He may already be known as a record-breaker, but ‘Mr Le Mans' Tom Kristensen has admitted that he is now a rule-breaker too, after claiming that Audi overcame three unwritten rules to triumph in the 76th edition of the round-the-clock French classic this year.
In so doing, the Dane added to his successes from 1997, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 – all-but two of them with the Ingolstadt manufacturer – and he reflected afterwards that it had been the most satisfying of them all, having had to battle against a quicker competitor in the form of Peugeot, which took three of its 908 HDis to La Sarthe determined to halt Audi's hegemony.
“What's the secret of winning Le Mans?” Kristensen questioned afterwards, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net Radio. “The secret is not a secret – it just takes a lot to do it. It's this unique atmosphere, with great people with the same determination, and we always believe in it.
“This time of course we didn't have the fastest car, but as drivers we had a very strong belief; Allan [McNish] especially, but Dindo [Capello] as well, were able to really motivate the people in the team. They knew we wanted to win, and when it then works and the car doesn't miss a beat and our engineers and tyre guys and so on make all the right calls, then we come out on top.
“We all did four stints, which particularly towards the beginning of the race was one of the keys to keeping the pressure cooker boiling. It was really tough out there, especially during the night – the last part of it of course was in tricky conditions, but I knew we'd just have to get through it.
“There was a lot of rain, and if this had been a dry race it would have been the fastest race in history. We were basically – literally – spanking the cars.”
