The Peugeot 908 driven by Anthony Davidson and Sebastien Bourdais came out on top ahead of the sister car shared by Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup finale at Zhuhai after another race in which Audi failed to challenge all the way to the end.
The only Audi R18 TDI to make the finish slowly faded and ended up more than a lap down on the winners in the hands of Timo Bernhard and Marcel Fassler.
The Peugeot and Audi LMP1 turbodiesels battled hard in the early stages of the the six-hour event in China, but as temperatures rose the French car came into its own and its German rival started to struggle. By that time, the second Audi driven by Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen was already out of the reckoning, the result of electrical problems that set in after McNish was hit from behind by the Rebellion Lola-Toyota.
Davidson and Bourdais prevailed over their team-mates partly because they started double stinting their Michelins earlier and partly as a result from an impressive double stint from the British driver. He was able to increase his lead over Montagny through the second half of a double stint, despite the second-place Peugeot being on new rubber.
Davidson said: "Suddenly the car switched on in the hotter conditions and more rubber on the circuit. The car stayed pretty consistent for the rest of the race."
Top gasoline LMP1 car was the Anglo-Swiss Rebellion team's Toyota-engined Lola coupe driven by Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost. It came back from an unscheduled stop to change front and rear bodywork after Jani ran into the back of McNish to overhaul the OAK Racing OAK-Pescarolo driven by Alexandre Premat, Olivier Pla and Jacques Nicolet for fourth position.
The LMP2 class was won by the Signatech Nissan team. Its ORECA-Nissan won by 15 clear laps despite delays fixing a headlight and dealing with a starter motor issue.
BMW completed a GTE Pro class 1-2, with Jorg Muller and Augusto Farfus Jr prevailing over teammates Andy Priaulx and Uwe Alzen.
Results - 249 laps:
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap
1. LMP1 Bourdais/Davidson Peugeot 6h01m24.879s
2. LMP1 Montagny/Sarrazin Peugeot + 38.651s
3. LMP1 Bernhard/Fassler Audi + 1 lap
4. LMP1 Jani/Prost Rebellion Lola-Toyota + 7 laps
5. LMP1 Nicolet/Premat/Pla OAK Pescarolo-Judd + 9 laps
6. LMP1 Meyrick/Mucke/Primat AMR Lola-Aston Martin + 10 laps
7. LMP1 Lahaye/Moreau/Ragues OAK Pescarolo-Judd + 11 laps
8. LMP2 Mailleux/Ordonez/Vernay Signatech ORECA-Nissan + 21 laps
9. GTE P Farfus/Muller BMW + 28 laps
10. GTE P Priaulx/Alzen BMW + 29 laps
11. GTE P Makowiecki/Ortelli Luxury Ferrari + 31 laps
12. GTE A Lietz/Roda/Ried Proton Porsche + 32 laps
13. GTE A Bornhauser/Canal/Beretta Larbre Corvette + 33 laps
14. GTE A Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo Krohn Ferrari + 34 laps
15. GTE A Ehret/Mullen/Wills CRS Ferrari + 34 laps
16. LMP2 Da Rocha/Lafargue OAK Pescarolo-Judd + 36 laps
17. FLM Shanqi/Chen PTRS FLM + 36 laps
18. GTC Mortara/O'Young/Imperatori C Audi + 39 laps
19. GTC Lee/Gruber/Tak Mak Race Experience Audi + 46 laps
20. GTE A Giroix/Goethe Gulf Aston Martin + 51 laps
21. GTE P Slingerland/Rich/Rasmussen Jetalliance Lotus + 55 laps
22. LMP1 Shogo/Naoki Tokai Courage-ORECA + 62 laps
23. GTE P Fisichella/Bruni AF Ferrari + 63 laps
Retirements:
GTC Tsuzuki/Kim/Van Dam Hitotsuyama Audi 169 laps
GTE P Rossiter/Mowlem/Heinemeier Jetalliance Lotus 163 laps
LMP1 Kristensen/McNish Audi 139 laps
GTE P Beltoise/Farnbacher/Firman Luxury Ferrari 110 laps
GTC Cheng/Arnold/Hakkinen AMG China Mercedes 73 laps
GTE A Cioci/Ma AF Ferrari 22 laps