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Peugeot top first practice at Spa

Peugeot secured an early advantage over Audi by setting easily the quickest times in the first practice session for this weekend's Le Mans Series race at Spa-Francorchamps

The Audis of Rinaldo Capello and Mike Rockenfeller started the session quicker than their rivals, but Peugeot put some considerable distance between them once their 908 HDis got up to speed.

Nicolas Minassian set the fastest time of practice aboard the No. 7 Peugeot, a 2:00.567, before former world champion Jacques Villeneuve took over for his first taste of the Spa circuit in the 908 at the end of the session.

Pedro Lamy put the sister car in second place, before fellow former grand prix driver Alex Wurz took over and improved the time lie 1.3 seconds behind Minassian.

Allan McNish knocked a second off the No. 1 Audi R10's best time in the second half of the session, but still finished up two and a half seconds adrift of Minassian's time.

Alexandre Premat only just held fourth place in the No. 2 Audi, just a tenth of a second quicker than Olivier Panis's best time in the Courage Oreca he's sharing with Nicolas Lapierre.

Jos Verstappen was flying again in the Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche RS Spyder and was sixth fastest overall, easily the best of the LMP2 class cars. He finished just ahead of the two works Pescarolos and the Lola Aston Martin.

The Team Essex Porsche were second in LMP2, 10th overall, with the Barazi Epsilon Zytek completing the top three in the class 13th overall.

The Luc Alphand Corvette was top of the GT1 class, narrowly edging out the Team Modena Aston Martin.

Rob Bell and Gianmaria Bruni were quickest again in GT2, but the Felbermayr Porsche of Marc Lieb and Alex Davison was less than half a second behind.


Pos Driver                        Car                        Time       Class
 1. Gene/Minassian/Villeneuve     Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP        2:00.567    LMP1
 2. Lamy/Sarrazin/Wurz            Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP        2:01.877    LMP1
 3. Capello/McNish                Audi R10 TDI               2:03.197    LMP1
 4. Premat/Rockenfeller           Audi R10 TDI               2:04.456    LMP1
 5. Panis/Lapierre                Courage-Oreca Judd         2:04.584    LMP1
 6. Van Merksteijn/Verstappen     Porsche RS Spyder          2:05.013    LMP2
 7. Collard/Boullion              Pescarolo Judd             2:05.309    LMP1
 8. Mucke/Charouz                 Lola Aston Martin          2:06.317    LMP1
 9. Primat/Tinseau                Pescarolo Judd             2:07.007    LMP1
10. Elgaard/Nielsen               Porsche RS Spyder          2:08.658    LMP2
11. Burgueno/De Castro            Epsilon Euskadi Judd       2:08.776    LMP1
12. Barbosa/Ickx                  Pescarolo Judd             2:08.886    LMP1
13. Barazi/Vergers/Rees           Zytek 07S Zytek            2:09.127    LMP2
14. Amaral/Pla                    Lola B05/40 AER            2:09.287    LMP2
15. Hall/Ortiz                    Creation CA07 - Aim        2:09.420    LMP1
16. Lienhard/Theys/Lammers        Porsche RS Spyder          2:09.654    LMP2
17. Erdos/Newton                  MG Lola EX 265 MG          2:10.076    LMP2
18. Hughes/Kane                   WF01 Zytek                 2:10.102    LMP2
19. Kimber-Smith/Foster           WF01 Zytek                 2:11.252    LMP2
20. Belicchi/Pompidou/Zacchia     Lola B08/80 Coupe Judd     2:11.928    LMP2
21. de Pourtales/Noda             Lola B05/40 Mazda          2:12.297    LMP2
22. Rostan/Peterson/Lueders       Radical SR9 AER            2:13.376    LMP2
23. Nicolet/Faggionato/Hein       Pescarolo Judd             2:13.672    LMP1
24. Ojjeh/Gosselin/Schroyen       Zytek 07S Zytek            2:15.485    LMP2
25. Alphand/Moreau/Goueslard      Corvette C6.R              2:16.574    GT1
26. Garcia/Enge                   Aston Martin DBR9          2:17.102    GT1
27. Lavaggi/Kaufmann              Lavaggi LS1 AER            2:19.307    LMP1
28. Rusinov/Kox                   Lamborghini Murcielago     2:19.625    GT1
29. Ragues/Lahaye                 Pescarolo Judd             2:19.894    LMP2
30. Blanchemain/Dumez/Lemeret     Corvette C6.R              2:20.496    GT1
31. Hardman/Leventis              Aston Martin DBR9          2:21.162    GT1
32. Bell/Bruni                    Ferrari F430 GT            2:21.903    GT2
33. Lieb/Davison                  Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        2:22.398    GT2
34. Narac/Lietz                   Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        2:23.549    GT2
35. Salini/Salini/Roussel         WR Zytek                   2:23.571    LMP2
36. Nielsen/Westbrook/Simonsen    Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        2:23.940    GT2
37. Ehret/Kaffer                  Ferrari F430 GT            2:24.153    GT2
38. Kutemann/Basso/Daoudi         Ferrari F430 GT            2:25.499    GT2
39. Daniels/Paltalla/Sugden       Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        2:26.861    GT2
40. Balandras/Lecourt             Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        2:27.275    GT2
41. Dumbreck/Kelleners/Vasiliev   Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R  2:27.329    GT2
42. Ried/Felbermayr/Felbermayr    Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        2:27.644    GT2
43. Chiesa/Leuenberger/Iradj      Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R  2:28.659    GT2
44. Aucott/Ferte                  Ferrari F430 GT            2:30.927    GT2

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