The race wasn't without problems for the car with a transmission issue on Saturday evening dropping the Peugeot back down the order but through the night and into daylight, the trio gradually made their way back through the field – taking advantage of problems for others to climb into a podium place.
At that point, it looked like Peugeot was going to take a 2-3 finish, with the #8 car running behind the sister machine of Jacques Villeneuve, Marc Gene and Nic Minassian but there would be late heart-ache for one half of the Peugeot team when an engine problem just an hour and half from the finish forced the car into the pit garage for the final time.
There was still time for Bourdais to cause French hearts to skip a beat when he stopped on track just 50 seconds from the finish of the race, Under Le Mans regulations, a car has to take the flag to be classed as a finisher, but it soon became apparent that – with torrential rain falling – the Champ Car World Series title winner was waiting for the race winner to come through rather than run another lap.
With the demise of the two Audis and the Peugeot, Henri Pescarolo's eponymous outfit secured honours amongst the petrol driven brigade with the #16 entry driven by Manu Collard, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Romain Dumas taking the final place on the podium. Indeed the result could have been better for the team had it not been for an incident with a slower car on Sunday morning that resulted in the car being pulled in the garage, but a top three placing in a strong field was still a good result for Pescarolo and his team.
The privateer Pescarolo of Rollcentre Racing secured a lonely fourth place as Martin Short's team celebrated its return to LMP1 after a year with the LMP2 Radical by matching its best finish at La Sarthe. While not having the pace of the cars ahead, solid driving from Short, Joao Barbosa and rookie Stuart Hall saw the team fly the flag for Britain in style.
