Zoom Peugeot on a roll heading to Le Mans!

In front of a record crowd of 35,000 spectators and in temperatures of more than 26 degrees Centigrade, the Le Mans Series put on another fantastic show at the third race of the 2008 season in Spa-Francorchamps with drama throughout the 1000km race.

Star drivers from Peugeot and ORECA stepped onto the podium as Jacques Villeneuve joined Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene on the top step for Peugeot, while Olivier Panis joined Nicolas Lapierre in third place for the ORECA team.

Audi took second place overall with Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat, who through consistent finishing in the opening three races are tied on points at the head of the table with Minassian and Gene.

Jos Verstappen returned to the top step of the podium for the first time since Barcelona in April in the Porsche RS Spyder co-driven by Peter van Merksteijn. They headed an all-Porsche podium as the Horag Porsche of Didier Theys, Fredy Lienhard and Jan Lammers took second and Team Essex recovered from a series of problems to take third.

The Luc Alphand Aventures team won the GT1 category, but it was the Lamborghini of Peter Kox and Roman Rusinov which led until the luggage cover lifted at the front of the car and left the Russian unsighted.

Reigning GT2 champions Virgo Motorsport won the GT2 class by just two-tenths of a second ahead of the Porsche of Marc Lieb and Alex Davison after a thrilling end to a race.

Hat-trick for Peugeot
Peugeot scored its third win in as many races as Jacques Villeneuve, Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene won at Spa, but the victory celebrations were tempered by an accident for the sister car which was heavily damaged though driver Alex Wurz was unhurt.

The incident also involved the number 1 Audi of Rinaldo Capello which had been defending its second place following an early race puncture.

With their second win of the year, Gene and Minassian are tied with Alexandre Premat and Mike Rockenfeller at the head of the drivers' table, the two cars filling the top steps of the podium. Yet it was the sister cars of both teams that set the early pace, Pedro Lamy leading for Peugeot ahead of Allan McNish's Audi.

Alex Wurz, the 1996 Le Mans winner, took over the car from Lamy for the middle stint and was closing on Rinaldo Capello's Audi when the Austrian made contact with Ralf Kelleners' Spyker. Kelleners spun and hit the barriers, Wurz spun and hit Capello's Audi which delayed Capello in the pits with damage to the right rear of the car and badly damaged the Peugeot which was out of the race immediately.

“It was not what we needed just before Le Mans,” said Peugeot Technical Director Bruno Famin, whose team will have to prepare a fresh chassis for the French race in five weeks' time.

The Peugeot n°7 battled with the Audi n°2 in the last two hours of the race, and the Peugeot pulled out more than a minute which all but assured victory. Nicolas Minassian took over frustrated to see the safety car emerge with seven laps remaining. The gap was closed again, but the result was not in doubt.

Nicolas Lapierre had a magnificent drive to claim the third step of the podium in the Team ORECA Matmut Courage. The Frenchman started from the pit lane after suffering a suspension failure in qualifying, but worked his way through the pack with precision, moving into third place mid-way through the third hour. It was a brilliant drive, backed up by Olivier Panis and the pair were delighted to take the final podium position, three laps down on the winners.

McNish and Capello made their way back through the pack to finish fourth, four laps adrift. Capello took the position four laps from the chequered flag from the Pescarolo of Jean-Christophe Boullion and Emmanuel Collard.

The Charouz Racing System Lola Aston Martin again showed strongly, but had a long stop to fix a problem with the alternator. They finished 10th, one place behind the Rollcentre Pescarolo of Vanina Ickx, sharing with Mikael Forsten and Joao Barbosa. Ickx crashed when she found herself unable to change gears, and hit the wall on the outside of the circuit at the La Source hairpin.

© CAPSIS International