Audi claimed the first Le Mans 24 Hours victory for a hybrid car as #1 crew Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler repeated their 2011 triumph in the 80th running of the famous event. The trio led a one-two for the new e-tron and topped an all-Audi podium. But while that result might have been widely predicted given the rival Toyota TS030's lack of preparation mileage and Audi's enthusiasm for proving the effectiveness of its e-tron concept, the winners certainly did not have it easy.
The rate of attrition was pretty high this year, with the most spectacular crash going to Anthony Davidson in the Toyota. He walked away but after an examination later in the day it was found that he had 2 broken vertebrea in his back.
The Nissan Delta Wing was popular with the fans and was running well until a coming together with the number 7 Toyota put them both out.
Le Mans 24 Hours 2012 Race result
- LMP1 #1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron Quattro (Fässler/Lotterer/Tréluyer) 378 laps
- LMP1 #2 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron Quattro (Capello/Kristensen/McNish) +1 lap
- LMP1 #4 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 Ultra (Bonanomi/Jarvis/Rockenfeller) 3:25.433s +3 laps
- LMP1 #12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota (Prost/Jani/Heidfeld) +11 laps
- LMP1 #3 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 Ultra (Dumas/Duval/Gené) +12 laps
- LMP1 #22 HPD ARX-03a (Brabham/Chandhok/Dumbreck) +21 laps
- LMP2 #44 Starworks HPD ARX-03b (Potolicchio/Dalziel/Kimber-Smith) +24 laps
- LMP2 #46 Thiriet By TDS Racing (Beche/Thiriet/Tinseau) +25 laps
- LMP2 #49 Pecom Racing (Perez Companc/Ayari/Kaffer) +26 laps
- LMP2 #26 Signatech Nissan (Panciatici/Ragues/Rusinov) +27 laps
