Larbre unable to keep title fight alive.

Larbre's hopes of keeping the fight for second place in the GT1 championship standings alive has ended after rivals Luc Alphand Aventures protested a plan by the French team to run its lone entry into the Mil Milhas under as the #50.

The lead Larbre car, driven by Gabriele Gardel and Fabrizio Gollin, lies three points behind the Alphand Corvette going into the season finale but has not made the trip to Interlagos - with the only DBR9 present being the #51 car of Steve Zacchia, Gregor Fisken, Roland Berville and Fernando Rees.

The team had hoped to run the quartet as #50 for the event to keep the title fight alive but after a protest from their rivals, Larbre will instead run the drivers under their regular number in what is a simple two-horse race with nothing to play for.

"We'd hoped to make things a little more interesting by creating a situation where something other than just the race win was up for stake," team boss Jack Leconte said. "Unfortunately our opponents refused the fight despite how competitive their driver line-up is.

"Steve has done a sterling job in qualifying and to be so close to Beretta is very impressive. The drivers are delighted with the circuit. Fernando Rees has adapted well to driving a GT car for the first time and was close to Steve's time on Thursday morning, Gregor has pushed hard and set some competitive times and Roland has been very courageous and accepted the challenge of driving the night-time stints."

The Aston qualified ninth on the grid, just under a second behind the Luc Alphand Corvette featuring factory drivers Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta.