Brits Andrew Smith and James Cottingham win Tour Auto in Ford GT40

The duo claimed victory on Sunday after five days of races and rally stages across France.

Their Ford GT40 was the class of a mammoth 242-strong field for the annual event that recreates the original Tour de France.

The 1500-mile route from Paris to Biarritz took in four races and 11 special stages, which were run on closed public roads.

Sharing the driving, Smith and Cottingham scored dominant wins at Le Mans, Val de Vienne, Albi and Pau Arnos, and were fastest on seven of the special stages, although heading into the final special stage their lead was just 18 seconds.

When the stage was cancelled following an accident their margin of victory was pushed out to around two minutes over the DFV-powered Ligier driven by the pseudonymed 'Mr John of B'.

Ludovic Caron and Denis Giraudet (Shelby Cobra 289) won three special stages and were second overall for most of the event, but had to retire after an off in the penultimate special stage.

"It's a very long event and strategy is very important," said Cottingham. "We decided to go fast and aggressive for the first couple of days and then look after the car.

"There was no margin at all and we had three near moments, but didn't put a mark on the car. It's a very special event to win."

"The GT40s are very well built cars. It is good at squirting out of corners and braking and we just needed to keep an eye on the gearbox."

On the special stages they had to exercise some care where the car was likely to ground out on bumpy sections.

"This year's route had very little two-lane roads on the special stages and they were mainly narrow and tricky," Cottingham added.