Peugeot Wins Empire Trophy at LMS 1000km of Silverstone

18 September 2007

The fifth race of the 2007 Le Mans Series came to life in the final hour with some fantastic racing and cruel luck hitting competitors and contributing to an unusual result.

Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene won the race in their Peugeot, only their second win of the season, but their team-mates Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin were denied their second place after a puncture in the third hour damaged the rear bodywork, and the car was called into the pits for repairs with just minutes remaining.

That meant that the car was not classified, and with their second place, Emmanuel Collard and Jean-Christophe Boullion move to within two points of the leaders with one race, the Mil Milhas in Brazil, remaining. Collard had put on a magnificent show in the final hour, hounding the Charouz Lola of Stefan Mucke and putting the German under intense pressure.

The Lola was on old tyres, the team having overtaken the Pescarolo in the pits by not changing the rubber, and Mucke used the traffic expertly to fend off the Pescarolo until the handling became too bad and Collard slipped through.

The German was denied third place by Lamy before the Portuguese had to pit, and was denied even his fourth place when the steering failed just 15
minutes from the end of the race. That elevated the Rollcentre Pescarolo onto the podium for the first time this year, Joao Barbosa and Stuart Hall taking a deserved third having kept out of trouble and run at a competitive pace, finishing four laps off the winners.

Fourth was the Creation Zytek of Jamie Campbell-Walter, Hiroki Kurosawa and Felipe Ortiz which led the race in the second hour. Fifth was the Arena
Motorsport Zytek of Tom Chilton and his 16-year-old brother Max, who was impressive in his mid-race stint before a track rod broke off the car, putting
the youngster onto the grass. “The team repaired it in two minutes,” lamented Chilton. Alexander Frei and Jonathan Cochet took sixth in LMP1 in their Courage.

“LM” P2
It was a race of attrition for the category, won by the Barazi Epsilon team of Michael Vergers, Juan Barazi and Karim Ojjeh who had performed beautifully throughout the race to take the win by a lap from the Team LNT Zytek of Tom Kimber Smith and Danny Watts. The pair had driven hard, Watts up to third overall behind the Peugeots in the opening laps! Vergers had passed the Embassy Racing Radical SR9 of Darren Manning and pulled out a lead, consolidated by Ojjeh against Warren Hughes who looked safe in the Embassy car before he slid off the track. Though he returned to the pits, it was a long stop as the car refused to fire up, and they dropped to a disappointed ninth in class.

The ASM team also had its turn at the front of the field, but they, too, lost time when the marshals insisted that they repair the louvres over the front wheel which had been damaged by tyre pickup from the circuit. Two laps was their penalty as they sat in the pits, and the took third place by that margin ahead of the RML Lola of Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton. They lost time with bodywork damage in the opening quarter of the race, and had to keep an eye on high water temperatures almost throughout the race.

“LM”GT1
Stephane Ortelli and Soheil Ayari took their fourth win of the year, and opened their lead to seven points in their Team ORECA Saleen S7R before the Brazilian race. The pair drove flat out throughout the race to take the win by a lap over the Team Modena Aston Martin, driven by reigning Le Mans champion Darren Turner and team regular Antonio Garcia. Turner and Ortelli had locked horns in the final hour of the race, the Frenchman gaining the upper hand and steadily pulling away. “That was just our pace,” said Turner. They were followed over the line by the Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette of Vincent Vosse, Sebastien Dumez and Jean-Luc Blanchemain whose sister car, challenging for the title, had a collision with another car and bent a steering arm. The reigning champion Larbre team suffered a broken input shaft which side-lined the car for many laps, and it finished seventh in class, 21 laps down.

“LM” GT2
Virgo Motorsport took their fifth podium of the year, their second win, and that was enough to confirm Rob Bell as the champion driver for Ferrari. The Briton shared the car with Gianmaria Bruni for the first time this season as his regular co-driver Allan Simonsen had other commitments. “I had expected to go to the final race just five points ahead,” said Bell, “but when the Porsche stopped I had mixed emotions. It is never nice to see a competitor stop, but at the same time our race was not finished yet.”

That Porsche belonged to Marc Lieb and Xavier Pompidou, the 2005 champions. Lieb, who also won the title in 2006 with Joel Camathias, drove down the pitlane having suffered a broken lower wishbone which had taken off the left rear wheel. It was a bitter disappointment for the Felbermayr Proton team which saw all three of its cars retire.

Raymond Narac and Richard Lietz took their first podium of the year, finishing second and a lap down on the Ferrari, while Mike Hezemans and Peter Dumbreck delivered Spyker its best finish of the year when they finished third.

See series calendar for the 2007 Le Mans Series

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