Endurance RacingEuropean Le Mans SeriesIntercontinental Le Mans CupSportscars

Peugeot Pace Steals LMS Friday At Silverstone

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The pair of Peugeot 908 diesels eased to the top of the timecharts over the opening two practice sessions for the 1000km of Silverstone, showing the same sort of pace which allowed them to dominate timetrials at Le Mans.

The fastest times came in the second session of the day when Nicolas Minassian ran the fastest time around Silverstone's 5.89km Arena circuit (1:43.935) in the works Peugeot he will share with Anthony Davidson. The Peugeot domination was completed by his fellow Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre in the Team ORECA privateer Peugeot who set the second fastest time, though he was over a second slower than the factory effort after having led for much of the session.

Conversely it was Audi who had struck the first blow in the fight between they and Peugeot by taking the fastest time in the earlier session, run on a damp track that hampered the field's work to set-up for the Le Mans Series finale. Allan McNish lapped the track in 1:46.249 – a time that would have only been good enough for fourth fastest in the second session when the Scot improved to 1:45.789 but fell to third behind the Peugeots.

The position of best petrol powered car – something of a honour in modern endurance racing – fell to the Rebellion Racing Lolas in both sessions – the no.12 of Nicolas Prost and Neel Jani third fastest in the opening session and the Jean-Christophe Boullion/Andrea Belicchi no.13 fifth fastest in the later practice.

The fastest time in LMP2 fell to the Quifel-ASM Ginetta-Zytek after the history boys of Strakka Racing had picked up from their overall win in Hungary with the ninth quickest time, beating four LMP1 teams in the process.

In the third and final class eligible for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) British team JMW Motorsport upstaged the Porsche versus Ferrari versus BMW battle in LMGT2, their Aston Martin Vantage beating the star-studded line ups from the manufacturer teams entered for the (ILMC). Works driver Darren Turner the faster driver in the car out of he and Rob Bell – Turner one of the few drivers in the field to have run on the new track layout before today having driven in the FIA GT1 World Championship in the Arena circuit's maiden event.

Turner's 2:03.891 heading the normal suspects from AF Corse, Felbermayr-Proton and Prospeed Competition. It was the Belgian team who were fastest earlier in the day as they, and drivers Richard Westbrook and Marco Holzer, continue to adapt to the Le Mans Series at the end of their debut year.

Boutsen Energy Racing – the squad led by former F1 driver Thierry Boutsen – were fastest out of the assembled team in the spec Formula Le Mans class. The French DAMS team – including LMP2 regular Warren Hughes – were third fastest. They are, however, almost assured of retaining the title they won last year when the cars ran in a stand-alone championship.

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James is our Diet-Coke fuelled writer and has been with TCF pretty much since day 1, he can be found frequenting twitter at @_JBroomhead
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