McNish on top in drying session

Date published : 11 Sep 2010 - 09:08:45

Allan McNish put Audi back on top in a damp final practice session for the AUTOSPORT 1000kms at Silverstone.Though little rain fell during the hour, the track began wet from early rainfall and took a long time to dry.It was almost halfway through the session before teams tried intermediate and then soon afterwards slick tyres.That led to a frantic rush of fast times on slicks in the final quarter of an hour as the track finally started delivering competitive times. McNish swapped the top spot with ORECA Peugeot driver Nicolas Lapierre and Anthony Davidson in the works Peugeot several times before his late 1m44.043s lap put first place beyond everyone else's reach.Unlike McNish, Lapierre did not improve on his last lap and ended up 1.4 seconds slower than the pacesetter.The #8 Audi and the #13 Rebellion Lola, driven by Timo Bernhard and Andrea Belicchi respectively, pushed Davidson's #1 Peugeot down to fifth by the end.Rebellion's Nicolas Prost had managed to get among the diesels during the intermediate tyre phase. His #12 car was finally classified sixth.Johnny Mowlem produced an outstanding lap on slicks to hold third for a while in the LNT Ginetta Zytek, before being pushed back to seventh ahead of the Drayson Lola, Signature Lola-Aston Martin and the LMP2-pacesetting RML Lola-HPD driven by Ben Collins.Strakka had led LMP2 at first - and indeed was fastest overall for some time in Danny Watts' hands when the track was at its wettest. But it did not set any quick times in the dry and fell to 19th overall.The works Aston Martins also had a tough session, with the #007 car sidelined for much of the hour after Adrian Fernandez aquaplaned off and damaged the car having tried slicks too soon.GT2 saw as much shuffling as the prototypes in the changing conditions, with Allan Simonsen eventually going quickest in the Farnbacher Ferrari, a second clear of the JMW Aston Martin. With the Schnitzer BMW third and the Spyker fourth, the top Porsche was the #77 Felbermayr Proton entry back in fifth in class.Pos Cl Drivers Car Time 1. LMP1 Kristensen/McNish Audi 1m44.043s 2. LMP1 Lapierre/Sarrazin Peugeot 1m45.423s 3. LMP1 Bernhard/Capello Audi 1m45.986s 4. LMP1 Belicchi/Boullion Lola-Rebellion 1m47.806s 5. LMP1 Minassian/Davidson Peugeot 1m47.895s 6. LMP1 Prost/Jani Lola-Rebellion 1m48.696s 7. LMP1 Burgess/Mowlem/McMurry Ginetta-Zytek 1m49.564s 8. LMP1 Drayson/Cocker Lola-Judd 1m50.568s 9. LMP1 Ragues/Mailleux/Ickx Lola Aston Martin 1m50.644s10. LMP2 Erdos/Newton/Collins Lola-HPD 1m50.848s11. LMP1 Mansell/Mansell Ginetta-Zytek 1m51.662s12. LMP2 Amaral/Pla Ginetta-Zytek 1m52.391s13. LMP2 Ojjeh/Greaves/Ebbesvik Ginetta-Zytek 1m52.972s14. LMP2 Case/Babini/Leo Lola-Judd 1m54.478s15. LMP2 Gates/Garofall/Phillips MG Lola AER 1m54.492s16. LMP2 Lahaye/Nicolet Pescarolo-Judd 1m54.718s17. LMP1 Barazi/Hancock/Mucke Lola Aston Martin 1m56.085s18. LMP2 Schell/Da Rocha Courage-ORECA 1m56.579s19. LMP2 Leventis/Watts/Kane HPD 1m57.932s20. FLM Zacchia/Lombard FLM ORECA 1m58.427s21. LMP2 Pirri/Cioci/Perazzinii Lola-Judd 1m59.568s22. LMP2 Frey/Bruneau/Rostan Radical-Judd 1m59.998s23. FLM Firth/Hughes FLM ORECA 2m00.550s24. FLM Barlesi/Cicognani/Chalandon FLM ORECA 2m00.742s25. LMP1 Fernandez/Meyrick/Primat Lola Aston Martin 2m01.218s26. FLM Pillon/Verdonck/Hollings FLM ORECA 2m02.750s27. GT2 Farnbacher/Simonsen Ferrari 2m03.510s28. GT2 Bell/Turner Aston Martin 2m03.587s29. GT2 Muller/Werner BMW 2m03.827s30. GT2 Dumbreck/Coronel Spyker 2m03.847s31. GT2 Lieb/Lietz Porsche 2m03.874s32. GT2 Westbrook/Holzer Porsche 2m04.020s33. GT2 Perez Companc/Russo Ferrari 2m04.789s34. GT2 Bruni/Melo Ferrari 2m05.030s35. GT2 Ehret/Quaife/Kaffer Ferrari 2m05.149s36. GT2 Kirkaldy/Mullen Ferrari 2m05.208s37. GT2 Alesi/Fisichella/Vilander Ferrari 2m05.455s38. GT2 Ragginger/Ried/Dumas Porsche 2m05.702s39. GT1 Gardel/Goueslard/Rees Saleen 2m05.827s40. GT2 Pilet/Narac Porsche 2m06.524s41. FLM Kraihamer/De Crem/Delhez FLM ORECA 2m08.184s42. GT2 Giroix/Goethe Lamborghini 2m19.901s43. FLM Kutemann/Basso/Hartshorne FLM ORECA 2m31.461s44. LMP2 Moreau/Hein Pescarolo45. LMP2 Ordonez/De Pourtales/Kennard Lola-Judd