LMS Silverstone - Hour One

Sunshine and a healthy crowd greeted the start of the LMS 1000ks of Silverstone, with 45 of the 46 cars forming the grid; the Rollcentre Pescarolo #18 electing to start from the grid. "We went the wrong way in qualifying with the softer compound," said Martin Short, "so we're going to change to the harder compound and start from the pitlane."

There was drama from the word go as Nic Minassian and Allan McNish had a coming together at the first corner of the first lap - the #7 Peugeot being boxed in at Copse by Pedro Lamy and the Audi driver doing very well to hold his line as the 908 hit the R10's rear quarter. Minassian dropped to 13th after a quick spin and was suddenly faced with more work than he was expecting.

As McNish tried to keep Lamy honest, Stefan Mucke was doing a job with the #10 Charouz Lola Aston Martin, initially keeping with Alexander Premat's #2 Audi.

Anearly spin for Fernando Rees dropped the Barazi Epsilon Zytek to the rear of the LMP2 field, but Jos the Boss was having no such trouble at the other end; the van Merksteijn Porsche managing its expected pace.

Alas for WR, its race was run after just three laps, the #37 WR Zytek slowing to a halt out on track with Tristan Gommendy at the wheel.

Tomas Enge muscled his way past Peter Kox's Lamborghini Murcielargo after ten minutes to take the GT1 lead in the #59 Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9.

The top three in GT2 was Rob Bell, from Richard Lietz, from Marc Lieb, with the Virgo Ferrari having to work hard to keep the two Porsches behind. Dirk Werner lost ground early on with a spin in the #91 Farnbacher Racing Porsche.

First caller to the pitlane was Darren Manning in the #46 Embassy WF01 Zytek. The Yorkshireman had been losing ground in the first quarter-hour, and when he pitted it was found that the car had suffered a front left wheel-bearing failure. Repairs were underway, but the car was losing a lot of ground.

At 27 minutes, Guillaume Moreau claimed second place in GT1 for the #72 Luc Alphand Corvette; while Tommy Erdos made a serious attempt to take position from Warren Hughes in the RML EX265C at Copse, but the #45 Embassy car prevailed.

As the half-hour mark was reached, Lamy's lead over McNish was 9.536 seconds; with Premat eight seconds further back in third and the recovering Minassian, now in fourth, 20 seconds behind the leader. Joao Barbosa, meanwhile, was up to 20th overall, having started from the pits in the Rollcentre car.

The Erdos/Hughes battle continued in entertaining fashion, no more than a meat and potato pie separating the two LMP2s.

At 38 minutes, Mucke made the first scheduled stop for the Charouz Lola, taking on fuel and new tyres but no new driver. This was followed a few minutes later by the JWA GT2 Vantage's first stop, Alan van der Merwe handing over to Michael Outzen; but extra work was required before the #93 rejoined, costing several seconds.

At 45 minutes, the leader made his first routine stop, followed one lap later by Premat and Minassian.

New leader McNish stayed out for two laps longer than Lamy before pitting, but was held up slightly on the approach to the pit lane.

With all four diesels having stopped, this is how the first scheduled stops compared:

#1 1:05
#2 1:02
#7 1:03
#8 1:13

At 54 minutes, only two GT2s had stopped, the #93 Aston and #94 Spyker, the JWA car after a minor off and the Sppedy racing car after contact.

With the Pitstop cycle complete the new leder in GT1 was - The LAA Corvette!  It seems the team are short filling the car and it is, despite its current position, on a VERY conservative run.

In GT2 Bell is pulling away more than ten seconds to the good at the hour mark.

Times at one hour:

1 8 Run "LM"P1 Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 HDi-FAP LAMY Pedro 01min 34.513 s - 1 35
2 1 Run "LM"P1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDI McNISH Allan 01min 34.665 s 00min 04.753 s  1 35
3 7 Run "LM"P1 Team Peugeot Total Peugeot 908 HDi FAP MINASSIAN Nicolas 01min 35.094 s - 1 34
4 2 Run "LM"P1 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R10 TDI PREMAT Alexandre 01min 37.077 s 00min 02.617 s  1 34
5 10 Run "LM"P1 Charouz Racing System Lola Aston Martin MUCKE Stefan 01min 36.688 s 00min 51.564 s  1 34
6 6 Run "LM"P1 Oreca - Matmut Courage-Oreca LC70 - Judd PANIS Olivier 01min 38.379 s 01min 30.270 s  1 34
7 34 Run "LM"P2 Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche RS - Spyder VERSTAPPEN Jos 01min 39.270 s - 1 33
8 5 Run "LM"P1 Oreca - Matmut Courage-Oreca LC70 - Judd AYARI Soheil 01min 40.455 s 00min 26.590 s  1 33
9 33 Run "LM"P2 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/80 Coupé - Judd POMPIDOU Xavier 01min 40.415 s 00min 27.354 s  1 33
10 31 Run "LM"P2 Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder ELGAARD Casper 01min 38.739 s 00min 28.014 s  1 33
11 16 Run "LM"P1 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo - Judd BOULLION Jean-Christophe 01min 37.451 s 00min 33.055 s  1 33
12 14 Run "LM"P1 Creation Aim Creation CA07 - Aim SIMPSON Stephen 01min 37.068 s 00min 47.549 s  1 33
13 40 Run "LM"P2 Quifel - ASM Team Lola B05/40 - AER PLA Olivier 01min 42.516 s 00min 50.290 s  1 33
14 18 Run "LM"P1 Rollcentre Racing Pescarolo - Judd BARBOSA Joao 01min 40.161 s 01min 14.543 s  1 33
15 15 Run "LM"P1 Creation Aim Creation CA07 - Aim CAMPBELLWALTER Jamie 01min 39.256 s 01min 14.816 s  1 33
16 27 Run "LM"P2 Horag Racing Porsche RS - Spyder THEYS Didier 01min 40.884 s 01min 15.697 s  1 33
17 17 Run "LM"P1 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo - Judd TINSEAU Christophe 01min 38.585 s 01min 22.042 s  1 33
18 25 Run "LM"P2 RML MG Lola EX 265C - MG ERDOS Tommy 01min 39.947 s - 1 32
19 45 Run "LM"P2 Embassy Racing WF01 - Zytek KANE Jonny 01min 40.800 s 00min 10.621 s  1 32
20 4 In "LM"P1 Saulnier Racing Pescarolo - Judd NICOLET Jacques 01min 54.776 s 00min 23.160 s  1 32
21 35 Run "LM"P2 Saulnier Racing Pescarolo - Judd RAGUES Pierre 01min 40.442 s 00min 52.301 s  1 32
22 41 Run "LM"P2 Trading Performance Zytek 07S - Zytek OJJEH Karim 01min 40.243 s 01min 15.166 s  1 32
23 44 Run "LM"P2 Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola - Mazda de POURTALES Jean 01min 44.634 s 01min 23.415 s  1 32
24 32 Run "LM"P2 Barazi - Epsilon Zytek 07S - Zytek REES Fernando 01min 41.448 s - 1 31
25 59 In "LM"GT1 Team Modena Aston Martin DBR9 Aston Martin DBR9 01min 57.415 s 00min 53.271 s  1 31
26 20 Run "LM"P1 Epsilon Euskadi Epsilon Euskadi - Judd BURGUENO Angel 01min 45.235 s 01min 04.695 s  1 31
27 26 Run "LM"P2 Bruichladich Radical Radical SR9 - AER ROSTAN Marc 01min 45.199 s 01min 05.383 s  1 31
28 72 Run "LM"GT1 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R MOREAU Guillaume 01min 49.041 s - 1 30
29 61 Run "LM"GT1 Strakka Racing Aston Martin DBR9 HARDMAN Peter 01min 51.180 s 00min 36.829 s  0 30
30 55 Run "LM"GT1 IPB Spartak Racing Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT KOX Peter 01min 48.764 s 00min 45.841 s  1 30
31 96 Run "LM"GT2 Virgo Motorsport Ferrari F430 GT BELL Robert 01min 53.152 s 00min 55.193 s  0 30
32 76 Run "LM"GT2 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LIETZ Richard 01min 52.815 s 01min 02.741 s  0 30
33 77 Run "LM"GT2 Felbermayr - Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LIEB Marc 01min 53.743 s 01min 07.598 s  0 3034
91 Run "LM"GT2 Farnbacher Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR WERNER Dirk 01min 54.134 s - 0 29
35 99 Run "LM"GT2 JMB Ferrari F430 GT DAOUDI Stephane 01min 54.349 s 00min 06.525 s  0 29
36 90 Run "LM"GT2 Farnbacher Racing Ferrari F430 GT KAFFER Pierre 01min 55.140 s 00min 10.466 s  0 29
37 85 Run "LM"GT2 Snoras Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R KELLENERS Ralf 01min 55.970 s 00min 23.457 s  0 29
38 75 Run "LM"GT2 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3 RSR BALANDRAS Richard 01min 54.795 s 00min 33.633 s  0 29
39 95 Run "LM"GT2 James Watt Automotive Porsche 997 GT3 RSR GRIFFIN Matt 01min 55.624 s 00min 44.589 s  0 29
40 88 Run "LM"GT2 Felbermayr - Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR FELBERMAYR HJr 01min 56.216 s 01min 36.608 s  0 29
41 21 In "LM"P1 Epsilon Euskadi Epsilon Euskadi - Judd VALLES Adrian 01min 50.474 s - 1 28
42 98 Run "LM"GT2 JMB Ferrari F430 GT KUTEMANN Peter 02min 03.669 s - 0 27
43 93 Run "LM"GT2 James Watt Automotive Aston Martin Vantage V8 OUTZEN Michael 01min 58.560 s 00min 32.567 s  1 27
44 46 Run "LM"P2 Embassy Racing WF01 - Zytek MANNING Darren 01min 42.518 s - 1 21
45 94 Run "LM"GT2 Speedy Racing Team Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R CHIESA Andrea 01min 59.146 s 00min 27.750 s  1 21
46 37 Run "LM"P2 WR / Salini WR - Zytek GOMMENDY Tristan 01min 42.791 s - 0 3