Audi take surprise one-two

Champions Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello led teammates Marco Werner and Emanuele Pirro home at the end of a race that got off to an action-packed beginning before a series of full course yellows disrupted its second half.

A wild start saw second row qualifier McNish blast past both the leading Penske Porsches at the green flag - hitting Romain Dumas in the process and giving the polesitter bodywork damage and a puncture.

Andretti-Green Acura's Marino Franchitti also pounced on the Porsches at Turn 1 and grabbed second, which became first when the officials decreed that McNish had jumped the start and brought him in for a drivethrough penalty.

The Scotsman fell to eighth but then mounted a ferocious charge back through the field. He was helped by the new leaders hitting problems of their own, as second-placed Ryan Briscoe brought his Penske Porsche into the pits after debris from the McNish/Dumas caused an overheating problem, and Franchitti damaged the leading Acura on the Turn 8 wall.

Despite struggling with a mangled rear wing, Franchitti continued to lead until the flying McNish passed him in traffic on lap 19 and quickly pulled away. The AGR car ultimately dropped right out of contention after an optimistic dive from the recovering Briscoe sent it into the barriers.

"I'm really sorry for the whole Andretti-Green team," said Franchitti. "The car was fantastic. I'm sorry for (co-driver) Bryan (Herta), because he came here as championship leader and I really wanted to give him a good car, and I damaged it. It was a rookie mistake by me."

Following Penske and AGR's incidents, Audi settled into their habitual one-two formation for the remainder of the two and three quarter hour race - the rest of the prototype field lacking the pace to challenge the diesel-fuelled champion squad.

Fine tactics and some lucky breaks with pit stops under yellow allowed the delayed Porsches back onto the lead lap, and eventually up to the head of the LMP2 battle in third and fourth overall.

Briscoe's co-driver Sascha Maassen ultimately beat Dumas' partner Timo Bernhard by just 0.126 seconds in the final sprint to the flag after the last yellow.

Stefan Johansson recovered from a tangle with Chris Dyson to take fifth for Highcroft, ahead of the Fernandez Lola-Acura, which had held a comfortable third (and LMP2 class lead) until receiving a penalty in the middle of the race.

Transmission problems for Johnny O'Connell meant that the Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin Corvette was the sole finisher in the troubled GT1 class - the Anglo-French partnership taking eighth overall behind the LMP1 Intersport Creation.

Mika Salo and Jaime Melo claimed another GT2 win for Risi Ferrari, but they had trailed fast-starter Robin Liddell until the Tafel Porsche hit time-consuming refuelling problems at its first stop.

Petersen/White Lightning driver Tomas Enge emerged in the class lead in the middle of the race, only to crash heavily in the closing stages. The Czech driver was reported to be 'awake and alert' after being removed from the car under medical supervision, and was immediately taken to hospital for further evaluation.

Results

Pos  Cl   Drivers                            Make                 Laps
 1.  P1   R.Capello, A.McNish                Audi R10 TDI         114
 2.  P1   E.Pirro, M.Werner                  Audi R10 TDI         114
 3.  P2   S.Maassen, R.Briscoe               Porsche RS Spyder    114
 4.  P2   R.Dumas, T.Bernhard                Porsche RS Spyder    114
 5.  P2   D.Brabham, S.Johansson, D.Dayton   Acura ARX-01a        114
 6.  P2   A.Fernandez, L.Diaz                Acura Lola BO6       113
 7.  P1   J.Field, D.Dayton, R.Berry         Creation CA06H Judd  112
 8.  GT1  O.Gavin, O.Beretta                 Corvette C6-R        111
 9.  GT2  M.Salo, J.Melo                     Ferrari 430GT        109
10.  GT2  J.Van Overbeek, J.Bergmeister      Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  108
11.  P2   B.Leitzinger, A.Wallace            Porsche RS Spyder    108
12.  GT2  B.Auberlen, J.Hand                 Panoz Esperante      107
13.  GT2  L.Pechnik, D.Law                   Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  107
14.  GT2  W.Henzler, R.Liddell               Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  106
15.  GT2  J.Tafel, D.Farnbacher              Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  106
16.  GT2  T.Pappas, T.Borcheller, M.Basseng  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  104
17.  GT2  R.Kelleners, T.Milner              Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  100
18.  P2   C.Dyson, G.Smith                   Porsche RS Spyder     98
19.  GT2  S.Maxell, R.Smith, B.Sellers       Panoz Esperante       97
20.  GT2  T.Bergmeister, T.Enge              Ferrari 430GT         87
21.  P2   B.Herta, M.Franchitti              Acura ARX-01a         84
22.  P1   M.Lewis, C.McMurry, B.Willman      Lola EX257 AER        38
23.  GT1  J.O'Connell, J.Magnussen           Corvette C6-R         37
24.  P2   J.Bach, B.Devlin, R.Matos          Mazda Lola B07-40     26