1000 KM Zhuhai

[Plex]

Sarrazin takes pole for Peugeot

Peugeot driver Stephane Sarrazin claimed pole for the Zhuhai 1000Km, the final round of the new Intercontinental Le Mans Cup.

Sarrazin beat Peugeot team-mate Simon Pagenaud to the top spot by just over a second in what was effectively a one-lap qualifying shoot-out. Rain started to fall on the Chinese circuit as they completed their first flying laps, which meant neither was able to improve his time.

Sarrazin, who like Pagenaud set his time on intermediate tyres, said: "I didn't know I only had one lap, but you always have to push on new tyres. There was only a narrow dry line, but I didn't make any mistakes and did a very good lap."

Tom Kristensen ended up third-fastest for Audi on slick tyres, a further two tenths behind the second Peugeot. He completed one reconnaissance lap on wets before pitting for slicks.

GT1 honours went to JLOC Lamborghini Murcielago driven by Yuhi Sekiguchi. The Japanese driver ended up 1.7 seconds ahead of Pedro Lamy in the Larbre Saleen, the only other car in the class.

Gianmaria Bruni took pole in the GT2 class for the AF Corse Ferrari team. The Italian was three tenths of a second quicker than Richard Lietz in the best of the Felbermayr-Proton Porsches.

Pos Cl Drivers Car Time Gap
1. LMP1 Montagny/Sarrazin Peugeot 1m21.868s
2. LMP1 Bourdais/Pagenaud Peugeot 1m22.953s + 1.085s
3. LMP1 Kristensen/McNish Audi 1m23.152s + 1.284s
4. LMP1 Capello/Dumas Audi 1m24.589s + 2.721s
5. LMP1 Drayson/Cocker Lola-Judd 1m28.916s + 7.048s
6. LMP1 Wakisaka/Mitsuyama Courage ORECA YGK 1m30.869s + 9.001s
7. LMP2 Nicolet/da Rocha/Lafargue Pescarolo-Judd 1m32.936s + 11.068s
8. FLM Zacchia/Zhang/Lee ORECA 1m33.227s + 11.359s
9. GT1 Iiri/Sekiguchi/Yuya Lamborghini 1m33.516s + 11.648s
10. GTH Bergmeister/Long Porsche Hybrid 1m33.789s + 11.921s
11. GTC Lee/Yoong/Marsh Audi 1m34.959s + 13.091s
12. GT1 Bornhauser/Groppi/Lamy Saleen 1m35.217s + 13.349s
13. GTC Watts/Meins/Yu Audi 1m35.682s + 13.814s
14. GT2 Bruni/Vilander/Melo Ferrari 1m35.810s + 13.942s
15. GT2 Lieb/Lietz Porsche 1m36.114s + 14.246s
16. GT2 Muller/Werner BMW 1m36.166s + 14.298s
17. GT2 Ehret/Quaife/Kirkaldy Ferrari 1m36.210s + 14.342s
18. GT2 Westbrook/O'Young Porsche 1m36.300s + 14.432s
19. GT2 Ragginger/Ried/Roda Porsche 1m36.527s + 14.659s
20. GT2 Goossens/Gentilozzi Jaguar 1m37.379s + 15.511s
21. GTC Ma/Beche Aston Martin 1m37.800s + 15.932s
22. GTC Richard/Li Audi 1m37.888s + 16.020s
23. GT2 Giroix/Goethe Lamborghini

Autosport

[Plex]

Peugeot 908 wins final race at Zhuhai

With Audi leading into the fifth hour of the race it was clear that the 1000 KM of Zhuhai would get a very interesting final third part. Just after the hour mark Allan McNish came in for another stop and to hand over the Audi R15 TDI to Tom Kristensen. The Dane returned to the track behind the Peugeots, but all four diesels would have to make at least one pit stop before the end of the race.

After 180 laps were completed – and 53 laps yet to go – the two Audi’s were again lapping quicker than the Peugeot. Three laps later Montagny came in to hand over his car to Sarrazin. Given the distance it would seem likely that the Peugeot had to come in once again just before the end of the race. With the Peugeot in the pit Tom Kristensen managed to move back into the lead again, now with a 20 seconds lead over Bourdais in the #1 Peugeot.

But rather than making up ground on Kristensen Bourdais made a huge mistake and ran into the #88 Team Felbermayr Proton Porsche 997 GT3 RSR of Martin Ragginger. As a result Ragginger spun and then collected the back of the Peugeot, ripping of the rear bodywork from the Peugeot. Unfortunately for Ragginger his Porsche ended up in the gravel trap. Bourdais made it back to the pit where the car was immediately pushed back into the box and the team started repairing the car.

Not much later the Peugeot was back out on track, but with the Porsche still stuck in the gravel the race director decided to deploy the safety car after all. A very slow Audi TT picked up Tom Kristensen and memories went back to a slow safety car earlier this year in Europe. But fortunately it was just a brief safety car period and soon the lights went out and the Audi TT went back in. Bourdais was given a 1-second stop and go penalty.

Martin Ragginger’s Porsche was pulled out of the gravel and eventually rejoined the race fifth in GT2. Leading that class was still the BMW Team Schnitzer BMW M3 GT2, now almost half a minute ahead of the #77 Team Felbermayr Proton Porsche and a lap over the CRS Racing and AF Corse Ferrari’s. A few laps ahead of them was still the Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid.

Audi made its final pit stops with 30 (# and 26 (#7) laps left in the race. As Kristensen came out again for his final stint the Drayson Racing Lola B09/60-Judd slowed down and Paul Drayson parked the car in the grass. Another victim of the race was the #96 United Autosports Audi R8 LMS. Having had a three-lap lead the car suddenly disappeared and dropped down the order – a transmission failure meant the end of the race for the Audi – leaving the KK Performance Audi R8 LMS in the lead.

As the #2 Peugeot was likely to make a splash-and-dash towards the end of the race Tom Kristensen had to keep pushing to stay close to Sarrazin, the gap around 35 seconds with 20 laps left. Michelin Green X Challenge leaders OAK Racing went wide at the last corner with 17 laps left in the race, but after a small detour via the gravel trap Frédéric Da Rocha returned to the track and continued.

With 13 laps remaining Stephane Sarrazin came in to the pit for his final stop. With Kristensen closing in rapidly things had to go well and fortunately for Sarrazin nothing went wrong. The #2 Peugeot managed to get back on the track just two seconds ahead of Kristensen’s Audi, who was blocked behind the Peugeot driven by Bourdais, who backed down just enough to keep Kristensen behind. Kristensen was unable to pass Bourdais, with Sarrazin just in front of the #1 Peugeot. A frustrating sight for the Dane.

With five laps left in the race Kristensen managed to pass Bourdais, but Sarrazin was now just under five seconds in front of the Audi and onto the last lap the gap had even gone up to just over five seconds. The last lap showed that Peugeot had made the right decision by using Bourdais as a buffer as Sarrazin ran into a group of slow GT cars, but as Sarrazin crossed the line he was still 4.826 seconds ahead of Kristensen taking the win and clinching the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup for Peugeot. Romain Dumas finished in third place, behind Kristensen.

BMW Team Schnitzer took the race victory in GT2, the BMW M3 GT2 of Jörg Müller and Dirk Werner beating the Felbermay Proton Porsche of Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz. Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Jaime Melo secured the final podium position for AF Corse.

OAK Racing (LMP2), Porsche AG (GTH), Hope PoleVision Racing (FLM), KK Performance (GTC) and Larbre Competition (GT1) won their respective classes.

Peugeot and Ferrari win the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup LMP1 and GT2 titles.

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