Peugeot takes Petit Le Mans one-two

Ultimately it was the quickest car in the race, the #08 Peugeot 908 of Stephane Sarrazin/Franck Montagny/Pedro Lamy that took the win, although it was only in the final two hours that the result was not in doubt.

Up until then the Audi R15 of Allan McNish/Dindo Capello/Tom Kristensen had a very real chance of winning, while the second 908 of Anthony Davidson/Marc Gene/Alex Wurz was waiting in the wings on the lead lap.

But when Capello was briefly blinded when his balaclava slipped over his eyes, causing him to concede the lead to Montagny and then to pit out of sequence and thus drop off the lead lap, the cards fell perfectly into Peugeot's hands.

A full-course yellow offered a chance of getting back on the lead lap, so when Andrea Robertson brought out the safety car by lightly shunting her Ford GT, Peugeot wisely split its strategy, pitting the #08 car, leaving the #07 car in the lead and keeping the Audi off the lead lap.

With the cars running reliably from there on in, it was game over. Sarrazin brought the lead 908 home a lap ahead of Davidson, who ended up with a similar advantage over Tom Kristensen.

The 2010 LMP2 champion Highcroft Racing celebrated in style with an easy class win and fourth place overall. David Brabham brought the car home, but it was a top-rate effort from Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti too.

GT2 provided the most exciting racing, with the lead changing hands multiple times.

The Risi Ferrari 430 of Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni was in touching distance of the win when the car ran dry with just a couple of corners to go, gifting victory to the Corvette of Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen/Emmanuel Collard and second to the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari of Scott Sharp/Johannes van Overbeek/Dominik Farnbacher.

Pos  Cl   Drivers                          Car             Time/Gap
 1.  P1   Lamy/Montagny/Sarrazin           Peugeot     9h10m43.451s
 2.  P1   Gene/Wurz/Davidson               Peugeot      + 1m01.681s
 3.  P1   Capello/Kristensen/McNish        Audi            + 2 laps
 4.  P2   Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti      HPD            + 11 laps
 5.  P1   Field/Field/Devlin               Lola           + 11 laps
 6.  P1   Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer        Audi           + 17 laps
 7.  P2   Graf/Maassen/Luhr                Porsche        + 22 laps
 8.  P1   Drayson/Cocker/Pirro             Lola           + 25 laps
 9.  P2   Nicolet/Da Rocha/Lafargue        Pescarolo      + 35 laps
10.  GT2  Gavin/Magnussen/Collard          Corvette       + 39 laps
11.  GT2  Sharp/van Overbeek/Farnbacher    Ferrari        + 39 laps
12.  GT2  Vilander/Bruni                   Ferrari        + 40 laps
13.  GT2  Auberlen/Milner/Werner           BMW            + 40 laps
14.  GT2  Bergmeister/Long/Lieb            Porsche        + 40 laps
15.  GT2  O'Connell/Beretta/Garcia         Corvette       + 40 laps
16.  PC   Tucker/Werner/Frisselle          ORECA          + 40 laps
17.  GT2  Fisichella/Melo/Salo             Ferrari        + 41 laps
18.  GTH  Bernhard/Dumas/Rockenfeller      Porsche        + 44 laps
19.  GT2  Murry/Bell/Lazzaro               Doran Ford     + 45 laps
20.  GT2  Law/Neiman/Holzer                Porsche        + 46 laps
21.  GT2  Sellers/Ragginger                Porsche        + 47 laps
22.  GTC  Ende/Lally/Richard               Porsche        + 57 laps
23.  GTC  Pappas/Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen   Porsche        + 57 laps
24.  PC   Marcelli/Ducote/Ducote           ORECA          + 58 laps
25.  GTC  Potter/Davis/Eversley            Porsche        + 62 laps
26.  GTC  Lewis/Vento/Aschenbach           Porsche        + 64 laps
27.  GT2  Brown/Cosmo/Barbosa              Ferrari        + 65 laps
28.  GTC  Beggs/Baron/Villeneuve           Porsche        + 69 laps
29.  GTC  Rodriguez/Bieker                 Porsche        + 70 laps
30.  GT2  Robertson/Robertson/Stanton      Doran Ford     + 79 laps
31.  GT2  Muller/Hand/Priaulx              BMW            + 79 laps
32.  PC   Gonzalez/Diaz/Lewis              ORECA          + 83 laps
33.  GTC  Sweedler/Kapudija/Lueders        Porsche        + 84 laps
34.  PC   Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins           ORECA          + 84 laps
35.  PC   Montecalvo/Lux/Figge             ORECA          + 87 laps
36.  PC   Jeannette/Zugel/Julian           ORECA         + 107 laps

Retirements:

     P2   Dyson/Smith/Meyrick              Lola-Mazda  192 laps
     P1   Willman/Burgess/McMurry          Lola        157 laps
     GT2  Gentilozzi/Dalziel/Goossens      Jaguar      82 laps
     GT2  Leitzinger/Drissi/Wallace        Jaguar      16 laps
     P2   Prendeville/Toivonen/Dempsey     Radical     6  laps
     GT2  James/Leuenberger                Panoz       0  laps
     GTC  Miller/Hines/Ehret               Porsche     0  laps
     GT2  Davis/Said/Bell                  Doran Ford  0  laps