Aston Martin wins Asian Le Mans finale

The team's LMP1 Lola, driven by Stefan Mucke and Harold Primat, moved into the lead in the first 20 minutes of the three-hour race and held the position from there on.

The race became a little strung out in the middle, but closed up significantly in the last hour, building to a dramatic climax for honours behind the lead car.

Mucke started the Aston fourth but made short work of getting to the front. The German moved around the outside of Nicolas Lapierre in the ORECA before Turn 1, and then disposed of Christophe Tinseau in the Pescarolo and Jonathan Cocker in the Lola to lead early on.

Cocker kept Mucke in sight for most of the stint, but the Aston came out best from the first round of pitstops and Primat was soon 30 seconds clear of Shinji Nakano, who inherited the Pescarolo from Tinseau.

By the time Mucke got the car back for the final hour, it was nearly a minute ahead and he could afford to control his pace to the end. Even a splash and dash stop for fuel with 10 minutes to go passed without drama as the second-placed Pescarolo had to do the same.

The Pescarolo's late stop, however, gave a flicker of hope of pinching second place to Loic Duval in the ORECA. The Frenchman had taken over from Lapierre and began the final hour just 15 seconds ahead of Oliver Jarvis in the Kolles Audi R10, but he was able to pull comfortably clear of the threat from behind.

Tinseau brought the Pescarolo back out just 1.7 seconds ahead of Duval, but was able to edge away and was 8s clear at the flag.

A bigger contest raged behind for fourth as Cocker - who ran second early on and set the fastest lap of the race - took the Lola back from Paul Drayson in fifth place, 24 seconds behind Jarvis with an hour to go.

At first, Jarvis had the pace to increase the lead slightly, despite his car's best lap being 1.5 seconds slower than the Lola's. But Cocker stepped up his charge in the final 20 minutes and closed onto the rear wing of the Audi with four minutes to go.

He had a half look inside Jarvis at the penultimate Mike Knight Corner when his fellow Briton was briefly delayed by a backmarker, but Jarvis sharply swept across the front of the Lola.

Jarvis fought on as long as he could, with Cocker swarming around behind, but eventually succumbed on the final lap of the race. He ran a fraction wide exiting Turn 1 and that was all the invitation Cocker needed to dive ahead.

Hideki Noda brought the sister Audi home two laps behind in sixth place to complete the LMP1 runners.

The LMP2 class was a familiarly thin contest at the front, with the Oak Racing Pescarolo left alone when its only rival, the Ibanez Courage had to pit for lengthy repairs mid-way through the race. It mattered little that Richard Hein had to bring the in Pescarolo for late repairs, losing three laps with 15 minutes to go.

The Team Nova Aston Martin was a comfortable winner in the GT1 class, but the battle for second was the closest of the race. The Larbre Saleen spent the last hour chasing down a 15-second deficit to the JLOC Lamborghini Murcielao of Atsushi Yogo and Hiroyuki Iiri but Stephane Lemeret was an agonising 0.180s adrift as the flag fell.

The Farnbacher Ferrari was left with a handy lead in the GT2 class when the Rahal/Letterman BMW lost three laps an hour into the race, and Dominik Farnbacher stretched clear of the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Christian Ried and Marco Holzer in the closing stages.

Pos Driver                      Class  Car                  Laps
 1. Mucke/Primat                LMP1   Lola-Aston Martin     128
 2. Tinseau/Nakano              LMP1   Pescarolo-Judd        128
 3. Lapierre/Duval              LMP1   Courage-ORECA-AIM     128
 4. Drayson/Cocker              LMP1   Lola-Judd             127
 5. Jarvis/Bakkerud             LMP1   Audi                  127
 6. Cressoni/Noda/Albers        LMP1   Audi                  125
 7. Nicolet/Hein/Lahaye         LMP2   Pescarolo-Mazda       118
 8. Tsuzuki/Tsuchiya            GT1    Aston Martin          115
 9. Yogo/Iiri                   GT1    Lamborghini           114
10. Berville/Lemeret/van Dam    GT1    Saleen                114
11. Farnbacher/Simonsen         GT2    Ferrari               114
12. Ried/Holzer                 GT2    Porsche               113
13. Yamanishi/Sakamoto          GT1    Lamborghini           113
14. Aoki/Fujii                  GT2    Ferrari               113
15. Kinoshita/Kageyama          GT2    Porsche               112
16. Muller/Milner               GT2    BMW                   110
17. Robertson/Robertson/Murry   GT2    Ford                  105
18. Lee/Ma/Enge                 GT2    Aston Martin           93
19. Toulemonde/da Rocha/Ibanez  LMP2   Courage-AER            92
20. Kojima/Hori/Kimura          GT2    Porsche                69

Retirements

    Tanaka/Hiranaka             GT2    Ferrari                62
    Lieb/Henzler                GT2    Porsche                13