Le Mans Series Nurburgring - Race Report - To The Finish 

At the 5:20 mark come the last set of stops for the leaders. This time the Audis come first. Allan McNish running to the end in No. 1 and Mike Rockenfeller in No. 2. The No. 8 Peugeot makes its last stop. Sarrazin will take it to the flag. Marc Gene stays aboard No. 7. The quartet heads out in the “wrong” order with No. 8 atop No. 7, and No. 1 atop No. 2.

Warren Hughes continues the good showing of the Embassy team by grabbing seventh in LM P2 from the No. 32 Zytek of Michael Vergers. This particular stretch by the No. 45 WF came on the heels of a confluence of ill effects. Jonny Kane note that they stopped when suffering from a combination of high temperatures, a misfire, and gear selection issues. A simple software reset would have cured it, but they didn’t realize this until later.

The Lola-Mazda’s pit stalling problems have come from a bad clutch that led to an over-reving engine, thus the flame-out. The No. 21 Epsilon has pulled into the garage. The Horag Porsche garage call was caused by a faulty brake fluid reservoir while the Lamborghini’s on-course retirement came from a loss of drive.

With all the other key positions decided, McNish pulls in for new tires—really needed for those last three laps!  But it allows the “correct” Audi into third place. Apart from a very late splash for the second in LM P2 No. 35 Saulnier Pescarolo. They finished 22 seconds atop the Essex Porsche and thus the LM P2 contest has been decided.

It was a pleasant, solid, tight race. Obviously the day belongs to Peugeot. The dominance in GT2 by Virgo was another story—quite literally a phoenix from the ashes. Nearly all of the LM P2 runners can claim a fine day—a fine race among many of them, and a great show at last by the Embassy team. It was a race of lots of little stories at one of the grandest settings in motor racing.

But why did Peugeot choose not to shuffle their order to allow the championship leading pair to take advantage ahead of the final round of the Series next month at Silverstone?  That may be the entirely sporting thing to do, but it's also the kind of decision that has a habit of biting back!

In LMP2 its a Championship win for van Merksteijn Motorsport and for Jos Verstappen - Essex Racing will rue the tyre issues that robbed them of at least a second place but John Nielsen was adamant that it was a gamble they had to take if the fight was to be taken to the #34 car - And we all love a fighter.

GT1 saw an utterly dominant win from the Team Modena Aston Martin, the #59 car never troubled as the other runners hit trouble - or in the case of the Corvettes, trouble hit them.

In GT2 it was an extraordinary win from Virgo Motorsport - The competition will be scratching their heads over what could possibly now stop the little British team, Jim McWhirter's remarkable car, Chris Warne's merry band and of course the fastest pair of doppelgangers in motorsport - Rob Bell and Gianmaria Bruni.

JW & GG