McNish flies in the wet at Silverstone
Allan McNish proved that if bad weather is a factor in this weekend's Autosport 1000km then Audi are far from out of the hunt in the final round of the Le Mans Series at Silverstone this weekend
The Scot, who won the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, along with his Audi teammates, has been subjected to a performance disadvantage to the diesel Peugeots throughout the LMS season. But on his final lap in wet conditions during a stop-start session, McNish lapped more than 3.5s faster than the field with a time of 1:51.785.
Circumstances played their part of course, and Peugeot's championship-chaser Marc Gene had previously reduced the fastest time to 1:55.310 already, but the Spaniard backed off on his final lap.
Pedro Lamy in the No.8 Peugeot was third fastest having spent most of the session top with a 1:57.107, while wet weather ace Mike Rockenfeller put the No.2 Audi fourth fastest.
The Team Essex LMP2 Porsche was an impressive fifth with team boss Jon Nielsen at the wheel, while Jamie Campbell-Walter did an equally good job to put the Creation-Aim sixth overall.
Once again Michael Vergers was second in the LMP2 class, but the championship-winning car - the Van Merksteijn Racing Porsche - was in the wars after it clouted the wall heavily on the hanger straight, bringing out the first of two red flags during the hour.
Peter Kox gave the IPB Spartak team a boost by putting the Lamborghini Murcielago top in the GT1 class, while Marc Lieb was quickest in GT2 after Jaime Melo crashed the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari when he hit a puddle on the straight.
Meet the Aston Martin drivers at the Autosport stand at Silverstone this weekend.
Pos Driver Car Time LMP 1. Capello/McNish Audi R10 TDI 1:51.785 2. Gene/Minassian Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP 1:55.310 3. Lamy/Sarrazin Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP 1:57.107 4. Premat/Rockenfeller Audi R10 TDI 1:59.437 5. Campbell-Walter/Hall Creation CA07 - Aim 2:01.691 6. Ortelli/Ayari Courage-Oreca Judd 2:02.383 7. Dumas/Boullion Pescarolo Judd 2:03.540 8. Simpson/Halliday Creation CA07 - Aim 2:05.270 9. Mucke/Charouz Lola Aston Martin 2:11.803 10. Nakano/Valles Epsilon Euskadi Judd 2:19.723 11. Nicolet/Hein Pescarolo Judd 2:20.362 12. Panis/Lapierre Courage-Oreca Judd 2:24.362 13. Primat/Tinseau Pescarolo Judd no time 14. Burgueno/De Castro Epsilon Euskadi Judd no time 15. Barbosa/Ickx/Short Pescarolo Judd no time LMP2 1. Elgaard/Nielsen Porsche RS Spyder 2:01.423 2. Barazi/Vergers/Rees Zytek 07S Zytek 2:05.098 3. Amaral/Pla Lola B05/40 AER 2:09.284 4. Ojjeh/Gosselin Zytek 07S Zytek 2:14.831 5. de Pourtales/Noda Lola B05/40 Mazda 2:18.967 6. Rostan/Peterson/Lueders Radical SR9 AER 2:20.364 7. Salini/Salini/Roussel WR Zytek 2:23.858 8. Belicchi/Pompidou/Zacchia Lola B08/80 Coupe Judd 2:36.455 9. Ragues/Lahaye Pescarolo Judd no time 10. Lienhard/Theys/Lammers Porsche RS Spyder no time 11. Van Merksteijn/Verstappen Porsche RS Spyder no time 12. Erdos/Newton Lola B08/80 Coupe MG no time 13. Kane/Hughes WF01 Zytek no time 14. Manning/Foster WF01 Zytek no time GT1 1. Rusinov/Kox Lamborghini Murcielago 2:10.989 2. Moreau/Gouselard Corvette C6.R 2:13.129 3. Hardman/Leventis/Turner Aston Martin DBR9 2:43.650 4. Garcia/Enge Aston Martin DBR9 5:31.703 GT2 1. Lieb/Davison Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 2:13.053 2. Nielsen/Westbrook/Simonsen Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 2:14.273 3. Narac/Lietz Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 2:14.535 4. Ehret/Kaffer/Beltoise Ferrari F430 GT 2:14.576 5. Chiesa/Leuenberger Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R 2:14.589 6. Coronel/Kelleners/Vasiliev Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R 2:16.574 7. Van der Merwe/Sugden/Outzen Aston Martin Vantage V8 2:18.447 8. Aucott/Daoudi Ferrari F430 GT 2:20.904 9. Bell/Melo Ferrari F430 GT 2:21.831 10. Kutemann/Basso/Gilbert Ferrari F430 GT 2:22.850 11. Daniels/Bamford/Griffin Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 2:24.793 12. Ried/Felbyrmayr/Felbyrmayr Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 2:26.549 13. Balandras/Lecourt Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 2:33.268
Share Or Save This Story
Archive: How Button achieved a rare Formula Ford feat
Why the Nurburgring 24 Hours is better than ever
Is Forza still king of the gaming hill?
Top five roles on Motorsport Jobs this week
Video: What makes a good F1 driver and race engineer partnership
Formula E launches innovative Gen4 car at Paul Ricard
How to make F1's 2026 rules simpler - and why Horner was half-right
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments