The 2010 8 Hours of Le Castellet (8 Heures du Castellet) was the inaugural round of the 2010 Le Mans Series season. It took place at the Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France on 11 April 2010. It was the first Le Mans Series race that is longer than the standard 1,000-km distance the LMS use since the 2007 Mil Milhas Brasil. Audi Sport Team Joest won the race overall in their first use of the Audi R15 TDI in the Le Mans Series, with drivers Allan McNish and Rinaldo Capello. Aston Martin Racing and Rebellion Racing completed the overall podium five laps behind the winning Audi. Strakka Racing also brought Honda Performance Development a win on their debut in the LMP2 category, leading the OAK Racing Pescarolo by 33 seconds. Applewood Seven won the Formula Le Mans category, the first event in which this class participated in the Le Mans Series. Team Felbermayr-Proton dominated the GT2 category by finishing in the top two positions, ahead of the first of the AF Corse Ferraris.
Qualifying saw Oreca take pole position in their first outing with their new Peugeot 908 HDi FAP, beating the factory Audi R15 TDI by 0.4 seconds. Strakka Racing had a similar story taking LMP2 pole in their first outing with their HPD ARX-01C. They qualified two seconds before the next nearest car, the Quifel Ginetta-Zytek. AF Corse took GT2 pole and DAMS took the first pole position in Le Mans Series history in the new Formula Le Mans class.
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.[1]
| Pos | Class | Team | Driver | Lap Time | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LMP1 | No.4 Team Oreca Matmut | Nicolas Lapierre | 1:41.195 | 1 |
| 2 | LMP1 | No.7 Audi Sport Team Joest | Rinaldo Capello | 1:41.632 | 2 |
| 3 | LMP1 | No.009 Aston Martin Racing | Stefan Mücke | 1:42.345 | 3 |
| 4 | LMP1 | No.6 AIM Team Oreca Matmut | Loïc Duval | 1:42.685 | 4 |
| 5 | LMP1 | No.13 Rebellion Racing | Jean-Christophe Boullion | 1:43.435 | 5 |
| 6 | LMP1 | No.12 Rebellion Racing | Neel Jani | 1:44.032 | 6 |
| 7 | LMP1 | No.5 Beechdean Mansell | Greg Mansell | 1:44.475 | 7 |
| 8 | LMP1 | No.008 Signature-Plus | Pierre Ragues | 1:44.914 | 8 |
| 9 | LMP2 | No.42 Strakka Racing | Danny Watts | 1:44.989 | 9 |
| 10 | LMP2 | No.40 Quifel ASM Team | Olivier Pla | 1:47.112 | 10 |
| 11 | LMP2 | No.24 OAK Racing | Mathieu Laheye | 1:47.474 | 11 |
| 12 | LMP2 | No.25 RML | Thomas Erdos | 1:47.491 | 12 |
| 13 | LMP2 | No.41 Team Bruichladdich | Thor-Christian Ebbesvik | 1:48.439 | 13 |
| 14 | LMP2 | No.30 Racing Box | Andrea Piccini | 1:48.635 | 14 |
| 15 | LMP2 | No.37 WR / Salini | Tristan Gommendy | 1:49.567 | 15 |
| 16 | LMP2 | No.29 Racing Box | Marco Cioci | 1:49.931 | 16 |
| 17 | LMP2 | No.39 KSM | Hideki Noda | 1:50.913 | 17 |
| 18 | LMP2 | No.27 Race Performance | Tyler Dueck | 1:52.612 | 18 |
| 19 | FLM | No.44 DAMS | Edoardo Piscopo | 1:52.936 | 19 |
| 20 | FLM | No.48 Hope Polevision Racing | Mathias Beche | 1:53.090 | 20 |
| 21 | LMP2 | No.38 Pegasus Racing | Julien Schell | 1:53.148 | 21 |
| 22 | FLM | No.49 Applewood Seven | David Zollinger | 1:53.447 | 22 |
| 23 | FLM | No.45 Boutsen Energy Racing | Dominik Kraihamer | 1:53.850 | 23 |
| 24 | FLM | No.43 DAMS | Alessandro Cicognani | 1:54.187 | 24 |
| 25 | FLM | No.47 Hope Polevision Racing | Steven Zacchia | 1:54.305 | 25 |
| 26 | GT1 | No.50 Larbre Compétition | Gabriele Gardel | 1:57.085 | 25 |
| 27 | GT2 | No.96 AF Corse | Gianmaria Bruni | 1:57.850 | 27 |
| 28 | GT2 | No.77 Team Felbermayr-Proton | Richard Lietz | 1:58.216 | 28 |
| 29 | GT2 | No.91 CRS Racing | Tim Mullen | 1:58.475 | 29 |
| 30 | GT2 | No.95 AF Corse | Toni Vilander | 1:58.545 | 30 |
| 31 | GT2 | No.92 JMW Motorsport | Rob Bell | 1:58.549 | 31 |
| 32 | GT2 | No.94 AF Corse | Matías Russo | 1:58.707 | 32 |
| 33 | GT2 | No.90 CRS Racing | Pierre Kaffer | 1:59.021 | 33 |
| 34 | GT2 | No.76 IMSA Performance Matmut | Patrick Pilet | 1:59.035 | 34 |
| 35 | GT2 | No.85 Spyker Squadron | Jeroen Bleekemolen | 1:59.177 | 35 |
| 36 | GT2 | No.88 Team Felbermayr-Proton | Martin Ragginger | 1:59.447 | 36 |
| 37 | GT2 | No.89 Hankook Team Farnbacher | Dominik Farnbacher | 1:59.480 | 37 |
| 38 | GT2 | No.75 Prospeed Competition | Richard Westbrook | 1:59.539 | 38 |
| 39 | GT2 | No.78 BMW Team Schnitzer | Jörg Müller | 1:59.593 | 39 |
| 40 | FLM | No.46 JMB Racing | Maurice Basso | 2:00.775 | 40 |
| - | LMP2 | No.35 OAK Racing | No Time | 41 | |
Class winners in bold. Cars failing to complete 70% of winner's distance marked as Not Classified (NC).[2]
Richard Hein
Ross Zampatti
Quifel ASM Team