Something about the rules of the 24h du mans isn't quite clear to me:

Does a car have to finish after the winner to have officially finished?

I would normally expect the cars to be classified for driven laps. I would expect the Peugeot even being 2nd if it didn't move in the last 5 minutes as the pescarolo wouldn't have made up the laps.

Yeah, the lead car gets the chequered flag the first time it crosses the start/finish line after the 24hrs is up. The following cars then have 6 minutes to cross the start/finish line, regardless of what lap they are on, their race is done as soon as they cross the line. If they dont then afaik they get a DNF.

Please correct me if i'm wrong but thats the way i understand it

afaik to show up on the board you do have to finish the line after the leader

although they might have changed that in the last couple of years to make the end of the race safer (there were quite often barely driveable cars on track during the last couple of minutes that got pushed out of the pits again after hours of repairs)

LeMans 24 Wiki HERE

Thanks, that wiki-link did the trick!

You also have to do a certain number of laps in the last hour to stop the parking in the pits or by the side of the track.

It's tradition that the marshall starts to wave the flags on the final lap, but what if theoretically some cars are still battling for positions on the final lap? A bit dangerous I think.

i think as gentlemen they jus call it on the final lap, its always been a slowing down lap it wld be way to dangerous to race.

Very rare for a battle to still be going on on the same lap after 24 hours of running. Don't think I've ever seen it hence the cruisy last lap.

Quote from Stuart Fleming :

i think as gentlemen they jus call it on the final lap, its always been a slowing down lap it wld be way to dangerous to race.

That's what I thought too but (I think) in 1968 or 1969 race Ford GT40 won Porsche by 100 meter margin on the last lap... so Of course rules have probably changed since that but still wondering this.

Quote from Gentlefoot :

Very rare for a battle to still be going on on the same lap after 24 hours of running. Don't think I've ever seen it hence the cruisy last lap.

You haven't seen this? http://youtube.com/watch?v=fbl_Yjm7VBk

If it's possible in 12 h race, it's possible in 24 hours race too Maybe less than once in a decade though...

Imagine that - pressure for 12 hours. lol