Aston Martin Racing claimed a dramatic victory for its new LMP1 coupe in the opening round of the Le Mans Series at Barcelona today. The lead AMR Lola-Aston, driven by Stefan Mucke, Jan Charouz and Tomas Enge, looked destined to finish second until the leading Pescarolo-Judd stalled at its final pitstop. This allowed a charging Mucke to drastically cut the gap to Pescarolo driver Christophe Tinseau. The Frenchman's lead was down to 6.2 seconds when the safety car was deployed with 40 minutes to go. Mucke was only four seconds behind when the race went green and needed less than six laps to close down and then pass the Pescarolo. Tinseau, who shared the revised Pescarolo-Judd 01 with Jean-Christophe Boullion, eventually finished 14 seconds down at the chequered flag. The second AMR entry looked set to finish third until Miguel Ramos spun in the closing stages and was unable to restart. That allowed the number two AIM-powered Couarge-ORECA, in which Bruno Senna joined team regular Stephane Ortelli, to claim the final spot on the podium. Fourth place went to sportscar debutant Signature Racing, whose Judd-engined Courage-ORECA had a largely trouble-free run in the hands of Pierre Ragues and Frank Mailleux. The pole-winning Strakka Racing Ginetta-Zytek, driven by Danny Watts, Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis, finished fifth. LMP2 honours went to the Italian Racing Box team. Its lead Lola-Judd coupe enjoyed a faultless run in the hands of Thomas Biagi, Matteo Bobbi and Andrea Piccinni to claim a 46-second victory over the ASM Team Ginetta-Zytek driven by Olivier Pla and Miguel Amaral. The Reiter-run IPB Spartak Lamborghini Murcielago took the GT1 silverware. The Italian car driven by Peter Kox and Romain Rusinov was the fastest car in class but only assumed the lead when team owner Luc Alphand spun his Chevrolet Corvette C6.R in the third hour. Porsche reasserted itself in GT2. Factory drivers Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb took the class honours aboard their Felbermayr Proton Porsche 911 GT3-RSR ahead of Rob Bell and Gianmaria Bruni in the JMW Motorsport Ferrari.
Full results 1 007 Run "LM"P1 Aston Martin Racing Lola Aston Martin MUCKE Stephan 01min 38.960 s - 6 209 2 16 Run "LM"P1 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo - Judd TINSEAU Christophe 01min 41.408 s 00min 14.884 s 6 209 3 10 Run "LM"P1 Team Oreca Matmut - AIM Courage-Oreca LC70 - AIM ORTELLI Stephane 01min 44.380 s - 6 206 4 12 Run "LM"P1 Signature Plus Courage-Oreca LC70 - Judd MAILLEUX Franck 01min 41.744 s 01min 10.908 s 6 206 5 23 Run "LM"P1 Strakka Racing Ginetta - Zytek WATTS Dany 01min 38.020 s - 6 205 6 17 Run "LM"P1 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo - Judd BARBOSA Joao 01min 42.160 s - 7 203 7 30 Run "LM"P2 Racing Box Lola B08/80 Coupé - Judd PICCINI Andrea 01min 45.544 s - 7 201 8 40 Run "LM"P2 Quifel - ASM Team Ginetta-Zytek 09S - Zytek PLA Olivier 01min 43.712 s 00min 46.536 s 6 201 9 29 Run "LM"P2 Racing Box Lola B08/80 Coupé - Judd PICCINI Giacomo 01min 52.488 s - 7 195 10 26 Run "LM"P2 Bruichladdich Bruneau Radical SR9 - AER MOSELEY Stuart 01min 46.096 s - 6 193 11 35 Run "LM"P2 Oak Racing Pescarolo - Mazda AJLANI Karim 01min 48.752 s - 5 190 12 24 Run "LM"P2 Oak Racing Pescarolo - Mazda NICOLET Jacques 01min 50.296 s 00min 18.436 s 5 190 13 55 Run "LM"GT1 IPB Spartak Racing Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT RUSINOV Roman 01min 51.724 s - 8 189 14 77 Run "LM"GT2 Team Felbermayr - Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LIETZ Richard 01min 52.984 s - 4 187 15 72 Run "LM"GT1 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R ALPHAND Luc 01min 50.352 s 00min 41.056 s 5 187 16 92 Run "LM"GT2 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F430 GT BRUNI Gianmaria 01min 52.380 s - 5 186 17 89 Run "LM"GT2 Hankook - Team Farnbacher Ferrari F430 GT MONTANARI Christian 02min 01.080 s - 4 185 18 90 Run "LM"GT2 FBR Ferrari F430 GT BELTOISE Anthony 01min 52.908 s 00min 32.044 s 5 185 19 84 Run "LM"GT2 Team Modena Ferrari F430 GT GARCIA Antonio 01min 52.592 s 00min 32.372 s 5 185 20 33 Run "LM"P2 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/80 Coupé - Judd POMPIDOU Xavier 01min 40.504 s - 5 184 21 99 Run "LM"GT2 JMB RACING Ferrari F430 GT SCHEIER Johan Boris 01min 51.172 s 00min 28.624 s 5 184 22 50 Run "LM"GT1 Larbre Competition Saleen S7R - Ford Saleen S7R 01min 54.556 s 00min 33.528 s 6 184 23 88 Run "LM"GT2 Team Felbermayr - Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR MARTINS Francisco Cruz 01min 53.104 s - 5 182 24 009 Run "LM"P1 Aston Martin Racing Lola Aston Martin Lola Aston Martin 01min 39.512 s - 6 181 25 87 Run "LM"GT2 Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT2 COCKER Jonny 01min 53.484 s 46min 12.886 s 6 181 26 96 Run "LM"GT2 Virgo Motorsport Ferrari F430 GT McINERNEY Sean 01min 55.532 s 47min 28.714 s 6 181 27 13 Run "LM"P1 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/60 Coupé - Aston Martin FASSLER Marcel 01min 37.564 s - 7 180 28 14 Run "LM"P1 Kolles Audi R10 TDI ZWOLSMAN Charles 01min 42.332 s - 6 179 29 41 Run "LM"P2 G.A.C. Racing Team Zytek 07S - Zytek OJJEH Karim 01min 44.776 s 00min 27.360 s 6 179 30 81 Run "LM"GT2 Easyrace Ferrari F430 GT BASSO Paolo-Maurice 01min 59.924 s - 4 175 31 37 Run "LM"P2 WR / Salini WR - Zytek SALINI Philippe 01min 49.056 s - 6 163 32 15 Run "LM"P1 Kolles Audi R10 TDI Audi R10 TDI 02min 56.006 s - 7 153 33 51 Run "LM"GT1 Arc Bratislava - Kaneko Racing Saleen S7-R Saleen S7R 02min 05.946 s - 9 139 34 39 Run "LM"P2 KSM Lola B09/86 - Mazda Lola Mazda 02min 06.610 s - 6 133 35 38 Run "LM"P2 Pegasus Racing Courage-Oreca LC75 - AER Courage AER 02min 05.488 s - 8 118 36 28 Run "LM"P2 Ibanez Racing Service Courage LC 75 Courage AER 02min 08.720 s - 9 116 37 76 Run "LM"GT2 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3 RSR Porsche 997 GT3 RSR 03min 39.226 s - 3 115 38 11 Run "LM"P1 Team Oreca Matmut - AIM Courage-Oreca LC70 - AIM Oreca AIM 02min 21.702 s - 4 108 39 91 Run "LM"GT2 FBR Ferrari F430 GT Ferrari F430 GT 06min 28.878 s - 5 106 40 43 Run "LM"P2 Q8 Oils Hache Team Lucchini - Judd Lucchini Judd 02min 07.620 s - 11 98 41 25 Run "LM"P2 RML Lola B08/80 Coupé - Mazda Lola Mazda 01min 47.726 s - 3 82 42 42 Run "LM"P2 Ranieri Randaccio Lucchini - Nicholson McLaren Lucchini McLaren 37min 59.769 s - 2 17 43 85 Run "LM"GT2 Snoras Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2 - R Spyker C8 Laviolette 02min 05.352 s - 1 6
Eurosport aired very little of the race. I did get to see the IRL though. Anyway, pity Ferrari didn't won in GT2. Next up Spa!
