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They weren’t the fastest, nor did they crush the opposition from start to finish as we’ve come to expect, but when it was time to cross the start/finish line for the final time at the 82nd 24 Hours of Le Mans, experience won the day for Audi’s No. 2 R18 e-tron quattro as their counterparts went faster but ultimately faltered.

Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer became 3-time winners at Le Mans—their third overall win in four years—when the No. 7 Toyota, No. 20 Porsche, and the sister No. 1 Audi tumbled from the lead in succession.

Audi’s No. 2 was followed home by the brand-new No. 1 Audi that was built this week after the primary car was destroyed in a crash on Wednesday. The No. 1 also had a shot at the win, but blinked when a 23-minute turbocharger change was required. The No. 2 would also require a turbo change, taking only 17 minutes. The fight back by Lotterer, who performed a quintuple stint to lop between three and five seconds per lap off of the No. 20 Porsche 919 Hybrid, will go down as one of the epic drives of the modern era.

“It was really a tough one and I’m really proud because we did a proper job,” said Audi Sport boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. “The championship is at a very high level and I’m proud we could win this race because it’s a special one.”

Fassler added: “Incredible from the beginning to the end. So many ups and downs. We’ve seen quite a big battle with the new technology. We’re so happy we could achieve this win with these new cars.”

The ACO and FIA kicked off a set of new and exceptionally high-tech LMP1 rules for 2014, and through the first half of the race, it appeared the 1000hp Toyota might have its 24-hour reliability woes cured, but a failed electrical loom ground the race-leading No. 7 to a halt just before sunrise.

As pre-race favorites, it was Toyota’s race to lose, which they did as almost 260,000 fans slept trackside.

The sky also fell on Porsche’s hopes and dreams within the final two hours for a win on its return to prototype racing at Le Mans when both entries limped to the pits for varying ailments.

Audi, with a package that relies more on its V6 turbodiesel than a large hybrid system, suffered mechanical issues that were easily fixed. Its rivals, with more aggressive hybrid systems, encountered problems of the non-mechanical kind, and in a form of the sports where staying on track is critical, Audi won a genuine Grand Prix of Endurance through superior reliability.

For the second year in a row, the best race throughout all 24 hours went to the LMP2 class. A frenetic scrap among a constantly rotating cast inside the top-10 saw the P2s shuffle the running order early and late, with an unexpected victor in the No. 38 Jota Sport Zytek-Nissan piloted by Simon Dolan, Harry Ticknell and super sub Oliver Turvey who stepped in at the last minute to replace Audi-bound Marc Gene.

Ticknell, the young Allan McNish protégé, and Audi’s Turvey, who was at the gym in the UK on Wednesday when he got the call to join Jota, starred alongside team principal/driver Dolan, but without a terrible misfire that took the No. 35 Ligier-Nissan out of the lead, the G-Drive Racing by Oak Racing team had the class win easily in hand.

“We had a strategy from the start that we weren’t going to be the quickest, but we’d be there in the end,” said Ticknell. “We’re there, we did it.”

After starting on the pole, the No. 46 Thiriet by TDS Racing Ligier-Nissan claimed second and the gorgeous Signatech Alpine A450b-Nissan was third, giving the Japanese manufacturer a sweep of the podium, along with fourth and fifth.

AF Corse’s No. 51 GTE-Pro Ferrari F458 driven Gimmi Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella took the lead shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday morning and held it for all but a few moments in the run to the finish. Vilander withstood fierce competition from Bruno Senna in the No. 97 Aston Martin V8 Vantage later in the morning before the British coupe succumbed to power steering issues that ended its challenge. Once the Aston was sidelined, the No. 51 team managed a 1-lap advantage over the rest of the GTE-Pro cars, making a number of bigger and better funded factory programs fall well short of their goals.

“The race was very hard so we pushed our Ferrari until the end,” said AF Corse team principal Amato Ferrari. “In this kind of race we also needed a little luck. It’s a great result. Second time we’ve won here.”

Corvette Racing took second with the No. 73 C7.R after both of the iconic thundering V8s experienced mechanical, electrical or and race strategy complications that kept a win out of reach. Porsche, which looked strong early in the race, completed the top-3 with the No. 92 911 RSR.

Aston Martin’s disappointing outcome in GTE-Pro was balanced by a thorough drubbing of the GTE-Am field by Kristian Poulsen, David Heinemeier Hansson, and Nicki Thiim in the No. 95 V8 Vantage. One year after the late and beloved Dane Allan Simonsen was killed at Le Mans in the No. 95 Aston Martin, seeing the all-Danish lineup take the checkered flag in Simonsen’s honor had the large contingent that traveled from Denmark in a state of rapture.

The AMR car led more than half the race, but with victory seemingly assured, a problem in the final hour that required a quick visit to the garage gave DHH quite a scare.

“Thankfully it happened while I was asleep or I would have got a heart attack!” he said with a relieved laugh. His teammate Thiim summed up the emotions after the race.

“It’s unbelievable; first time here…and to win it,” he said. “It’s for Allan [Simonsen]. It was a perfect race. It’s one of the special moments.”

POSITIONS AFTER 24 HOURS

Pos Cl       Car       Drivers                              Laps  Gap
 1. LMP1 #2  Audi      Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer            379  
 2. LMP1 #1  Audi      Di Grassi/Gene/Kristensen            376  +     3 Laps
 3. LMP1 #8  Toyota    Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi              374  +     5 Laps
 4. LMP1 #12 Rebellion Prost/Heidfeld/Beche                 360  +    19 Laps
 5. LMP2 #38 Zytek     Dolan/Tincknell/Turvey               356  +    23 Laps
 6. LMP2 #46 Ligier    Thiriet/Badey/Gommendy               355  +    24 Laps
 7. LMP2 #36 Alpine    Chatin/Panciatici/Webb               355  +  2m36.427s
 8. LMP2 #24 Oreca     Rast/Charouz/Capillaire              354  +    25 Laps
 9. LMP2 #35 Ligier    Brundle/Mardenborough/Shulzhitskiy   354  +  1m47.751s
10. LMP2 #43 Morgan    Klien/Hirsch/Brandela                352  +    27 Laps
11. LMP2 #33 Ligier    Cheng/Tung/Fong                      347  +    32 Laps
12. LMP2 #34 Oreca     Frey/Mailleux/Lancaster              342  +    37 Laps
13. GTEP #51 Ferrari   Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella            339  +    40 Laps
14. GTEP #73 Chevrolet Magnussen/Garcia/Taylor              338  +    41 Laps
15. GTEP #92 Porsche   Holzer/Makowiecki/Lietz              337  +    42 Laps
16. LMP2 #29 Morgan    Schell/Leutwiller/Roussel            336  +    43 Laps
17. GTEA #95 Aston     Poulsen/Heinemeier-Hansson/Thiim     334  +    45 Laps
18. GTEP #74 Chevrolet Gavin/Milner/Westbrook               333  +    46 Laps
19. GTEA #88 Porsche   Ried/Bachler/Al Qubaisi              332  +    47 Laps
20. GTEA #61 Ferrari   Perez-Companc/Cioci/Venturi          331  +    48 Laps
21. GTEA #90 Ferrari   Montecalvo/Roda/Ruberti              330  +    49 Laps
22. GTEA #77 Porsche   Dempsey/Foster/Long                  329  +    50 Laps
23. LMP2 #42 Zytek     Kimber-Smith/McMurry/Dyson           329  +     4.355s
24. GTEA #98 Aston     Dalla Lana/Lamy/Nygaard              329  +    42.976s
25. GTEA #66 Ferrari   Al Faisal/Neiman/Pumpelly            327  +    52 Laps
26. GTEA #70 Ferrari   Nakano/Ehret/Rich                    327  +  1m40.086s
27. GTEA #58 Ferrari   Barthez/Pons/Ayari                   325  +    54 Laps
28. GTEA #57 Ferrari   Krohn/Jonsson/Collins                324  +    55 Laps
29. GTEA #76 Porsche   Narac/Armindo/Hallyday               323  +    56 Laps
30. GTEA #53 Ferrari   Mowlem/Patterson/Hamilton            319  +    60 Laps
31. GTEP #79 Porsche   MacNeil/Curtis/Bleekemolen           319  +  1m16.511s
32. GTEA #67 Porsche   Maris/Merlin/Helary                  317  +    62 Laps
33. GTEP #97 Aston     Turner/Mucke/Senna                   310  +    69 Laps
34. GTEP #91 Porsche   Pilet/Bergmeister/Tandy              309  +    70 Laps
35. LMP2 #27 Oreca     Zlobin/Salo/Ladygin                  303  +    76 Laps
36. GTEA #62 Ferrari   Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank             295  +    84 Laps
37. LMP1 #14 Porsche   Dumas/Jani/Lieb                      348  +    31 Laps
38. LMP1 #20 Porsche   Bernhard/Webber/Hartley              346  +    33 Laps
39. LMP2 #50 Morgan    Ragues/Taylor/Ihara                  341  +    38 Laps
40. LMP1 #7  Toyota    Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima               219  Retired
41. GTEA #72 Ferrari   Bertolini/Shaitar/Basov              196  Retired
42. GTEA #75 Porsche   Perrodo/Collard/Palttala             194  Retired
43. GTEP #52 Ferrari   Griffin/Parente/Leo                  140  Retired
44. LMP2 #26 Morgan    Rusinov/Pla/Canal                    120  Retired
45. GTEA #60 Ferrari   Mann/Case/Giammaria                  115  Retired
46. LMP2 #47 Oreca     Howson/Bradley/Imperatori            87  Retired
47. LMP1 #13 Rebellion Kraihamer/Belicchi/Leimer            73  Retired
48. LMP2 #48 Oreca     Berthon/Gonzalez/Chandhok            73  Retired
49. LMP2 #41 Zytek     Munemman/Latif/Winslow               31  Retired
50. GTEP #71 Ferrari   Rigon/Kaffer/Beretta                 28  Retired
51. LMP1 #3  Audi      Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Jarvis          25  Retired
52. GTEA #81 Ferrari   Wyatt/Rugolo/Bird                    22  Retired
53. LMP2 #37 Oreca     Ladygin/Minassian/Mediani            9   Retired
54. CDNT #0  Nissan    Ordonez/Reip/Motoyama                5   Retired