From the green flag to the finish, the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg was quite an adventure for Rinaldo Capello and Allan McNish. But just as they did eight times last season, they found their way to Victory Circle again. The defending LMP1 co-champions scored their first win of 2007 on Saturday as the Audi R10 TDI and diesel power remained unbeaten in the American Le Mans Series.
Capello finished with a 0.426 victory over Emanuele Pirro in the sister Audi. The two R10 TDIs were 25 seconds clear of the third-place Porsche RS Spyder from Penske Motorsports.
“We expected it to be a busy race, ” McNish said. “I was quite surprised by the pace we had at the beginning of the race. The car was better than it had been and better than predicted. “
There was drama from the start. McNish recovered from early-race contact and penalty for passing pole-sitter Romain Dumas before the start line on the opening lap. After dropping back to 10th position, it took him only 15 minutes to regain the lead.
“I knew the best opportunity to overtake was going into Turn 1, ” McNish said. “He lifted and I was already committed. At that point I had nothing else to do because I was too close to the wall and there was a car behind me. “
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