De Ferran takes third straight victory

The led from pole position in the early stages but there was a close fight with the Highcroft Racing Acura of David Brabham and Scott Sharp, and the latter pair snatched the lead at the final round of pitstops.

Brabham was set to take the victory for Highcroft with Pagenaud admitting he couldn't chase down the lead car in final stint, but a puncture 13 minutes from the end forced the Australian to pit for new tyres and allowed the de Ferran car to regain its lead. Just 43 seconds separated the two cars at the flag.

"I honestly didn't have the pace to come back on him," said Pagenaud said. "I am going to remember this race forever. I think my heart rate was at maximum all race because of the traffic and the ending."

Brabham added: "Today was a bit of a roller coaster but I am not too disappointed because we did everything we needed to do in this race. We got ourselves in front and I had the race under control, but unfortunately I got a puncture and when the competition is that close you can't afford to have anything like that happen."

Johnny Mowlem and Stefan Johansson completed the podium in their Corsa Motorsports Ginetta-Zytek's first outing in its full hybrid configuration.

Dyson Racing took its first class victory in the ALMS since 2005, with Butch Leitzinger and Marino Franchitti beating the Fernandez Racing Acura of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz - which had won the P2 class for the last four races.

The Dyson Lola extended its early lead over Fernandez to six laps when the Mexican had to pit for a new rear shock absorber and rejoined six laps down. There was a late scare for the winners though, when Leitzinger stalled the car while avoiding a spinning GT2 runner, but he was able to rejoin quickly.

Jorg Bergmeister and Patrick Long took their fourth straight GT2 class win in their Flying Lizards Porsche, a lap ahead the Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 of Jaime Melo and Pierre Kaffer.

Pos Drivers                              Car                Time/Gap
 1. Gil de Ferran/Simon Pagenaud         Acura          2h45m14.053s
 2. David Brabham/Scott Sharp            Acura               +43.776
 3. Johnny Mowlem/Stefan Johansson       Ginetta-Zytek       +7 laps
 4. Butch Leitzinger/Marino Franchitti   Lola-Mazda         +12 laps
 5. Jorg Bergmeister/Patrick Long        Porsche            +17 laps
 6. Tony Burgess/Chris McMurry           Lola-AER           +18 laps
 7. Adrian Fernandez/Luis Diaz           Acura              +18 laps
 8. Jaime Melo/Pierre Kaffer             Ferrari            +18 laps
 9. Joey Hand/Bill Auberlen              BMW                +18 laps
10. Wolf Henzler/Bryce Miller            Porsche            +19 laps
11. Richard Westbrook/Johannes Stuck     Porsche            +21 laps
12. Dominik Farnbacher/Ian James         Panoz-Ford         +21 laps
13. Johannes van Overbeek/Seth Neiman    Porsche            +25 laps
14. Joel Feinberg/Chris Hall             Dodge              +26 laps
15. G.van der Steur/Adam Pecorari        Radical-AER        +27 laps
16. D. Robertson/A. Robertson/D. Murry   Ford               +31 laps
17. Wesley Hoaglund/Bob Faieta           Porsche            +35 laps
18. Ed Brown/Bill Sweedler               Porsche            +38 laps
19. Nick Parker/Don Pickering            Porsche            +40 laps
20. Martin Snow/Melanie Snow             Porsche            +42 laps
21. Dirk Müller/Tom Milner               BMW                +42 laps

Retirements

    J. Field/C. Field/C. Ducote          Lola-AER           38  laps
    Chris Dyson/Guy Smith                Lola-Mazda          63 laps
    John Baker/Guy Cosmo                 Porsche             52 laps