Peugeot takes Petit Le Mans one-two
Date published : 03 Oct 2010 - 01:01:47
Peugeot claimed an historic one-two in the 13th running of the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.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 laps10. GT2 Gavin/Magnussen/Collard Corvette + 39 laps11. GT2 Sharp/van Overbeek/Farnbacher Ferrari + 39 laps12. GT2 Vilander/Bruni Ferrari + 40 laps13. GT2 Auberlen/Milner/Werner BMW + 40 laps14. GT2 Bergmeister/Long/Lieb Porsche + 40 laps15. GT2 O'Connell/Beretta/Garcia Corvette + 40 laps16. PC Tucker/Werner/Frisselle ORECA + 40 laps17. GT2 Fisichella/Melo/Salo Ferrari + 41 laps18. GTH Bernhard/Dumas/Rockenfeller Porsche + 44 laps19. GT2 Murry/Bell/Lazzaro Doran Ford + 45 laps20. GT2 Law/Neiman/Holzer Porsche + 46 laps21. GT2 Sellers/Ragginger Porsche + 47 laps22. GTC Ende/Lally/Richard Porsche + 57 laps23. GTC Pappas/Bleekemolen/Bleekemolen Porsche + 57 laps24. PC Marcelli/Ducote/Ducote ORECA + 58 laps25. GTC Potter/Davis/Eversley Porsche + 62 laps26. GTC Lewis/Vento/Aschenbach Porsche + 64 laps27. GT2 Brown/Cosmo/Barbosa Ferrari + 65 laps28. GTC Beggs/Baron/Villeneuve Porsche + 69 laps29. GTC Rodriguez/Bieker Porsche + 70 laps30. GT2 Robertson/Robertson/Stanton Doran Ford + 79 laps31. GT2 Muller/Hand/Priaulx BMW + 79 laps32. PC Gonzalez/Diaz/Lewis ORECA + 83 laps33. GTC Sweedler/Kapudija/Lueders Porsche + 84 laps34. PC Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins ORECA + 84 laps35. PC Montecalvo/Lux/Figge ORECA + 87 laps36. PC Jeannette/Zugel/Julian ORECA + 107 lapsRetirements: 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
