1, 2 finish and titles for Peugeot and titles also for Signatech Nissan and Larbre Compétition

Victory for the Peugeot of Montagny-Sarrazin-Wurz with second place of Lapierre-Minassian-Gené and constructors' title for LM P1 teams 2011 : The French constructor made sure after the sixth round of the ILMC season. Larbre Competition wins the team title in LM GTE Am and Signatech Nissan team title in LM P2. Thirteen points: was the gap from Peugeot before the sixth of seventh rounds of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup 2011. With the pole position of Davidson, it reduced to twelve before the start of the race. At the finish, thanks to successful 1-2 (908 #8 and the 908 Hdi-FAP #10), the French manufacturer scored 28 and secures this year's constructors' title in ILMC that it also won a year ago, and that of LM P1 teams for Peugeot Sport Total.

But the Peugeot Lions struggled on the track at Road Atlanta to win such a success. After a flying start the #7, Bourdais, Pagenaud and Davidson car retired during the third hour with transmission failure. Also the #2 Audi lost a lot of time, affected by clutch problems. It ultimately retired one hour before the finish.

At the head of the field, the battle did not stop for a moment between the Peugeot #8, #1 Audi and Peugeot's private entry of team Oreca #10. Finally, the turning point of the race was at 18:42, after 7 hours 12 minutes of the race, when in a Porsche made contact with Romain Dumas at the wheel of the Audi touching the front of the competitor, and destroying his car by hitting the wall at the edge of the track. It was at that point on the tail of the lead car, then driven by Franck Montagny. An incident that did not warrant investigation by the race director.

Suddenly, the French manufacturer had no real opponent. The two cars were leading to the finish without encountering any problems, giving victory to the trio Montagny-Sarrazin-Wurz devant in the 908 Hdi-FAP #10 private entry of Oreca driven by Lapierre-Minassian-Gené. Third was Aston Martin who saved their season with a podium in ILMC won by Fernandez-Mücke-Primat ahead of Pescarolo OAK of Pla-Prémat and Yvon the car that had finished third at the end of the previous race (6 Hours of Silverstone). Note that this is the third straight victory for Peugeot in Petit Le Mans and again with Montagny and Sarrazin at the wheel.

In LM GTE, the fight was again magnificent from start to finish, the result was decided on the last lap! The start of the race was under the domination of the BMW M3 GT but they had too many punctures, Ferrari managed to return to the fight and there were countless lead changes before the swift and sound Fisichella Bruni-Kaffer car carved out a slight advantage and kept it until the finish. They crossed the line with 6''6 gap on the Porsche 045. The two Italian drivers claimed a third victory in six races this year, the fourth for Ferrari. "It's a great feeling. The same as when I won in F1,” Fisichella was delighted. “We were convinced we could do it. The car, team, everything was perfect. " With 28 points ahead of BMW now, Ferrari has taken a major step towards the manufacturers title in LM GTE. The 6 Hours of Zhuhai will decide between them.

In LM P2, a solid success for another American team: Level 5 Motorsports, with Honda Performance Development #33 Tucker, Bouchut and Barbosa, but it was the French team Nissan Signatech who won the LM P2 title at the end of the sixth round. Very fast early in the race, Mailleux, Vernay-Ordonez were slowed due to problems with power steering. But they were classified and that was enough to record 11 points and take the 2011 title.A fourth title was won in this race: that of Teams' LM GTE Am with the second-place of Bornhauser Canal Gardel, acquired in the wake of the Krohn Racing Ferrari (Krohn-Jonsson-Rugolo) victory on home soil allowed the Larbre team to pocket the teams' LM GTE Am. In 2010 Larbre Competition previously won the title in the former ILMC LM GT1 category.

Results of Petit Le Mans : click hereILMC 2011 Manufacturers positions after Petit Le Mans : click hereILMC 2011 Teams positions after Petit Le Mans : click here

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Petit Le Mans (USA)Saturday 1st October 2011Sixth round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup 2011.

Circuit : Road Atlanta (Braselton, Georgia, USA), 4,088 km.Weather : Good.At the start : 53 cars includng 25 ILMC (9 LM P1, 3 LM P2, 7 GTE Pro, 6 GTE Am). Spectators: 131 400.

Podium1. Montagny-Sarrazin-Wurz (FRA-FRA-AUT), Peugeot 908 les 1 000 miles (1 609 km, 394 tours) en 9 h 35’55’’.2. Lapierre-Minassian-Gené (FRA-FRA-ESP), Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP, à cinq tours. 3. Fernandez-Mücke-Primat (MEX-ALL-SUI), Aston Martin, à six tours.

Winners ILMC by classLM P1 : 1. Montagny-Sarrazin-Wurz (FRA-FRA-AUT), Peugeot 908 les 1 000 miles (1 609 km, 394 tours) en 9 h 35’55’’.LM P2 : 1. Tucker-Bouchut-Barbosa (USA-FRA-POR), Honda Performance Development ARX-01g : 375 tours.LM GTE Pro : 1. Fisichella-Bruni-Kaffer (ITA-ITA-ALL), Ferrari 458 Italia : 367 tours.LM GTE Am : 1. Krohn-Jonsson-Rugolo (USA-SUE-ITA), Ferrari F430 : 355 tours.Pole position 2011 : Davidson (GBR), Peugeot 908, 1’07’’428Fastest race lap : Montagny (FRA), Peugeot 908, 1’09’’038

Positions ILMC (after 6 rounds)

ConstructorsLM P1 : 1. Peugeot, 182 pts ; 2. Audi, 108. Peugeot Champion ILMC 2011*.LM GTE : 1. Ferrari, 151 pts ; 2. BMW, 123 ; 3. Porsche, 105 ; etc.

TeamsLM P1 : 1. Peugeot Sport Total, 97 pts ; 2. Audi Sport Team Joest, 74 ; 3. Team Oreca Matmut, 47 ; etc. Peugeot Sport Total Champion ILMC 2011 *.LM P2 : 1. Signatech Nissan, 79 pts ; 2. Level 5 Motorsports, 57 ; 3. OAK Racing, 50. Signatech Nissan champion ILMC 2011*.LM GTE Pro : 1. AF Corse, 99 pts; 2. BMW Motorsport, 85 ; 3. Luxury Racing, 26 ; etc.LM GTE Am : 1. Larbre Compétition, 79 pts ; 2. Krohn Racing, 50 ; AF Corse, 47 ; etc. Larbre Compétition ILMC 2011*.*subject to official confirmation byAutomobile Club de l’Ouest.

Next Race : 6 Hours of Zhuhai (China), seventh and final round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup 2011.


Related Motorsport Articles

84,520 articles