Peugeot have completed the inevitable by securing the Le Mans Series title at their first attempt, with second place in the Mil Milhas Brazil enough for Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy to be crowned champions.
Maintaining the 908 HDi's 100 per cent record in this season's six races, Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene surged to victory in the gruelling 1000 mile race, completing a total of 374 laps around the Interlagos circuit.
While Minassian and Gene were comfortable up front, Sarrazin and Lamy had to fight for title victory after a myriad of problems left them thanking the race's long distance for them to catch and pass the only person capable of taking the title off them, that being Jean-Christophe Boullion in the Pescarolo.
Indeed, the Franco-Portuguese duo were forced to start from the back of the field after clutch problems meant they failed to get away on the formation lap. Although Lamy was back up to second after just 37 laps, the duo went on to lose three laps at the half way point to fix a blinking rear light at the stewards' command.
The latter stages proved dramatic too as a punctured tyre had to be replaced on lap 326 and inspections to the front suspension were made on lap 338.
Ultimately though, second place behind their team-mates was enough to secure the crown for Sarrazin, Lamy and Peugeot for the first time.
Creation almost snatched second in the depleted LMP1 field, four laps behind Peugeot, but Jamie Campbell-Walter, Stuart Hall and Felipe Ortiz were forced to end their season in third position.
That was still ahead of the sole Pescarolo, which in turn managed to edge out the best of the LMP2 machines, that being the Barazi Epsilon Zytek.
With attrition taking its toll on the prototypes again, the two-strong GT2 field saw a new winner and an impressive sixth place overall for the Larbre Aston Martin of Gregor Fisken, Steve Zacchia, Roland Berville and Fernando Rees.
In GT2, Marc Lieb, Xavier Pompidou and Marc Basseng claimed victory for Team Felbermayr Proton in the final race of the season, just edging out the JMB Ferrari of GP2 racer Xandi Negrao, Alexandre Negrao Sr. and, most importantly, Robert Bell whose second place means he will be crowned GT2 Champion for 2007.
