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Peugeot wins Spa 1000km

Peugeot warmed up for the Le Mans 24 Hours in the best way possible by winning the Spa 1000km for a fifth successive year

After starting 13th on the grid after problems in qualifying, Alex Wurz carved his way into the lead before the end of the first stint to give his co-drivers Anthony Davidson and Marc Gene a comfortable afternoon's work.

Both the winning car and the second-placed machine of Stephane Sarrazin/Franck Montagny/Nicolas Minassian, ran faultlessly throughout the race and finished 42 seconds apart.

Peugeot was on course for a podium lock-out when Pedro Lamy got his car beached in the gravel at Rivage and then co-driver Simon Pagenaud suffered a front suspension collapse with 45 minutes remaining. He made it back to the pits, but the repairs dropped him to eighth by the flag.

Allan McNish/Rinaldo Capello/Tom Kristensen were the best of the Audi crews in third, but the German manufacturer's problems continued into the second half of the race.

Kristensen had closed to around 20s behind Minassian in the battle for second, only to make contact with the LMP2 TDS ORECA at the start of the final hour, inflicting a puncture and bodywork damage to the Dane's R18 TDI.

The remaining works Audis rounded out the top five; Marcel Fassler stopping the car he shared with early leader Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer at the entrance to the pits ahead of the penultimate stop.

Sixth went to the best of the petrol-powered cars, the Pescarolo of Christophe Tinseau/Emmauel Collard/Julien Jousse, which edged out the Rebellion Lola of Neel Jani/Nicolas Prost.

Victory in LMP2 went to the TDS ORECA of Mathias Beche/Pierre Thiriet/Jody Firth by under a minute from the similar Boutsen Energy car of Dominik Kraihamer/Nicolas de Crem.

After losing a lap in the pits when the safety car came out during the second hour, Strakka HPD driver Jonny Kane closed to under 10s behind the Boutsen car with a lap to go, but slowed to a crawl out of the Bus Stop chicane on the final lap. He did, however, hold onto third in class.

Giancarlo Fisichella recovered from a penalty for exceeding the track limits to take victory in the GT2 Pro class with his AF Corse Ferrari co-driver Gimmi Bruni.

Dominik Farnbacher/Allan Simonsen made it a one-two for Ferrari in their Farnbacher-run car, both Italian machines making it to the end on only four fuel stops each.

Andy Priaulx/Uwe Alzen were third for BMW while the second AF car of Toni Vilander/Jaime Melo lost its hopes of victory with a drive-through penalty for passing under yellow flags, and then a collision with the Larbre Corvette.

JMW was not a factor either as Rob Bell's innocuous-looking nudge of the Les Combes tyres caused damage to the front bodywork and radiator and necessitated lengthy repairs in the pits.

IMSA Porsche duo Nicolas Armindo/Raymond Narac recovered from an early spin into the gravel to pass the CRS Ferrari of Adam Christodoulou/Klaas Hummel/Phil Quaife at the start of the final hour. Hummel later lost a podium finish after making contact with an LMP2 car with five minutes remaining.

Victory in the Formula Le Mans class went to Hope Racing trio Luca Moro/Zhang Shan-Qi/Nicolas Marroc that led virtually the whole race.

Results - 161 laps:

Pos  Cl     Drivers                       Team/Car                         Time/Gap
 1.  LMP1   Gene/Wurz/Davidson            Peugeot 908                  6h02m03.799s
 2.  LMP1   Montagny/Sarrazin/Minassian   Peugeot 908                     + 42.965s
 3.  LMP1   Capello/Kristensen/McNish     Audi R18 TDI                      + 1 lap
 4.  LMP1   Bernhard/Dumas/Rockenfeller   Audi R18 TDI                     + 2 laps
 5.  LMP1   Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer     Audi R18 TDI                     + 3 laps
 6.  LMP1   Collard/Tinseau/Jousse        Pescarolo-Judd                   + 5 laps
 7.  LMP1   Jani/Prost                    Rebellion Lola-Toyota            + 5 laps
 8.  LMP1   Lamy/Bourdais/Pagenaud        Peugeot 908                      + 6 laps
 9.  LMP1   Belicchi/Boullion             Rebellion Lola-Toyota            + 6 laps
10.  LMP1   Lapierre/Duval/Panis          ORECA Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP        + 9 laps
11.  LMP2   Beche/Thiriet/Firth           TDS ORECA-Nissan                + 11 laps
12.  LMP2   Kraihamer/De Crem             Boutsen Energy ORECA-Nissan     + 11 laps
13.  LMP2   Leventis/Watts/Kane           Strakka HPD ARX-01d             + 11 laps
14.  LMP2   Gates/Garofall/Phillips       RLR MG Lola-Judd                + 14 laps
15.  LMP2   Mailleux/Ordoñez/Ayari        Signatech ORECA-Nissan          + 15 laps
16.  FLM    Moro/Zhang/Marroc             Hope ORECA                      + 17 laps
17.  GTE P  Fisichella/Bruni              AF Corse Ferrari                + 17 laps
18.  GTE P  Farnbacher/Simonsen           Hankook Ferrari                 + 17 laps
19.  GTE P  Priaulx/Alzen                 BMW M3                          + 17 laps
20.  FLM    Schultis/Simon/Schell         Pegasus ORECA                   + 17 laps
21.  GTE P  Farfus/Muller                 BMW M3                          + 18 laps
22.  GTE P  Dolan/Hancock                 Jota Aston Martin               + 20 laps
23.  GTE P  Goossens/Holzer               Prospeed Porsche                + 20 laps
24.  FLM    Julian/Zugel/Petersen         Genoa ORECA                     + 20 laps
25.  GTE A  Armindo/Narac                 IMSA Performance Porsche        + 21 laps
26.  GTE A  Perazzini/Cioci/Lemeret       AF Corse Ferrari                + 21 laps
27.  GTE A  Bornhauser/Canal/Gardel       Larbre Corvette                 + 22 laps
28.  GTE A  Ried/Hommerson                Proton Porsche                  + 22 laps
29.  GTE A  Felbermayr Jr./Miller         Felbermayr-Proton Porsche       + 24 laps
30.  GTE A  Ehret/Lynn/Wills              CRS Ferrari                     + 24 laps
31.  GTE A  Broniszewski/Peter            Kessel Ferrari                  + 26 laps
32.  GTE A  Krohn/Jonsson                 Krohn Ferrari                   + 27 laps
33.  LMP2   Barlesi/Da Rocha/Lafargue     Oak Pescarolo-Judd              + 27 laps
34.  GTE P  Bell/Walker                   JMW Ferrari                     + 29 laps
35.  LMP2   Frey/Meichtry/Rostan          Race Performance ORECA-Judd     + 29 laps
36.  GTE P  Lieb/Lietz                    Felbermayr-Proton Porsche       + 32 laps
37.  FLM    Hartshorne/Keating/Keen       Neil Garner ORECA               + 36 laps
38.  LMP2   Ojjeh/Chalandon/Kimber-Smith  Greaves Zytek-Nissan            + 38 laps
39.  LMP2   Rosier/Luco/Basso             Extreme Limite Norma-Judd       + 39 laps
40.  LMP1   Cortes/Geri/Piccini           MIK Corse Zytek                 + 41 laps
41.  GTE P  Rich/Slingerland              Jetalliance Lotus Evora         + 42 laps
42.  FLM    Rodrigues/Menahem/Lombard     JMB ORECA                       + 44 laps

Retirements:

     GTE P  Melo/Vilander                 AF Corse Ferrari                 137 laps
     GTE A  Hummel/Christodoulou/Quaife   CRS Ferrari                      137 laps
     GTE A  Giroix/Goethe/Wainwright      Gulf Aston Martin                108 laps
     LMP1   Amaral/Pla                    Quifel-ASM Zytek                 106 laps
     GTE A  Kauffman/Aguas                AF Corse Ferrari                 105 laps
     GTE P  Ortelli/Makowiecki            Luxury Ferrari                    64 laps
     LMP2   Perez-Companc/Russo/Kaffer    Pecom Lola-Judd                   60 laps
     LMP2   Tucker/Bouchut/Barbosa        Level 5 Lola Coupe-HPD            59 laps
     GTE P  Hirschi/Rossiter/Mowlem       Jetalliance Lotus Evora           21 laps
     GTE P  Pilet/Henzler                 IMSA Performance Porsche          16 laps
     GTE P  Beltoise/Jakubowski/Deletraz  Luxury Ferrari                     4 laps

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