Allan McNish hails Audi's Le Mans win

Kristensen, McNish and Capello had to settle for third place on the podium

Allan McNish hailed Audi's one-two-three against the odds at the Le Mans 24-hour race despite personally missing out on a third victory.

The Scot was in the team that finished third after co-driver Tom Kristensen slid off early on in the race as Audi eclipsed their faster Peugeot rivals.

"We realised we didn't have the speed over one lap, so we had to think a little bit alternatively," said McNish.

"I have to say the one-two-three by Audi is an incredible result."

Audi played second fiddle to Peugeot throughout practice and qualifying, but the reliability of the German manufacturer's cars came to the fore when it mattered most as Mike Rockenfeller, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas took the chequered flag.

With second place going to the number eight Audi of Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer, and McNish, Kristensen and sportscar veteran Dindo Capello recovering to take a hard-earned third, what had threatened to be a disappointing weekend for Audi turned into a moment of triumph.

We were obviously the leading Audi and it was very frustrating for us at that time Audi driver Tom Kristensen

"I always knew this was a long race and to think of three cars without any reliability problems just shows how hard the engineers have worked over the course of the winter with the R15," said McNish, who won the race in 1998 and 2008.

"Everyone can be pretty proud of this result as it was against some of the stiffest competition in a fantastically fast race."

With eight-time Le Mans winner Kristensen at the wheel, the number seven car slid off the track at the Porsche curves as the Dane tried to pass the slowing BMW of Britain's Andy Priaulx.

With Priaulx hampered by a damaged wheel and switching his line, Kristensen was left with nowhere to go on a fast section of the track and span out to end his team's victory hopes.

The Audi was recovered by the marshals, but a pit stop was required to fix the damaged rear wing and the car dropped down the order and out of contention.

That left the number nine Audi R15 TDI of Rockenfeller, Bernhard and Dumas as the car in the right place to inherit the win after the leading Peugeots all succumbed to mechanical problems.

Dumas and Bernhard were able to celebrate victory at Le Mans

Audi Motorsport boss Dr Wolfgang Ullrich berated BMW bosses after the tangle with three-time World Touring Car champion Priaulx, but Kristensen has quickly moved to end any antagonism between the German rivals.

"We were obviously the leading Audi and it was very frustrating for us at that time," he said.

"But, when you look at what we did, when you see nine drivers on the podium, I think that's fantastic.

"It can happen to any of us and it was a misjudgement, but the outcome is that we still made the podium, so we should all forget about the incident. It is something that can happen here."

Wales' Andy Meyrick was at the wheel as Team Oreca took an unexpected fourth place.

Meanwhile, the high attrition rate in the LMP1 class meant fifth place overall went to the LMP2 category winners in the number 42 Strakka Racing car, driven by Englishmen Nick Leventis and Danny Watts and Irishman Johnny Kane.

Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler took victory in the GT2 class and 11th overall in the number 77 Porsche, while Roland Berville, Julien Canal and Gabriele Gardel took the honours in GT1 in the number 50 Saleen S7-R.

Just 27 cars were classified at the finish out of the 55 starters that took to the grid on Saturday afternoon.