The film of the race

 

 

Intercontinental Le Mans Cup - Autosport 1000km of Silverstone

Anthony Davidson and Nicolas Minassian won the inaugural Intercontinental Mans Cup. The French constructor completed the double with second place in the 908 HDi FAP entered by Oreca. Audi finished third with their only surviving car, driven by Dindo Capello and Timo Bernhard.

Peugeot and Audi made up the top three,all on the same lap at the finish. The main adversaries in the recent history of endurance racing were set for a duel but it was cut short early in the race. After a good fight in the early laps, where the Audi #7 of pole winner Allan McNish led Peugeot #1, the second Audi and the Peugeot of Team Oreca Matmut, but the French marque soon led the race, as unfortunately McNish retired on the 17th lap. Thereafter, there were no major technical problem to thwart their progress , with the exception of a flat tyre suffered by Nicolas Minassian in the lead Peugeot.

Following them, Lola had  a good result together with Mücke-Barazi-Hancock (Aston Martin Racing), Jani-Prost (Rebellion Racing) and Ragues-Ickx-Mailleux (Signature Plus), respectively 4th, 5th and 6th in front of the Ginetta-Zytek of Leo and Greg Mansell.

The LM P2 class resulted in a great battle, which pitted Strakka Racing against Quifel-ASM. The two teams finished in that order, in front of the Moreau-Hein Pescarolo (OAK Racing). A third place being an outstanding result for the black and pink prototype that started from the back of the grid.

In GT2, the Aston Martin of JMW Motorsport nearly won but its drivers - Darren Turner and Robert Bell - were hit with a stop & go penalty for having exceeded the limits of the track several times ... That says a lot about the intensity of the struggle. The race was hotly contested until the chequered flag and victory finally came  to the Ferrari of Jaime Melo and Gianmaria Bruni. Porsche claimed  second and third was Aston Martin. Spyker and BMW finished 7th and 8th respectively. 

The next outing for ILMC cars is on the 2nd of October at Road Atlanta for Petit Le Mans, the second round of the Intercontinental  Le Mans Cup.

Jean-Philippe Doret & Julien Hergault – Translated by Dave Davies