At the start of the race McNish and Sarrazin battled it out for the lead and in doing so they briefly hit each other. Aston Martin Racing’s Stefan Mücke took advantage of the situation and took the lead on the opening lap. Further down the field two FLM cars hit each other, both cars came into the pit with light damage.
Three laps into the race McNish moved back into the lead, while the Peugeot overtook the Aston as well a lap later. Diesel power from the start. The Audi and Peugeot disappeared into the distance, but the second Oreca car came into the box early on with a damaged tire, it was followed by the #12 Rebellion Racing Lola which suffered suspension damage. The Swiss team sent the damaged car back out on the track – only to realise the problem wasn’t solved. A very slow lap later Jani was back in the pit.
20 laps into the race Mücke came in with a smoking front left tire. One lap later GT2 had some havoc with the JMW Motorsport Aston first in trouble coming out of the final corner, Further down the track Peter Dumbreck’s Spyker was hit by the Hankook-Farnbacher Ferrari of Dominik Farnbacher. The Scot suffered a damaged suspension and the Dutch team lost valuable time in the pit.
Just before the end of the first hour the Oreca Peugeot had problems in the pit and was pushed into the box. The gap between the leading Audi and the second placed number 009 was almost 46 seconds.
When the 908 returned 18 minutes later it was already 8 laps down on the leading Audi. The second hour wasn’t a good one for OAK Racing, Race Performance and ProSpeed Competition either. The number 24 was given a stop and go, the Radical handed a four minutes stop, while the number 75 Porsche stopped on track and would become the first retirement..
The Audi increased its lead to a full lap over the hour and when the two-hour mark had passed the Strakka Racing HPD ARX-01c was leading LMP2, with IMSA leading GT2.
LMP2 leader Strakka Racing was the next car to hit trouble and the car came in just halfay the third hour. After some bodywork replacements the car returned to eighth in class.
RML and OAK Racing took over the lead.
JMW Motorport, retiring its Vantage GT2 with a fuel related problem, did not see the halfway point of the race. More cars hit trouble, as the Quifel-ASM Team slowly entered the pit, the #29 Racing Box Lola stopped on the track and the IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche was pushed back into the box.
After four hours Audi Sport Team Joest led the race by 2 laps. RML was the LMP2 leader, with the number 77 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche leading GT2. Applewood Seven was the FLM leader.
The fifth hour of the 8 Hours of Le Castellet saw more LM GT2 drama. The #91 CRS Racing Ferrari, third in class, stopped on the track. As the GT2 field was close to each other the car immediately dropped down the order.
At BMW Team Schnitzer the BMW M3 came in with a radiator problem, the water pouring out of the front of the car. The German team lost several laps and any advantage of being able to pit later was gone.
The Peugeot 908 HDi FAP slowly but steadily moved up the standings and after five hours it was seventh, still far behind. The Audi was three laps away from everyone else, while in LMP2 OAK Racing was first and second.
As the temperature dropped and the wind increased the chance of rain also increased. Grey clouds rolled in but despite the threat no serious rain would fall. The colder conditions meant that teams were able to set fast lap times.
Olivier Pla suffered a problem with the 2009 LMP2 championship winning Quifel-ASM Team Zytek. Just after it had completed 200 laps the car suffered whar seemed like a steering problem and was forced to retire. Strakka Racing meanwhile made its way back to second place.
In the final hour the FLM car seemed to suffer with a DAMS car coming to a halt and the Boutsen car having a small fire in the pit. Class leader Hope Polevision Racing had no problems, other than being in a fight with the Applewood Seven car. Strakka Racing finally moved ahead of the OAK Racing cars.
Oreca’s number 6 car came in to the pit where ducktape was used on the front right louvers. Interesting, as it seems to be against the rules, which state that it should be replaced. The car would return to the pit twice, the last time for a tire change that helped the team’s Peugeot 908 HDi FAP to move into fourth place and get some extra points.
Just over ten minutes were left when there was some rain on the back straight. Most teams opted to sit out the remaining minutes and just be cautious, except for Audi. The German team used its huge advantage to bring in the R15 and switch to rain tires.
The only thing that really changed was the lead in the FLM class, where the Hope Polevision Racing car spun, allowing Zollinger in the Applewood Seven car to pass and take the lead.
After 266 laps Capello crossed the line and was shown the checkered flag. The first win for the new Audi R15 Plus. Aston Martin Racing took second, with Rebellion bringing home third place.
Strakka Racing won LMP2, Felbermayr-Proton secured a 1-2 in GT2 and Applewood Seven and Larbre Competition won their classes.
UPDATE: In conformity with the regulations, as the first competitors completed more than 1 500 kilometers during the race, the points allocated for the 8 Hours of le Castellet are multiplied by 2, excepted the points allocated to the teams for the pole position.
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