24 Heures du Mans - 2:01:00
The last of the factory Peugeot 908s is out! Cheaters often prosper, but not always! The No. 1 908 was tearing around the track at blistering speeds, gaining anywhere between one and five seconds a lap on the leading Audi R15s. The Peugeot was gaining, but still trailed the leading Audi, No. 9, by almost a full lap. Over the first twenty-two hours of the race, the lead Audi held a sixteen-minute advantage in pit stops over the charging Peugeot, spending thirty minutes in the pits compared to forty-six. Despite this, so swift was the 908 that it just might have caught the R15. Except that to make up the gap, the Peugeot had to run at its very limit. The drivers pushed and pushed, and pushed some more, and in the end they pushed their Diesel engine past the brink. Loss of power. The dreaded gray smoke of catastrophic engine failure. Defeat. The Audis can back off their pace; they can for all intents and purposes cruise the last two hours of the 24 Heures du Mans and secure a one-two-three finish for Audi, the perfect answer to last year's one-two-three triumph for Peugeot.

Of his forcing the Corvette CR6 to crash out of the race, Peugeot driver Anthony Davidson said that the Corvette driver had deserved it, that Davidson had done nothing wrong. Peugeot aren't cheaters because of Davidson's recklessness; onerous as that little cunt might be, he's guilty of overly aggressive and unsportsmanlike driving, not rule breaking. No, Peugeot are cheaters because for most of the last two hours the No. 1 908 was running with a significant piece of bodywork missing from the left side, even though the rules clearly state that any bits & pieces of the car that fall off over the course of the race must be replaced. Peugeot were so focused on catching up to the Audis that they didn't take the time to tack on new bits on any of their numerous pit stops. One of the worst lies we tell our children is that cheaters never propser, when they very often do. But not always. Between Davidson being Davidson and the case of the missing bodywork (and one might suspect some Gallic skulduggery about, the French race stewards being perhaps unwilling to call to task a French team for a rules infraction, if one were of a suspicious bent of mind), this shambles is nothing less than the comeuppance earned through Peugeot's pride and pomposity. Hip hip. Hooray.