Champion wins Mid-Ohio

The win was the first as team-mates for Lehto and Werner, and they won by a lap over the Dyson Racing Lola EX257-MG of Chris Dyson and Andy Wallace, which had led 35 laps early in the race. Lehto gained the lead on an exchange of pit stops just over an hour into the timed event of two hours, 45 minutes, on the 2.25-mile road course. Werner had driven in the first hour but had been passed for the lead by Wallace.

Werner survived a collision with another car while trying to catch Wallace and the Audi sustained only minor damage. After gaining the lead, Lehto built an advantage over Chris Dyson, who replaced Wallace during the only full-course caution of the event, and Dyson later spun and lost a lap while trying to make up the deficit. Lehto maintained the advantage to the finish.

"Marco did a brilliant job is his stint and had a hard fight with Andy," said Lehto. "It was very clever of the Dyson team to not go to Le Mans and instead stay here and prepare their cars. They will obviously be very competitive in the next few races."

Wallace said: "The car was good, as fast as the Audi. But today was just not our day."

The pole-sitting Dyson Lola of James Weaver and Butch Leitzinger, which had been expected to contend strongly for the win, blew its engine on the first lap of the race.

Third overall and winning the GTS class was the Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C5-R of Ron Fellows and Johnny O'Connell. The class pole Corvette of Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta finished second, 33secs behind, while Johnny Mowlem and Terry Borcheller finished third in class in the ACEMCO Saleen S7R, Mowlem passing the Lamborghini of David Brabham for third place with only minutes left in the race.

The Flying Lizard Motorsports team, in only its second ALMS race, scored a convincing victory in the GT class with Johannes Van Overbeek and Darren Law driving a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR to a 35.578-second win. Finishing second was the Alex Job Racing Porsche of Timo Bernhard and Jorg Bergmeister.

Clint Field and Robin Liddell won the LMP2 class for Intersport Racing, emulating their result at Le Mans a fortnight ago.