© lendurance.co.uk - Jake Yorath
Despite a rather messy starting grid, with cars being positioned at the wrong grid place and therefore a slightly delayed start the spectators at Silverstone saw an interesting final round of the 2009 Le Mans Series season. With two championships yet undecided the battles throughout the field were fought out from start to finish. Here’s a recap of the Autosport 1000KM of Silverstone.
The opening hour was a true spectacle, with the Pescarolo Sport car of Jean-Christophe Boullion as the featured artist. The French driver started from the back of the grid but cut through the field with brutal pace. In less than one hour of racing he managed to overtake the entire field and move into the lead ahead of Stefan Mücke’s Lola-Aston Martin.
Quifel-ASM Team had a dramatic first hour with Olivier Pla slowing down in the complex. Bizarrely the Zytek 09S drove past the pit lane entrance only to come to a halt on the finish straight seconds later. After restarting it again the car eventually stopped at the Hangar Straight. In GT2 the two championship contenders JMW Motorsport and Team Felbermayr-Proton had bad starts, both cars dropping to the back of the GT2 field.
The second hour brought more trouble for the Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche #77. A rather long pit stop meant the Porsche dropped back again to tenth place. Karim Ajlani spun his OAK Racing Pescarolo at Luffield and then while trying to get it back in the right direction he got stuck in the gravel trap. At the front Boullion has pulled away, despite some contact with other cars, while in GT2 the JMW Motorsport Ferrari managed to get back to the front of the field, a position they needed to be in order to fight for the title.
Rob Bell managed to get into second place at the start of the third hour, just as the #77 Porsche was pushed into the pit box with an engine related problem. Quifel-ASM Team, the new LMP2 champions retired, but there was more bad news down the pit lane when the leading Pescarolo came in to the pit and was moved into the box where the engine cover was taken off, it returned to the track some 15 laps later. As a result the Oreca 01 of Nicolas Lapierre moved into the lead.
After another round of pit stops the gaps in the different classes were all under 20 seconds, apart from GT1. And with several championships still undecided and Le Mans invitations to be won, it was far from over.
As the race got into its fourth hour the JMW Motorsport Ferrari and IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche were in a heavy battle for the GT2 lead. Unfortunately the Team LNT Zytek made contact with the IMSA Porsche, sending the #76 into the gravel trap. Not a lap later Bruni in the #92 Ferrari was hit by the Signature Plus Courage-Oreca. The resulting pit stop meant Team Modena was given the lead for the moment; fortunately the JMW team had a pit stop planned, so not much extra time was lost.
There was more drama in GT2 when the #90 FBR Ferrari slowed down. As a result the Spyker moved up into third place.
Marc Lieb moved into eighth in GT2 at the start of the fifth hour, enough to clinch the championship would the race be flagged at that point. Tom Coronel in the Spyker knew his chances of getting second place were rather big when he was informed that it was Leo Mansell in the car in front of him. Within a matter of laps the Dutchman closed the gap to Mansell and passed the Modena Ferrari towards the end of the fifth hour.
At the front the battle for the lead was still going on between Oreca and Speedy Racing, with Marcel Fässler closing the gap to the leader rapidly.
One hour and 20 minutes were left on the clock when the Oreca team made another pit stop. After a nose and driver change Panis stormed out of the pit lane, but a fuel only stop for the Fässler car meant Speedy Racing Team Sebah moved into first place.
Disaster struck however for the Swiss team. As Panis did his best out on the track to catch the Lola, Fässler is called in to the pit to have his car fixed. The left front louvers were taken care of but the time lost in this unplanned stop meant the Oreca team moved into the lead.
As Team Oreca Matmut AIM took its first ever Le Mans Series victory the battle for second was won by Speedy Team Sebah Racing, Fässler only just holding of Enge in the Aston Martin Racing Lola.
Behind the LMP1 top three it was the JMW Motorsport Ferrari that took the chequered flag as best GT2 car, the #77 Felbermayr entry came in seventh, enough to secure the championship. Tom Coronel secured the second consecutive second place for Snoras Spyker Squadron with IMSA Performance Matmut taking the final podium place, beating the Team Modena Ferrari.
The Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola Judd won LMP2, but the car was damaged after the finish after hitting the Signature Plus car. Both cars ended up on the side of the track with rather severe damage. Nevertheless the win was a great reward for the Swiss team.
Peter Kox and Ryan Sharp gave the Gigawave Motorsport team a GT1 victory; the Aston Martin DBR9 more than likely got its final victory under the current GT1 specs.
As the podium ceremonies came to an end and the post-race press conference was completed the teams started to pack things up. Yet another interesting Silverstone race had come to an end…as had the 2009 Le Mans Series.
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