Hat-trick for Peugeot

Alexander 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 the car for the final race to the flag and was 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 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.