Sarrazin denies Audi a 1-2 finish with late effort in first practice

The #8 Peugeot 908 Sarrazin shares with Franck Montagny had languished a little during the session, dropping as low as seventh before Sarrazin jumped into the lead ten minutes from the end.

His 1m47.755s effort stood for the remainder of the session, giving Peugeot the early advantage.

Audi looked quick however, holding a 1-2 for the majority of the session - 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Marcel Fassler going fastest early on. His effort looked enough until Peugeot's late surge, with the #1 Audi ending 0.211s down in second.

The sister #2 of Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen also ran well and ended third fastest, 0.325s off the ultimate pace.

The #7 Peugeot of Sebastien Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud - in for the injured Anthony Davidson - finished fourth fastest, but there were encouraging signs for Rebellion Racing as Neel Jani regularly broke the Audi-Peugeot top four domination.

Jani was ultimately denied by a late effort from Pagenaud, but he finished fifth fastest, within 1s of Sarrazin's benchmark.

LMP2 turned into a straight fight between the #26 Signatech and the #46 TDS Racing ORECA - Nissans.

Franck Mailleux eventually put the Signatech on top, less than three hundredths of a second clear of the TDS.

The #41 Graves Motorsport Zytek Nissan, #40 Race Performance ORECA and #42 Strakka HPD also weighed in however, with the lead-five LMP2 cars all covered by less than half a second.

GTE Pro was dominated by Ferrari, which took a 1-2-3 in the form of the #51 AF Corse, #59 Luxury Racing and #66 JMW Motorsport 458s.

Giancarlo Fisichella set the overall pace for AF Corse, ending more than 1s clear of Stephane Ortelli and Frederic Makowiecki, who is missing the penultimate FIA GT1 round at Beijing.

The #67 IMSA Porsche of Raymond Narac and Nicolas Armindo edged out the #57 Krohn Ferrari 430 to finish fastest in GTE Am.


Pos   Cl      Drivers                      Team/Car                    Time       

 1.   LMP1   Montagny/Sarrazin            Peugeot      		       1m47.755s
 2.   LMP1   Bernhard/Fassler             Audi  		       1m47.966s
 3.   LMP1   Kristensen/McNish            Audi                         1m48.080s
 4.   LMP1   Davidson/Bourdais/Pagenaud   Peugeot                      1m48.424s
 5.   LMP1   Prost/Jani                   Rebellion Lola-Toyota        1m48.694s
 6.   LMP1   Belicchi/Boullion            Rebellion Lola-Toyota        1m49.849s
 7.   LMP1   Lahaye/Moreau/Ragues         Oak Pescarolo-Judd           1m49.961s
 8.   LMP1   Nicolet/Premat/Pla           Oak Pescarolo-Judd           1m51.881s
 9.   LMP1   Collard/Tinseau/Jousse       Pescarolo-Judd               1m52.277s
10.   LMP2   Mailleux/Ordonez/Vernay      Signatech ORECA-Nissan       1m53.465s
11.   LMP2   Beche/Thiriet/Firth          TDS ORECA-Nissan             1m53.493s
12.   LMP2   Ojjeh/Kimber-Smith/Lombard   Greaves Zytek-Nissan         1m53.800s
13.   LMP2   Frey/Meichtry/Rostan         Race Performance ORECA-Judd  1m53.811s
14.   LMP1   Fernandez/Primat/Klien       AMR Lola-Aston               1m53.884s
15.   LMP2   Leventis/Watts/Kane          Strakka HPD                  1m53.944s
16.   LMP2   Kraihamer/Ebbesvik           Boutsen ORECA-Nissan         1m55.270s
17.   LMP1   Cortes/Geri/Picini           MIK Zytek                    1m55.600s
18.   LMP2   Companc/Russo/Kaffer         Pecom Lola-Judd              1m55.681s
19.   LMP2   Newton/Erdos/Collins         RML HPD                      1m56.533s
20.   LMP2   Gates/Hughes/Garofall        RLR MG Lola-Judd             1m56.766s
21.   FLM    Schultis/Simon/Schell        Pegasus FLM                  1m59.260s
22.   FLM    Hartshorne/Keating/Keen      Neil Garner FLM              2m00.220s
23.   LMP2   Barlesi/da Rocha/Lafargue    Oak Pescarolo-Judd           2m01.438s
24.   GTE-P  Fisichella/Bruni             AF Corse Ferrari             2m02.647s
25.   GTE-P  Ortelli/Makowiecki           Luxury Ferrari               2m03.774s
26.   GTE-P  Bell/Walker                  JMW Ferrari                  2m04.015s
27.   GTE-P  Farfus/Muller                BMW                          2m04.183s
28.   GTE-P  Farnbacher/Simonsen          Farnbacher Ferrari           2m04.387s
29.   GTE-P  Priaulx/Alzen                BMW                          2m04.393s
30.   GTE-P  Melo/Vilander                AF Corse Ferrari             2m04.606s
31.   FLM    Marcelli/Ducote/Moro         JMB FLM                      2m04.984s
32.   GTE-P  Lieb/Lietz                   Felbermayr Porsche           2m05.070s
33.   GTE-P  Pilet/Henzler                IMSA Porsche                 2m05.314s
34.   GTE-P  Hancock/Dolan/Buncombe       Jota Aston Martin            2m05.786s
35.   GTE-P  Goossens/Holzer              Prospeed Porsche             2m05.964s
36.   GTE-P  Jakubowski/Beltoise/Marroc   Luxury Ferrari               2m06.036s
37.   GTE-A  Narac/Armindo                IMSA Porsche                 2m06.402s
38.   GTE-A  Krohn/Jonsson/Rugulo         Krohn Ferrari                2m06.455s
39.   GTE-P  Broniszewski/Peter           Kessel Ferrari               2m06.586s
40.   GTE-A  Roda/Long                    Proton Porsche               2m07.287s
41.   GTE-A  Bornhauser/Canal/Gardel      Larbre Corvette              2m07.886s
42.   GTE-A  Perazzini/Cioci/Lemeret      AF Corse Ferrari             2m07.948s
43.   GTE-A  Ehret/Lynn/Wills             CRS Ferrari                  2m08.199s
44.   GTE-A  Giroix/Goethe/Wainwright     Gulf Aston Martin            2m08.576s
45.   GTE-A  Hummel/Christodoulou/Quaife  CRS Ferrari                  2m09.020s
46.   GTE-A  Felbermayr/Ried              Felbermayr Porsche           2m10.085s
47.   GTE-P  Lichtner-Hoyer/Rich/Hansson  Jetalliance Lotus            2m14.593s
48.   FLM    Mitchell/Grogor/Kronfli      Genoa FLM                    -