Peugeot's Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Alex Wurz win the Petit Le Mans
Peugeot claimed a third consecutive victory in the Petit Le Mans enduro at Road Atlanta
The 908 turbodiesel LMP1 driven by Franck Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Alex Wurz claimed victory in the 1000-mile event by five laps after both Audi R18 TDIs retired. The German manufacturer's challenge disappeared early in the eighth hour when Romain Dumas tangled with a Porsche GTC class car as he was mounting a push for the lead.
Montagny had been delayed by the Porsche in Turn 7, allowing Dumas to get a run on him out of the corner. As the Peugeot moved across to claim the racing line for the following left-hand kink, Dumas tagged the Porsche and crashed out of the race in the car he shared with Marcel Fassler and Timo Bernhard.
The result gives Peugeot the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup LMP1 manufacturers' title with one race left to run.
The previous-generation Peugeot 908 HDi entered by ORECA finished second after a trouble-free run in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre and on-loan factory drivers Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian. It finished one lap up on Stefan Mucke, Adrian Fernandez and Harold Primat in the Aston Martin Racing Lola coupe, which also enjoyed no problems on the way to third place.
The second Audi retired late in the race with steering problems. The car, shared by Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, had fallen down the order following two long stops for repairs after McNish was hit up the rear by a GT car.
The LMP2 class was won by the Level 5 Motorsports HPD driven by Christophe Bouchut, Joao Barbosa and team owner Scott Tucker. They battled with the Signatech ORECA-Nissan until the French car ran into power steering problems.
The AF Corse Ferrari 458 driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella and Pierre Kaffer came back from a lap down to win the GT class. They lost the lap with a stop-go penalty after Fisichella ran a red light at the end of the pitlane, but the car quickly regained the lost ground before Bruni was able to get the better of Rahal BMW driver Joey Hand in his final stint.
Results - 394 laps:
Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time/Gap
1. P1 Montagny/Sarrazin/Wurz Peugeot 9h34m23.972s
2. P1 Lapierre/Minassian/Gene ORECA Peugeot + 5 laps
3. P1 Fernandez/Primat/Mucke AMR Lola-Aston + 6 laps
4. P1 Pla/Premat/Yvon OAK Pescarolo-Judd + 10 laps
5. P1 Prost/Jani/Belicchi Rebellion Lola-Toyota + 13 laps
6. P2 Tucker/Bouchut/Barbosa Level 5 HPD + 19 laps
7. P1 Lahaye/Moreau/Ragues OAK Pescarolo-Judd + 24 laps
8. PC Dobson/Richard/Lewis PR1 Mathiasen FLM + 26 laps
9. PC Ducote/Ducote/Marcelli Intersport FLM + 26 laps
10. GT Fisichella/Bruni/Kaffer AF Corse Ferrari + 27 laps
11. GT Bergmeister/Long/Pilet Flying Lizard Porsche + 27 laps
12. GT Auberlen/Werner/Farfus BMW + 27 laps
13. P2 Brown/Johansson/Patterson United OAK Pescarolo + 27 laps
14. GT Gavin/Magnussen/Westbrook Corvette + 28 laps
15. GT Henzler/Sellers/Ragginger Falken Porsche + 29 laps
16. GT Sharp/van Overbeek/Farnbacher Extreme Speed Ferrari + 29 laps
17. P1 Dyson/Smith/Cochran Dyson Lola-Mazda + 31 laps
18. GT Firman/Jakubowski/Halliday Luxury Ferrari + 33 laps
19. GT Neiman/Holzer/Law Flying Lizard Porsche + 33 laps
20. GT Muller/Hand/Priaulx BMW + 35 laps
21. GT Brown/Cosmo/Bell Exteme Speed Ferrari + 37 laps
22. P2 Mailleux/Ordonez/Vernay Signatech ORECA-Nissan + 37 laps
23. GT Miller/Maassen/Collard Miller Porsche + 37 laps
24. GTE-A Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo Krohn Ferrari + 39 laps
25. GTE-A Bornhauser/Canal/Gardel Larbre Corvette + 41 laps
26. GT Robertson/Snow/Murry Robertson Doran Ford + 44 laps
27. GTC Pappas/Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen Black Swan Porsche + 48 laps
28. GTC Sweedler/Wong/Keen Alex Job Porsche + 48 laps
29. GTC Ende/Pumpelly/Ludwig TRG Porsche + 49 laps
30. PC Jeannette/Gonzalez/Junco CORE Autosport FLM + 54 laps
31. GTE-A Kauffman/Aguas/Bell AF Corse Ferrari + 56 laps
32. P1 Burgess/McMurry/Willman Autocon Lola-AER + 58 laps
33. GTE-A Giroix/Kauffman/Wainwright Gulf Aston Martin + 62 laps
34. PC Lux/Julian/Zugel/Grogor Genoa FLM + 67 laps
35. PC Bennett/Montecalvo/Dalziel CORE Autosport FLM + 70 laps
36. P2 Nicolet/da Rocha/Lafargue OAK Pescarolo-Judd + 70 laps
37. GT Ortelli/Makowiecki/Beltoise Luxury Ferrari + 78 laps
38. P2 Tucker/Franchitti/Diaz Level 5 HPD + 80 laps
39. GTE-A Ehret/Mullen/Wills CRS Ferrari + 84 laps
40. P1 Capello/Kristensen/McNish Audi + 92 laps
41. P1 Bernhard/Dumas/Fassler Audi + 98 laps
42. PC Nicolosi/Boon/Lueders Performance Tech FLM + 101 laps
Retired/not classified:
GTC von Moltke/Norman/Keating TRG Porsche 247 laps
GT Rossiter/Mowlem/Hansson Jetalliance Lotus 237 laps
GT Slingerland/Rich/Kasper Jetalliance Lotus 197 laps
GTE-A Lietz/Ried/Bullitt Proton Porsche 163 laps
GT Junqueira/Wilden/James RSR Jaguar 92 laps
P1 Bourdais/Pagenaud/Davidson Peugeot 78 laps
GT Beretta/Milner/Garcia Corvette 76 laps
P1 Luhr/Graf/Pickett Muscle Milk Lola-Aston 63 laps
P1 Al Masaood/Kane/Leitzinger Dyson Lola-Mazda 29 laps
GT Jones/Moran/Lewis RSR Jaguar 27 laps
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