ELMS race: No surprises as Audi wins

"It was my first race start in a long time, so I was very nervous," said Lemarie. "Tomas was quick at the beginning of the race and putting pressure on me but I knew we had the better car."

The Lanesra Panoz finished third, delayed by a long stop after the rear diffuser was damaged. Jordi Gene, with Swiss gentleman driver Christophe Pillon, drove a metronomically consistent race in the ROC Reynard 01Q-VW to finish second overall.

"When I saw the Panoz had a long stop," said Gene, "we were in second place so the team told me to push hard to keep the position."

Bruno Lambert and Ian McKellar Jr Saleen S7-R narrowly missed out on the overall podium but the GTS win was a pleasing enough result for the RML team.

"It was a pretty quiet race," said Lambert. "We had the car well set-up but this morning we had a scare with the water pump. We were hoping for an overall podium like we did in Estoril but the guys in front did a good job and stayed on the track."

Robin Liddell and Mike Youles of PK Sport/Ricardo came out on top of the typically fraught GT battle. Youles had a slow start and flat-spotted a tyre, forcing him to pit 20 minutes before the other runners, but Liddell charged back into contention on fresh tyres.

Geoff Lister actually led for much of the first hour in the Harlow Porsche 911 GT3-R he was sharing with Terry Rymer, but the car retired with a water leak shortly after PK Sport's other car (driven by Piers Masarati) punted it off the circuit whilst being lapped. The Stewards decided to exclude the PK Sport Porsche after the race, which may go some way towards mollifying the Harlow squad's ire.

Another star of the opening hour was Richard Dean, who charged from the back of the grid to grab the lead from Lister shortly before handing over to series debutant Giovanni Anapoli. But the team didn't change tyres, and the Italian was unable to fend off Liddell. Dean took the wheel again in the final hour but fell out of the battle for the lead with two unplanned stops: one a stop-go for speeding in the pits, and another to replace a faulty wheel nut.

Stephen Earle and Bart Hayden stayed out of trouble to take second place, the Sebah team's best ever ELMS finish. Third went to Wolfgang Kaufmann (another early race leader, until he suffered a puncture) and Paco Orti.

Stefan Johansson/Patrick Lemarie Audi R8 117 laps
Jordi Gene/Christophe Pillon Reynard 01Q-VW +4 laps
Tomas Enge/Jaroslav Janis Panoz LMP Roadster S +6 laps
Bruno Lambert/Ian McKellar Jr Saleen S7-R +5 laps
Mike Youles/Robin Liddell Porsche 911 GT3-R +4 laps
Dr Stephen Earle/Bart Hayden Porsche 911 GT3-R +1 lap
Wolfgang Kaufmann/Paco Orti Porsche 911 GT3-R +1 lap
Richard Dean/Giovanni Anapoli Porsche 911 GT3-R +1 lap
Charlie Slater/Maciej Stanco Porsche 911 GT2 +1 lap