Pagenaud and Bourdais earn Peugeot AUTOSPORT 6 Hours crown

The polesitting 908 was in contention for victory throughout the race, as accidents, traffic and damage proved decisive in another engrossing instalment of the Peugeot/Audi battle.

The race swung several times in a breathtaking first hour, as the #2 Audi snatched an early lead ahead of the #7 and #8 Peugeots and sister #1 R18 - around four seconds covering the quartet.

With so little to choose between the four, traffic offered a chance for breathing space and overtaking was therefore aggressive. It would also prove a downfall.

First victim was Franck Montagny, who cut across a backmarker too early at Copse and was tagged into a spin into the barriers. The error caused heavy damage and a lengthy spell before the car was recovered, dropping the #8 908 out of contention.

Shortly after Allan McNish in the lead Audi was caught out as he dived down the inside of the #66 JMW Ferrari at Becketts - a clash for which the Ferrari was, controversially, later punished. McNish broke his steering and faced a lengthy repair in the pits, the impact of which was lessened slightly by the race's only safety car when Jody Firth span from second in class into the pit wall in the #46 TDR ORECA-Nissan.

That left a straight fight between the Pagenaud/Bourdais Peugeot and the #1 Audi of Timo Bernhard and Marcel Fassler. Again there was little to separate the pair, with both taking spells at the front as the race wore on.

The deciding moment came when Bernhard had to pit with damage to his rear and crucially to his legality boards. The Audi mechanics were superb, but a stop of around 1m proved too much to recover. Crucially they remained on the same lap but Bourdais and Pagenaud remained faultless, eventually claiming victory by just over one minute.

The #24 Oak Racing Pescarolo-Judd of Alexandre Premat and Olivier Pla rounded out the LMP1 podium after a long four-way battle with the sister #15 Oak and the two Rebellion Racing Lolas.

LMP2 was also influenced by damage, although eventual winners Karim Ojjeh and Tom Kimber-Smith in the #41 Greaves Nissan were rarely out of the top two.

Victory was assured however when the #45 Boutsen ORECA-Nissan had to pit with 90 minutes to go with rear damage, while earlier the #26 Strakka HPD - which had also been a challenger - suffered from a stop of a similar nature.

GTE Pro was only decided at the flag, with seven cars on the lead lap heading into the final half hour. The class win eventually went to the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 of Bruni Gianmaria and Giancarlo Fisichella, while second was claimed in the final minutes by Frederic Makowiecki and Stephane Ortelli in the #59 Luxury Racing Ferrari.

That demoted Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz in the #77 Felbermayr Porsche to third, while Andy Priaulx and Uwe Alzen recovered strongly to finish fourth in the #56 M3 - both BMWs having slipped from the front of the grid after struggling with long-run grip.

Porsche took a 1-2 in the GTE Am category, the #67 IMSA 911 of Nicolas Armindo and Raymond Narac once again proving the class of the field as it won by over one lap.

POSITIONS AFTER 6 HOURS

Pos  Cl     Drivers                      Team/Car                      Laps/Gap
 1.   LMP1   Bourdais/Pagenaud            Peugeot                      190 laps
 2.   LMP1   Bernhard/Fassler             Audi                      + 1m29.763s
 3.   LMP1   Premat/Pla                   Oak Pescarolo-Judd           + 5 laps
 4.   LMP1   Belicchi/Boullion            Rebellion Lola-Toyota        + 5 laps
 5.   LMP1   Lahaye/Moreau/Ragues         Oak Pescarolo-Judd           + 5 laps
 6.   LMP1   Collard/Tinseau/Jousse       Pescarolo-Judd               + 5 laps
 7.   LMP1   Kristensen/McNish            Audi                         + 6 laps
 8.   LMP1   Montagny/Sarrazin            Peugeot                      + 9 laps
 9.   LMP1   Fernandez/Primat/Klien       AMR Lola-Aston              + 11 laps
10.   LMP2   Ojjeh/Kimber-Smith/Lombard   Greaves Zytek-Nissan        + 12 laps
11.   LMP2   Frey/Meichtry/Rostan         Race Performance ORECA-Judd + 13 laps
12.   LMP2   Kraihamer/Ebbesvik           Boutsen ORECA-Nissan        + 14 laps
13.   LMP2   Newton/Erdos/Collins         RML HPD                     + 14 laps
14.   LMP2   Gates/Hughes/Garofall        RLR MG Lola-Judd            + 19 laps
15.   LMP2   Barlesi/da Rocha/Lafargue    Oak Pescarolo-Judd          + 19 laps
16.   LMP2   Mailleux/Ordonez/Vernay      Signatech ORECA-Nissan      + 20 laps
17.   FLM    Schultis/Simon/Schell        Pegasus FLM                 + 21 laps
18.   FLM    Mitchell/Grogor/Kronfli      Genoa FLM                   + 21 laps
19.   FLM    Marcelli/Ducote/Moro         JMB FLM                     + 22 laps
20.   GTE-P  Fisichella/Bruni             AF Corse Ferrari            + 22 laps
21.   GTE-P  Ortelli/Makowiecki           Luxury Ferrari              + 23 laps
22.   GTE-P  Lieb/Lietz                   Felbermayr Porsche          + 23 laps
23.   GTE-P  Priaulx/Alzen                BMW                         + 23 laps
24.   GTE-P  Goossens/Holzer              Prospeed Porsche            + 23 laps
25.   LMP2   Leventis/Watts/Kane          Strakka HPD                 + 23 laps
26.   GTE-P  Farfus/Muller                BMW                         + 23 laps
27.   GTE-P  Pilet/Henzler                IMSA Porsche                + 23 laps
28.   GTE-P  Farnbacher/Simonsen          Farnbacher Ferrari          + 23 laps
29.   GTE-P  Bell/Walker                  JMW Ferrari                 + 24 laps
30.   GTE-P  Jakubowski/Beltoise/Marroc   Luxury Ferrari              + 26 laps
31.   GTE-A  Narac/Armindo                IMSA Porsche                + 26 laps
32.   GTE-P  Hancock/Dolan/Buncombe       Jota Aston Martin           + 26 laps
33.   GTE-A  Roda/Long                    Proton Porsche              + 27 laps
34.   FLM    Hartshorne/Keating/Keen      Neil Garner FLM             + 28 laps
35.   GTE-A  Ehret/Lynn/Wills             CRS Ferrari                 + 28 laps
36.   GTE-A  Bornhauser/Canal/Gardel      Larbre Corvette             + 28 laps
37.   GTE-A  Perazzini/Cioci/Lemeret      AF Corse Ferrari            + 28 laps
38.   GTE-A  Felbermayr/Ried              Felbermayr Porsche          + 28 laps
39.   GTE-A  Krohn/Jonsson/Rugulo         Krohn Ferrari               + 29 laps
40.   GTE-P  Rossiter/Mowlem/Wendlinger   Jetalliance Lotus           + 29 laps
41.   GTE-A  Giroix/Goethe/Wainwright     Gulf Aston Martin           + 37 laps
42.   GTE-A  Hummel/Christodoulou/Quaife  CRS Ferrari                 + 59 laps

Not classified:

      GTE-P  Broniszewski/Peter           Kessel Ferrari               118 laps
      GTE-P  Lichtner-Hoyer/Rich/Hansson  Jetalliance Lotus            114 laps
      LMP2   Companc/Russo/Kaffer         Pecom Lola-Judd              103 laps

Retirements:

      LMP1   Prost/Jani                   Rebellion Lola-Toyota        159 laps
      GTE-P  Melo/Vilander                AF Corse Ferrari              92 laps
      LMP2   Beche/Thiriet/Firth          TDS ORECA-Nissan              23 laps