Peugeot leads, Pirro stars in first hour

Alex Wurz had led the race from the start in the polesitting #07 Peugeot, while Pirro quickly overtook Aston Martin's Adrian Fernandez for third, then chased down the two leaders.

As the top three got into heavy traffic, Pirro sliced through into second place ahead of Sebastien Bourdais' Peugeot, and then stayed on Wurz's tail until making Drayson's first pitstop after 40 minutes.

The Peugeots ran a further five and six laps before stopping, with the #08 car leaping into the lead as it eschewed a tyre and driver change, whereas Wurz handed over to Marc Gene and fell to third behind Pirro, whose stop was also fuel only.

Highcroft is already dominating in LMP2, despite receiving a pit speeding penalty. The Cytosport Porsche is the HPD's only rival as the Dyson Lola-Mazda headed for the paddock with a misfire less than 20 minutes into the race.

Wolf Henzler thrust the Falken Porsche into the GT lead for the first half hour of the race, as the top six cars in class all ran nose to tail. Jorg Bergmeister then hit the front for Flying Lizard, but lost out to Jan Magnussen's Corvette when the GT leaders pitted under the first yellow of the race, caused by Joel Feinberg crashing Primetime's LMPC entry.

The timing of that yellow handed Level 5's two LMPC cars a one-lap advantage over the squad's rivals, led by Genoa and Green Earth Gunnar, while Alex Job's Leh Keen dominated GTC in the opening hour.