Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km race in 2008

The Peugeot 908 HDi FAP of Pedro Lamy , Stéphane Sarrazin and Alexander Wurz on the approach to the Eau-Rouge curve. On the 56th lap, Alexander Wurz had a serious accident there after a collision with Rinaldo Capello in the Audi R10 TDI

The Finnish show jumper and racing driver Mikael Forsten in Pescarolo 01

The 25th 1000 km race of Spa-Francorchamps , also 1000 KM of Spa, Le Mans Series, Spa-Francorchamps , took place on May 1st, 2008 in Spa-Francorchamps and was the third round of the Le Mans Series of this year.

The race

At Peugeot, the race was used as preparation for the highlight of the sports car scene, the Le Mans 24-hour race . Therefore, third drivers were used in each of the two emergency vehicles. In the number 7 car, Jacques Villeneuve was the third driver alongside Marc Gené and Nicolas Minassian . In the car with the number 8, Alexander Wurz drove next to Pedro Lamy and Stéphane Sarrazin .

In qualifying, Stéphane Sarrazin secured pole position with a lap time of 1: 58.069 minutes . The race was released one lap later than planned because Joey Foster in the Embassy WF01 got off the track on the warm-up lap and damaged a barrier so badly that the start of the race had to be postponed. After the race was finally released, Pedro Lamy took the lead in the Peugeot. Behind it, an intense duel developed between the second Peugeot, driven by Nicolas Minassian and the Audi R10 TDI with Allan McNish at the wheel. The duel ends in a collision between the two vehicles in the chicane at Les Combes. While Minassian can continue driving, McNish has to drive slowly into the pits after a puncture. His team mate Rinaldo Capello is involved in another collision with a Peugeot a little later. After the race was reopened after a safety car phase , Capello tried to overtake the leading Alexander Wurz in the Eau Rouge, although a few laps back. The Audi crashed into the Peugeot, which then had a serious accident. Despite the turbulent race, McNish and Capello finished fourth overall.

Overall winners were Gené, Minassian and Villeneuve in the number 7 Peugeot. For Villeneuve, the 1997 Formula 1 world champion , it was the first victory in a sports car race .

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP1	7th	Team Peugeot Total	Marc Gené Nicolas Minassian Jacques Villeneuve	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	143
2	LMP1	2	Audi Sport Team Joest	Alexandre Prémat Mike Rockenfeller	Audi R10 TDI	143
3	LMP1	6th	Team Oreca Matmut	Olivier Panis Nicolas Lapierre	Courage-Oreca LC70	140
4th	LMP1	1	Audi Sport Team Joest	Rinaldo Capello Allan McNish	Audi R10 TDI	139
5	LMP1	16	Pescarolo sport	Jean-Christophe Boullion Emmanuel Collard	Pescarolo 01	139
6th	LMP2	34	Van Merksteijn Motorsport	Jos Verstappen Peter van Merksteijn senior	Porsche RS Spyder	138
7th	LMP2	27	Horag Racing	Didier Theys Fredy Lienhard Jan Lammers	Porsche RS Spyder	138
8th	LMP2	31	Team Essex	Casper Elgaard John Nielsen	Porsche RS Spyder	135
9	LMP1	15th	Creation AIM	Robbie Kerr Stuart Hall	Creation CA07	134
10	LMP2	35	Saulnier Racing	Pierre Ragues Matthieu Lahaye	Pescarolo 01	134
11	LMP1	20th	Epsilon Euskadi	Angel Burgueño Miguel Ángel de Castro	Epsilon Euskadi ee1	133
12	LMP2	41	Trading performance	Claude-Yves Gosselin Karim Ojjeh Julian Schroyen	Zytek 07S	133
13	GT1	72	Luc Alphand Aventures	Luc Alphand Guillaume Moreau Patrice Goueslard	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	130
14th	LMP1	4th	Saulnier Racing	Marc Faggionato Jacques Nicolet Richard Hein	Pescarolo 01	130
15th	GT1	55	IPB Spartak Racing	Peter Kox Roman Rusinov	Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT	129
16	GT1	59	Team Modena	Antonio García Tomáš Enge	Aston Martin DBR9	127
17th	GT2	96	Virgo Motorsport	Rob Bell Gianmaria Bruni	Ferrari F430 GTC	126
18th	GT2	77	Felbermayr-Proton team	Marc Lieb Alex Davison	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	126
19th	GT2	88	Felbermayr-Proton team	Horst Felbermayr junior Christian Ried Horst Felbermayr senior	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	123
20th	GT2	94	Speedy Racing Team	Andrea Chiesa Benjamin Leuenberger Iradj Alexander	Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R	123
21st	GT2	99	JMB Racing	Alain Ferté Ben Aucott	Ferrari F430 GTC	123
22nd	GT2	76	Imsa Performance Matmut	Richard Lietz Raymond Narac	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	122
23	GT2	98	JMB Racing	Peter Kutemann Bo McCormick Stéphane Daoudi	Ferrari F430 GTC	122
24	GT1	61	Strakka Racing	Peter Hardman Nick Leventis	Aston Martin DBR9	121
25th	GT2	95	James Watt Automotive	Paul Daniels Markus Palttala Tim Sugden	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	121
26th	GT2	85	Snora's Spyker Squadron	Peter Dumbreck Ralf Kellener's Alex Vassiliev	Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R	118
27	LMP1	18th	Rollcentre Racing	João Barbosa Vanina Ickx Mikael Forsten	Pescarolo 01	112
28	LMP2	25th	RML	Thomas Erdos Mike Newton	MG Lola EX265	111
29	LMP1	10	Charouz Racing System	Stefan Mücke Jan Charouz	Lola B08 / 60	107
30th	LMP2	26th	Bruichladdich Radical	Jens Petersen Marc Rostan Jan-Dirk Lueders	Radical SR9	106
Failed
31	LMP1	17th	Pescarolo sport	Harold Primate Christophe Tinseau	Pescarolo 01	137
32	LMP2	33	Speedy Racing Team Sebah	Xavier Pompidou Andrea Belicchi Steve Zacchia	Lola B08 / 80	128
33	GT2	91	Farnbacher Racing	Richard Westbrook Lars-Erik Nielsen Allan Simonsen	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	95
34	GT2	90	Farnbacher Racing	Pierre Kaffer Pierre Ehret	Ferrari F430 GTC	93
35	LMP2	45	Embassy Racing	Warren Hughes Jonny Kane	WF01	77
36	LMP1	3	Scuderia Lavaggi	Giovanni Lavaggi Wolfgang Kaufmann	Lavaggi LS1	66
37	LMP2	32	Barazi Epsilon	Michael Vergers Juan Barazi Fernando Rees	Zytek 07S	62
38	LMP1	8th	Team Peugeot Total	Pedro Lamy Stéphane Sarrazin Alexander Wurz	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	56
39	GT2	75	Imsa Performance Matmut	Richard Balandras Michel Lecourt	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	49
40	LMP2	40	Quifel ASM team	Olivier Pla Miguel Amaral	Lola B05 / 40	35
41	GT1	73	Luc Alphand Aventures	Jean-Luc Blanchemain Sébastien Dumez Stéphane Lémeret	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	26th
Not started
42	LMP2	37	WR Salini	Stéphane Salini Philippe Salini Patrice Roussel	WR LMP 2008	1
43	LMP1	44	Kruse Schiller Motorsport	Hideki Noda Jean de Pourtales	Lola B05 / 40	2
44	LMP2	46	Embassy Racing	Tom Kimber-Smith Joey Foster	WF01	3

¹ Accident in training ² Accident in practice ³ Accident in the introductory lap

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
45	LMP1	21st	Epsilon Euskadi		Epsilon Euskadi ee1
46	LMP2	30th	Racing box	Filippo Francioni Marco Didao	Lucchini LMP2-08
47	GT2	93	James Watt Automotive	Alan van der Merwe	Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP1	Marc Gené	Nicolas Minassian	Jacques Villeneuve	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	Overall victory
LMP2	Jos Verstappen	Peter van Merksteijn senior		Porsche RS Spyder	Rank 6
GT1	Luc Alphand	Guillaume Moreau	Patrice Goueslard	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	Rank 13
GT2	Rob Bell	Gianmaria Bruni		Ferrari F430 GTC	Rank 17

Racing data

• Registered: 47
• Started: 41
• Rated: 30
• Race classes: 4
• Spectators: 35,000
• Race day weather: warm and dry
• Route length: 7.004 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 5: 17: 48.566 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 143
• Total distance of the winning team: 1001.572 km
• Winner's average: 189.062 km / h
• Pole position: Stéphane Sarrazin - Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (# 8) - 1: 58.069 = 213.526 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Nicolas Minassian - Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (# 7) - 1: 59.883 = 210.295 km / h
• Racing series: 3rd round of the Le Mans Series 2008

literature

• Andrew Cotton, Michael Cotton, Alfredo Filippone, Thierry Jaglain, Olivier Loisy, Jean-Marc Teissèdre: 2008 Le Mans Series Yearbook Apollo Publishing, ISBN 978-2-9521044-1-8 .

Web links

Commons : Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km race 2008  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Results

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Wurz-Capello accident

Previous race at the Monza 1000 km race in 2008

Le Mans Series

Follow -up race 1000 km race on the Nürburgring in 2008