May 12 (GMM) Jacques Villeneuve on Sunday secured his first win since his world championship year - 1997 - in formula one.

The French-Canadian, who left the sport's premier category two years ago, raced to victory for Peugeot in the 1000 kilometre Spa-Francorchamps round of the European Le Mans Series in Belgium.

37-year-old Villeneuve's teammates were Ferrari test driver Marc Gene and Nicolas Minassian.

Villeneuve said: "The weekend was excellent preparation for the Le Mans 24 hours and it was also very nice to win a race again.

"My last victory dated back to the 1997 Luxemburg grand prix!"

Also competing at Spa, in another Peugeot 908, was Honda's F1 reserve driver Alex Wurz, who had to miss the Turkish grand prix as a result.

He retired after a heavy crash.