McNish wins Le Mans in style

Allan McNish finished the American Le Mans Series in style with victory in the championship finale at Laguna Seca.

McNish and co-driver Dindo Capello went into the four-hour race at the Californian track with the LM P1 title already secured.

But that did not stop the Audi duo from taking the chequered flag after a thrilling fight to the finish with Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard in their LM P2 class Porsche RS Spyder.

Italian Capello finished 0.410secs ahead of Dumas in his R10 TDi after the dicing duo swapped positions twice in the closing laps.

It was McNish and Capello’s second consecutive win at the circuit, and the 37-year-old Scot said: “This victory is a superb and fitting way to end the season – we pulled a rabbit out of the hat to achieve this win.

“We came out on top of a hard fight against both Penske Porsches which lasted the entire four-hour duration.

“We always managed to get back ahead of them after the pit-stop sequences and control the race and that was the difference in finishing first or second.

“I’m very proud of the entire Audi team.”

The result marked Audi’s fourth overall ALMS victory of the year, the German manufacturer’s 22nd consecutive LM P1 class win, and their seventh outright race win at Laguna since 2000.