Allan McNish admitted he was dev♔astated by his mistake in the closing stages of the Le Mans 24 Hours after the #2 Audi missed out on victory at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

McNish was running in the lead in the midst of a heated battle with the sister R18 e-tron Quattro when he went off at the Porsche Curves while trying to lap a backmarker with just two💮 hou🐟rs to go.

The damage sustained in the accident forced the Scot back intꦚo the pits for repairs and saw a one lap lead turned into a one lap deficit, with McNish, Dindo Capello and Tom Kristensen left to settle for the second step of the podium.

"I'm devastated," McNish said. "I'm sorry for our team: Dindo, Tom, the engineers and the mechanics. They did a perfect job throughout the race. Despite a few problems we were in contention for victory up to my accident🦩. I caught a slower GT vehicle in the Porsche corners and expe𓆉cted the driver to stay on the right-hand side. But he didn't. I haven't got a clue why. I spun and crashed into the guard rail with the right front. That damaged the front bodywork and the suspension - the necessary repair cost us two laps. That was a very, very big disappointment."

The race could yet mark the final Le Mans appearance of Capello, who had hoped to celebrate his birthday with vi⛄ctory, although the veteran Italian insisted that the incident was 🍸one of those things.

"Up until the accident it was a great race," he said. "When it happened we were in contention for victory. As we could🐭 see last year, you've got to take risks if you want to win. Without those risks, Audi wouldn't have won at that 🌳time. That's why we took risks this year too. The result is a bit disappointing for the whole team and especially for Allan.

"As a racer, I know how he's feeling at the moment. Tom and I know that something like that can happen to aཧny driver anytime, especially when you're battling for victory. Here at Le Mans, you can't afford to give away even a tenth of a second anymore. Sometimes it works out and at others it doesn't. For us, it didn't work out this time. But next time we'll have better luck again."