Villeneuve's Peugeot wins at Spa

"It has been so long you have to try and remember where the steps to the podium are!" joked Villeneuve afterwards. "It feels good to be winning again."

In the end, Peugeot scored a comfortable third straight victory in the LMS, but it was a race not without drama as the sister car of Alex Wurz, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy crashed out spectacularly in an accident that also involved the leading Audi R10 TDI of Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello.

The crash, which essentially eliminated both cars from the battle for the lead, utterly changed the complexion of the race and allowed Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat in the No.2 Audi to finish second for the third consecutive race.

Oreca bounced back from Stephane Ortelli's massive accident two weeks ago at Monza, to score a well-deserved third place finish.

The event began in some confusion after LMP2 driver Casper Elgaard crashed his Essex Porsche RS Spyder into the back of Joey Foster's Embassy, forcing the safety car to stay out a lap longer and the race to start under yellow flag conditions.

While pole man Lamy shot off down the start straight having received instructions to treat the start like a normal restart, McNish was still waiting to form up on the front row, having been told that it was a full restart.

Once away, Lamy gradually stretched his advantage, but not by a significant margin, and it seemed that Audi, though not quite as quick as the French cars, might be able to make a race of it.

But as the leaders began to run into traffic, so McNish came under more and more pressure from Minassian in the third-placed Peugeot, and Lamy broke away slightly.

Then followed a tremendous dice for second until Minassian's tyres fell away. Once the tyres were changed, however, the Frenchman re-caught McNish and tried to pass the Scot around the outside at the top of Les Combe on lap 33.

There was contact, enough to sheer the valve from the Audi's left-rear tyre and send both cars across the grass. This prompted McNish to pit out of sequence to change the punctured tyre and refuel.

Lamy's Peugeot swapped the lead with the sister car at the driver changes when he handed the seat over to Wurz and the starter motor failed to fire the engine.

This put Villeneuve in the lead of a LMS race for the first time.

Meanwhile behind, Wurz, storming back from the slow stop, caught up to Capello in the Audi, before crashing at Pouhon and damaging the R10 significantly enough for it to drop back to tenth.

Through the carnage came Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre, who ran a steady if uneventful race to finish third.

"It's the first time that we have had no problems through the race," said Panis, "and I think it is a good result, considering what happened to the team at the last race at Monza."

Capello and McNish fought back to fourth despite a three minute penalty for driving through a red light in the pits.

Emmanuel Collard and Jean-Christophe Boullion finished fifth for Pescarolo.

Van Merksteijn Racing took their second victory of the season in the LMP2 class as Porsche RS Spyders swept the podium.

For much of the early part of the race Jos Verstappen battled hard with Speedy Racing Lola, until the Judd-powered coupe ran into trouble in the final third.

But once the purple Porsche had dispensed with that challenge it found itself in a battle with Didier Theys and Jan Lammers Horag car as various safety car periods closed the field.

In the end, Verstappen's speed settled the issue. John Nielsen's Essex car was third.

Luc Alphand's Corvette took the honours in GT1, but it could have been very different. With the Team Modena Aston Martin throwing an alternator belt, and some clever fuel strategy, the Spartak Racing Lamborghini found itself in the lead.

That could have turned into a win if Roman Rusinov hadn't tripped over a backmarker and needed to make a lengthy pitstop for repairs, dropping him to second.

The best race of all was reserved for GT2, where Robert Bell and Gianmaria Bruni finished just 0.182 seconds ahead of Marc Lieb and Alex Davison after nearly six hours of racing.

With a late race safety car period closing the gap to nothing over the last four laps, Bell made his Virgo Ferrari F430GT as wide as humanly possible as Lieb's Felbermayr Porsche tried everything to find a way past. The German simply couldn't get through, but it was a close run thing as they crossed the line.

Classified:
 
Pos  Driver                       Team                   Time       Cl
 1.  Gene/Minassian/Villeneuve    Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP   5h17:48.566 LMP1
 2.  Premat/Rockenfeller          Audi R10 TDI           +30.387    LMP1
 3.  Panis/Lapierre               Courage-Oreca Judd     +3 laps    LMP1
 4.  Capello/McNish               Audi R10 TDI           +4 laps    LMP1
 5.  Collard/Boullion             Pescarolo Judd         +0:14.137  LMP1
 6.  Van Merksteijn/Verstappen    Porsche RS Spyder      +5 laps    LMP2
 7.  Lienhard/Theys/Lammers       Porsche RS Spyder      +0:10.387  LMP2
 8.  Elgaard/Nielsen              Porsche RS Spyder      +8 laps    LMP2
 9.  Hall/Kerr                    Creation - Aim         +9 laps    LMP1
10.  Ragues/Lahaye                Pescarolo Judd         +17.285    LMP2
11.  Burgueno/de Castro           Epsilon Euskadi Judd   +10 laps   LMP1
12.  Ojjeh/Gosselin/Schroyen      Zytek 07S              +1:10.953  LMP2
13.  Alphand/Moreau/Goueslard     Corvette C6.R          +13 laps   GT1
14.  Nicolet/Faggionato/Hein      Pescarolo Judd         +17.957    LMP1
15.  Rusinov/Kox                  Lamborghini            +14 laps   GT1
16.  Garcia/Enge                  Aston Martin DBR9      +16 laps   GT1
17.  Bell/Bruni                   Ferrari F430 GT        +17 laps   GT2
18.  Lieb/Davison                 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR    +0.184     GT2
19.  Ried/Felbermayr/Felbermayr   Porsche 997 GT3 RSR    +20 laps   GT2
20.  Chiesa/Leuenberger/A. David  Spyker C8 Laviolette   +04.484    GT2
21.  Aucott/Ferte                 Ferrari F430 GT        +26.804    GT2
22.  Narac/Lietz                  Porsche 997 GT3 RSR    +21 laps   GT2
23.  Kutemann/Basso/Daoudi        Ferrari F430 GT        +16.309    GT2
24.  Hardman/Leventis             Aston Martin DBR9      +22 laps   GT1
25.  Daniels/Palttala/Sugden      Porsche 997 GT3 RSR    +2:01.926  GT2
26.  Dumbreck/Kelleners/Vasiliev  Spyker C8 Laviolette   +25 laps   GT2
27.  Barbosa/Ickx/Forsten         Pescarolo Judd         +31 laps   LMP1
28.  Erdos/Newton                 Lola MG                +32 laps   LMP2
29.  Mucke/Charouz                Lola Aston Martin      +36 laps   LMP1
30.  Rostan/Petersen/Lueders      Radical AER            +37 laps   LMP2


Not classified:

     Driver                      Team                    Gap        Cl
     Primat/Tinseau               Pescarolo Judd         + 6   laps LMP1
     Belicchi/Pompidou/Zacchia    Lola Judd              + 15  laps LMP2
     Nielsen/Westbrook/Simonsen   Porsche 997 GT3 RSR    + 48  laps GT2
     Ehret/Kaffer                 Ferrari F430 GT        + 50  laps GT2
     Hughes/Kane                  WF01 Zytek             + 66  laps LMP2
     Lavaggi/Kaufmann             Lavaggi AER            + 77  laps LMP1
     Barazi/Vergers/Rees          Zytek 07S              + 81  laps LMP2
     Lamy/Sarrazin/Wurz           Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP    + 87  laps LMP1
     Balandras/Lecourt            Porsche 997 GT3 RSR    + 94  laps GT2
     Amaral/Pla                   Lola AER               + 108 laps LMP2
     Blanchemain/Dumez/Lemeret    Corvette C6.R          + 117 laps GT1