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Pescarolo makes victorious return

Sportscar legend Henri Pescarolo's team made a triumphant return to racing after a season away with victory in the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Paul Ricard

Pescarolo Team's eponymous Judd-powered LMP1, driven by Christophe Tinseau, Julien Jousse and Emmanuel Collard, came from the back of the grid (where it had been demoted after post-qualifying scrutineering) to first place in fewer than 20 laps and maintained its position at the top of the leaderboard for the remainder of the six-hour race.

Collard, who was celebrating his 40th birthday on race day, crossed the line one lap clear of the Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota shared by Jean-Christophe Boullion and Andrea Belicchi.

Collard said: "This is a great result after one year without racing."

The Pescarolo had a trouble-free run on a day when its rivals in the poorly-supported LMP1 class all ran into problems.

Boullion spun the Rebellion car early in the race when one of the coupe's doors came open at the penultimate corner. A damaged hinge resulted in vital seconds being lost at its next two pitstops, dropping the car off the lead lap by the end of the second hour.

The second Rebellion entry, which pole-winner Neel Jani shared with Nicolas Prost, lost 10 laps early on with a paddle-shift problem. The ASM Zytek lost a similar amount of time after Olivier Pla sustained a puncture, which resulted in rear bodywork damage.

Aston Martin Racing used the race as a test for its new AMR-One. The car driven by Darren Turner, Stefan Mucke and Harold Primat made a number of long stops, but returned to the track for the final half hour to take the chequered flag despite covering only half the number of laps of the winning car.

Third place went to the best of the LMP2 runners, the Greaves Motorsport Zytek driven by Tom Kimber-Smith, Karim Ojjeh and Gary Chalandon. Second in class was claimed by the AF Corse-run Pecom Racing Lola-Judd driven by Pierre Kaffer, Matias Russo and Luis Perez Companc.

The JMW Motorsport squad claimed GTE class honours on its first outing back in the Ferrari fold. Rob Bell and James Walker triumphed in the team's new 458 Italia ahead of the similar AF Corse car shared by Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarolo Fisichella.

The four factory-supported 911 GT3-RSRs run by the Felbermayr-Proton, ProSpeed and Imsa teams were all damaged in a start-line accident. This resulted from the green lights being shown on the startline gantry when the decision for the course car to undertake another parade lap had already been taken, causing confusion as some drivers accelerated while others waited behind the course car.

Results - 185 laps/6 hours:

Pos  Cl     Drivers                       Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  LMP1   Jousse/Tinseau/Collard        Pescarolo                    6h00m09.139s
 2.  LMP1   Boullion/Belicchi             Rebellion Lola-Toyota             + 1 lap
 3.  LMP2   Kimber-Smith/Chalandon/Ojjeh  Greaves Zytek-Nissan             + 6 laps
 4.  LMP2   Perez Companc/Kaffer/Russo    Pecom Lola-Judd                  + 6 laps
 5.  LMP2   Kane/Watts/Leventis           Strakka HPD                      + 8 laps
 6.  LMP2   de Crem/Kraihamer             Boutsen Energy ORECA-Nissan     + 10 laps
 7.  LMP1   Prost/Jani                    Rebellion Lola-Toyota           + 10 laps
 8.  LMP1   Pla/Amaral                    Quifel-ASM Zytek                + 11 laps
 9.  LMP2   Gates/Philipps/Garofall       RLR MG Lola                     + 11 laps
10.  LMP2   Ebbesvik/Meichtry/Frey        Race Performance ORECA-Judd     + 11 laps
11.  LMP2   Erdos/Newton/Collins          RML HPD                         + 12 laps
12.  FLM    Schultis/Simon/Schell         Pegasus FLM-ORECA               + 15 laps
13.  FLM    Julian/Zugel/Petersen         Genoa FLM-ORECA                 + 15 laps
14.  GTE P  Walker/Bell                   JMW Ferrari                     + 15 laps
15.  GTE P  Bruni/Fisichella              AF Corse Ferrari                + 16 laps
16.  LMP2   Luco/Rosier/Basso             Extreme Limite Norma-Judd       + 16 laps
17.  GTE A  Ried/Felbermayr/Felbermayr    Felbermayr-Proton Porsche       + 18 laps
18.  GTE A  Lemeret/Cioci/Perazzini       AF Corse Ferrari                + 18 laps
19.  GTE A  Peter/Broniszewski            Kessel Ferrari                  + 18 laps
20.  GTE A  Christodoulou/Hummel/Quaife   CRS Ferrari                     + 19 laps
21.  GTE P  Simonsen/Farnbacher           Farnbacher Ferrari              + 22 laps
22.  GTE A  Aguas/Kauffman/Ciro           AF Corse Ferrari                + 22 laps
23.  GTE P  Vilander/Melo                 AF Corse Ferrari                + 24 laps
24.  FLM    Hartshorne/Keating/Keen       Neil Garner FLM-ORECA           + 28 laps
25.  FLM    Rodrigues/Menahem/Misslin     JMB FLM-ORECA                   + 43 laps
26.  GTE A  Narac/Armindo                 IMSA Performance Porsche        + 48 laps

Retirements/not classified:

     GTE P  Nygaard/Muller/Enge           Young Driver Aston Martin        140 laps
     GTE P  Hancock/Dolan                 Jota Aston Martin                105 laps
     LMP1   Turner/Primat/Mucke           Aston Martin                      96 laps
     FLM    Moro/Marroc/Shanqi            Hope FLM-ORECA                    93 laps
     LMP2   Firth/Thiriet/Beche           TDS ORECA-Nissan                  91 laps
     GTE P  Henzler/Pilet                 IMSA Performance Porsche           2 laps
     GTE P  Holzer/Goossens               Prospeed Porsche                   0 laps
     GTE P  Lietz/Lieb                    Felbermayr-Proton Porsche          0 laps

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