Quotes after the race

Dr Wolfgang Ullrich (Head of Audi Motorsport): "We saw another dramatic ALMS race. After Mosport we thought that it could not be closer. To lose the overall victory three minutes before the end after a long lead hurts of course. But on the other side we did not expect to fight against the lighter LM P2 cars for the victory on this street circuit, especially after the qualifying. The race performance and the strategy of the team were very good. Our drivers demonstrated once more the meaning of Audi TDI power.”

Dindo Capello (Audi R10 TDI #1): "Having taken over from Allan after the restart I was baulked. The leading Porsche of [Romain] Dumas was slow at the green flag which slowed [Chris] Dyson and me enabling Emanuele [Pirro] to take a clean run from fourth behind me and into the lead. For almost the next 30mins, Dyson was defending third place very hard and that cost the #1 Audi any hope of overall honours. It was then a case of ensuring another good LM P1 points score for the championship.”

Allan McNish (Audi R10 TDI #1): "Second and third places overall for Audi on possibly the least suited circuit for our R10 TDI is a positive result. We were much more competitive in the race than had been expected partly due to us being good in traffic. I had grabbed the lead 10mins before I pitted to Dindo during a full course yellow but we encountered a nut problem on the front left wheel which cost us valuable seconds and dropped us into the pack.”

The results at Detroit

1 Dumas/Bernhard (Porsche) 106 laps in 2hrs 45'36"179
2 Pirro/Werner (Audi R10 TDI) + 5"948 (1st LM P1)
3 Capello/McNish (Audi R10 TDI) + 17"970 (2nd LM P1)
4 Wallace/Leitzinger (Porsche) + 22"242
5 Brabham/Johansson (Acura/Honda) + 22"569
6 Fernandez/Diaz (Acura/Honda) + 23"887
7 Dyson/Smith (Porsche) 41"513
8 Bach/Devlin (Lola-Mazda) - 1 lap
9 Maassen/Briscoe (Porsche) - 2 laps
10 O’Connell/Magnussen (Corvette) - 3 laps

Season Point summary

Dindo Capello and Allan McNish in the "sister” Audi completed an excellent team performance with third place overall and second in LM P1. With that Audi celebrated the 20th consecutive victory in the LM P1 category, the "king class” of the Le Mans prototypes and secured two races before the end of the season the Manufacturers title for the eighth time.

The two Audi R10 TDI sportscars, which started the race from the fourth row, gave the fans an impressive show. In the first hour of the race Marco Werner had to come to the pits for a stop-and-go-penalty but still climbed back to the third position. Emanuele Pirro, who took over the cockpit during a full-course-yellow, demonstrated at the restart the power of his Audi R10 TDI and went directly to the head of the field. For the final 35 laps, he had a hard battle with Romain Dumas (Porsche) and defended his lead until lap 102 of 106. When Dumas went in the lead, both cars touched slightly. Pirro re-took the lead but after short time but at the end he was ultimately beaten by less than six seconds.