Pescarolo wins Algarve night race

Jean-Christophe Boullion and Christophe Tinseau claimed a narrow victory over the best of Aston Martin Racing's LMP1 coupes after nearly six hours of racing through dusk on Saturday evening and into the small hours. The solo Pescarolo-Judd 01 crossed the line 85 seconds ahead of the Aston-engined Lola driven by Stefan Mucke, Jan Charouz and Tomas Enge.

The Pescarolo, which had qualified only seventh, came through to second behind the AMR car in little more than 24 laps with Boullion at the wheel. The Frenchman then battled with Mucke through the second hour, before the Aston driver locked up as he came upon a slower car and spun. The Aston subsequently remained in contact through the race, despite a gearbox problem in the latter stages, but the win belonged to Pescarolo.

"Seventh place in qualifying was not where we wanted to be, but the team did a great job in the warm-up and the car was fantastic to drive," said Boullion.

The second AIM-engined ORECA 01 driven by Bruno Senna and Tiago Monteiro ended up third after a conservative run. The French team's lead entry led the early laps in the hands of pole winner Nicolas Lapierre before an unscheduled stop to fix a fuel leak robbed him and team-mate Olivier Panis of any chance of victory. A high attrition rate allowed them to come back to fourth by the finish.

LMP2 honours went to the local ASM squad, whose Ginetta-Zytek dominated the secondary prototype division with Olivier Pla and Miguel Amaral driving. Pla finished his stint a minute up on his nearest opponent and then problems for their rivals allowed the Frenchman and his team-mate to ease to a two-lap victory.

The Luc Alphand Chevrolet team won the two-car GT1 class. Patrice Goueslard, Yann Clairay and Julien Jousse easily had the legs of the Larbre Saleen, which eventually finished 18 laps behind after suffering myriad problems.

The British JMW Ferrari drivers Rob Bell and Gianmaria Bruni came from behind to take GT2 honours ahead of the Imsa Performance Porsche raced by early leader Patrick Pilet and team boss Raymond Narac.

Pos  Cl   Drivers                         Car                    Time/Gap
 1.  P1   Boullion/Tinseau                Pescarolo Judd     5h49m04.176s
 2.  P1   Charouz/Enge/Mucke              Lola Aston Martin   + 1m25.548s
 3.  P1   Monteiro/Senna                  ORECA AIM           +     1 lap
 4.  P1   Panis/Lapierre                  ORECA AIM           +    3 laps
 5.  P1   Primat/Ramos/Turner             Lola Aston Martin   +    4 laps
 6.  P2   Amaral/Pla                      Ginetta Zytek       +    8 laps
 7.  P2   Ceccato/Francioni/Piccini       Lola Judd           +   10 laps
 8.  P2   Ojjeh/Gosselin/Peter            Zytek               +   10 laps
 9.  P2   Biagi/Bobbi/Piccini             Lola Judd           +   12 laps
10.  P1   Ragues/Mailleux                 ORECA Judd          +   13 laps
11.  P2   Kane/Leuenberger/Pompidou       Lola Judd           +   17 laps
12.  P2   Lahaye/Ajlani                   Pescarolo Mazda     +   20 laps
13.  P2   Erdos/Newton                    Lola Mazda          +   20 laps
14.  GT1  Clairay/Jousse/Goueslard        Corvette C6.R       +   21 laps
15.  GT2  Bell/Bruni                      Ferrari F430        +   25 laps
16.  GT2  Pilet/Narac                     Porsche 997         +   25 laps
17.  GT2  Garcia/Mansell/Melo             Ferrari F430        +   26 laps
18.  GT2  Ehret/Farnbacher/Beltoise       Ferrari F430        +   27 laps
19.  GT2  Simonsen/Kaffer                 Ferrari F430        +   28 laps
20.  GT2  Campanico/Von Thurn/Hartshorne  Ferrari F430        +   33 laps
21.  P2   Nicolet/Hein                    Pescarolo Mazda     +   36 laps
22.  GT2  Tenchini/Basso/Plati            Ferrari F430        +   36 laps
23.  GT1  Berville/Dumez/Lemeret          Saleen S7R          +   43 laps
24.  P2   Salini/Salini/Jouanny           WR Zytek            +   44 laps
25.  P2   Bruneau/Greaves/Sini            Radical AER         +   50 laps
26.  GT2  Lieb/Lietz                      Porsche 997         +   62 laps

Retirements:

     P1   Karthikeyan/Meyrick/Zwolsman    Audi R10 TDI      149 laps
     P2   Cavailhes/da Rocha/Ibanez       Courage AER       124 laps
     P1   Albers/Bakkerud/Mondini         Audi R10 TDI      180 laps
     GT2  Coronel/Janis                   Spyker C8         163 laps
     P2   Jorda/Cortes/Nieto              Lucchini Judd     90 laps
     P1   Watts/Leventis                  Ginetta Zytek     67 laps
     GT2  Cocker/Drayson                  Aston Martin      47 laps
     P1   Belicchi/Fassler/Prost          Lola Aston Martin 30 laps
     GT2  Ried/Felbermayr/Martins         Porsche 997       1 lap