GT1 leaders expect race-long battle

The No.63 Corvette of Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows leads the category from its sister car of Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin and Max Papis. But the No.009 Aston Martin of Darren Turner, David Brabham and Antonio Garcia has been mixing it with them throughout and currently lies third.

Gavin told autosport.com that he expected to be in a fierce fight throughout the race and said that neither team could afford to make the slightest mistake.

"This is a great race, a great track and it is going to be really nip and tuck between us and the Astons.

"It will be down to tyres, down to pitstops, how quick you are, making sure you stay clean and have no contact. I think there is no difference between the cars that if you get behind you are never going to be able to catch up unless they hit a problem."

Gavin added that in the early stages of the race he struggled to double-stint his tyres, which could prove crucial later in the event.

"As soon as I went back out [after my pitstop] I started to struggle with the rear of the car. It was also really dicey trying to keep on top of the traffic. There is a lot of crazy, strange driving. Quite a few inexperienced drivers out there.

Brabham agreed that tyres were proving critical and revealed that Aston Martin were facing a similar predicament

"I was losing grip at the end of my first stint, so we decided to change rubber which was a good call, because the other guys were struggling and I was able to catch up and pass Oliver Gavin on my in-lap.

"It's just amazing how close it is."