For the fifth year running, diesel power was the way to go at Le Mans, with Audi taking its ninth overall win at the legendary 24-hour race. The Peugeot Sport team looked very strong in qualifying occupying the top three grid positions, and after an outright win in 2009 were favourite to take the victory again. Due to a series of mechanical failures (One broken suspension mount and three engine failures), all four Peugeots finished the race prematurely, handing the victory over to Alan McNish and the other Audi R15 TDis.

Aston Martin's LMP1 Lola was the quickest of the petrol powered prototypes moving up to fourth position following the downfall of the Peugeots, but disaster struck when the engine gave up less than an hour from the end of the race. Nigel Mansell’s debut Le Mans race was brought to an abrupt end when he lost control of the Beechdean Mansell Ginetta-Zytek at 200mph and hit the barrier. A slow puncture has been blamed for the accident, and although Mansell was airlifted to hospital, he has only suffered very minor injuries.

Taking the win for the LMP2 class was the Strakka Racing HPD ARX.01, finishing fifth overall more than 30 laps behind the leading Audis. The Saleen S7R won the GT1 class, followed by the only other GT1 car to finish, Jerome Policand’s Corvette C6.R.

The Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Lieb, Lietz and Henzlern took the GT3 class win, marking the 98th class win at Le Mans by the Stuttgart marque. Five out of the six Porsche 911s that entered successfully completed the 24-hour race. Jaguar's XKR RSR, the car entered to celebrate 75 years of the company's motorsport heritage, failed to finish the race.

To view a selection of images from the weekend, visit our Le Mans gallery:

Octane Le Mans Gallery