Dramatic win for Aston on debut

The lead AMR Lola-Aston, driven by Stefan Mucke, Jan Charouz and Tomas Enge, looked destined to finish second until the leading Pescarolo-Judd stalled at its final pitstop. This allowed a charging Mucke to drastically cut the gap to Pescarolo driver Christophe Tinseau.

The Frenchman's lead was down to 6.2 seconds when the safety car was deployed with 40 minutes to go. Mucke was only four seconds behind when the race went green and needed less than six laps to close down and then pass the Pescarolo.

Tinseau, who shared the revised Pescarolo-Judd 01 with Jean-Christophe Boullion, eventually finished 14 seconds down at the chequered flag.

The second AMR entry looked set to finish third until Miguel Ramos spun in the closing stages and was unable to restart. That allowed the number two AIM-powered Couarge-ORECA, in which Bruno Senna joined team regular Stephane Ortelli, to claim the final spot on the podium.

Fourth place went to sportscar debutant Signature Racing, whose Judd-engined Courage-ORECA had a largely trouble-free run in the hands of Pierre Ragues and Frank Mailleux. The pole-winning Strakka Racing Ginetta-Zytek, driven by Danny Watts, Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis, finished fifth.

LMP2 honours went to the Italian Racing Box team. Its lead Lola-Judd coupe enjoyed a faultless run in the hands of Thomas Biagi, Matteo Bobbi and Andrea Piccinni to claim a 46-second victory over the ASM Team Ginetta-Zytek driven by Olivier Pla and Miguel Amaral.

The Reiter-run IPB Spartak Lamborghini Murcielago took the GT1 silverware. The Italian car driven by Peter Kox and Romain Rusinov was the fastest car in class but only assumed the lead when team owner Luc Alphand spun his Chevrolet Corvette C6.R in the third hour.

Porsche reasserted itself in GT2. Factory drivers Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb took the class honours aboard their Felbermayr Proton Porsche 911 GT3-RSR ahead of Rob Bell and Gianmaria Bruni in the JMW Motorsport Ferrari.

Pos  Cl    Drivers                      Car                   Laps
 1.  LMP1  Charouz/Enge/Mucke           Lola Aston Martin     209
 2.  LMP1  Boullion/Tinseau             Pescarolo Judd        209
 3.  LMP1  Ortelli/Senna                Oreca AIM             206
 4.  LMP1  Ragues/Mailleux              Oreca Judd            206
 5.  LMP1  Watts/Leventis/Hardman       Ginetta Zytek         205
 6.  LMP1  Jouanny/Barbosa              Pescarolo Judd        203
 7.  LMP2  Biagi/Bobbi/Piccini          Lola Judd             201
 8.  LMP2  Amaral/Pla                   Ginetta Zytek         201
 9.  LMP2  Ceccato/Francioni/Piccini    Lola Judd             195
10.  LMP2  Bruneau/Moseley/Greensall    Radical AER           193
11.  LMP2  Lahaye/Ajlani                Pescarolo Mazda       190
12.  LMP2  Nicolet/Hein                 Pescarolo Mazda       190
13.  GT1   Rusinov/Kox                  Lamborghini           189
14.  GT2   Lieb/Lietz                   Porsche 997 GT3 RSR   187
15.  GT1   Alphand/Goueslard/Clairay    Corvette C6.R         187
16.  GT2   Bell/Bruni                   Ferrari F430 GT       186
17.  GT2   Simonsen/Montanari           Ferrari F430 GT       185
18.  GT2   Ehret/Beltoise               Ferrari F430 GT       185
19.  GT2   Garcia/Mansell               Ferrari F430 GT       185
20.  LMP2  Kane/Pompidou                Lola Judd             184
21.  GT2   Hartshorne/Scheier/Iannetta  Ferrari F430 GT       184
22.  GT1   Berville/Dumez/Zacchia       Saleen S7R            184
23.  GT2   Ried/Felbermayr/Martins      Porsche 997 GT3 RSR   182
24.  LMP1  Primat/Ramos/Turner          Lola Aston Martin     181
25.  GT2   Cocker/Drayson               Aston Martin Vantage  181
26.  GT2   McInerney/McInerney/Vergers  Ferrari F430 GT       181
27.  LMP1  Belicchi/Fassler/Prost       Lola Aston Martin     180
28.  LMP1  Krumm/Meyrick/Zwolsman       Audi R10 TDI          179
29.  LMP2  Ojjeh/Gosselin/Peter         Ginetta Zytek         179
30.  GT2   Tenchini/Basso/Plati         Ferrari F430 GT       175
31.  LMP2  Salini/Salini/Gommendy       WR Zytek              163
32.  LMP1  Albers/Bakkerud              Audi R10 TDI          153
33.  GT1   Konopka/Edwards/Daniels      Saleen S7R            139
34.  LMP2  Noda/Sini/Marsh              Lola Mazda            133
35.  LMP2  Schell/Thirion               Courage AER           118
36.  LMP2  Ibanez/Rocha/Cavailhes       Courage AER           116
37.  GT2   Pilet/Narac                  Porsche 997 GT3 RSR   115
38.  LMP1  Panis/Lapierre               Oreca AIM             108
39.  GT2   Rosa/Montermini/Petrobelli   Ferrari F430 GT       106
40.  LMP2  Moncada/Cortes/Armetta       Lucchini Judd         98
41.  LMP2  Erdos/Newton                 Lola Mazda            82
42.  LMP2  Randaccio/Giammaria          Lucchini McLaren      17
43.  GT2   Coronel/Leuenberger          Spyker C8 Laviolette  6