24 Hours of Le Mans : Mercedes Returns to Racing With Successful Finish

LE MANS, France — Mercedes, which left Le Mans in tragedy 34 years ago, returned victorious Sunday as Joachen Mass, Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens led a 1-2 finish in the Le Mans 24-Hour race.

West Germany’s Mass finished the race as the team covered 3,271 miles, an average of 137.5 m.p.h., over the 8.41-mile circuit.

The Mercedes finished five laps ahead of the car driven by teammates Mauro Baldi and Gianfranco Brancatelli of Italy and Ken Acheson of Great Britain.

Another Mercedes finished fifth.

“The win almost seems unfair,” Mass said. “But they calculated everything. The engine, the suspension for the turns. They had the whole race laid out on paper. Just super groundwork by Mercedes and Sauber.”

Dickens of Sweden said: “I think it’s fantastic that we got all three cars to the finish line.”

Mercedes won only once previously, in 1952, when it also finished 1-2.

In 1955, Mercedes pulled out of motor racing after one of its cars sailed into a crowd and exploded in flames, killing more than 80 people.

In 1987, Mass dropped out after the second hour. He was second in the 1982 race.

“It is a great success for the team,” Mass said. “It was the first time they attempted it properly.”

The Mercedes had no serious challengers in the final 10 hours after engine and gear box problems eliminated Porsches and Jaguars.

“It was like a sprint race at the start and I thought the pace would kill us,” Mass said. “But it didn’t.

“The last six hours we eased off because we had to.”

West German Hans Stuck and Frenchman Bob Wollek were third in a Porsche after leading for much of Saturday night. The Porsche went to the pits with a water hose problem, allowing a Jaguar, with Jan Lammers of the Netherlands, Frenchman Patrick Tambay and Briton Andrew Gilbert-Scott to take the lead.

But the Jaguar needed a new gear box just after dawn Sunday and it dropped back, eventually finishing fourth. The two Mercedes then went to the front.

The other Mercedes, with Frenchmen Jean-Louis Schlesser, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Alain Cudini, finished fifth after starting from the pole.