Sarrazin tops Silverstone practice

Stephane Sarrazin waited until just before the end of his stint to displace teammate and championship contender Nicolas Minassian at the top of the times with a lap time of 1:31.510s, just four hundredths faster than the Frenchman.

Mike Rockenfeller, who along with co-driver Alexandre Premat can still take the drivers' title away from Minassian and Marc Gene, was third fastest in the No.2 Audi R10 TDI.

Le Mans winner Rinaldo Capello, who shares the No.1 with autosport.com columnist Allan McNish was fourth fastest.

There was a change in the established order behind the diesels however, with the Charouz Racing Lola Aston Martin for once not dominating the petrol-powered ranks. That honour went to Adrian Valles in the impressive Epsilon Euskadi.

Harald Primat was sixth for Oreca ahead of Stefan Mucke in the Lola-Aston.

Jos Verstappen, as usual, set the pace in LMP2 for Van Merskteijn Racing with the Porsche RS Spyder, but Michael Vergers - who knows a thing or two about UK race tracks - kept him honest with second for the Barazi squad.

Warren Hughes was third fastest for the British Embassy Zytek team.

Patrice Goueslard put the Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette top in the GT1 class, outpacing Tomas Enge in the Team Modena Aston Martin by 0.4s.

In GT2, Rob Bell got his quest to secure the championship title off to a great start by going quickest for Virgo Motorsport ahead of Alex Davison in the Felbermayr Porsche.

Meet the Team Modena Aston Martin drivers at the Autosport stand at Silverstone this weekend.

Pos  Driver                          Car                        Time
LMP
 1.  Lamy/Sarrazin                   Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP        1:31.510
 2.  Gene/Minassian                  Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP        1:31.551
 3.  Premat/Rockenfeller             Audi R10 TDI               1:33.744
 4.  Capello/McNish                  Audi R10 TDI               1:33.754
 5.  Nakano/Valles                   Epsilon Euskadi Judd       1:33.779
 6.  Primat/Tinseau                  Pescarolo Judd             1:35.009
 7.  Mucke/Charouz                   Lola Aston Martin          1:35.022
 8.  Ortelli/Ayari                   Courage-Oreca Judd         1:35.305
 9.  Panis/Lapierre                  Courage-Oreca Judd         1:35.515
10.  Dumas/Boullion                  Pescarolo Judd             1:35.696
11.  Burgueno/De Castro              Epsilon Euskadi Judd       1:35.989
12.  Barbosa/Ickx/Short              Pescarolo Judd             1:37.557
13.  Campbell-Walter/Hall            Creation CA07 - Aim        1:37.922
14.  Simpson/Halliday                Creation CA07 - Aim        1:39.107
15.  Nicolet/Hein                    Pescarolo Judd             1:42.203


LMP2
 1.  Bleekemolen/Verstappen          Porsche RS Spyder          1:36.114
 2.  Barazi/Vergers/Rees             Zytek 07S Zytek            1:36.927
 3.  Kane/Hughes                     WF01 Zytek                 1:37.130
 4.  Belicchi/Pompidou/Zacchia       Lola B08/80 Coupe Judd     1:37.218
 5.  Elgaard/Nielsen                 Porsche RS Spyder          1:37.852
 6.  Amaral/Pla                      Lola B05/40 AER            1:37.857
 7.  Manning/Foster                  WF01 Zytek                 1:38.305
 8.  Lienhard/Theys/Lammers          Porsche RS Spyder          1:39.046
 9.  Ojjeh/Gosselin                  Zytek 07S Zytek            1:41.089
10.  Rostan/Peterson/Lueders         Radical SR9 AER            1:41.228
11.  Ragues/Lahaye                   Pescarolo Judd             1:41.487
12.  de Pourtales/Noda               Lola B05/40 Mazda          1:42.236
13.  Salini/Salini/Roussel           WR Zytek                   1:42.532
14.  Erdos/Newton                    Lola B08/80 Coupe MG       no time

GT1
 1.  Moreau/Gouselard                Corvette C6.R              1:45.324
 2.  Garcia/Enge                     Aston Martin DBR9          1:45.709
 3.  Rusinov/Kox                     Lamborghini Murcielago     1:46.449
 4.  Hardman/Leventis/Turner         Aston Martin DBR9          1:47.171

GT2
 1.  Bell/Melo                       Ferrari F430 GT            1:50.698
 2.  Lieb/Davison                    Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        1:51.019
 3.  Narac/Lietz                     Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        1:51.670
 4.  Ehret/Kaffer/Beltoise           Ferrari F430 GT            1:52.457
 5.  Nielsen/Westbrook/Simonsen      Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        1:52.563
 6.  Aucott/Daoudi                   Ferrari F430 GT            1:53.189
 7.  Chiesa/Leuenberger              Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R  1:53.258
 8.  Coronel/Kelleners/Vasiliev      Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R  1:53.634
 9.  Ried/Felbyrmayr/Felbyrmayr      Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        1:54.578
10.  Balandras/Lecourt               Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        1:54.623
11.  Daniels/Bamford/Griffin         Porsche 997 GT3 RSR        1:54.816
12.  Van der Merwe/Sugden/Outzen     Aston Martin Vantage V8    1:56.069
13.  Kutemann/Basso/Gilbert          Ferrari F430 GT            1:58.927