Oxford racing driver Andy Wallace took victory in the LMP2 category of the Le Mans 24 Hour race.

Teaming up with Manchester's Mike Newton and Brazilian Thomas Erdos, Wallace helped to take the honours in their Lola.

In the top class, Emanuele Pirro crossed the line to make history for Audi by winning the race for the first time with a diesel car and complete Audi's sixth win in seven years.

Audi's new car, the only one in the 50-strong field with diesel power, exceeded expectations and Pirro, Marco Werner and Frank Biela took a dominant win at record-breaking pace.

Briton Oliver Gavin, from Northampton, took an unexpected fourth overall as he benefited from late mechanical dramas for the Banbury-prepared Aston Martin team to snatch victory in the GT1 class, alongside Olivier Beretta and Jan Magnussen.

After leading the GT1 class for most of the race, the Aston Martin team could not deliver the victory that looked to be on the cards and had to settle for second place.

The lead DBR9 driven by Pedro Lamy, Stephane Ortelli and Stephane Sarrazin suffered a clutch problem in the 21st hour, forcing it to pit for lengthy repairs. The pitstop lasted 45 minutes and resulted in car 009 dropping down to fifth in class, much to the disappointment of the thousands of Aston Martin Racing fans in the record 230,000 crowd.

The team's other DBR9, which started on pole position, was another favourite for honours, but its chances of victory diminished when it suffered a cracked oil pipe on lap four. Tomas Enge, Darren Turner, of Banbury, and Andrea Piccini staged a fabulous fight back to move from 48th to tenth overall, and second in GT1.

There was also a strong performance by the Team Modena DBR9. The David Brabham, Nelson Piquet and Antonio Garcia car finished ninth overall and fourth in GT1.

George Howard-Chappell, team principal of Aston Martin Racing: "It's very disappointing to be leading at the 21-hour mark, only to have victory snatched away from us. This is the second successive year that this has happened and, to be honest, I'm fed up with it."

David Richards, chairman of Aston Martin Racing: "We have a sense of dj vu about this result. For the second year in a row we've had the speed to win the race, but not for 24 hours. We're disappointed, but it will be only few days before we start looking ahead to next year's race."

  • A near standard Aston Martin V8 Vantage, built at the company's headquarters at Gaydon, near Banbury, has taken its place in the company's history books after finishing fourth in class and 24th overall at the Nrburgring 24-hour endurance race