but this time alongside Swede Stefan Johansson, another former F1 teammate, and Dane Tom Kristensen, who would later go onto beat Jacky Ickx's record for winning the most Le Mans 24 Hour races. The trio completed 361 laps, one more than second placed Gulf Team Davidoff's BMW-powered McLaren F1 GTR. This would prove to be the peak of Alboreto's sportscar success as he failed to finish at Le Mans in 1998 with Porsche once again. However, a fourth place at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans with the newcomer Audi, a third at the 2000 Le Mans 24 Hours, a victory at the 2000 Petit Le Mans and a win at the 2001 Sebring 12 Hours gave the Italian some final success prior to his death a month after his win at Sebring. Death In late April 2001, Alboreto and a small group of Audi engineers travelled to the EuroSpeedway Lausitz near Dresden in eastern Germany to perform a series of tests on an Audi R8 in preparation for their participation at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. Alboreto mainly drove the car in the area of the facility that is used for public racing events, using the tri-oval for quicker laps and the Grand Prix circuit for slower laps, but some testing also took place within the limits of the adjacent proving ground, which features an elongated oval track with two long straights. Around 5.30 p.m. local time on 25 April 2001, Alboreto accelerated the R8 along one of the two long straights at the proving ground. When the car reached the speed of approximately 300 kph, its left rear tyre failed. The R8 was subsequently launched into the air, somersaulting over the Armco barrier and landing inverted. Alboreto's head struck the ground, killing him instantly. Initially, Audi gave no reason for the crash, stating the R8 had "already completed thousands of test kilometres on numerous circuits without any problems." Five days later, an investigation into the accident was reported to have concluded. The tyre failure was attributed to a gradual loss of air pressure, caused by a loose screw that had found its way into the tyre. As there was no indication of a mechanical problem or driver error, the tyre failure was determined to be the sole cause of the crash. The finding motivated Audi to expedite the implementation of a new sensor-based TPMS