He may have had to wait ten years for it, but Allan McNish admitted that the champagne that had been on ice since 1998 was the best he had ever tasted, after beating the odds to triumph for the second time in the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours last weekend.
The Scot – in company with team-mates Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo 'Dindo' Capello – returned to La Sarthe determined to avenge his agonising memories of the 2007 race, when the trio aboard the #2 Audi had established a nigh-on four-lap lead by early Sunday morning, only to see their hopes dashed when a rear wheel fell off the car and sent Capello crashing heavily into the barriers – and out of contention. Not only did McNish atone for that disappointment twelve months on, but he did so in some style.
“When you stand on top of that podium, and you see all the flags flying and the people cheering below you, it's definitely, definitely worth the wait,” he enthused, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio. “That champagne tasted so sweet, I can tell you!
“There was a lot of time and effort gone in between 1998 and 2008, and there's been a lot of heartbreak as well, but this place drags you back. There's something very, very special and unique about it, and standing on the top step is actually what it's all about.”
The last time the 38-year-old ascended the highest step of the rostrum was for Porsche back in 1998 alongside Stéphane Ortelli and Laurent Aïello, then only his second participation in the event dubbed 'the hardest race in the world', one that will chew you up and spit you out without even so much as a moment's consideration.
What made his 2008 glory all-the-more special was that it was achieved with a flawless race – in terms of driving, pit-stops, strategy, tactics and reliability – what McNish acknowledged had been, faced with rivals Peugeot's infinitely superior raw pace, the Ingolstadt manufacturer's only real hope.
“It's slightly unexpected in the way that it happened,” he confessed, “because we didn't expect the Peugeot to be quite so fast. On the other side of it, we didn't expect us to have the fantastically clean run that we did – and that we had in '07 until the wheel fell off…
“Everything ran like clockwork and the car was fantastically reliable – all we did was put diesel into it and tyres on it and off we went. It was very good in the wet and the dry – we had excellent balance there – and the pit-stops were superb; I think we spent less time in the pits than anyone else, and that's how you win this race, especially when you don't necessarily have the fastest car over one lap.
“There were a few turning-points; [the advent of the rain in the early morning hours] was the main one, no question about it, in terms of the lead battle. When the reliability issues started to afflict the Peugeot, we then knew we were pushing them further than they wanted to go.
