Le Castellet 8-hour race 2010

Rinaldo Capello in the victorious Audi R15 TDI

Olivier Pla in the Ginetta-Zytek 09S

The 8-hour race of Le Castellet 2010 , also 8 Houres du Castellet, Paul Ricard Circuit , took place on April 11 at the Circuit Paul Ricard and was the first championship run of the Le Mans Series of this year.

The race

The endurance race in Le Castellet had an unusual duration of 8 hours. The Audi emergency team Joest Racing fielded an R15 TDI for the first time in a race in the Le Mans Series. The car was driven by factory drivers Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello . Although the Peugeot racing team did not go to Le Castellet, a Peugeot 908 HDi FAP was at the start. Oreca took over the chassis 04, which was still being driven by the works team in 2009. In addition to the two Oreca drivers Nicolas Lapierre and Olivier Panis , Stéphane Sarrazin joined the team as the third driver. Sarrazin had been driving the 908 racing models successfully since 2007 and was experienced in handling the technically complex Le Mans prototype .

The LMPC class , which was newly introduced in 2010 , also known as Formula Le Mans (FLM), made its debut at Le Castellet. The fifth racing class of the series was based on prototype unit vehicles from Oreca, which had a 6.2 liter V8 engine from General Motors . Except for the first two laps, the race was dominated by the Audi duo McNish and Capello, who won by five laps over the Lola Aston Martin DBR1 driven by Stefan Mücke , Adrián Fernández and Harold Primat . The Oreca-Peugeot HDi FAP lost a total of eight laps in the pits after technical problems and was classified fourth in the end.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	LMP1	7th	Audi Sport Team Joest	Allan McNish Rinaldo Capello	Audi R15 TDI	266
2	LMP1	009	Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke Adrián Fernández Harold Primat	Lola Aston Martin DBR1	261
3	LMP1	13	Rebellion Racing	Jean-Christophe Boullion Guy Smith Andrea Belicchi	Lola B10 / 60	261
4th	LMP1	4th	Team Oreca Matmut	Stéphane Sarrazin Nicolas Lapierre Olivier Panis	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP	258
5	LMP1	6th	Team Oreca Matmut	Soheil Ayari Loïc Duval Didier André	Oreca 01	258
6th	LMP1	008	Signature Plus	Franck Mailleux Vanina Ickx Pierre Ragues	Lola Aston Martin DBR1	256
7th	LMP2	42	Strakka Racing	Jonny Kane Danny Watts Nick Leventis	HPD ARX-01c	250
8th	LMP2	35	OAK Racing	Richard Hein Guillaume Moreau	Pescarolo 01 Evo	250
9	LMP2	25th	RML	Thomas Erdos Mike Newton Andy Wallace	Lola B08 / 80	249
10	LMP2	24	OAK Racing	Matthieu Lahaye Jacques Nicolet	Pescarolo 01 Evo	249
11	LMP1	12	Rebellion Racing	Neel Jani Nicolas Prost	Lola B10 / 60	248
12	LMP2	41	Team Bruichladdich	Thor-Christian Ebbesvik Karim Ojjeh Tim Greaves	Ginetta-Zytek 09S	248
13	LMP2	30th	Racing box	Ferdinando Geri Andrea Piccini Giacomo Piccini	Lola B09 / 80	246
14th	LMP1	5	Beechdean Mansell	Nigel Mansell Greg Mansell Leo Mansell	Ginetta-Zytek 09	243
15th	FLM	49	Applewood Seven	Damien Toulemonde David Zollinger Ross Zampatti	Oreca FLM09	237
16	FLM	48	Hope Polevision Racing	Mathias Beche Christophe Pillon Vincent Capillaire	Oreca FLM09	237
17th	FLM	43	DAMS	Alessandro Cicognani Gary Chalandon Andrea Barlesi	Oreca FLM09	235
18th	GT2	77	Team Felbermayr Proton	Richard Lietz Marc Lieb	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	233
19th	FLM	47	Hope Polevision Racing	Wolfgang Kaufmann Steve Zacchia Luca Moro	Oreca FLM09	231
20th	GT2	88	Team Felbermayr Proton	Martin Ragginger Patrick Long Christian Ried	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	231
21st	GT2	95	AF Corse	Jean Alesi Toni Vilander Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari F430 GTC	231
22nd	GT2	90	CRS Racing	Pierre Kaffer Phil Quaife Pierre Ehret	Ferrari F430 GTC	231
23	GT2	94	AF Corse	Luís Pérez Companc Matías Russo	Ferrari F430 GTC	231
24	GT1	50	Larbre Compétition	Gabriele Gardel Patrice Goueslard Julien Canal	Saleen S7-R	229
25th	GT2	78	BMW Team Schnitzer	Jörg Müller Dirk Werner	BMW M3	225
26th	LMP2	36	Pegasus Racing	Julien Schell Jean-Christophe Metz Frédéric Da Rocha	Courage-Oreca LC75	219
27	GT2	76	IMSA Performance Matmut	Patrick Pilet Raymond Narac	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	219
28	GT2	85	Spyker Squadron	Peter Dumbreck Tom Coronel Jeroen Bleekemolen	Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2-R	215
29	LMP2	39	KSM	Jean de Pourtales Hideki Noda Jonathan Kennard	Lola B08 / 47	188
Failed
30th	GT2	89	Hankook Team Farnbacher	Dominik Farnbacher Allan Simonsen	Ferrari F430 GTC	204
31	FLM	44	DAMS	Edoardo Piscopo Luke Hines Dean Stirling	Oreca FLM09	203
32	FLM	46	JMB Racing	Peter Kutemann Maurice Basso John Hartshorne	Oreca FLM09	203
33	LMP2	40	Quifel ASM team	Olivier Pla Miguel Amaral Warren Hughes	Ginetta-Zytek 09S	200
34	FLM	45	Boutsen Energy Racing	Dominik Kraihamer Nicolas De Crem Bernard Delhez	Oreca FLM09	195
35	LMP2	37	WR Salini	Tristan Gommendy Philippe Salini Stéphane Salini	WR LMP 2008	168
36	GT2	96	AF Corse	Jaime Melo Gianmaria Bruni	Ferrari F430 GTC	152
37	GT2	91	CRS Racing	Andrew Kirkaldy Tim Mullen	Ferrari F430 GTC	123
38	LMP2	29	Racing box	Marco Cioci Piergiuseppe Perazzini Luca Pirri	Lola B09 / 80	115
39	LMP2	27	Race performance	Michel Frey Ralph Meichtry Tyler Dueck	Radical SR9	66
40	GT2	92	JMW Motorsport	Rob Bell Darren Turner	Aston Martin V8 Vantage	65
41	GT2	75	Prospeed Competition	Richard Westbrook Marco Holzer	Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	54

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
42	GT1	66	Atlas FX Team Full Speed	Carlo van Dam Stéphane Lémeret	Saleen S7-R
43	GT2	84	Modena Group Racing	Roman Rusinov Stéphane Daoudi	Ferrari F430 GTC

Class winner

class	driver	driver	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
LMP1	Allan McNish	Rinaldo Capello		Audi R15 TDI	Overall victory
LMP2	Jonny Kane	Danny Watts	Nick Leventis	HPD ARX-01c	Rank 7
FLM	Damien Toulemonde	David Zollinger	Ross Zampatti	Oreca FLM09	Rank 15
GT1	Gabriele Gardel	Patrice Goueslard	Julien Canal	Saleen S7-R	Rank 24
GT2	Richard Lietz	Marc Lieb		Porsche 997 GT3 RSR	Rank 18

Racing data

• Registered: 43
• Started: 41
• Rated: 29
• Race classes: 5
• Spectator: unknown
• Weather on race day: unknown
• Route length: 5.791 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 8:00 am: 36.415 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 266
• Total distance of the winning team: 1549.406 km
• Winner average: 192.308 km / h
• Pole position: Nicolas Lapierre - Peugeot 908 HDi FAP (# 4) - 1: 41.195 = 207.828 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Allan McNish - Audi R15 TDI (# 7) - 1: 42.541 = 203.310 km / h
• Racing series: 1st round of the Le Mans Series 2010

Web links

Commons : 8-hour race of le Castellet 2010  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Le Mans Series
• Results

Previous race Silverstone 1000km race 2009

Le Mans Series

Successor to the 1000 km race of Spa-Francorchamps 2010