Photo : Sebastien BASSANI (ACO)

 

After the first of his nine victories in 1997, Tom Kristensen was a BMW factory driver at the 1998 and 1999 24 Hours. In 1999, Audi made its first appearance in La Sarthe. After BMW left to seek success in Formula 1, in 2000 the Dane joined Audi. He became the teammate of German driver Frank Biela and Italian driver Emanuele Pirro, who had finished third the year before, along with Belgian Didier Theys. The trio Biela-Kristensen-Pirro went on to become the first driver line-up with the same three drivers to win three consecutive editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (2000-2001-2002). During that time, they were part of the kick off the first generation of Audi drivers, with Michele Alboreto (Kristensen's teammate for his first win in Le Mans), Allan McNish, Dindo Capello and Marco Werner.

Though the first named passed away prematurely in 2001 in an accident during a private test, all the other competitors would win the 24 Hours at the wheel of an Audi prototype: Biela and Pirro each have five victories, Werner and Capello three each (two with Audi for the latter). Starting in 2006, Kristensen joined McNish and Capello to form one of the most charismatic endurance driver line-ups of the beginning of the 21st century. Though they only won the 24 Hours once (2008) in seven joint participations, they won three times together at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the great American endurance race, with a particularly symbolic victory in 2012 at the launch of the current FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).

In Brazil, Tom Kristensen will say goodbye to competition at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, closing round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO - Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO

Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HOURS OF LE MANS, THURSDAY JUNE 20 2013, QUALIFYING. Tom Kristensen (standing) was the last representative of the first generation of Audi drivers at the 24 Hours of Le Mans after Allan McNish's retirement at the end of 2013 (seated in the Audi R18 e-tron quattro) with whom he won his ninth and final victory in La Sarthe last year.