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| The race begins as a mixed field of 53 LMP1, LMP2, LMPC and GT cars filing down the hill onto the front straight for the start of the 14th annual Petit Le Mans10 hour endurance race. |
As expected, the LMP1 race began as a dogfight between Peugeot Sport Total and Audi Sport Team Joest. Marcel Fassler in the #1 Audi R18 took the lead briefly from the pole-winning #7 Peugeot 908 of Sébastien Bourdais, but Bourdais retook the race lead shortly before the first full-course yellow. The #7 Peugeot`s bid for a Petit Le Mans win did not go much further, as the car lost power and came to a stop at the early portion of the race`s second hour. The team brought the car behind the wall for transmission repairs, but found the case damaged. Unfortunately for them under ALMS rules you may change internals, but not the actual case – so they were forced to retire the car.
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| With the #2 Audi of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Dindo Capello also experiencing mechanical issues, the #1 Audi R18 of Fässler, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas had to chase down Montagny, Sarrazin and Wurz in the remaining #8 Peugeot 908. |
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| Signatech's Nissan Oreca 03 LMP2 Chassis with a NISMO developed and Zytek Manufactured VK45 V8 powerplant. |
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| Half way through the race the Nissan's power steering rack had to be changed and this put the car out of action long enough to drop it to third position. The team made the repairs in about 30 minutes and sent the car back out to rejoin the battle. Fortunately this was the only problem and the Signatech Nissan made it all the way to the flag finishing third in their class and captured the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup LMP2 Championship. |
