It’s the last round of this year’s Le Mans Series: 1000kms (195 laps) of the Silverstone Grand Prix track in Northamptonshire, England to decide the LMP1 and GT2 champions. Aston Martin require at least fifth place to secure the title for the #007 crew of Jan Charouz, Stefan Mücke and Tomas Enge.

The cars are formed up on the grid 45 minutes before the race start, due for 11.35am. The grid girls march out to mark the grid order, different colour signs reflecting the different class cars: red for LMP1, blue for LMP2, green for GT1 and yellow for GT2.

In GT2 one point is all that the #77 Farnbacher Porsche 997 of Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz require. Gimmi Bruni and Rob Bell in the #92 JMW Ferrari 430GT must win to have any chance. Bruni sits in his car, thinking about the first lap. He must get it right…

It’s the usual frenzy on the grid as the teams try to prepare their cars in the midst of the scrum of people. Nigel Mansell’s ‘Red Five’ Ginetta-Zytek is attracting a lot of attention, but it’s not all for the man himself…

The weather has cooled since practice and qualifying: Sunday at Silverstone has a distinct chill in the air and grey clouds look set to move in. Rain isn’t forecast, but still track temperature changes can play havoc with set-ups.

40 cars, four classes: LMP1 and LMP2 prototypes and GT1 and GT2 sportscars. One first corner… 39 cars take the rolling start – the WR Salini starting from pitlane – and immediately the Gulf Lola-Aston Martins are on the attack. #007’s Stefan Mucke leads by the first corner at Copse with a big move on pole sitter Nicolas Lapierre in the Oreca; only some aggressive defence keeps Darren Turner in the #009 Aston at bay. Lead change #01. Andrea Belicchi in the Speedy Sebah LMP1 Lola is right behind the lead trio.

Back in GT2 Gianmaria Bruni in the title-challenging JMW Ferrari spins on the pace lap, meaning he’ll be on the back foot right from the start. But their championship rivals, the #77 Febelmayr car with Marc Lieb driving also seem to be in trouble on the opening lap: he’s slow around. Can JMW somehow pull it off?

Another car with work to do is the #16 Pescarolo with Jean-Christophe Bouillon at the wheel. Starting at the back after a disaster in qualifying, the red mist has already come down for JC-B. He’s the car to watch: by lap three he’s already up to 12th!

The amazing thing is that by lap five the lead prototypes are already scything through the GT2 mid-field. I’m watching from the short straight between Priory and Brooklands in the heart of the ‘complex’ towards the end of the track, and the speed of the LMP1s is impressive even in this section of short point-and-squirt straights: the GT2 cars – hardly slow machines – are absolutely eaten up on braking and acceleration by the screaming Aston-powered cars.

The lead quartet begin to pull away from the pack of chasing LMP1 and LMP2 prototypes, and on lap eight Turner bullies his way past the Oreca into turn one – the Speedy Sebah Lola takes advantage and also squeezes through and sets off in pursuit of the Aston.

Behind them in the LMP pack, a good start by F1 and CART champion Nigel Mansell is brought to an early end with a wishbone failure, requiring a lengthy pitstop to fix and dropping them out of contention for the day.

LMP2 champions-elect ASM-Quifel’s hopes for the day end prematurely on the back of a pick-up truck: an engine failure puts the car out on lap 33 – amazingly they turn out to be the only retirement of the day. Better news for the Speedy Sebah squad though with their two Lola Coupés in the thick of the action: fourth in LMP1 and now leading LMP2 with Johnny Kane at the wheel. The RML team’s similar Lola is in second in LMP2, followed by the returning WFR WF01-Zytek.

The WFR team had been forced to shut up shop this time last year due to the financial climate, but have managed to not only get the team back up and running but also design and manufacture the upgrade parts needed for this year’s LMP rule changes. It’s great to see them straight back in at the sharp end.

But JC-B’s Pescarolo is absolutely storming through the field: lap 10 and he’s fifth overall – only 25 seconds off the lead after having to force his way through all the battling GT and LMP cars and eating up the gap to the leaders at several seconds a lap. Lap 23, he’s past Lapierre’s Oreca. Lap 26 it’s the Aston of Darren Turner. Lap 29 and incredibly he’s past Mucke and into the lead! A stunning drive!

Also fighting from the back is the #15 Kolles Audio R10: the team have struggled to get to grips with the big diesel so far this year, but now seem to be on top of things; their driver line-up had little if any prototype experience which didn’t help things. Christian Albers has put in an amazing effort to follow the Pescarolo up through the order, and is on the tail of the sister #14 Audi of Indian pilot Narain Karthikeyan by lap 19.

In GT2 the good news story is the performance of the Drayson Aston Martin Vantage – Johnny Cocker is up to second by lap 13 on the final appearance of the team’s GT2 car before they step up to LMP1 with a Lola Coupé at Petit Le Mans. Unfortunately his great drive is cut short the lap after – a right-rear puncture means he’s straight into the pits and plummets down the order.

The JMW and Febelmayr cars have seemingly recovered from their early-lap problems and are now right up in the hunt for the GT2 lead: the #76 IMSA Matmut Porsche is out front, closely followed by Jaime Melo in the #84 Modena Ferrari.

Into the second hour and JC-B’s on-the-edge style bites him: he spins lapping a back marker but manages to retain the lead; Mansell is back out and lapping fastest of all – he’s obviously adjusting well to high-downforce prototypes; there are more F1-related driver changes with Olivier Panis taking over the Oreca and the son of multiple world champion Alain Prost, Nicolas, at the wheel of the Speedy Sebah LMP1 Lola Coupé.

The see-saw battle continues in GT2 – JMW are climbing the order – they must win to have any chance of the title; Febelmayr still need that single point – 8th place – to seal the deal, and they’re currently 7th in GT2 but suffering a misfire and falling back.

Hour three. Disaster for Pescarolo once again, as the #16 pits out of sequence and is pulled into the garage, mechanics swarming over it: it’s a gearbox problem which loses them 15 laps. Game over for Henri’s team. Another car in problems is the #77 Febelmayr, as its misfire worsens: they pit and are wheeled into the garage – it’s a faulty fuel pressure sensor and they start dropping down the order as the time ticks away effecting a repair; the #92 JMW Ferrari is now second.

Lead change: Panis in the Oreca moves ahead. The Oreca then pits, handing the lead to the #007 Aston, now at the hands of Jan Charouz. The WFR is on the tail of the second-placed RML Lola in LMP2, but both are some way behind the class-leading #33 Speedy Sebah car.

The three GT1s are all within a minute and a half of each other, though the fight is really between the #60 Gigawave Aston Martin DBR9 and the #50 Larbre Saleen S7R. More lead changes: the #007 pits and the #009 takes the lead before it too pits – Oreca go back on top.

The GT2 battle is still close in the fourth hour – the JMW Ferrari has been chipping away at the IMSA Porsche’s lead for an hour and the #77 is back in 10th. But then in the space of a lap the IMSA Porsche is punted off as the LNT Ginetta-Zytek tries to get out of the way of the leading LMP1 cars and the second-place JMW car gets a puncture after being hit by the Signature Plus Oreca Courage (more of them later) – Team Modena’s Ferrari takes the lead of GT2. JMW recover quickly and take the lead – but #77 moves up a place as the #91 Farnbacher Ferrari slows with a broken driveshaft and it’s the #88 sister Febelmayr car next in the queue and unlikely to prove a problem…

Lead changes! The next round of pit stops see the lead swap again, with #007 moving ahead, but then Prost in the #13 Lola makes a massive lunge up the inside down Hangar Straight – the fastest part of the circuit – to grab the lead for the first time. The #008 Aston has suffered problems in the first half of the race but is recovering fast at the hands of Stuart Hall – they’re still down in 15th overall though.

The great run from WFR in LMP2 has come to an end just after four hours in courtesy of alternator problems. The gentlemen-driver OAK Racing Pescarolo inherits third and the Bruichladdich Radical fourth, with the first-place Lola many laps clear of the #25 RML and looking for an easy run to victory.

JMW still lead GT2 but are being closely pursued by Antonio Garcia in the Modena 430GT; the question is whether they can hold them off for the win, and will the ailing #77 Febelmayr car make it to the end? Leo Mansell than takes over at Modena and the car drops back into the clutches of the ever-popular and fast Tom Coronel in the #85 Spyker – he overtakes the Ferrari for second place just as the fifth hour starts.

The race is down for 1000kms or six hours – whichever happens first – but with no major problems on track the race is unlikely to last more than five and a half hours. Racing is still tight all through the field, with batches of cars running round in packs– four-wide into Stowe anyone? But except for minor lock-ups and dents there have been no major incidents. First to fifth in LMP1 is covered by less than 90 seconds into the final half hour; the lead cycles round the leading trio during pitstops, #007 Aston to #010 Oreca and back to #13 happens twice in the hour 4 and 5 pit stops. But the final stops will be crucial: the fastest stop will likely seal the fate of the race.

Oreca’s last stop with Lapierre in the seat entails a nose change because of damage to the front aero louvres, but it’s swiftly carried out and he only loses half a minute or so to the other two. Marcel Fässler is in the #13 Lola and pits for just fuel and gets out in the lead; Tomas Enge in the #007 takes tyres as well as fuel – this drops the Aston out of contention. A bad strategy call? It’s a two-car race to the end!

The #009 Aston suffers a front-right puncture early in the lap, and the slow crawl round means they also have no chance of challenging the leaders.

10 laps to go – and it’s massive frustration for Seedy Sebah as their #13 Lola is forced to pit by the stewards… to have a section of louvres replaced! The LMS organising body, the ACO, have tightened down on this rule, but it’s a cruel blow to the team: a maiden victory looked likely

JMW now comfortably lead GT2 by two laps, but the #88 Febelmayr car stops in the pits – this looks like deliberate move to allow the #77 to move up and into seventh, sealing the title. The #88 car shepherds its sister car to the flag.

Seven laps left and Patrick Pilet in the #76 IMSA Porsche gets by the Modena 430 for the final podium position in GT2 – Leo Mansell nowhere near as fast as his team-mates and not able to resist the rapid 997.

GT1 is done and dusted, with the Gigwave Aston a lap up on the Saleen and two on the Alphand Corvette. It’s been a good battle, but not really a glorious end for these impressive cars. The Corvette carries away the title in the poorly-supported class, thanks to its consistent results during the year.

Two laps to go and Fässler has a slow lap in the Lola – Enge is only six seconds behind! But Fässler manages to hold on till the line and has 10 seconds in hand by the time the flag drops. Lapierre crosses the line 50 seconds up the road to take Oreca’s first win of the year, but Enge’s third place seals the overall 2009 LMS title for the AMR Eastern Europe squad. The #009 crosses the line in fourth, only another two seconds back. After the race the Aston Martin Racing team admit that the long pit stop option was taken for the #007 because of the problems for the Pescarolo – putting the overall title before a race win.

The two Kolles R10 diesels complete a good end to the season with fifth and sixth positions, only a lap off the lead and still circulating as one.

The final twist comes after the flag has fallen: Xavier Pompidou stops the LMP2-winning Lola Coupé at the end of the start straight under his team’s pitwall to celebrate, but the #12 Signature Plus Courage LMP1 doesn’t spot the stationery car and ploughs into it, heavily damaging both cars. Luckily neither driver is injured but it was a frightening sight. Not an impressive day for the #12 crew.

The JMW Ferrari did what they had to, but the #77 Porsche made it to the line and got the point it needed. Rob Bell collects the winners trophy, but it’s no repeat championship for him this year.

As the cars sit in Parc Fermé after the race there’s a fine day’s racing to reflect on. It’s worth seeing a Le Mans Series race just for the start: a rolling, big-grid sportscar start is an audio and visual overload, and with the American, European and now Asian series it’s now not just a once-a-year thing at Le Mans. Some of these cars will be packed up and flying off to the USA and then Japan.

You would think that a five-hour-plus race could be, well, boring – but the mix of different classes, hugely fast cars, classic tracks the LMS visits and top-line drivers make for exciting, action-packed racing. If you’re not able to get to the tracks, there’s live timing on the LMS site and also a streaming commentary from the Radio Le Mans crew – which was handily sponsored by Need For Speed: Shift at the Silverstone round! Be sure to follow Speedhunters coverage from the next ALMS race at Road Atlanta: the Petit Le Mans 10-hour classic.

LMS ROUND 5 RESULT

LMP1 TOP FIVE

1st: #10 Team Oreca Matmut/AIM Courage-Oreca LC70-AIM (Olivier Panis/Nicolas Lapierre) 195 laps

2nd: #13 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B06/80 Coupé-Aston Martin (Andrea Belicchi/Nicolas Prost/Marcel Fässler) + 51s [2009 LMS CHAMPIONS)

3rd: #007 Aston Martin Racing Lola-Aston Martin (Jan Charouz/Stefan Mücke/Tomas Enge) + 61s

4th: #009 Aston Martin Racing Lola-Aston Martin (Harold Primat/Darren Turner) + 63s

5th: #15 Kolles Audio R10 (Christian Bakkerud/Christian Albers/Giorgio Mondini) + 1 lap

LMP2 TOP FIVE

8th: #33 Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/80 Coupe-Judd (Xavier Pompidou/Jonny Kane/Benjamin Leuenberger) 190 laps

10th: #25 RML Lola B08/80 Coupé-Mazda (Tommy Erdos/Mike Newton) 186 laps

11th: #41 OAK Racing Pescarolo Mazda (Richard Hein/Jacques Nicolet) 184 laps

14th: #45 Team WFR WF01-Zytek (Warren Hughes/Jody Firth/Darren Manning) 179 laps

12th: #41 G.A.C. Racing Team Zytek 07S (Karim Oijeh/Claude-Yves Gosselin/Philipp Peter) 179 laps

GT1 TOP THREE

19th: #60 Gigawave Motorsport Aston Martin DBR9 (Ryan Sharp/Peter Kox) 175 laps

21st: #50 Larbre Competition Saleen S7R-Ford (Roland Berville/Sébastien Dumez/Laurent Groppi) 174 laps

22nd: #72 Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R (Julien Jousse/Patrice Goueslard/Yann Clairay) 173 laps

GT2 TOP FIVE

23rd: #92 JMW Motorsport Ferrari F430GT (Rob Bell/Gianmaria Bruni) 172 laps

24th: #85 Snoras Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R (Tom Coronel/Janek Jaris) 170 laps

25th: #76 IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche 997 GT3RSR (Raymond Narac/Patrick Pilet) 170 laps

26th: #84 Team Modena Ferrari F430GT (Antonio Garcia/Leo Mansell/Jaime Melo) 170 laps

27th: #89 Hankook-Team Farnbacher Ferrari F430GT (Christian Montanari/Pierre Kaffer) 170 laps

Jonathan Moore

Le Mans Series

Silverstone

Radio Le Mans

Speedhunters PLM coverage