Le Mans Series -  Hungaroring - To The Finish

The 4th in GT2 #96 AF Corse Ferrari gets a stop go penalty - That will put Fisichella up to fourth though we hear (unconfirmed) that Toni Vilander is unwell and will not drive again this evening.

There was no panic at Strakka - The early stop was for a fatigued Nick Leventis to cede driving duties to Jonny Kane. 

20:11 - Pierre Ehret has a sideways impact with the recently rejoined #008 Lola Aston Martin  - Ehret bounces across the infield and rejoins.

20:17 the Beechdean Mansell GZ09 serves a stop-go penalty and then pits again next time around to hand over the car to Brother Greg who installs himself and a new steering wheel.

Trouble (independently) for two Porsches, the #86 Felbermayr Proton car slow on track and Marco Holzer stopped on track in the Prospeed car .

The latest stop for the #5 car (where missing louvres can clearly be seen) means we have an LMP2 1,2,3,4.

Amaral leads from Kane by 53 seconds, with Nicolet a lap astray in third and Ebbesvik a further 3 laps back.

20:24 Amaral pits from the lead - Pla gets aboard and the front bodywork is still askew, the team are going to work and Strakka take the lead.

Ebbesvik spins in front of Frey, 4th overall and 22nd overall - The slippery surface flags are flying at Turn 13.

Pla rejoins in third position - Jacques Nicolet up to second in the #24 Oak Pescarolo.

20:29 The Peugeot has rejoined in 27th position - 21 laps down - It isn't up to speed though and this looks terminal - The car though stays out.

Greg Mansell is about to grab sixth overall from Cioci in the #29 Lola - At present the order overall is an LMP2 1,2,3,4,5,6!!!

20:41 Pla is closing in fast on Nicolet.

The Peugeot is lapping painfully (2:20+) slowly on what looks like a run to get to 70% of the potential mark for the LMP1 winner - If #5 keeps going (and it seems to be dropping oil) that mark might be 157 laps - Surely the stewards will not allow the 908 to lap more than 20 times at that pace?

20:49 - 229 laps is the target figure - this looks like going to 6 hours.

Nicolet pits, Pla up to second - Ben Collins has closed in on Thor Christian Ebbesvik.

Marc Lieb is closing in on the GT2 leading #91 CRS Ferrari - Mullen pits, Kirkaldy climbs aboard to the finish - Lieb will lead but owes us a stop.

Raymond Narac is in third with Fisichella reeling him in gradually - GT2 is far from done either! 

Our earlier info that Vilander was unwell appears wrong - He's replaced Fisichella in the #95 car as the leading GT2s go through their routine stops.

20:55 - Collins is just 9 seconds behind Narac pits - Pilet aboard to the finish Ebbesvik (but owes us a stop).

Lieb pits from the GT2 lead - Lietz aboard for the #77 car's final stint.

Into the final hour and Neel Jani in the #12 Rebellion is up to 15th position overall and making his way through the lead GT2 group - The Peugeot is still lapping very (2:20) slowly.

Collins is still catching Ebbesvik and in GT2, courtesy of a 10 second faster pit stop, Lietz leads Kirkaldy by 4.6 seconds at 21:06!

21:06 - Strakka pit from the lead for their final stop - Kane stays in - fuel and tyres.

21:07 Ben Collins up to fourth and the Peugeot pits and is garaged -They look done!

21:12 - 51 minutes remaining - Greg Mansell is reeling in a waning #41 Ginetta Zytek for 5th overall, he's 30 seconds back but up to 5 seconds a lap faster.

21:15 Lietz pops in the #77s fastest lap thus fsr (1:48.219) to edge away from Kirkaldy  - the gap now though still just 4.8 seconds.

21:18 The #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo is handed a 1 minute Stop-Go "with engine stop" they're back though in16th overall 7th in class.

Ben Collins pits from 4th for his final stop of the evening - he's likely to drop two places behind the Bruichladdick and Beechdean Mansell Ginetta Zytek's.

Vilander meanwhile is closing in on Pilet for third in GT2.

21:23 Lietz has a slower lap and the lead gap is down to 3.5 seconds.

Greg Mansell pits from 5th and it will be brother Leo to the finish - Ben Collins meanwhile grabs fifth and Cioci 6th as the #5 car gets some attention to the front end.

Olivier Pla pits - fuel only and its now all about a 35 minute sprint!

Ebbesvik pits at 21:28 - Collins back up into 4th - Kirkaldy is now just 0.4 seconds behind Lietz.

30 minutes remaining.

GT2 is still up for grabs - Lietz again edging away from Kirkaldy in the lead and Vilander still threatening Pilet's 3rd place.

Neel Jani is up to 12th and that's soon going to be 11th, a 1:35.600 last time around shows they are still pushing hard - 1:35.151 next time around provides further evidence!

Suddenly the GT2 lead battle is down to 0.3 seconds again but Kirkaldy's attack is blunted by the passage of a pair of LMPs and the gap goes up again, the Ferrari losing a full second in the middle sector and the gap 1.8 seconds at the end of the lap and there's a problem as the two start the next lap, Kirkaldy losing almost 3 seconds in the first sector - reason unknown at present - Ah it seems the #91 car was very marginal on fuel at the end - A great run though from Kirkaldy and Mullen whose luck has been of the bad kind for the season thus far.

Jani's pace has brought him back into the top ten overall after a fine recovery run.

JMW have recovered to a top six slot and are closing in on the #96 Ferrari ahead.

21:50 - 13 minutes left and Jani is up to 8th - that's as far as they'll get though with the Mansells 6 laps to the good ahead.

Jonny Kane meanwhile is driving at a fast and controlled pace, Pla keeping track albeit a lap back.

The Peugeot is pushed out onto the apron to take a final rolling lap and grab the points for 4th in class courtesy of the 70% - its doing so at barely walking pace.

Strakka Racing take the overall win - the first in Le Mans Series history for an LMP2 class car and they lead an astounding 1,2,3,4,5,6 for LMP2 machinery (or look at it another way the LMP1s we can look forward to in 2011!)

Quifel ASM will be happy with the second place but will surely rue the incident that cost them time late on with the front bodywork needing to be replaced.

The #24 Oak Racing team staged a great comeback after an early problem, Lahaye in particular showed real class and Jacques Nicolet did all that was expected of the quick gentleman driver.

RML couldn't quite tie up the title in LMP2 but they'll go to Silverstone needing to finish ninth at worst to do so.  Tommy Erdos did his Hungarian ancestors proud with a fighting drive that took the edge off the problems caused by the broken gearbox actuator that cost them 7 minutes in the pits and more out on track. Ben Collins performed very well indeed in the final stint, Some people say he's one of the very best - We think once people in suits realise that everyone knows what he does for a day job whatever they think he'll be even more at ease back in a racing car!

In LMP1 at the scene of Nigel Mansell's clinching of the 1992 F1 World Championship almost 18 years ago to the day he will have good reason to look back with pride at the way that his sons conducted themselves in what proved to be a tricky race indeed for the LMP1 cars.  They won the class and finished seventh - One of the all time bizarre results in sportscar racing history!

Rebellion Racing can take heart from the pace of both of their Lola Rebellion V10s but will think 'what might have been' when both cars had a shot at an overall win and both were delayed (and in the #13 cars case eventually stopped) by reliability problems.

Having said that Neel Jani's recovery drive was a thing to behold in the closing stages - the Swiss clearly on a mission, one that yielded a class podium at least for his, and the team's considerable efforts.

Third in LMP1 was the Signature Plus Lola Aston Martin, a fine early stint from Vanina Ickx put the team in contention but a broken alternator belt ruined their day - Third in class though for a car that could barely be worse suited for this track will be some consolation. 

FLM simply melted down and all credit to the #43 DAMS squad of Gary Chalandon, Alessandro Cicognani and Andrea Barlesi for keeping their cool as all around them descended into chaos!