Wurz escapes heavy Peugeot shunt

The No.8 Peugeot 908 Hdi was trying to pass the No.1 Audi R10 TDI out of the fast double-left hander, Pouhon, while lapping Ralf Kelleners' GT2 Spyker.

Wurz clipped the Spyker with the rear of his car, spun, and then collected Capello before hitting the wall hard at the following chicane, damaging the pole postion-winning 908 beyond repair.

"I'm okay," said Wurz. "I have to say the whole accident was a bit unlucky. The GT2 touched me on the right rear and that spun me around and then we all had the collision.

"It wasn't because of the fight between Capello and me. It was just a bad moment on a nice sunny race day!"

Wurz had shown impressive pace up until that point, and the No.8 Peugeot had been arguably the fastest car in the race, with Pedro Lamy dominating the opening stint.

But during the driver change-over in an early safety car period, the team lost time trying to fire the engine and Wurz emerged from the pits in third.

Wurz's co-driver Stephane Sarrazin, who didn't get to run, told autosport.com that he believed his crew had the speed to win the race: "It's a shame because right from the start of the weekend we have had a very fast race car."

"Alex did some very good lap times and we have had a very good average and the car was fast enough that we had a good chance to win the race," he added.

"These things happen, but it doesn't matter how fast your car is if you don't finish the race. It is a very different kind of racing and you often have to slow for traffic. Still better that it happens here than at Le Mans!"

Capello's Audi also fell out of contention after the incident when the Italian was forced to pit for four laps to repair damage to the rear of his car.

The No.1 R10, that Capello shares with Allan McNish, was only 7s behind the leading Peugeot driven by Jacques Villeneuve when the accident happened. The team lost four laps in the stop and dropped to tenth position overall - then to compound matters were given a three minute pitstop penalty for leaving the pits under a red light.

This is third LMS race in succession that the Capello/McNish car has hit trouble while running in a podium position.