Pescarolo wins race one at Okayama

Date published : 31 Oct 2009 - 09:44:39

The Sora Racing Pescarolo of Christophe Tinseau and Shinji Nakano took victory in a closely-contested Asian Le Mans Series debut at Okayama today.The three-hour race was, for most of its duration, a tight three-way scrap between the Pescarolo, the ORECA of Nicolas Lapierre and Loic Duval and the Aston Martin Racing car of Stefan Mucke and Harold Primat.The Aston led through much of the middle of the race and Mucke began the last hour in the lead. But the AMR car had to pit for a late splash and dash, and then stopped again when the front bodywork came loose - losing the lead with just over 10 minutes remaining.The ORECA had lost time to the Pescarolo in each of its pitstops, but still Tinseau began the final stint just three seconds ahead of Duval. Once the Aston vacated the lead, he was able to gradually extend that margin through the traffic to finish seven seconds clear.The Kolles Audi R10 of Oliver Jarvis and Christian Bakkerud completed the podium after passing the sister car of Christijan Albers, Hideki Noda and Matteo Cressoni mid-way through the race.Stefan Mucke brought the stricken Aston Martin home in fourth place, two laps off the lead, with the second Kolles Audi two laps further back in sixth.The pole-sitting Drayson Racing Lola finished sixth, despite dominating the early stages of the race. Jonathan Cocker sprinted away in the lead at the start and was well clear of Pescarolo, ORECA and Aston Martin after the first half hour. But he was forced to bring the car into the pits for a new nose when the lights failed.Cocker rejoined three laps off the lead and later handed over to Paul Drayson, who brought the car home in sixth.The Oak Racing Pescarolo won the LMP2 class in seventh place overall, keeping the Ibanez Racing Courage at arms length throughout the race - eventually beating it by just over 20 seconds.The Team Nova GT1 Aston Martin stormed from the back of the grid to take the lead of the class in the first hour, but the Japanese Lamborghini Owners' Club Murcielago of Atsushi Yogo and Hiroyuki Iiri responded and reclaimed the lead. Yogo was able to pull the car 30 seconds clear of the Aston by the end.The Larbre Saleen was also in the GT1 lead battle for much of the race, but the car had a suspension problem with 45 minutes to go and could only limp back to retire in the pits.The closest battle of the race, though, was reserved for the GT2 class. The Rahal/Letterman Racing BMW of Dirk Muller and Tom Milner swapped the lead back and forth with the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Marc Lieb and Wolf Henzler - trading paint on a couple of occasions. But the BMW eventually triumphed by just 0.2 seconds across the line at the end.Allan Simonen brought the Farnbacher Ferrari home third in GT2, with the second Felbermayr Porsche narrowly beating the Jimgainer Racing Ferrari to fourth.Pos Drivers Class Car Laps 1. Tinseau/Nakano LMP1 Pescarolo-Judd 126 2. Lapierre/Duval LMP1 Courage-ORECA-AIM 126 3. Jarvis/Bakkerud LMP1 Audi 125 4. Mucke/Primat LMP1 Lola-Aston Martin 124 5. Cressoni/Noda/Albers LMP1 Audi 122 6. Drayson/Cocker LMP1 Lola-Judd 121 7. Nicolet/Hein/Lahaye LMP2 Pescarolo-Mazda 116 8. Toulemonde/da Rocha/Ibanez LMP2 Courage-AER 116 9. Wakisaka/Mitsuyama LMP1 Courage-ORECA-YGK 11510. Yogo/Iiri GT1 Lamborghini 11311. Muller/Milner GT2 BMW 11312. Lieb/Henzler GT2 Porsche 11313. Tsuzuki/Tsuchiya GT1 Aston Martin 11314. Farnbacher/Simonsen GT2 Ferrari 11315. Ried/Holzer GT2 Porsche 11216. Tanaka/Hiranaka GT2 Ferrari 11217. Aoki/Fujii GT2 Ferrari 11118. Kinoshita/Kageyama GT2 Porsche 10919. Robertson/Robertson/Murry GT2 Ford 10820. Lee/Ma/Enge GT2 Aston Martin 107Retirements Berville/Lemeret/van Dam GT1 Saleen 81 Yamanishi/Sakamoto GT1 Lamborghini 37 Kojima/Hori/Kimura GT2 Porsche 3