Minassian, Gene win at Interlagos

The lead 908 took a comfortable victory, while the eventual champions had a more eventful run to the flag as they became the first drivers to win the LMS title with a diesel-powered car.

The first problems hit before the race had even started, as Lamy was unable to get his car off the line for the formation lap due to a problem with the clutch master cylinder.

A light problem then struck the car in the fifth hour of the race, and the team made a precautionary stop later in the race when the car was kicking up an alarming number of sparks in the darkness.

"Our result with what was a new car is incredible," said Sarrazin. "This team is fantastic, it's like a dream come true.

"Towards the end, we preferred to make a number of precautionary stops for checks in order to ensure we weren't stopped as we were at Silverstone."

Jamie Campbell-Walter, Felipe Ortiz and Stuart Hall completed the podium for Creation, while Pescarolo Sport's title bid was hit early on when the car suffered a broken wishbone.

Jean-Christophe Boullion, Emmanuel Collard and Harold Primat brought the car home fourth in the end, which was enough to Boullion to secure third in the drivers' standings behind Minassian and Gene.

Michael Vergers, Karim Ojjeh and Juan Barazi took LMP2 honours in their Zytek after a close battle with the Embassy Racing Radical, which fell out of contention when Warren Hughes suffered a suspension failure.

GT1 honours went to Roland Berville, Gregor Frisken, Steve Zacchia and Fernando Rees in their Aston Martin, after the class-leading Corvette suffered gear selection problems.

The Alphand Aventures team had drafted in factory Corvette drivers Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta for the race, but eventually they had to settle for second place in class.

Marc Lieb, Xavier Pompidou and Marc Basseng took the GT2 win for the Felbermayr squad.

Pos  Driver                                Team                 Time   
 1.  Gene/Minassian                        Peugeot 908 HDi FAP  8h58:21.8
 2.  Lamy/Sarrazin                         Peugeot 908 HDi FAP  +12  laps
 3.  Campbell Walter/Ortiz/Hall            Creation CA07 Judd   +16  laps
 4.  Collard/Boullion/Prima                Pescarolo Judd       +20  laps
 5.  Barazi/Vergers/Ojjeh                  Zytek 07S Zytek      +23  laps
 6.  Fisken/Zacchia/Berville/Rees          Aston Martin DBR9    +45  laps
 7.  Lieb/Pompidou/Basseng                 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR  +48  laps
 8.  Negrao/Negrao/Mattheis                Ferrari F430 GT      +50  laps
 9.  Aucott/Peter/Bell                     Ferrari F430 GT      +51  laps
10.  Kox/Hezemans/Van Splunteren           Spyker C8 Spyder     +53  laps
11.  Beretta/Goueslard/Gavin               Corvette C6.R        +54  laps
12.  Figueiredo/Boesel/Visconde            Porsche 997 GT3 RSR  +56  laps
13.  Longo/Serra/Serra                     Ferrari F430 GT      +56  laps
14.  Belicchi/Chiesa/Kane                  Spyker C8 Spyder     +58  laps
15.  Ried/Felbermayr                       Porsche 997 GT3 RSR  +72  laps
16.  Hughes/Manning/Haberfeld              Radical SR9 Judd     +96  laps
17.  Felbermayr/Ried/Stuck                 Porsche 996 GT3 RSR  +139 laps
18.  De Simone/Drudi/Bobbi/Lambert         Ferrari F430 GT      +140 laps
19.  Hesnault/Barff/Hartshorne/Perrier     Porsche 997 GT3 RSR  +142 laps
20.  Daniels/Westbrook/Simonsen/Washington Porsche 997 GT3 RSR  +146 laps
21.  Werner/Ehret/Nielsen                  Porsche 997 GT3 RSR  +148 laps
22.  Thiim/Rasmussen                       Corvette C6 Z06      +162 laps
23.  Rostan/Bruneau/Bonifacio              Pilbeam MP93 Judd    +171 laps