Steve Martin dominates Le Mans 24 Hour

The Yamaha Austria Racing Team, which includes Aussie Steve Martin, has won the opening round of the 2009 Endurance World Championship at Le Mans after pushing on flawlessly through difficult conditions, including heavy rain for nearly 20 hours.

Martin, alongside Slovenian Igor Jerman and Frenchman Gwen Martin, completed 727 laps around the famous circuit on the all-new YZF-R1, five more than the Honda France trio of Sebastien Charpentier, Matthieu Lagrive and Steve Plater.

In turn, Honda France was four laps ahead of the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (Guillaume Dietrich, Vincent Philippe and Barry Veneman).

“It’s absolutely incredible to win here on my second time at the 24-hour," said Martin. "The bike performed faultlessly which made the whole race easier. My teammates both performed unbelievably, we made the right steps at the right times which gave us an advantage.

"We were then able to put pressure on the other teams and forced them to make mistakes. I want to dedicate this win to my life-long friend and mentor Peter Kerr, who passed away this weekend, making this an exceptionally hard weekend’s racing for me."

Australian siblings Damian and Alex Cudlin, riding for the British-based Phase One Yamaha, only completed 47 laps before retiring -- one of many teams to suffer from crashes and mechanical failure in the extreme conditions.

Over 90,000 spectators attended the 32nd edition of the race.

The second round will be held in Germany on May 31.

For full results, click here.