LMS, Silverstone - Hour One

The cars are on the grid (other than the WR which has just been thoroughly cleaned after this morning’s oil leak and will start from the pitlane) under a rather cloudy but stable looking sky.  Cloudy with bright spells, dry with a light breeze would be a sensible prediction for the next six hours or so.

There is a moderate crowd (still growing) getting set to watch proceedings too, having filtered to the grandstands from a very well attended autograph signing session.  Nigel Mansell was proving a big draw, unsurprisingly, with young and old alike.  The Aston Martin Racing boys were a big attraction too, so maybe they had pulled some of this crowd in.

LNT, RML and WFR all suffered ten place demotions on the grid for engine changes.  Nigel Mansell will therefore start from 15th place.  Does the spirit of Il Leone live on?

All 39 cars starting from the grid manage to successfully get away without problems and the formation lapgets underway. The WR, meanwhile, takes its place at the end of the pitlane and waits for the pack to take the start.

Mucke immediately gets the lead at Copse after a very assertive start. Lapierre employs a most emphatic weaving manoeuvre to prevent Turner from getting past. The final three prototypes are some way adrift of the rear across the line - most likely just making sure that no start-trouble is encountered.

Karthikeyan takes sixth from Buncombe and Pla closes up also on the rear of the #008 Aston. 

The JMW Ferrari has clearly encountered trouble at the start, with Bruni falling to the rear of the field but now recovering. The Signature Plus Courage and the Nigel Mansell pedalled LNT Ginetta-Zytek both lost ground at the start, with the orange car down in 16th and passed by Bouillon' Pescarolo on lap three; the #16 already up to 12th.  

Danny Watts has brought the Strakka GZ09 up to 19th, with Christijan Albers up to 17th in the #15 Kolles Audi. Groppi leads GT1 in the Saleen, while Patrick Pilet leads Jaime Melo and Jonny Cocker in GT2. A poor start for the #77 Porsche as well, then - early contact with the JMW Ferrari?  

Mucke leads by 0.7s at the end of lap five, with Turner a similar distance behind Lapierre in third. Boullion is well into the top ten by this point; 22.5s off the lead. The Frenchman has just taken Pla for seventh and is all over Buncombe.

The leader manages to pull out a gap in traffic, which also allows Turner to close up on the Oreca. Belicchi is right behind the Aston in fourth.

At the start of lap eight, Turner finds room to get past Lapierre at Copse, and a short time after the Speedy car takes third round the outside at Stowe. Lola, Lola, Lola. 

Olivier Pla's P2 lead is not as dominant as earlier session times had suggested - the Quifel Ginetta Zytek leading the Speedy Lola of Kane by three seconds at the end of eight laps - although he has managed to take road position from Buncombe's P1 Lola Aston. 

Boullion gets fifth from Karthikeyan at Vale on lap ten, and remains 24 seconds off the lead. 

Tristan Gommendy is up to 18th overall by lap ten in the WR, having started from the pitlane; Warren Hughes' WFR his next target, 15 seconds ahead.

The lead order in GT2 is unchanged. Pilet's lead on Melo is six seconds, but Cocker is right with the Modena Ferrari.

Pierre Kaffer is a couple of seconds back in fourth. Bruni is recovering from his earlier problems, and is now 20s off the class lead - three positions and ten seconds off the Lietz Porsche. The Italian has a tremendous duel with Tom Coronel's Spyker, but eventually manages to get the place.

Boullion is flying - still in fifth, but far quicker than anyone else on track at the moment; the gap to the leader coming down from 22, to 20, to 18 seconds on consecutive laps.

Lapierre has not allowed itself to be dropped by the leaders and less than three seconds covers the top four. The Pescarolo is just 13 seconds behind Mucke after 14 laps - what a drive!

Nigel Mansell is starting to find his feet; on lap 14 dipping below 1:40 for the second time.

In GT2, Jonny Cocker finds a way past Melo to take second in the Vantage - the highest ever race position for this car - and is lapping at the leader's pace. Almost immediately, however, the car pits. 

Boullion only closes by seven-tenths on lap 16, but is now fewer than ten seconds off the lead.

The troubled LAA Corvette trundles down the pitlane after 29 minutes of the race.

30 minutes in - Boullion is three seconds behind Lapierre and 6.774s off the lead. He has also pulled out 31 seconds on Karthikeyan's Audi in eight laps!

At the start of lap 20, Nigel Mansell moves down the pit straight with huge plumes of smoke billowing from the right rear. Tyre or suspension?

The same lap Boullion is right with Lapierre, the two separated by just a few lengths across the line - we now have a five-way fight for the lead.

The GT2 order has taken a bit of a shake-up with Cocker's pit and the recovery of the two championship contenders. Pilet is ten seconds ahead of Melo, who has Farnbacher behind him; Kaffer is defending from Lietz, with Bruni closing in sixth.

Marc Lieb tells Paul Slinger that Lietz was just taking it easy at the start, "especially as everyone else was going mental!". Rob Bell, meanwhile, related that "Gimmi radioed in to say that he had gone off - we've no idea why or where - but the car is going well. In warm-up this morning, the track was very green and cold compared with yesterday, so it might be that." 

Boullion gets Lapierre at Copse in heavy traffic on lap 23.

One lap later, he outdrags Belicchi at the end of the Hangar Straight for third and is now right on Turner's tail after 24 laps. Further back, Albers has taken sixth from Karthikeyan.

In P2, Pla's lead is up to 13 seconds over Kane, with Matthieu Lahaye third.  

Lap 26 - Boullion forces his way past Turner through the complex, after the Aston gets out of shape. There is contact, but no consequences.

Gimmi Bruni has passed Lietz and Kaffer with some ease, pulling out 2.5s over the Hankook car in just a lap.

45 minutes/27 laps - Buncombe and Watts take their first scheduled stops. Belicchi and Erdos follow shortly afterlap.

Lap 29 - Boullion takes the lead in the complex. he is with Mucke through Bridge and the two cars catch up with an OAK P2 and the Larbre Saleen. Mucke is boxed in by the Saleen and Boullion goes past, completing the move by moving to the inside of the Pescarolo. Huge applause erupts in the pressroom at this fantastic move.

Lap 30 - Lapierre, Pla and Kane pit. One lap later, the leader, #007 and #009 pit.   Bouillon doesn't seem to take tyres, the Pescarolo gains 10 seconds on the #007 after the pit stops but then JCB tries a rather rash needle thread on Karthikeyan at the end of the Hangar Straight, there's reasonably hefty contact side to side - seemingly entirely the Frenchman's fault, but both continue.

Lap 33 - Drama for Pla as the LMP2 leader slows dramatically through Luffield, goes to wards the pitlane, seems to reconsider, continues but then the #40 Ginetta Zytek all but stops on the start finish straight before Pla re-fires the car and continues but only as far as the Hangar Straight, the car grinds to a halt. It restarts but then stops again under the brifdge on the Hangar Straight.

Cocker's early stop from second in GT2 was as a result of a right rear Michelin going down, he's back out and lapping very quickly but has lost a lot of ground to the leading group.

Both Kolles Audis are going well, Albers, having passed Karthikeyan before the pitstop was the fastest man of all on circuit at one point, the #15 car 6th after the pit stops even out.

Ginetta-Zytek’s Tim Holloway reports that the Mansells/Tomlinson car had a r/rear lower wishbone fail. Nigel Mansell stayed in the car for a long repair job, and remarked to a leaning-in Lawrence Tomlinson that the car was difficult to drive during the first five laps, but once the tyres warmed up, the car felt fantastic.

Speedy Sebah were collectively delighted with the performance of both cars during the opening stints – even more so when Pla’s Ginetta-Zytek crawled round and then stopped at the start of the Hangar Straight, so Kane led P2.

Paul Daniels is delighted with Markus Palttala’s opening stint in the JWA Porsche: “He passed four or five cars on the first lap, now he’s nursing it along, just what we need. There’s nothing flamboyant about him.”

Positions (just after) one hour:

1 16 "LM"P1 Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo - Judd BOULLION Jean-Christophe – 38 laps
2 10 "LM"P1 Team Oreca Matmut - AIM Courage-Oreca LC70 - AIM LAPIERRE Nicolas +08.932 s 
3 007 "LM"P1 Aston Martin Racing Lola Aston Martin MUCKE Stefan +15.596 s
4 13 "LM"P1 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/60 Coupé - Aston Martin BELICCHI Andrea +19.226 s 
5 009 "LM"P1 Aston Martin Racing Lola Aston Martin TURNER Darren +34.390 s 
6 15 "LM"P1 Kolles Audi R10 TDI ALBERS Christian +55.544 s
7 12 "LM"P1 Signature Plus Courage-Oreca LC70 - Judd MAILLEUX Franck – 37 laps
8 008 "LM"P1 AMR Eastern Europe Lola Aston Martin BUNCOMBE Chris 37 laps
9 33 "LM"P2 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/80 Coupé - Judd KANE Jonny 37 laps
10 14 "LM"P1 Kolles Audi R10 TDI  KARTHIKEYAN Narain 37 laps
11 23 "LM"P1 Strakka Racing Ginetta - Zytek WATTS Danny 37 laps
12 25 "LM"P2 RML Lola B08/80 Coupé - Mazda ERDOS Tommy 37 laps
13 45 "LM"P2 Team WFR WF01-Zytek HUGHES Warren – 36 laps
14 35 "LM"P2 Oak Racing Pescarolo - Mazda AJLANI Karim 36 laps
15 37 "LM"P2 WR / Salini WR - Zytek GOMMENDY Tristan 36 laps
16 41 "LM"P2 G.A.C. Racing Team Zytek 07S - Zytek OJJEH Karim 36 laps
17 24 "LM"P2 Oak Racing Pescarolo - Mazda HEIN Richard – 35 laps
18 28 "LM"P2 Ibanez Racing Service Courage LC 75 CAVAILHES William 35 laps
19 26 "LM"P2 Bruichladdich Bruneau Radical SR9 - AER SINI Francesco – 34 laps
20 38 "LM"P2 Pegasus Racing Courage-Oreca LC75 - AER SCHELL Julien 34 laps
21 43 "LM"P2 Q8 Oils Hache Team Lucchini - Judd CORTES Maximo 34 laps
22 50 "LM"GT1 Larbre Competition Saleen S7R GROPPI Laurent 34 laps
23 76 "LM"GT2 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3 RSR PILET Patrick 34 laps
24 84 "LM"GT2 Team Modena Ferrari F430 GT MELO Jaime – 33 laps
25 90 "LM"GT2 FBR Ferrari F430 GT BELTOISE Anthony 33 laps
26 92 "LM"GT2 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F430 GT  BRUNI Gianmaria 33 laps
27 60 "LM"GT1 Gigawave Motorsport Aston Martin DBR9 KOX Peter 33 laps
28 77 "LM"GT2 Team Felbermayr - Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR LIETZ Richard 33 laps
29 72 "LM"GT1 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R CLAIRAY Yann 33 laps
30 85 "LM"GT2 Snoras Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2 - R CORONEL Tom 33 laps
31 95 "LM"GT2 James Watt Automotive Porsche 997 GT3 RSR PALTTALA Markus 33 laps
32 87 "LM"GT2 Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT2 COCKER Jonny 33 laps
33 40 "LM"P2 Quifel - ASM Team Ginetta-Zytek 09S - Zytek PLA Olivier – 32 laps
34 89 "LM"GT2 Hankook - Team Farnbacher Ferrari F430 GT KAFFER Pierre 32 laps
35 99 "LM"GT2 JMB RACING Ferrari F430 GT DAOUDI Stephane 32 laps
36 88 "LM"GT2 Team Felbermayr - Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR FELBERMAYR Horst Jr 32 laps
37 91 "LM"GT2 FBR Ferrari F430 GT MONTERMINI Andrea – 31 laps
38 81 "LM"GT2 Easyrace Ferrari F430 GT BASSO Paolo-Maurice 31 laps
39 78 "LM"GT2 Advanced Engineering Ferrari F430 GT BAMFORD Peter 31 laps
40 5 "LM"P1 Team LNT Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S MANSELL Nigel – 19 laps