McNish takes home honours at Silverstone.

Allan McNish gave the home fans reason to celebrate after helping Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx claim victory in the 1000km of Silverstone.

McNish, and co-driver Pierre Kaffer, finished the 195 lap race a lap clear of the Team Goh car of Seiji Ara and Rinaldo Capello while the sister Veloqx car of Jamie Davies and Johnny Herbert ensured it was an Audi lock out on the podium by taking third.

As the race went green shortly after 2pm, Robbie Kerr - making his LMES debut for the Zytek team - took the early lead having started the race from pole position. The 2002 F3 champion set the pace for most of the opening hour as Davies and Kaffer battled for second place behind him, the Dane taking the position after 13 laps. A quick stop by the Audi team allowed Kaffer to jump into the lead of the race before the Zytek hit trouble.

Kerr was involved in an incident at Stowe corner while lapping the Lister of Justin Keen and pitted early to assess any damage to the car, with Chris Dyson jumping in to take over the driving duties.

"The Lister just turned in on me and knocked the front left," Kerr said after the incident. "The car looks fine at the moment so we should be ok."

Out front, McNish in the #8 Audi was comfortably in front, but behind, Davies was under pressure from the DBA Zytek of Frenchman Nicolas Minassian. As the duo tried to put a lap on Dyson in the black #22 car, Minassian was able to force his way through to take second place.

By the end of the second hour, Davies had regained second place to put the Audi UK R8s in the top two positions, with Jamie Campbell-Walter having taken over from Minassian running third. Closely behind him, Dyson and Seiji Ara in the Team Goh car were running fourth and fifth ahead of the Team Jota Zytek in sixth.

However the DBA challenge would falter during the second hour, with Campbell-Walter forced into retirement. With the lead in its grasp, the #8 car gradually worked its way further and further ahead of the field to take the honours for a jubilant Audi UK team - with McNish able to slow over the closing stages to conserve fuel. He and Kaffer now head into the next race at Spa in pole position to take LMP1 title.

"The car was consistent through each of my stints," McNish said afterwards. "I backed off to save having to make a late fuel stop which cost both the Japanese Audi and our 'sister' car time. Second place would be good enough for the LMP1 driver's title at Spa but we want another win."

After a storming second half of the race, the Goh Audi took second with Capello delighted.

"This was a nice race," he said. "Starting sixth and finishing second is not bad. Let's see whether we can manage a victory in the last race at Spa."

Having hoped for a win in his home race, Herbert had to settle for third, but he hopes for a better showing in Belgium.

"On my first scheduled stop, we had to change the nose section which was possibly damaged when I nudged a kerb but that didn't cost much time," he said. "The handling was good on new tyres initially but each time it quickly deteriorated - it was bizarre. We suffered the same kind of problem in the previous race and thought it had been cured, there was no problem in qualifying but 24 hours later it was back. But so will we - at Spa!"

Robbie Kerr completed the race with a solid fourth place ahead of the Nasamax team in fifth and the Team Jota Zytek rounding out the top six.

There was also home success in the LMP2 class, as Sam Hancock, aided by co-drivers Jean-Marc Gounon and Alexander Frei, helped the Courage team to a comfortable victory - ten laps clear of the Gerald Welter team in second. The Palmyr team took the final place on the LMP2 podium after the all British Tracsport squad was hit by starter motor problems on its final driver change of the race with under an hour to go.

Labre Competition took the GTS category thanks to Pedro Lamy, Christophe Bouchut and Steve Zacchia with the Barron Connor Racing Ferrari of Mike Hezemans, Jean Denis Delatraz and Andrea Piccini second. The all British Graham Nash Motorsport line-up of Phil Benett, Paul Wight and David Leslie was third.

And in the GT category, Roman Rusinov and Stephane Daoudi claimed victory for the JMB Racing team, with Brit Piers Masarati helping the Sebah Auntomotive team to second in class.