Audi wins LMES opener

A late rainstorm aided Herbert's cause when the sister R8, being driven by Pierre Kaffer stopped to hand over to Allan McNish just before the bad weather set in, forcing the Scot to make another pitstop for wet tyres. Herbert on the other hand was still to make his last scheduled stop as the track became saturated.

Thus Herbert, who took the lead from Kaffer earlier in the race through a spectacular pass on the grass on the run down to the Parabolica but was expecting McNish to provide some late race pressure, cruised home with ease.

The Team Goh Audi finished a distant third, one lap down while the Emmunuel Collard/Soheil Ayari Pescarolo was fourth a further three laps back. Martin Short's Rollcentre Racing Dallara placed an excellent fifth.

The factory Zytek, which starred in qualifying in the hands of Stefan Johansson and diced for the lead early-on when Andy Wallace was driving it, slipped back to sixth as the hours passed.

Former F1 driver Pedro Lamy, Christophe Bouchut and Steve Zacchia won the LM GTS class in the Larbre Competition Ferrari 550. Stephane Ortelli's Freisinger Porsche placed first in the LM GT category.



Johnny Herbert/Jamie Davies Audi R8 5h05m5.200s
Allan McNish/Pierre Kaffer Audi R8 5h05m5.863s
Rinaldo Capello/Seiji Ara/Tom Kristensen Audi R8 1 lap
Emmunuel Collard/Soheil Ayari Pescarolo-Judd C60 4 laps
Martin Short/Rob Barff/Joao Barbosa Dallara-Judd LMP 5 laps
Stefan Johansson/Andy Wallace/David Brabham Zytek 04S 8 laps