond Narac, Christophe Bourret and Jean-Karl Vernay, earning the marque its 100th class victory at Le Mans.
The championship leaders going into the race, Lotterer, Fässler and Tréluyer fell to second while Davidson, Sarrazin and Buemi maintained third due to the trio's second-place finish.
Di Grassi, Gené and Jarvis moved from sixth to fourth and the duo of Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre rounded out the top five.
The 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans was moved forward one week after a request was filed by the world governing body of motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), in order to harmonise the 2013 motor racing calendar.
[11] Three weeks before the race, GreenGT withdrew their entry, citing a lack of time to complete the complex fine-tuning of the hydrogen fuel cell system.
[14] Starworks Motorsport, defending champions of Le Mans and the FIA WEC in the LMP2 category, withdrew their HPD-Honda entry on 9 April due to a lack of funding from sponsors, promoting Morand Racing's Morgan-Judd.
[15] Ten days later, Gulf Racing Middle East withdrew the second of its Lola-Nissan B12/80s and DKR Engineering's Lola-Judd replaced the entry.
[24][25] Krohn had a high speed accident at the downhill Dunlop Esses and his car was launched about 20 ft (6.1 m) into the air before landing in a gravel trap, bringing an early end to practice due to a large amount of damage to the barriers.
[30] The two Toyotas replicated their test day results of fourth and sixth with drivers Kazuki Nakajima and Buemi although the former was second early in qualifying and a driveline problem curtailed the No.
[30] Pierre Thiriet had a heavy accident at the second Mulsanne chicane, denting the barriers alongside the track, and ending the session 15 minutes early because repairs could not be completed in time.
24 OAK Racing Morgan pushed hard in clear air to clinch the pole position in the category with a time of 3 minutes, 38.621 seconds recorded at the end of the session.
67 IMSA Performance Matmut car of Pascal Gibon at Indianapolis turn and yellow flags were waved in the area because Kristensen was stranded in the grass to the left of the circuit.
25 G-Drive car of Tor Graves blew its right-rear tyre on the run to the Porsche Curves and veered heavily into the inside barriers and debris was littered on the track.
[48][49] The impact crushed the roof of the car and its supporting roll cage; its force launched it slowly back onto the circuit with a wheel and its doors detached.
Davidson took the overall lead for the first time on pit stop cycle rotation due to Toyota's better fuel economy over the Audis and kept it until the end of lap fifteen.
[54] At the start of the third hour, Lotterer was demoted to second when Lapierre moved past him on the exit to Mulsanne corner but he was not recorded as the leader because he entered the pit lane at the end of lap twenty-seven.
The main on-track action involved Lucas Luhr who ran wide in the Porsche Curves and glanced an inside barrier alongside the track but he continued without significant damage to the No.
32 Lotus T128 shed its rear bodywork on the Mulsanne Straight and nullifying Tréluyer and Jarvis' advantage because Duval returned to second after he made a pit stop during the period.
35 OAK Racing car when he was instructed to enter the pit lane to have an illuminated door number panel repaired, which took two laps to complete.
54 AF Corse Ferrari as well as the catchfencing at the Dunlop Esses and Tetre Rouge corner, causing an event record seventh safety car period.
[75] Racing resumed for only half a minute as the safety cars were needed to tend to repairs to a heavily damaged trackside barrier exiting the second Mulsanne chicane; Belicchi was about to lap a slower GTE Porsche but lost traction at the rear of the No.
The rain eased and track conditions improved as Turner reduced Lieb's advantage at the front of LMGTE Pro to 8.8 seconds by the end of the 20th hour.
2 Audi made a pit stop for a slow puncture as heavy rain returned with 90 minutes left and several cars aquaplaned on the saturated circuit.
2 Audi of Kristensen, Duval and McNish led the final 248 laps to claim the manufacturer's twelfth victory at Le Mans since its first at the 2000 race.
35 Morgan of Baugette, Ricardo González and Martin Plowman and the team's second car of Pla, Heinememer Hansson and Brundle was a lap behind for a second-place finish.
[53] A memorial foundation was established in his honour by the Danish Automobile Sports Union and he was given a funeral in his hometown of Odense in Southern Denmark on 2 July.
