The Intercontinental Le Mans Cup will celebrate its first anniversary at the Autosport 6 Hours of Silverstone on 11^th September, and the British circuit will also celebrate the 35^th running of its famous endurance race with a mouth-watering field!

After a couple of months’ break the players in the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup will be back in action on 11^th September. The race on the Silverstone circuit will be the fifth of the seven events on the 2011 calendar. Thus, it is an extremely important round in the battle for the titles as the end of the season approaches.

In LM P1, in order the stack all the odds in its favour in its battle with the French manufacturer, which has a 43-point lead, Audi has to find the pace its R18s were lacking in Italy at the Imola round where Peugeot scored a telling double. The two teams will enter a brace of cars each in England: Bernhard-Fässler and Kristensen-McNish in the German machines and Davidson-Bourdais (winners at Imola on 3^rd July) and Montagny-Sarrazin in the French 908s.

Silverstone will also see the official return of Aston Martin but not with the AMR-ONES seen at Le Mans. The British make had entered one of its previous season’s DBR1-2s driven by Fernandez-Primat-Klien. The Rebellion Racing Lola and the two OAK Racing OAK-Pescarolos will be out to beat it in the battle between the petrol-engined cars racing in the ILMC. There are two absentees: the Oreca-Matmut Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, which will be back for the Petit Le Mans, and the Hope Racing hybrid prototype. The latter will not take part in any further rounds of the ILMC this year.

On the other hand, there is a full house in the LM P2 category. The three teams entered in the ILMC championship will be present as well as another nine cars racing in the Le Mans Series. Ojjeh-Lombard-Kimber-Smith victorious at Le Mans and Imola are hoping to beat the Signatech-Nissan 03-Oreca of Ayari-Mailleux-Ordonez, which currently leads the ILMC classification in the baby prototype category.

There is a thrilling battle in perspective in LM GTE. In the manufacturers’ championship only 11 points separate Ferrari, the leader and BMW in second place followed by Corvette in third . The Italian make has a slight numerical superiority in GTE Am with three cars. Luxury Racing has called in young French hope, Nicolas Marroc, to complete the Jakubowski-Beltoise line-up in one of its F458 Italias. British driver Andy Priaulx is back in the BMW squad and will drive the no. 56 M3 GTE with Uwe Alzen.

Regulations
Silverstone will see the introduction of a new rule agreed by the ACO and the FIA. In order to increase the safety of the LM P1 and P2 prototypes by reducing their cornering speeds as well as minimizing the chances of take-off, the minimum thickness of the plank under the flat bottom has been increased from 20 to 25 mm. This will be checked on a regular basis throughout the meeting, and must be respected at all times under pain of a penalty that can go as far as exclusion. The aim of this rule is to increase the cars’ ride height by 5mm. In addition, the surface of the louvres (air vents over the wheels) has been modified to reduce downforce in the case of the car spinning sideways.

>> List of entries for the Autosport 6 Hours of Silverstone <<

>> ILMC Classification before the Autosport 6 Hours of Silverstone <<

Practical information
Autosport 6 Hours of Silverstone, 35^th running
11^th September 2011
Fifth of the seven rounds of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

Circuit: Silverstone (United Kingdom) - length: 5,901 km.
Free practice: Friday 9^th September from 13h15 to 14h15, then from 17h00 to 18h00: Saturday 10^th September: from 09h00 to 10h00.
Qualifying: Saturday 10^th September: 13h35 to 14h25 (LM GTE: 13h35 to 13h55, LM Prototypes from 14h05 to 14h25).
Warm-up: Sunday 11^th September from 09h00 to 09h20.
Race: start of the Autosport 6 Hours of Silverstone, Sunday 11^th September at 11h55.
Entries: 52 cars including 23 ILMCs.
ILMC Field: 23 cars, 7 LM P1s, 3 LM P2s, 7 GTE Pros, 6 GTE Ams.

Press conference: Pre event: Friday 9^th September at 15h00 ; After qualifying: Saturday 10^th September at 14h30 ; After the race: Sunday 11^th September immediately after the podium ceremony.

NB: The Autosport 6 Hours of Silverstone is the fourth round of the 2011 Le Mans Series.

ILMC Classifications
(After the Imola 6 Hours)

Manufacturers
LM P1 : 1. Peugeot, 132 pts ; 2. Audi, 89 ; Aston Martin, 0.
LM GTE : 1. Ferrari, 98 pts ; 2. BMW, 87 ; 3. Corvette, 73 ; 4. Porsche, 64 ; 5. Aston Martin, 11 ; 6. Lotus : 9.

Teams
LM P1 : 1. Peugeot Sport Total, 65 ; 2. Audi Sport Team Joest, 61 pts ; 2. 3. Team Oreca Matmut, 34 ; 4. Rebellion Racing, 33 ; etc.
LM P2 : 1. Signatech Nissan, 62 pts ; 2. Level 5 Motorsports, 42 ; 3. OAK Racing, 34.
LM GTE Pro : 1. AF Corse, 68 pts; 2. BMW Motorsport, 62 ; 3. Lotus Jetalliance, 16 ; 4. Luxury Racing, 5.
LM GTE Am : 1. Larbre Compétition, 55 pts ; 2. Krohn Racing, 28 ; 3. AF Corse, 26 ; etc.

Tickets:

http://www.silverstone.co.uk

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