Peugeot win comfortably in Barcelona
Peugeot drew first blood in the emerging battle for Le Mans Series supremacy between the French manufacturer and their diesel rivals Audi, as Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene scored an emphatic victory in the opening round at Barcelona
The No.8 908 HDi FAP inherited the lead from the sister Peugeot of Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin after 90 minutes, when the championship-winning crew collided with Michael Vergers' LMP2 Barazi Zytek and stopped for lengthy repairs.
From that point on Minassian and Gene were cruising as the Spaniard took a home win in the 1000kms race.
"This is a great day for me," said Gene. "There were just two bad moments, one was just when I had to avoid a car and went on a kerb. I hit the kerb very hard and I thought the car was damaged, but the Peugeot is so strong. Then at the end of the race I had a cramp and my foot was getting numb so I decided to stop early.
"Apart from that the car was perfect!"
The expected challenge from Audi was stiffled by reliablity problems to the faster of the two R10 TDIs.
The 'junior' car, driven by Mike Rockenfeller and Alex Premat, kept out of trouble to finish second, less than two laps behind the Peugeot, but the same could not be said of the senior pairing of Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello.
McNish's feisty battle with Minassian for second early in the race gave a hint to what might have been if the Scot hadn't been forced to bring the car into the pits when an alternator belt broke, just before the second hour mark.
A slow punctures added to the crew's woes during the race and it was a testament to their speed that they brought the car back up the field to fifth by the end, six laps down on the leader.
Ahead of them, and celebrating a podium finish on its astonishing debut, was the Lola Aston Martin which proved hugely competitive and amazingly reliable to take third, despite minimal pre-season testing.
The Charouz Racing Techonology car was easily the fastest petrol-powered machine and diced with the diesel LMP1s early on before settling into a consistent rhythm, Stefan Mucke and Jan Charouz taking a well-deserved result.
Fourth was the No.16 Pescarolo of Emmanuel Collard and Jean-Christophe Boullion, who despite dealing with persistent traction control problems, maintained their position from the recovering No.1 Audi.
The second Peugeot eventually finished 12th after Sarrazin made contact with another car late on in the race.
The Van Merkstejin Motorsport team finished sixth overall and won the LMP2 class with their Porsche RS Spyder - three examples of which appeared in an LMS race for the first time. The star driver in the crew, Jos Verstappen, scored only his second international victory in 15 years, despite being penalised for an infringement under an early Safety Car period.
The Horag Porsche, driven by Didier Theys, Jan Lammers and and Freddie Lienhard may have had something to say about the LMP2 result if fuel pressure problems had not crippled their challenge in the last third of the race. That left another of the new closed Lola prototypes, that of the Speedy Team Sabah, to take second place in the class.
Luc Alphand's Corvette team took a reasonably comfortable win in the GT1 category after their chief rivals, Team Modena Aston Martin ran out of fuel on track with Tomas Enge at the wheel.
Virgo Motorsport took GT2 honours with Rob Bell and Gianmaria Bruni in their Ferrari 430 GT after a tight battle with the Felbermayr Porsche of Marc Lieb.
Pos Driver Car Time Class 1. Gene/Minassian Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP 5h59:30.812 LMP1 2. Premat/Rockenfeller Audi R10 TDI +1 lap LMP1 3. Mucke/Charouz Lola Aston Martin +3 laps LMP1 4. Collard/Boullion Pescarolo Judd +5 laps LMP1 5. Capello/McNish Audi R10 TDI +6 laps LMP1 6. Van Merksteijn/Verstappen Porsche RS Spyder +7 laps LMP2 7. Primat/Tinseau Pescarolo Judd +7 laps LMP1 8. Belicchi/Pompidou/Zacchia Lola B08/80 Coupe Judd +8 laps LMP2 9. Elgaard/Nielsen Porsche RS Spyder +11 laps LMP2 10. Barbosa/Ickx/Short Pescarolo Judd +11 laps LMP1 11. Erdos/Newton MG Lola EX 265 MG +14 laps LMP2 12. Lamy/Sarrazin Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP +15 laps LMP1 13. Ragues/Lahaye Pescarolo Judd +16 laps LMP2 14. Lienhard/Theys/Lammers Porsche RS Spyder +17 laps LMP2 15. Rostan/Peterson/Lueders Radical SR9 AER +21 laps LMP2 16. Alphand/Moreau/Goueslard Corvette C6.R +21 laps GT1 17. Ojjeh/Gosselin/Schroyen Zytek 07S Zytek +22 laps LMP2 18. Makowiecki/Bornhauser/Bouchut Saleen S7R Ford +23 laps GT1 19. Rusinov/Kox Lamborghini Murcielago +25 laps GT1 20. Amaral/Pla Lola B05/40 AER +25 laps LMP2 21. Bell/Bruni Ferrari F430 GT +26 laps GT2 22. Lieb/Davison Porsche 997 GT3 RSR +26 laps GT2 23. Narac/Lietz Porsche 997 GT3 RSR +28 laps GT2 24. Ehret/Kaffer/Beltoise Ferrari F430 GT +29 laps GT2 25. Dumbreck/Kelleners/Vasiliev Spyker C8 Laviolette +31 laps GT2 26. Aucott/Daoudi Ferrari F430 GT +32 laps GT2 27. Balandras/Lecourt/Belloc Porsche 997 GT3 RSR +33 laps GT2 28. Daniels/Paltalla/Fortsen Porsche 997 GT3 RSR +33 laps GT2 29. Ried/Felbermayr/Felbermayr Porsche 997 GT3 RSR +34 laps GT2 30. Basso/MacCormick/Casadei Ferrari F430 GT +37 laps GT2 31. Evans/Berridge Lola B06/10 AER +38 laps LMP1 32. Burgueno/De Castro Epsilon Euskadi Judd +48 laps LMP1 33. Campbell-Walter/Hall/Ortiz Creation CA07 - Aim +52 laps LMP1 34. Salini/Salini/Roussel WR Zytek +61 laps LMP2
Not Classified
Didaio/Francioni/Savoldi Lucchini Judd +73 laps LMP2 Panis/Lapierre Courage-Oreca Judd +37 laps LMP1 Blanchemain/Dumez/Bervillec Corvette C6.R +53 laps GT1 Nicolet/Faggionato/Hein Pescarolo Judd +83 laps LMP1 Garcia/Enge Aston Martin DBR9 +91 laps GT1 Ortelli/Ayari Courage-Oreca Judd +107 laps LMP1 de Pourtales/Noda Lola B05/40 Mazda +121 laps LMP2 Nielsen/Westbrook/Simonsen Porsche 997 GT3 RSR +125 laps GT2 Lavaggi/Kauffman Lavaggi LS1 - AER +128 laps LMP1 Barazi/Vergers Zytek 07S Zytek +160 laps LMP2 Hughes/Haberfield WF01 Zytek +172 laps LMP2 Kane/Foster WF01 Zytek +174 laps LMP2 Chiesa/Leuenberger Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R +198 laps GT2 Van der Merve/Lemeret/Outzen Aston Martin Vantage V8 +215 laps GT2
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